Alright, I recently did some work on my 1998 Dodge Intrepid (shockingly enough it has a Chrysler logo on it, but according to my father, it is infact a Dodge Intrepid. I should note that this Intrepid has rear brakes as well, which explains why I had to replace brake pads on the rear tires.

I had to replace brake pads in what I at first thought was the front tires. Upon inspecting the front tires, nothing was wrong. I checked the back tires and through the hubcap, I noticed the rear brake pads were basically metal on metal, and they had chewed up the rotors pretty good.

I ended up doing the following work:

- Replaced brake pads in both front tires
- Replaced brake pads in both rear tires
- Replaced rotors in both rear tires
- Replaced 1 caliper (drivers side, rear tire. I was pushing the piston in slowly to push the brake fluid back into the resevoir, when a chunk popped off the piston, causing the caliper to leak fluid, so I had to replace it)

Did all that today. Got everything put back together properly and took the car out for a test spin. I immediately noticed some problems as I was driving.

I was doing the speed limit in the residential neighbour I live in (40 km/h) and I could hear repetitive squeaking coming from the car. I assume it's from the back tires as that's what I was hearing from the back tires before I found out the rotors were chewed. Then, upon doing a semi-wide left turn onto a side street, the noise got worse for around 3 seconds, then went back to the sound it was making before. It doesn't make the worse noise when I do a right turn though.

I'm not sure what the problem is but I feel it could be the emergency brake system in the rear tires, or the dust deflector as I had to use a crowbar to get the rear rotors off, and I could've bent something. Either that or the new caliper/brake pads on the rear driver's side tire is acting up (driver's side rear, left turns make the noise worse. See the connection?)

EDIT: Just saw a post in the 1st gen section where another user suggested to someone to use anti-squeal and to make sure to grease the slides, which I did not do.



Onto my other problem. The air conditioning. I was originally having trouble locating the low pressure port to recharge the air conditioning, but I believe I had found it as I saw the high pressure port had a cap on it with a big "H" on top, and there was a port right below it on the same part with no cap.

I ended up using 2 cans of R12, as well as a can of LeakStop (or Stopleak, w/e it's called).

Everything seemed fine while I ran it for 20 minutes to let the stuff cycle through the system as per the directions. But upon taking the car out for a spin, when I turned the AC on it had a distinct chemical smell to it, which my father later identified as the smell of R12. Apparently the stuff can kill you if you inhale it so this just makes the air conditioning in the Intrepid pretty much useless.

Did I use the wrong port?

 

From some of your statements I'll take it you don't have an extensive knowledge on cars.

First thing's First... Just about any car you see on the road today has both front and rear brakes. It's a good idea to maint. the brakes on each wheel when you service them, both front and rear. The brakes on the rear will wear about 1/2 as fast as the front, however if you buy a quality life-time warranty set of pads you won't be out of extra money. Also make sure to have your rotors turned/milled each time.

The noise you describe sounds like it could be loose lug nuts. There are a couple other possibilities but I'd start there first.

As for your A/C... Usually what happens is your rubber o-rings or other rubber components fail due to the A/C not being used for a period of time. This often occurs because of non-use in winter. Sometimes a stop leak will help recondition the rubber and stop or slow a leak, but it's no permanent fix. Before you put any more fluid into it I'd take it to a shop and get them to pressure test the system. If they find it holds a vacuum you are good to refill it, usually you can get a better price from them for the fluid recharge than buying the refill cans.

I don't believe you did anything wrong in your refill, sometimes there's just a leak in the system.

Anti-squeal and greased not being used shouldn't make much of a difference in any brake sound.

FYI: Many of your Intrepid parts will carry Chrysler logos due to the Concorde and Intrepid being the same body and i believe drive-trains as well.. If your vehicle does indeed have a Chrysler emblem on the hood, and in the interior decals, it's a Chrysler Concorde.

 

Unless you have a very old car or had a new one retro-converted to R-12, I hope you used R-134A. The two refrigerants are not compatible and mixing either one will cause the lubricant to gel and your system will be worthless until you replace and flush every A/C component.
If you're smelling freon, you most likely have a bad evaporator. Step one to fix that is to remove the dashboard. Should you attempt that yourself (not recommended), make sure you follow the directions on how to bleed the air bag capacitors or you could be in for a big surprise when you pull the dash. If they go off while you're working on it, the least you'll experience is the need to change your underwear--at most it could conceivably snap your neck--although remote.
Sorry for the bad news on the evaporator. Why they don't design firewalls with an access panel from the outside is beyond me--probably makes too much sense.

 

I own a '98 Chrysler Intrepid..no Dodge emblems on it anywhere, I was informed by our local parts supply that the Canadian models were Chrysler Intrepid and that it's American counter part is a Dodge Intrepid.