I have a 2003 Grand Caravan Sport with the 3.8L engine. For the past few weeks, I have been getting a strange noise coming from the driver side front wheel. It is a "wub wub" noise that seems to happen when I'm driving over 40 mph. Also, sometimes that same wheel makes a grinding noise when I brake (but not all the time). I've inspected the brake pads and they have plenty of pad left on them. I also changed the rotors and also the hub assembly on that wheel and I still have the noise. Any idea what it could be? Also, the brake caliper on the van seems somewhat flexible. Meaning after tightening the caliper bolts down, I can grab the whole caliper and can get it to flex. Is that normal? My passenger side caliper is flexible also but maybe not quite as much. It seems strange to me that the caliper would flex like that.

 

That's usually the sign of a bad tire. Try driving the van in a smooth parking lot at about 5 MPH. You're testing for a wobble side-to-side action that you can feel in the seat of your pants. If you feel it, have your tires checked for a broken belt or out of round condition.

All calipers have some in/out slop--that's what the caliper slides are for. They even have a slight up/down slop, but it should be consistent on the left and right calipers.

 

I forgot to mention that I rotated the tires also. The noise stayed on the Driver side front wheel after I did that. I've pretty much ruled out tires, I think. Any other suggestions/ideas?

 

Does the noise change when swerving back and forth?

 

It seems to get a little worse turning to the left.