I took off my rear wheel today and the drum to see how my shoes were looking. Alot of dust in there but i'm not to sure about the shoes. They still have some (maybe a 1/4) brake material on them but there are holes (on the braking surface) that can be seen on both of the shoes, is that normal?
Those holes are the wear indicators. Inside the holes is a piece of metal so that when it rubs it makes noise (and thus, you know you have waited too long to change your pads).
The shoes normally wear the most on the sides. If you still have 1/4 on the sides you should be fine.
I'm probably going to change them soon they are cheap anyways and my car has 55k on it. Now that i think about it the sides look a little more worn out a hair below 1/4 the ends are at 1/4 i would say.
