'My Worst Nightmares': Mechanic Works On Car. Then He Realizes He'll Have To Address The Drum Brakes

"The average mechanic's greatest nemesis."

What Are Drum Brakes’ And Why Doesn’t Your Mechanic Want To Work On Them

Photo by: simonb_racing & Erik Mclean

Madeleine Wagner

By: Madeleine Wagner

Mar 28, at 4:00pm ET

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Every project has the point of no return—that part that’s dreaded, and utterly necessary. Like brakes. Unlike power windows or heated seats, or even a “check engine” light that actually shuts off after the repair, brakes are non-negotiable.

But, as one mechanic posits on TikTok, all brakes are not manufactured equally. In a short, witty video, Simon (@simonb_racing) posts an imagined conversation with someone needing help working on their vehicle. Questions are floated across the screen as in-video text while he plays and replays a clip of himself answering in the affirmative: “Of course, bro, no problem.”

The answer is an emphatic “yes” to everything asked for: from oil change, to tires, to transmission. Except when asked for help with wiring, that gets a drawled “[expletive] no.”

While the brake question, specifically about drum brakes, simply gets a punch to the head.

Are Drum Brakes Really The Stuff of Mechanics’ Nightmares?

Simon doesn’t elaborate. Because while it’s pretty self-evident why working on wiring is tricky, brakes should theoretically be pretty straightforward.

The comments suggest otherwise, more than 600 people of the 1.3 million who’ve watched it to date weighed in with a combination of shell-shocked memes and admonitions that working on drum brakes “isn’t that hard.” Then under that comment, Winston Berkley posted some sort of tangled-looking schematic that appeared to be annotated in another language.

The takeaway? That drum brakes are so complicated that deciphering them is not unlike reading an unfamiliar tongue.

Meanwhile Ethon_MD fixated on the wiring issue. He posted a photo of a dissected-looking wiring harness that’s been abandoned to the floor captioned “wiring of doom and despair.”

What’s the Difference Between Drum And Disc Brakes?

In the contemporary market, drum brakes and disc brakes are the most common. Though they do the same thing: stop a vehicle, they come to a complete stop using different mechanisms. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

Disc brakes, which are widely considered easier to work on, have a disc-shaped metal rotor, caliper, and brake pads. Press the brake pedal, and hydraulic fluid is pushed through the brake lines into the caliper, and then the brake pads squeeze against the rotor, bringing the vehicle to a stop.

Drum brakes are often used on less expensive models such as the Nissan Versa, Ford Fiesta, and Chevrolet Spark. They’re easier to both make and assemble and are made of cheaper materials, which makes them less expensive, potentially including when it comes to maintenance. They also don’t dissipate heat as well as discs and under extreme conditions have been known to “fade.”

Brake fade happens when “system components no longer generate the friction needed to stop your car in an appropriate amount of time or distance,” according to Tires Plus.

Drums are generally considered more durable because they’re enclosed in a housing that keeps dirt and debris out. But this housing is exactly what makes them more annoying to work on.

Why Do Some Mechanics Hate To Work On Drum Brakes?

Andrew P. Collins from Jalopnik sums it up: “People hate dealing with drum brakes because where discs and pads can be changed quickly and painlessly, changing a drum involves a whole mess of rusty old springs and a potentially tedious adjustment process.” It’s basically just a yuck of a job. Collins even refers to them as "the average mechanic's greatest nemesis."

He also lists some things to consider making a repair go more smoothly: Bash the drum open. Hose everything down with brake cleaner. Take a picture of the “spring-loaded bomb-looking thing you've opened.” Put everything back where it was.

What do you think?

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But there are many more steps than this, so it might be best for DIYers to consult YouTube university before pulling anything apart.

Motor1 contacted Simon via TikTok direct message and with a comment on the video. We’ll update this if he responds.

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