Mazda MX-5 Miata Parking Brake Drum Replacement at your home or office.

What is the Parking Brake Drum all about?

Your primary braking system is an essential component of your vehicle. However, there’s a second braking system that’s just as important, although not as obvious. Your parking brake is responsible for keeping your car safely in one spot when you’re parked on a grade, and for ensuring that the weight of the car doesn’t rest on the transmission.

The parking brake is activated by either pulling a lever or pushing an auxiliary brake pedal, which pulls a cable that runs beneath the car from the cabin to the rear wheels. This cable then pulls on the actuator within the parking brake drum, forcing the shoes apart and holding your vehicle in place.

In a disc-brake setup, the drum is built into the back of the rear brake discs. In a drum-brake system, the parking brake uses the existing drums and shoes in the rear. Over time and through normal use, the parking brake components wear. The shoes will wear out well before the drum, but the drum can suffer damage before that happens.