Lane Anderson posted:I think my accident last February was to a large degree due to issues with my rear drums. In the pre-impact panic stop, the front brakes locked up and the car continued forward as if the rears weren't braking at all. While in normal driving they felt ok, I hadn't successfully gotten them adjusted for hard braking in quite some time, partially due to a persistent leak from one axle seal. I thought I had finally solved that, but I had begun to have doubts before the accident occurred.
Neither the adjustment issue nor (I think) the axle seal leakage would have affected rear disks, and those are reasons enough to have them, in my view.
Yeah, discs on the front (where there isn't a lot of weight), rear drums out of adjustment and maybe even some transaxle oil contaminating a set of shoes? Not exactly a recipe for success.
Those running discs on the front with drums on the back- take the time to adjust those rear brakes often if you want them to be effective in an emergency stop...
And if you're running bigger/wider tires and wheels on the back along with front discs and Beetle rear drums- all the more reason to keep those back shoes adjusted right up!