So my brother calls and tells me he had problems with his brakes, he pulled out of his driveway tried to stop , heard a crack like sound then the van wouldent stop. It's a 99 caravan. he backed into the driveway put the parking brake on and founda brakepadin the street. now it is possible that this isent his I dont know yet, He wants me to come by to help (do it for him) in the morning. I feel bad telling him no, he cant even change his oil. my question is, if that is his pad that he found in the street how much of a nightmare am i getting in to?

 

I'm not a real in depth mechanic, but when a brake pad wears through, you're usually just looking at replacing the rotors and then of course the pads. So I'm guessing he may just need a new rotor(s) in addition to new pads.

 

If it is his brake pad, the caliper and/or the brake rotor is broken. My wife's 02 Caravan was very simple to replace the rotor. the caliper would only be the removal of the two mounting bolts and disconnecting the brake line. It's not a hard job, but not knowing exactly what's wrong there could be other factors.

 

thats what i thought calipers and pads I've done before didn't know what the rotor entailed but if its simple it shouldn't be a problem
the $10 toll is starting to sound like it's the worst problem thanks guys i appreciate it

 

well it was his pad in the street, still had all the meat on it but no clip on the back. the pad itself was cracked in 1/2. you knowhow the tectonic plates move and make mountains. thats what it looked like. the middle had a ridge in it. the rotar was a lil scored and the calipers looked good as well . no broken peices nothing looked warped or out of place. could it have just been the fact that he bought the $14 dollar autozone pads. I didn't look at the edge of the pads to see if the tab was still there. hope it was justa low quality pad that caused all the grief. he got new pads the duralast lifetime warranty ones.i told him to get the rotors and suggested doing the calipers just so it was all new. I did put the pads on so he could drive to work for the next few days. I really didn't want to but everything lookedgood i test drove/stoped for about7-10 miles, pulled the wheels and checked everything, it was solid.

I looked in thehaynes manual for his van about the rotor change. They claim that the retaining clips do not need to be put back on. I would imagine that the rotor would just float freely there. I plan to put them back on with the new rotors but what do you guys think?
If they weren't needed wouldent dodge not install them? sorry for the long post thanks

 

Recently replaced both my wifes car and a chevy pickup and neither had haything to hold them on. Once you bolt the wheel back on it holds the rotor.

 

Retaining clips are there for redundancy. Only a few cars have them. Just ran into a Cobalt today that had them, I wouldn't worry too much about them but if you are **** (like me) put them back on.

 

the clips, and screws in some cars are mostly there to keep the rotors on while it's traveling down the assembly line. for the most part the rule I run with is no replacing the clip, yes replacing the screws. havn't had any issues to date.

 

I'll prob end up putting them on I cant imagine them being very expensive

here is what the pad looked like


[IMG]local://upfiles/85145/4ED7065A0881421B90D06F02CAA74D23.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/85145/039A608140024F9E831671418FBB91C7.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/85145/5E0E9022AF004AD18C9085D5B9E4A0FD.jpg[/IMG]

 

ouch thats a great looking pad. and ya like it was said, you dont need the clip.