There are hundreds of complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the 2002 Dakotas Brake Probem. Anyone who googles this problem will find hundreds of owners who have replaced rotor, pads, hoses etc to no avail. Has anyone tried replacing the wheel speed sensors or the ABS computer? There is an ongoing NHTSA investigation into this problem and the more owners who come forward the better..

 

I will move this to the 2nd Generation Dakota sub-forum.

 

my issue with this post is that dragging brakes is a hydra. problem... Not an electrical issue...

 

Try replacing your rubber lines. When I first got my truck I had the same problem and my uncle who used to be a dodge mechanic said there was some problems with soft lines sucking shut after they got warm and this cause the brakes to lock up. Every since I replaced my brake lines I never had a problem with them.

 

I have, along with many others with this problem changed everything involved with the braking of the truck. Hoses, pads, discs,etc. The ABS computer is a electronic device which controls a mechanical device the brakes. I can sometimes feel the brakes pulsing when they get hot. Is it possible that the ABS computer thinks one wheel is sliding so it compensates by doing its job and pulsing the none slipping wheel. These events happen when I'm not braking!! Anyone who does a little research will see the depth of this problem. Its the biggest problem with the 2002 dakota. Other than the brakes this is a great truck!

 

If you have the abs kicking in even when not braking its most likely the speed sensor. If it is bad tho most time your abs light will be on and the abs will be disabled. The brakes pulsating when braking could just be the rotor. I know my truck does it cause I have cheap rotors on it but it only does it under medium braking if I press harder it will go away and be smooth.

 

It happened first at 15000 mile, the brakes dragged so hard the truck back shifted to 3rd, I barely made it home. I took it to the dealer and everything worked perfectly. The dealer changed everything. There was no indication of anything wrong either before or after. It occured again at 35000 same situation same fix. Now at 45000 I'm afraid to go too far. No ABS dash indicators come on, but now the drivers side brake gets so hot you can't touch the wheel. I now take short trips. I removed the ABS Fuse but the speddo and a few other thing go off with it so I put it back in. Since I did that I've gone 150 miles with no problem. I'm hoping the NHSA's investigation comes up with something. I don't mind spending money I just wont the problem to go away.

 

The third or fourth year I had my brakes worked on by a shop just after I started to notice a burning smell shrugged it off till a week later decided to investigate myself that’s when I noticed my rotors were black and blue from excessive heat took it back to the shop that worked on them they fixed it but I never knew what happened.

Well many years later I did my front brakes complete new everything up front and then adjusted my back a few days later that’s when my front brakes started to lock up and my rotors started to turn black like before thinking it must be the new front brakes I popped the calipers off to look at them didn’t see anything wrong except the caliper pistons did seem to be locking so I used a clamp to pull the pistons in all the way and it did feel like something was resisting the c clamp but did get them in all the way then installed the brakes again... that fixed it don’t know why or how of it but no more dragging front brakes very strange.

I think it was adjusting my back brakes that caused my front calipers to kind of lock up on me because before the back adjustment they were working great.

Adjusting the back brakes causes some kind of back pressure in the system is all I can think of.

Some kind of one way valve gets stuck in the braking fluid system my guess.

Or adjusting the back brakes causes presser in the system causing the ABS to kind of freak out or not work properly after you adjust the back brakes.

 

Just this year I found out my back brakes were all locked up the cylinders had locked in place not working so I replaced the cylinders and put it all back together with new springs well just after my front started to drag again for no reason I tried the c clamp trick and like before I could feel something resisting the front caliper from going in all the way till pop it pulled in all the way something was not letting the caliper pistons retract completely but finally let go installed everything.. And no more dragging front brakes.

Something was stopping the front caliper pistons from retracting after I replaced my back cylinders like the last time.

 

You like everyone else tried the usual fixes. Don't be surprised if you haven't solved the problem. Theres and interesting website called Auto Beef http://www.carcomplaints.com/ Check out the 2002 dakotas number one problem by a long shot is brake problems. You can actually see every model, every year and the problems they have.