How do you know when drum brakes (shoes) need replacing?

Grinding noise, pulls to one side during braking, weak brakes

Or just looking at them if you're unsure

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If you're missing the "padding" on tje steel shoe or bits of it; replace, and also replace on the other side

I dont know if drum shoes have wear indicators, but if they don't you just pull the cover off and look at them just like you would a disc pad.

You check the lining to and see how thick it is. Normally they start out at about 5mm (3/16th) thick and you would probably want to replace them around 1mm at the latest. Some of them have a wear indicator, some dont. Because most car and light truck brake shoes are bonded (rather than riveted) there's no chance if wearing them to rivets so as long as you avoid steel shoe to drum contact you'll be ok.

>>14115509
Handbrake lever started to feel loose until I pull it far back.
Rear drums seize after few days of sitting so the car does a hop when I start driving.
I feel rear brakes worse: my car is light so when I have to brake a bit more intensive and feel front wheels lock and rear do nothing it's obvious they fail.

If the drum has a channel in it.
People forget to change rear drum pads and the old ones grind a slot in the drums.

Also, any cracks in the pads.

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You have to pop the drum off to inspect them. >>14115553 covered it good, but they don't squeal like disks do when they run out of pad.

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i love drum brakes
the non linear pedal feel
the grabby feel on a wet morning
the fade after 2 hard stops

>>14115582
They may just need adjustment

>>14115582
>>14117400
This.

Even with self-adjusters drum brakes need regular adjustment. And most don't adjust them tight enough. When they're right it actually take a bit of effort to rotate the wheel due to the drag and it sounds like they're solidly engaged. Of course a moments thought and you figure out that if you can still rotate the wheel by hand then that's nothing to the car. If the drum isn't round though you'll never get them right.

>>14116357
They aren't meant to be used in performance cars, dingus. I don't know why you're driving your DD in a fashion where you get them hot enough to fade noticeably.

Drums are interesting because they've been around for so god damn long they're basically perfected and maintenance free.
The only problem is they're so maintenance free that by the time you have to fix them the drum is completely rusted on (at least in Minnesota). So unless you have a Honda where you just crank a bolt in to pop them off, you have to hit them with a hammer until the drum comes off. But by that time you've hit it so much you've smacked it out of round.

>>14117898
>you have a Honda where you just crank a bolt in to pop them off

My toyota has this.

>>14115509
When they lock up with little to no pedal pressure when cold