So the 08 van has the same rear calipers as mine? Yeah ok crossed postings. Yeah mine is an 08 SXT with 3.8 engine and 16" wheels. When it stops raining I will take a look at this. Is there a post and seal kit available at the dealerships. Thanks for your help.

 

There are there are many threads describing parts kits. You might do a search on my userid to find them.

Hard and soft parts brake parts kits are available for every vehicle at any auto parts store. These parts are also available thru any dodge dealer of course.

There are generally three separate parts kits sold for any given disc brake system. Most kits only cover a single wheel, so you need to buy four. Once in a while they cover two wheels.

Kit #1 is generally the spring kit. These springs come with most premium brake pad kits, but not all kits have them included. These springs for Caravan brakes are somewhat of a misnomer. They are actually used to aid the pads in sliding freely in the grooves so they can move toward the rotor when the brake pedal is pressed and allow them to retract when the pedal is released. These are related to the rust packout problem I described. These MUST be changed every brake change and any packout rust behind them in the groove recess must be scraped out because they rust quickly. I think it's helpful to apply antiseize, grease of paint under the spring to prevent more rust. Unfortunately Dodge made these springs out of regular rust-prone steel and the aftermarket followed their lead. Many other car manufacturers choose to make such parts out of stainless steel.

Kit #2 is generally a rubber boot, sliding parts and mounting pin kit. These allow a floating caliper system to slide freely to maintain proper center on the rotor with pad wear. For the front brakes, this kit comes with new mounting bolts too.

Kit#3 is generally a caliper rebuild kit. This is only needed if the caliper is leaking fluid or rusted inside the bore, causing the piston to have some brake fluid blowby or the piston is difficult to push back into the bore due to rust or the rubber dust boot ion the caliper piston is torn or burned from overheat. This kit comes with a simply o-ring seal and rubber dust boot. The caliper can be easily rebuilt by hand. The piston can be extracted by applying air pressure to the fluid port. Most people just replace the caliper because they are about $50 at the local parts stores. Rusted caliper bores are caused by bake fluid neglect. It should be bled and flushed out with fresh every 3-5 yrs or water will build up. Brake fluid attracts water.

PS: The three kits described above are only "generally speaking". The aftermarket kits may combine parts into a single kit or they may cover both right and left side of the car. It varies by manufacturer. You simply need to visit the parts counter, see what comes in the kit and figure out what's missing.

Finally, you must have a factory manual or exerpts with pics and instructions to repair the rear brake assembly. It is somewhat complicated. Certain fasteners must be torqued to spec or they will bind. Also a special tool must be borrowed from AutoZone or similar aftermarket parts store to rewind the rear pistons into their bores so the new thicker pads can be installed. Any time your calipers have an integral parking brake mechanism built-in you have to do this step. If the parking brake cable goes to the caliper, this is the case.

 

So here is the update, contacted Camvap a mediation company for car issues. Received a call from Chrysler Canada 4 days later. I spoke with the Arbritration and litigation department. They had met with the engineers and platform specialists and are going to replace the rear caliper mechanism with the new one, new pads and rotors all at their cost. Took a lot of fighting, but finally have it sorted.

 

Thanks for update. Here's some additional advice......

New calipers, rotors and pads will not in any way address the sliding parts, rust packout, spring rust and other floating mechanics issues. The rust must be removed by a competent mechanic and parts kits #1 and #2 above must be installed with pins and rubber boots properly packed with grease. Pin mechanism lubrication is a separate step the mechanic must take that have nothing to do with a bag of new parts. Unless pins are properly lubrication & without rust packout removed from the bracket grooves with a scraper and lubricated, you will simply have fresh parts smoking, stinking, burning and failing again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If he's too lazy to use a torque wrench you will also be screwed.

With all the parts you described, success will be a direct function of the mechanic.

good luck!

 

Taking mine into the dealer today. Seems the right rear brake (but not the left rear) is hanging up. sounds like metal on metal and wear to the rotor is evident. Got a recall notice a year ago but the brakes were fine so no further action was required. Now has about 53k miles on it - not sure the recall warranty will apply.

 

I just had the discs, attachment brackets and pads replaced on my rear brakes and kept the old parts. (the slide posts and pins are mounted in the attachment bracket). The old rubber seals were a bit cracked but still seemed functional and old slide pins were addequately lubricated. The old calipers and pistons were re-used.
The attachment brackets came with new pins and seals and were modified where the brake pad clips locate. Also the brake pad clips were a different design which will not fit the older attachment bracket. No work was done on the front brakes.
Anyway, the pulsating feel when braking is gone completely...but I can not see any braking wear lines occuring on the rear discs outer faces and wonder how long it takes for wear to make an appearance. Can't believe that I am anxiously waiting for wear to appear to celebrate. If no wear appears it means that a) no rear braking is happening at all. or b) brake pads are only pushing on the inside face. Maybe I should have asked for replacement calipers also but supposed that the old calipers work with the modified bracket and clips. The old ones only have 45,000km on them albeit the van is an 08 but not winter driven except to keep everything working. Anyway, must keep positive. At least, by a process of elimination, the cause has been isolated to the rear brakes.
Oh, the emergency brake still works fine but am wondering if this screw feature is used on other vehicles.

One of the rear discs showed severe pitting and burnt wear but the other looked like it could have been machined and re-used...have not miked it yet. Pads were unevenly worn and suspect that the two thin ones were from the inside can't tell.
Nothing conclusive for me yet.
Are threaded pistons used on other vehicles? and if so how well do those work.

 

If the rear calipers are working properly, the pads should be contacting the rotors after the first time the brake pedal is applied. If you are able to tell the pad is not touching, then the job was not properly done. It will not heal itself.

All rear calipers with an integral emergency brake use screw-in retractable pistons. I think Kelsey-Heyes invented them. This has been the case for 30 years on everything from 1LE Camaro to 1982 Lincoln Continental. The most common error made by mechanics causing the pads not to touch is failing to properly adjust the pistons when replacing the pads. If the pistons are screwed in (retracted) too far, they may fail to self-adjust. The piston needs to be screwed in just far enough to slide the caliper onto the bracket and pads with some force. If the pads are screwed in too far, the caliper will just flop around and the piston will not move far enough to pinch the pads against the rotor. The emergency brake mechanism results in limited piston travel. The force of the piston pinching the pads is what readjusts the mechanism. It the piston can't clamp the rotor, then it will never adjust. Basically you are supposed to fully retract the pads and then snug them up until it's tough to install the caliper. This will give you some friction or rub for the first mile or two and then the pad burnishes off and everything is good to go.

How do you know the emergency brake is working?? Could you be having only one wheel working?? Jack it up to spin a wheel and find out. If the emergency brake is working, the hydraulics should also be working unless you have a collapsed hose!! Hoses are dual wall and have been known to collapse internally. This is a tough problem to troubleshoot, believe me.

 

If the recall parts design are different and incompatible with originals, how in the heck is dodge or aftermarket going to sell the proper parts to fit both setups? That is bizarre.

 

The parking brake holds the vehicle against the engine load pretty strongly and does not need to be depressed very far to operate. When you let it off the vehicle runs free again. Feels like it did when a new vehicle. OK, I don't know if the P/brake is working on both wheels. I had the caliper adapter brakets changed as said because the slide posts and holes are in that item...the caliper only attaches to the slide posts and rests on the SS clips that are also located on the attachment bracket. So since new posts are included with the bracket...then this seems to cover all of the concerns spoken about in previous postings...except for the threaded piston.
The old caliper adapter bracket seemed ok. Slide posts had lubricant on them and seal rubbers were retaining lubricant although a little cracked. The slide posts may have been a little free in the holes if anything. Not much sliding takes place during braking...the pads do not move much away from the disc but as pad wear takes place the slide position on the posts changes by the amount of individual pad wear and even that is only about a 1/4". When located in the bracket the pads moved reasonably freely whilst not flopping around. There was evidence that some kind of grease had been applied to the clips but you are going to get a lot of pad dust there. Still it remained a bit greasy after 5000km. The rest is as above.
The new bracket and clips have new part numbers and the old clips are still available for the older brackets. Maybe I should have had the calipers changed also...hmmm and the hoses. It's getting a bit expensive at this point. I really like the van though so will press on.

New adapter Part No. 68192437AA.......Old Part No. 68029886AA
New spring Part No. 68192438AA.......Old Part No. 68029888AA

Ok. at this point the vibration has gone but that would be the case with new discs. At least it shows that the vibration was coming from the rear brakes as said before. Untill I can see that I am getting pressure on the outer disc suface under braking the problem is not solved though.

Incidentally I can't find out if there are any Caliper modifications from 08 to the present.

 

Thanks for the reply. I ended up taking my caravan to the dodge dealership where they confirmed that only the rear passenger side brakes were not working properly (Sounded like metal on metal). So they replaced both rear rotors and pads. I suspected the caliper was perhaps not working properly (not retracting) as the problem but the mechanic said that it was ok. So I do not know why the rear passenger side rotor was ruined. I did not think about checking the emergency brake but will remember that next time