I mostly chalk it up to being a Dodge. While driving my 02 yesterday, the right front caliper decided to not full release, it wasn't locked so I couldn't drive, but it sure superheated everything up. Let it cool and it is OK again, thankfully the rotor didn't warp.

 

4,300 mile trip to Las Vegas. Left Jefferson Co. PA March 12 and returned April 7. I-80, I-71, I-44, I-40 and US 93 with a side trip through the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. Going out, snow in IN & IL wind in OK, TX & NM, mostly perfect coming back except construction in St. Louis & Columbus. MPG out Low -20.16 high 24.05. Vegas 17.7. Return 20.97 (sat on Interstate for an hour creeping) high 29.7. Had new tires put on before leaving and dealer installed new pads on rear brakes -likely 3rd set since 10/10/09 and an oil change before leaving. Getting ready to leave Las Vegas found low tire - leaking seal on sensor unit - Yokohama dealer charged $97 for new sensor which failed 40 miles down the road - should have gone to Dodge dealer. Back home replaced for free. Driving - no sticking or burning noticed - just the warpping factor of the rotors and the ABS on hard stops. I drove mostly with cruise control on while the wife drives without it. I try and downshift for most stops - the wife doesn't. I downshift on long grades to control my speed, the wife doesn't. Panic braking resulted in steering column vibration, controlled downshifting stops resulted in smooth stops with minimum vibration. Found got better mileage by refueling at 1/2 tank- theory put to me - fuel pump is cooled by the gasoline - below 1/2 tank it works harder because of the heat factor. Current mileage is 44,500. We live on an unimproved road - meaning mud in spring - ice and snow in winter. We only drive sporadically these days as we are retired but most of our trips are 10 to 30 miles. I have run it through the automatic car wash several times each winter to minimize the corrosion.

 

It is not Ok again. If you changed your brakes a half dozen times over 200K mi like I did, you would understand the issue. The floating caliper mechanism is still rusted and malfunctioning because the person who last changed pads failed to replace the hard parts, clean and grease the sliding pins. My 2001 GC has the EXACT same system as yours and it has never had these issues over 210K mi because I follow the Dodge brake service procedure instead of ignoring procedure & throwing pads & rotors on it again and again then blaming Dodge for the outcome.

A rest or time-out will not repair it....my god lol.

 

I am a mechanic. I've done atleast 200 brake jobs on 01-07 Caravans. I worked for a used car dealer that sold 5-6 of these a month on a slow month.

1. My right front caliper needs to be R&R'd. It is not due to the grease.
2. I am selling my van, new owner has had a full disclosure of the problem, I am not putting any more money into it.
3. Relax, seriously, relax.
4. Never claimed it repaired my van. I just am happy I don't have to replace it, I am sick of this money pit.

 

Yes, I agree.

Please sell your Grand Caravan and retire from being a mechanic ASAP. EVERY Grand Caravan you ever tried to repair surely has stuck brakes. We don't need another 200 Grand Caravans out there with brake problems caused by clueless mechanics who repeatedly replace pads and rotors without servicing the floating caliper hardware. If too lazy to clean and polish rusted parts you may install a new $12 sliding pin kit or even going so far as installing a whole $60 rebuilt caliper assembly. Wow, those are really big money items that would push me to sell my van as-is with full disclosure instead of changing them lol. Are you going to warn them about the low oil and low tire pressure too? It's really a hassle having to add air.

My 2001 Grand Caravan has original calipers at 210K mi and has only used 2 sets of rotors since new. The pads wear even and I never have sticking and brake overheat issues. This is because I flush my brake fluid every 5 years and make sure the floating pin assembly is cleaned and lubricated EVERY TIME I REPLACE PADS. I follow the instructions in the service manual that most greedy brake mechanics have no interest in following. At 210K mi, my van still has the original floating caliper pins and rubber boot seals, but they are cleaned, inspected and greased every brake job.

Professional.........lol, really?

 

I need to solve this brake issue with my 08 SXT. Yes it is the rear brakes that are giving trouble...only 5000km after a complete overhaul. Vehicle stops but brakes pulsate when being used. The problem is more obvious when braking from highway speed but still there on the streets. I too think that it is mostly the drivers side rear and was going to have the brakes serviced again at the last oil change but decided that if the result was as before then it would be throwing good money after bad. Current milage is 43,000km. We are retired and though we use the vehicle every day, our anual milage is not great. The van is cared for and treated with respect...not lead footed. The last brake work cost $700...new discs on the front and pads and turned rear discs but think that the pads were seviced. Not an insignificant amount for low income seniors and back to square one again just 5000km later is financially troubling.
I have been looking at disc brake calipers and think that the last point about the slide posts and in particular their lubrication and cleaning and rubber boot checking is very important and intend to check my rear ones anyway. Free sliding here is essential to pull the outer pad into contact with the disc I think, when braking. And any corrosion or sticking would possibly prevent the outer brake pad from separating from the disc also. If the slide posts are jammed/rusted then, on application of the brakes, only the inner brake pad would be pushed against the disc and the outer pad would not be pulled in to pinch it. This would act to distort the disc and cause chatter and heat, I suspect, and the hard spots possibly would develop. At this point I suspect that my rear discs are history but also note that the rear ones are solid so maybe they can be machined again.
The front calipers are a different design to the rear ones and there is a very noticeable difference. If you draw a line between the slide post holes then the piston is offset less from that line on the front calipers than it is on the rear ones. This means that the braking piston force on the rear calipers puts an overturning moment (bending effect) on the slide posts which would make good lubrication an important requirement.
Not to say that lubeing the sliding part of the pads is not important too. Anyway I have to look at my slideposts and take the pin and boots off. If they are well lubricated I will have to think again. I wonder if the new rear calipers mentioned here on the latest van are a bit longer which would allow the centreline between the slide posts to be less offset from the piston by allowing the pins to be closer to the centreline of the axel/wheel and still miss the brake disc. I am not having problems with the front brakes but depending upon what the rear inspection reveals...they too will get the post lubing.
I had an 04 Caravan without brake probs but they were drum on the rear. If discs were available on the earlier rears I wonder what they were like...what is the difference? So Lscman has a point here and even if it is not an absolute solution, then if in the maintenance manual, it is still good practice without a doubt.
As for the rub marks on the wheel arches...yeah...got em. Not a big deal for me though. Yeah thought it was parking lot related. We love our van and it is much more versatile than the others but it will have to go if a resolution can not be found. If the new vans have an improved rear brake caliper, I hope they have designed it so that it can be retrofitted to help us.

 

Based upon what I see, the latest brake system is not easily or affordably retrofittable. It is not some minor running change to improve design. I have retrofitted brake systems on 3 track cars (one being ABS), so I know what I'm talking about.

For Grand caravan, it is easily a $5000 upgrade requiring steel and rubber plumbing changes, brackets, backing plates, 17" wheels, calipers, mounting hardware, pads and 17" tires. If they also made master cyl, proportioning valve and ABS sensor changes then the cost to retrofit could rise well over $6K. You can NEVER upgrade only front or rear brake system to a different design unless F/R proportioning is confirmed to be the same. Such cases are extremely rare.

The 16" wheel brake system used from 2008 thru 2013 simply needs the floating hardware properly cleaned, greased & damaged rubber boot seals replaced because the hardware is rust-prone which leads to sticking. If you did this once every 2-3 years it'd be more than adequate.

My brakes were working but all rusted solid and couldn't be budged with a huge c-clamp. It was clear to me they hadn't seen a drop of grease applied in 5 yrs, but the van probably saw a half dozen sets of rotors and pads installed by lazy mechanics for former owners. One of the sliding pin assemblies had a rubber boot with a small hole in it. That particular pin almost took a torch or drill to extract it. I wrestled with the pin for several minutes using a set of vice grips. A drill bit was used by hand to ream caked rust out of the sliding pin hole because it was really nasty and a new pin did not move freely. These '08 brakes were changed before but it was clear the rubber boots were original and not inspected nor removed to clean the pins and regrease.

It's not rocket science.

Rear brake pulsation is likely caused by one of four things:

1) brakes are currently dragging and overheating. This can be checked to some degree by placing your hand on the wheel after driving it. Both front wheels should be the same approximate temp. Both rear wheels should be the same approximate temperature. The rear wheels should be as cool or cooler than the fronts. Any wheel that is warmer than the other side of the car has a dragging, stuck brake.

2) rotors are either warped, contain microcracks or have rust spots. (microcracks and warpage is caused by stuck calipers and/or pads}
3) pad compound is not optimal, causing grabbing sensation which varies based upon rotor surface finish. If the rotor surface is consistent on both sides then this is unlikely.
4) rotors contain hot spots or metallurgy degradation from previous overheating episodes (overheating was/is due to stuck brakes)

 

Lscman, do you have the current '08 onwards' rear brake calipers on your van which I understand is the earlier model.

 

Moment...you appear to have good physics or mech engrg background. The sliding pin issue was about 70% of the problem on my '08. I should also mention the metal backing plates on the pads themselves must freely slide laterally to allow them to clamp the rotor and retract when the brake pedal is released. Rust was preventing that in my vehicle; this has nothing to do with pins that allow the caliper itself to move. The pad alignment & sliding grooves in the brake assembly were filled with rust. I fixed that by using a screwdriver as a scraper, and I painted antiseize on the rust-prone grooves before installing new springs in the grooves. The old springs were rusted bad and a rust packout problem existed behind them which served to preload the pads and cause binding. Once cleaned up, the new pads could move freely.

 

Brake systems on all 2008 thru 2013 Grand Caravans with 16" wheels are the same. The front rotors are 12" vented and the rears are 12" solid. I have a 2008 SXT with 16" wheels with the original brake system.

A larger brake system was released as an option sometime AFTER the 2011 3.6 motor came out, but it only came with 17" wheels (necessary to fit the larger brake system). Dodge is in the process of moving to the larger brake system and 17" on the whole GC product line. This is a running change in 2013. ALL SE's, SXT's and R/T's being manufactured and shipped today have 17's. It appears that AVP is moving to them too.

PS: Of course 17" factory wheels do not guarantee big brakes. It depends upon the year. I have a 2001 with factory 17" option.