I never replaced the brake shoes on my '95 but it was totaled at 125k miles. My '97 has 140k and the brakes have plenty of meat left. Yes, the rear brakes work. I can lock them up before the rear ABS kicks in. I'm just wondering if these are going to last longer than the engine or transmission.

I'm just curious if anyone has actually worn out the rear shoes.

 

My rear brakes are original, and my van has about 160k miles now. That is common with vehicles that have a high center of gravity. On braking, the CG torques around the instant center, lifting up on the rear while loading up on the front. This is why large trucks have to have some form of rear anti-lock; to prevent the rear wheels from locking up. So the front brakes work really hard, while the rear don't get much use.

 

I've owned four Aerostars and I think I remember changing the rear shoes one time between all four of them. Each of my vans was retired at about 250K miles. The only reason I remember doing it was because I put in new wheel cylinder kits on one of them and the parts man gave me kits that had the wrong diameter. It seems that Ford used a leftover-from-the-previous-year rear end on my Aero and they had wheel cylinders in my Aero that shouldn't have been there.