I'm just asking this out of curiosity. My friend has a 2009 Silverado 1500 4x4, and it has drum brakes in the back and disk brakes in the front. What is the advantage to having drum brakes over disk brakes. I always thought drum brakes were out-dated and weren't used on newer vehicles. Why would they put them only on the rear of a 2009 truck?

 

When I had a 2002 Silverado, they had a lot of trouble with the design of the emergency brake. If you did not use it regularly, it would gradually engage and eat up your emergency pad. Mine did and cost about $400 to repair, which GM reimbursed me. I know that in 2005, they went back to drum brakes because they had not come up with another system. I would have thought they would have a redesign by now, but maybe not.

 

Well my '97 f250 was my first truck with rear disc brakes. Prior to that I had owned 4 Ford trucks with rear drum brakes and never had any issues other than the drums sometimes being difficult to get off.

The 97 rear brakes have been very problematic over the years (I've owned it since new). Not really the disc part, but the little mini drum brake setup they use as a parking brake. The little lever assembly at the hub used to engage the parking brake rusts and either locks solid preventing use of parking brake, or won't disengage once parking brake is engaged. On top of that, the little mini drum brake shoes tend to rot away every 5 years or so even though they're not really a wear item. The brake jobs are more expensive and time consuming (not terribly) because you basically are doing 2 brake jobs on the rear (the discs, and the drums).

I still own the 97 and have no idea what they are putting on the new trucks, but I would hope they improved upon this design. As a general statement, discs are better. That is provided they have a working parking brake design. But with all the trouble I had with this truck, I would have been happier with drums on the rear.