I've replaced the front brakes (and rotors-it'* really just as cheap to buy new ones) on my '99 SLE several times, but every time I do the brakes and look at the back ones, there seems to be no wear on them. I checked them today and at 107K, they're not worn very much at all.

Anyone else get this unusually high mileage? I don't have an ABS light, there'* no fluid leaking from the cylinders, and there'* a nice wear pattern on the drums.

Opinions, please?

Rear brakes do about 20% of the stopping so they will last much longer depending on how and where you drive. I traded my last car in with 125K and never needed to change the rears (and believe me I kept checking). I do mostly highway driving but I was still surprised.

It is NOT unusual to go over 100K w/o changing the rear brakes. I just did mine at 140K and ONLY because one of the rear wheel cylinders started to leak. So I replaced both rear wheel cylinders and the shoes. That'* the brakes!

i have 73,XXX and dont plan on changing them soon

I got my 92 olds eighty eight with 65,000 and am now at 285,348 and am in the process of cangeing the rear pads for the first time which for the most part don't need to be changed but i had to replace the adjusters cause they fell apart inside the drum.

I have 106,000 on my 99 and I'm in the exact same boat as you, Bob. They look excellent, don't squeak, and overall work fine.

I'm not touching them until something fails.

On my 93 Bonnie, I changed the original shoes at 162,000 miles. That was only because they were squeaking. Otherwise, they too, worked fine.

Did a state inspection at 120,000 miles, and one of the shoes looked brand new, but the other one was 1/2 millimeter from bare metal. Similar on the other side but not as bad. Don't really know why this happened, and I don't know if the previous owner touched the breaks or not.

I've had to adjust mine after doing a flush, but never changed em yet. Might have to soon though since I'm at 170,000 almost.

I've checked mine, but never touched em

I checked mine yesterday at 185K, and they are almost as thick as new. I think they're wearing as designed, because I adjust every april (when I look them over before state inspection) and they still drag slightly on the drums the following april. Interestingly, Car & Driver did a long term test of the 92' SSEI when it was introduced. After these tests, they measure the wear on brake linings & tires, and estimate the remaining life of the parts. I remember being shocked that they estimated the brake shoes would last 200k miles.
I'm glad they last as long as they do. I had to tear down one brake assembly to replace the wheel cylinder and found that it was miserable to put it back together. Even with drum-brake specific tools, I found it very difficult to bend the spring enough to get everything back into place. Other drum brakes I've done practically fall back into place.