Rear Brakes

[wazzzzman]

Just a quick question. I did a search but could not find the answer. I got a PT-Cruiser 2002 Touring Edition for my wife. She loves it and has wanted one from the day they came out. She picked it out on looks alone and I did the mechanical inspection and all seems to be in excellent shape. Here is my question and regret in not checking about this first.

Much to my surprise, the car has drum brakes on the rear. That’s right, drum brakes. I have had a lot of cars in my life and I can not even remember any vehicle that did not have disk brakes on all four wheels. When did they switch to all disk brakes or did they? Can a person easily get the parts to put disk brakes all around? I really do not like drum brakes because they are so hard for an old man to work on. Anyone have any input? Thanks.

[Hooligan]

Only the turbo cars have disc brakes on all corners. I haven't heard of many owners that had to change the rear brakes. The front does 90% of the stopping.

[DJmart]

My 2001 limited (N/A) has disk brakes in the rear, but an inner-drum for the e brake only.

[damilleniumboy]

My PT has drum brakes in the rear too, and I don't like them much, yet the car stops, so that is all tha matters as of now. I do need to change the pads because they are squealing and I have never done drum brakes that I remember.

[soonercruiser]

Probably a Chrysler short cut - as my 1997 Grand Caravan had read brake drums too. My 2006 PT's - NA Touring has drums; GT vert has all wheel disc brakes.

[wazzzzman]

I started this thread just to see if maybe my PT could easily be converted to disk brakes. Apparently the convertibles and turbo PTs have all disk brakes. I have a car in my garage that is 23 years old and has disk brakes on all for corners. I just could not believe a fine car like this would have drum brakes ever anywhere. They are a PETA to change compared to disk pads.

I know that most of the braking is done with the front brakes, but even with disk brakes, I did not replace the rear pads when I should have and coming down into Las Vegas one time I fried my front rotors because they were doing all the work. So I just make it a practice to replace them all and not worry about it anymore.

[CREWZIN]

I have drum brakes on my 2001. Never had a problem. A little more cumbersome to change the shoes than the pads up front, but if you have the right tools it's pretty easy. I changed the shoes in the rear with 90K on the odometer and they were still looking good. In the same time changed the front pads twice with new rotors on the first change.

There doesn't seem to be a particular reason why some have 4-wheel disks and some with drum on the rear but I'm wondering if the PT's that have ABS all have disks? Do all the GT's have ABS? Does ABS work with drum in the rear or doesn't it matter?

[DJmart]

Interesting post.

my 2001 (n/a) has the rear disk brakes, and has ABS.

Not sure because my car is not a convertible or the GT