The right front wheel of my '93 Caravan got so hot the ABS of the hubcap partially melted. Looks goofy now, the fake lug nuts droop. I pulled it apart and found severe brake assembly degradation from the heat. I had replaced the rotors last year and they appeared to be ok. I replaced the pads and both front calipers. On a short fools errand the other day, I smelled hot brakes and found my right front hot enough to sizzle when misted with water from a spray bottle. I took it out for a test and found that the brakes do not release quickly (like my '97 Voyager does). On a slight incline I would brake to a stop, put the van into neutral, take my foot off the brake and it would not start to drift from the stop for several seconds. I have searched the web and almost all the postings I have found on the subject suggest that the rubber hose has suffered an internal degradation causing the rubber to separate from the mesh and act like a check valve. Makes sense. So I am off to do that (replace the hoses), any other ideas in case this doesn't work? Any suggestions on further diagnostics I could conduct? Oh, when I had the old calipers still attached and tried to retract the piston with a C clamp it would not move..which is one reason that I replaced the calipers. I am thinking that might have been because of the above described hose degradation.

 

"I am thinking that might have been because of the above described hose degradation. "

Yes the hose issue is probably most common esp if it only happens on one side. Sometimes the master cylinder can be at fault or a non returning pedal, but again of it is on one side, I supsect the inner lining of the hose is collapsing causing a check valve action.

 

Ck the fluid level, Has the brakes been work on ?? If did anyone anything add engine oil of water to the system. If not you may have a bad caliper or hoses.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I bought new front brake hoses ($50). The work is now complete and the problem has been completely resolved. As I pulled the brake system apart, I had trouble getting the caliper off the rotor. Even using my 17 inch rat killing screwdriver I could not force the piston back into the caliper..until I thought to crack open the bleed valve a tiny bit (duuuhhh). That made it easy. I removed the brake hose and found I could not blow air through it. Brake fluid tastes awful! I installed the new hose, but before reinstalling the caliper I decided to remove the hub to see if the heat had destroyed the bearings. That was fun! I had to go buy a 1 1/4 inch socket and use a pipeto extendmy 17 inch half-inch drive breaker bar. The bearings were fine although the grease had been cooked to the wax stage. But that might have been just age. With the system back together and bled, the brake seemed to work fine. I cut the old brake line into three sections to isolate the clog and found it to be where the mid hose bracket is crimped onto the hose. Yes, Chrysler, in it's infinite wisdom, has a steel bracket crimped onto a rubber hose that needs to stay open for the brakes to work! I carefully uncrimped and removed the bracket. That immediately cleared the blockage. I longitudinally sliced open the section of hose under the crimp. There was no debris inside. The inside rubber was in pristine condition. However the local internal diameter of the hose was permanently reduced to about 3/64ths of an inch (from 1/8th inch)and I could easily pinch it completely closed with my fingers. I then examined the bracket and discovered the cause of the problem. Over the years, the inside diameter of the bracket had rusted under the crimp and built up a thick layer of scale. This gradually reduced the inside diameter of the crimp and finally completelypinched off the inside diameter of the hose. The vacuum assisted brake system generated more than enough pressure to force the blockage open and actuatethe brake, but the caliper could not generate enough back pressure to force the fluid back through theresitiction..at least not quickly. Had I known then what I know now, I would simply have relieved the pinching of the hose by opening up the bracketcrimp a bit using my rat killing screwdriver or channel locks. By the way, the brake hoses are reinforced with Kevlar (DuPont trade name). Should you undertake such a task and have trouble breaking loose the flare nut from the steel brake tube, simply remove all the bracketry, disconnet the hose from the caliper, de-mount the mid pointbracket, and unscrew the hose from the flare nut leaving the nut still frozen to the tube. Reverse the proceedure for the new hose. The brake line is malleable enough to allow it to be twisted to position the bracketry properly. I completed the job by also replacing the driver's side hose and completely bleeding the front brake system. A test drive proved out the repair. Thevan would now immediately roll back on a slight grade as soon as I took my foot off the pedal. Now I am good for the next 133,000 miles! I have otherphotos. If you want to see them, email me.

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