Removing and installing brake drums and shoes — VW
Removing and installing brake drums and shoes on VW: 21 steps. What to remove, in what order, and what to check after.
Workshop procedure for VW — the exact step sequence and torque figures, straight from real workshop data.
📋 Procedure
- Back shoes off if necessary. To do this, remove a wheel bolt on each side and push wedge up with a screwdriver inserted through bolt hole.
- Remove dust cap with hub cap pullerVW 637/2.
- Remove wheel bearing nut.
- Remove brake drum.
- Remove washers (arrows) from shoe retaining springs with pliers.
- Lift shoes out of bottom support by hand and take lower return spring off.
- Disconnect handbrake cable from lever.
- Unhook wedge spring and upper return spring with pliers.
- Take shoes off.
- Clamp shoe with push rod in vice and unhook locating spring.
- Connect locating spring and place shoe on push rod.
- Insert wedge (lug goes towards backplate).
- Install shoe with lever in push rod.
- Connect upper return spring.
- Hook handbrake cable on lever.
- Place shoes on cylinder pistons.
- Connect lower return spring and lift shoes on to lower support.
- Connect wedge spring.
- Install shoe retaining springs and washers.
- Install drums and adjust wheel bearings freeplay.
- Depress brake pedal firmly once to set the rear brake shoes.
🎬 Related video tutorial
Independent AUTODOC tutorial for the same job, filmed on a different model (POLO 6n1) — the technique carries over, the fasteners and figures on this page are the ones for your car.
How to change rear brake drum on VW POLO 6n1
Other VW procedures
- Removing engine · 41 torque figures
- Removing and installing camshaft – VW Golf Cabriolet · 47 torque figures
- Adjusting valve timing – VW Passat B5 · 83 torque figures
- Removing and installing camshafts – VW Passat B6 · 39 torque figures
- Removing and installing coolant pump · 53 torque figures
- Separating exhaust pipesand silencers, Sharan · 1 torque figures
- Aligning exhaust system free of tension, Sharan · 1 torque figures
- Removing and installing accelerator moduleGX2
- Removing and installing windscreen wiper system – VW Tiguan I
- Removing and installing switch for electrically adjusted steering wheel · 1 torque figures
Who makes these pages, and how
TorqFix was built by a mechanic — after a 2,700 km drive with five roadside repairs that no diagnostic tool could explain.
The figures on this page come from manufacturer workshop documentation and are shown as they are. The page is assembled automatically from that data — it is not written by an AI. The AI works in the chat, where it answers for your specific car. It writes nothing here.
Variants of the same model differ. Cross-check torque against the factory manual for your engine before final tightening.
Seen a figure that does not match your manual? Write to us — we correct it and note when. support@torqfix.com
The story behind TorqFix →Workshop data on this page last updated 20 Sep 2026.