[1hotfocus]

i searched, searched and searched, and found nothing. i have been loosing plenty of brake fluid the last month or so, and brake likght would go on, i saw there was a little puddle under the rear right rim, and took off the spindle and nut after removing the wheel, and there was gunk of brake fluid all black and nasty. i cleaned it up the best i could, and bought a new wheel cylinder, along with shoes just because these seemed to be more then 75% worn, and seemed to make sense to me since i had it all out, and since the other drum squeeked when letting go of the brake.i replaced both shoes, and wheel cylinders, and now after about 3-5 minutes of city driving, these brakes squeel, squeek, whistle whatever you wanna call it reallyyyy loud. its unbearable since its high pitched to me, since i also have ears like a dog. it happens sometimes when i slow down, very little however, but mainly when i let go and continue to drive slowly from lets say a stop sign till i reach a good 12 or so mph. i did put brake grease on all the contact points, but i dont know what else to do.. im not sure if its normal while the new shoes "brake in" or not? please help. thank you! i do

 

[iminhell]

Might be the shoes, might be that you didn't get all the old brake fluid off the drums (which should have been doused with brake clean), might be you didn't get the parking brake adjuster set properly (IIRC you have to go in reverse and pull the E-brake to adjust it), and that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[jetrinka]

You should have turned or replaced the drums while you were in there. I am betting on that being a lot of your problem. The new shoes need a new, uniform surface to bed into.

One thing you can do however is remove the drums and take some sandpaper to the new shoes, (scuff em up good) and also to the drums (once again, scuff them up good). This will help the pads seat into the drums and if the squeak goes away you know its that. Then you can just take them in to get turned.

 

[Geezer]

The trouble is most shops cannot turn the Focus drum because of the integral bearing (they can't mount it on their lathe). Even some ford dealers don't have the special equipment needed. I guess they'd rather sell you a new drum. Make sure to use garnet paper if you sand (or a scotch pad in a pinch). Other types of paper (carbon oxides, etc) can bed sanding abrasive in the metal which can interfere with proper pad bedding.

 

[1hotfocus]

Thanks to all, i cleaned all the old brake fluid before replacing anything with about 4 cans ofbrake cleaner.. it was a mess.. anyways i took the drum off and sanded both the inside of the drum and brake shoes and it seems to have went away. Thanks a bunch!!