my van is just shy of 4 years old...brakes done 4 times...new computer....new starter...new struts....wipers went...this is with regular maintenance and driving with care....Needless to say I do not love this van or the cost....I bought an extended warranty thank goodness....however it's up in December....that is when I will worry....buy canadian get a POS???? Honda here I come....

 

Good thing Honda's don't have any issues. No transmission problems with the Odyssey at all. Don't care where they are built and who builds them, they all have their issues.

 

+1

I have two '10 Caravans and a '10 T&C at work and they're all doing this. I'm getting 25-30k out of them before the rotors are warped. I ended up putting a set of PowerStop slotted/drilled brakes on one of them, so I'm curious to see if I get any better mileage out of them. The one Caravan goes through rear calipers like crazy; it's got 58,000kms on it, and I think the rear left caliper has been replaced 2 or 3 times.. it's also on it's second tranny!

 

Back brakes wearing out before the front brakes poor poor Chrysler design
The dealership hands u the crap and no fix for the problem design other than buy new brakes and rotors
Remember u have the famous Chrysler 60--60. warranty 60 feet or 60 seconds whichever comes first. bumper to bumper crap when u buy
But when u have an issue with your related problems it's never covered
That u can depend on

 

My '08 with the same calipers and rotors has no issues with rear system wearout, but please know I'm not suggesting yours won't. Kryptonite custom rotors will not last if the calipers are defective and pistons are stuck. Repeatedly failing calipers would likely be caused by moisture in system, so I would suggest yearly fluid flush to keep the water percentage down (full system bleed). Do you by chance pressure wash or hose your engine bay because it sounds like your master cylinder lid is seeing pressurized water spray. That is the only way water can enter the system. Caliper pistons freeze up from rust caused by too much water in the brake fluid.

A failed caliper will instantly destroy the associated rotor. PowerStop is total garbage and will fail just like stock. Racers learned that long ago and simply run premium Bendix, Raybestos or similar (without silly slots and holes). Bendix rotors for your Grand Caravan cost $19 from Rockauto.

 

Never washed the engine bay. The t&c has just started pulsing now, after 35k. I will try a set of the rotors you've recommended.. Our vans average 40k plus a year, so it's very easy to see what will work and what won't. The caravan that keeps eating calipers is a heap of junk. On top of the calipers, it's on transmission #2, the WIN module has been done 3 times, the AC has quit twice, and so on.

EDIT: I just ordered a set of ThermoQuiet pads and Bendix rotors for the front.

 

Is this brake problem under 5/100000 powertrain warranty?

 

Heck, $40 worth of rotors warping every 40K miles is definitely normal wear and tear. That comes to $1 every 1000 miles. It costs that much for enough gas to drive 5 miles lol. Put another way, your gas bill was $8000 for the same 40K miles driven. Rotors comes to 0.5% extra cost for rotor wear and tear. This is about the same money I spend yearly for wiper blades or just one dinner. Factor in insurance and other costs of ownership and it's down in the weeds........

I have destroyed many sets of fresh 13" street performance rotors & pads in a weekend (250 miles), so believe me when I say driving behavior is a huge factor. On a 5L mustang, I can burn premium brakes to the ground in an hour...or win a race. I can damage rotors to the point of pulsation in about 10 rapid decelerations, if I don't allow cool-off time between them. We're talking about a 1 or 2 mile long winding road. The GC/T&C design is not the only vehicle susceptible to such issues. Any car aside from a featherweight M3 with massive disks will fail rotors when overdutied. It does not matter if you drive into corners and brake late and deep or use lots of brake or left foot brake, the result will be the same. My kids and wife eat brakes under normal driving conditions, I don't.

I can assure you the WIN was not defective if it was changed 3 times with similar results. Unfortunately the no crank troubles are tough to pinpoint because symptoms come and go and there are no stored codes for such malfunctions. Mine was a $5 engine ground strap with excessive resistance...VERY common issue on 6 spd GC's. The defective ground cable and connections looked clean and like new.

 

My rear discs and pads were replaced after 44,000 km (not miles) on my 08 Caravan SXT 16" wheels. They had been vibrating for some time. I also had the caliper 'attachment brackets' replaced since the slide pins are located in this bracket...'not the caliper'... The caliper just attaches to the heads of the pins with bolts in tapped holes in the top of the pins. Caliper movement is accomplished on these pins, sliding in bracket holes, in order to pinch the disc as the piston extends when braking. The pads themselves slide a little bit in the caliper to take up brake wear. I think that greasing the pins and a rubber grease boot check is maybe indicated here. Annually for me.
Anyway, my rear discs looked ok from the outside but the inside, that you can not see without removal of the said disc, was burned very badly and pretty obviously was the cause of pulsating brakes. Why the inside I don't know. The emergency brake is operated by the brake piston in a spiral groove somehow (can't find a drawing for this feature) but other makes use a similar set-up I believe. Anyway I can't find a way to check the reliability of this function for sticking and from the drivers seat all seems ok.
The front brakes have not given any trouble but the discs have been changed by the dealership weather they required changing or not. At that point the pulsating was not arrested and I insisted that the above work was done on the rear brakes only and replaced parts returned to me. Which revealed the badly burned discs...tapered brake pads...and slide pin condition. The latter not conducive to any conclusion. Anyway it is what it is and the brakes work just fine now..for about 4000km anyway.
As noted in a previous post there is a revised caliper attachment bracket (from the 08 one anyway) and new brake pad attachment clips that go with them. The bulletin number is listed there. I had these installed but don't do enough mileage to test the revision properly but as previously stated the brakes work fine now. Anyway, this has been the only problem for us and otherwise we like the vehicle a lot.
I noticed a recent upscale Crew or something with 17" wheels I think, that had ventilated rear discs and a longer caliper. If this caliper comes with all 17" wheels it might be better.

 

Good outside rotor surface with bad inside rotor surface tells me the following:

1) the inside pad was stuck in the bracket assembly and unable to release or retract when the brake pedal was released. This could be caused by insufficient clearances between the pad backing plate and caliper bracket or rust buildup in the bracket or pad springs....or

2) The caliper floating (self-centering) mechanism was jambed and failing to work properly. This is invariably a problem with caliper pins getting rusted from insufficient grease or cracked rubber boots. The caliper must be able to side freely laterally (back and forth) on the pins to allow the piston and pads to retract/relax when the brake is released. Most brake jobs don't involve cleaning and greasing the pins but this is mandatory on these vehicles. Many pins are made of stainless....these are NOT.

It would be impossible to guess which problem caused your inside pad to chronically drag against the rotor. I strongly agree with the plan to perform frequent maintenance to ensure the pads are not sticking from rust and moving freely.

However in this case I am sure that the caliper was not faulty and the piston was not stuck. I am also sure the emergency brake was not stuck or dragging. When that happens, both pads would overheat and both THE INNER AND OUTER rotor surfaces would show similar damage.

Tapered pad wear is caused by uneven pressure against that pad. The pad could have been jambed in the bracket on one end only or one caliper pin could have been preventing the self-centering mechanism to move on one side of the caliper. Either of these problems can cause tapered pad wear. Generally speaking, a jambed self-centering mechanism (pin) will cause the caliper to sit ****-eyed which leads to tapered wear on both the inner and outer pad.