Rear Brake Rotor Rubber Plug....
 

Guys, I was adjusting my parking brake and accidentally pushed the rubber plug inside the drum. :tomato: I could not take the rotor off since one screw is almost stripped (I will have to tackle that next weekend). My question is do you think it will hurt anything with it inside the rotor like that? I have to drive it 20 miles to work on Monday but I will park it and drive my other car for the rest of the week. I don't think a small rubber piece would cause much damage but I wanted to get some other opinions.

My guess is it's too big to get caught or sucked into the gap between the parking brake shoes and the drum. You will probably find it sitting in there patiently waiting for you to come rescue it.

Have you thought about going by the dealer to get a new plug and just let the old one ride out the rest of it's life inside the parking brake drum ? Chances are after getting the old one out it may be roughed up too much to re-use. Worst case it does get ground up and small bits get sucked in between the shoe and drum but I can't see it doing anything except burning up.

Yeah, I will have to get a new one for sure. My biggest worry is that Phillips screw being stripped. Any ideas on how to get it off? It is not totally stripped just yet but if I keep at it, it will be soon.

Also, has anyone ever replaced the parking brake shoes on their TL? I only have 73k on the odo and I never drive with the parking brake on but it seems kinda early for me to max out the lever pull just to hold the car on a mild incline.

I would think that rubber plug would become minced meat when inside the hat while driving.
If you're speaking of the phillips that's through the rotor, just drill them out if you can't remove. An impact driver works great. The screws are only there for use during assembly at the factory, other than that no specific use but will keep the rotor in tact when doing brake jobs.