$140 is a bit less than $1500 lol.

 

Yeah the drums that I had on a previous Caravan were reliable from new to trade-in at 60,000 km. Maybe the revised parts are to address the sticking do you think. If this is the case then, replacing with after market refurbished old parts might not suffice, do you think. Still, it remains to be seen how long my repair cost will last. We don't do a great mileage these days as stated but that does not mean the brakes are operated less... possibly more so, mostly around town.
I notice that the new Caravans have only 17" wheels now.

 

Others would not advocate this, but after 3 sets of rear brakes and 2 sets of calipers in 40,000 miles, I elected to grind the ears on the after market pads ever so slightly to allow them to move more freely within the guide. I just rotated the tires and inspected the pads and at 20,000 miles, they have a normal amount of wear. No squealing, no smoking, and stopping power is a stood as ever.

The after-market pads are about 1 mm to wide on the ears.

 

I started having trouble with our vans at 30,000km. Thankfully, after a letter sent to Chrysler Canada, they sent me a cheque to cover the work. I've personally replaced them with good Wagner pads and Bendix rotors, so I'm interested to see how long these ones last. My uncle is a mechanic, and told me to take a file and clean up where the clips go into the bracket, to make the pads move a little easier.. I suppose the revised caliper bracket is probably the same sort of fix.

 

To the above. Yeah, probably the same effect and the new caliper bracket may be the same casting/forging but does seem to have been machined on the pad locator ledges, straight across both sides of where the disc would be; to cover inboard and outboard pads. Which was not the case before. Further, the stainless clips also have a further leg to cover the upper ledge part. Maybe the caliper body sits on here...I don't know...have not seen them together on a bench. Also the clips have a longer lower leg which curves around under the pads...for some reason. None of which affects the slide pins except that sticking pads would produce heat that might affect the pin lubrication. Thanks for posting and hopefully this will continue to work for me also. There is a reason to differentiate the caliper from the caliper bracket. They are two different parts.

 

I found this post because the right rear wheel brake on my 2010 Dodge Caravan just got really hot and smelly again. I have had both rear wheels off at least twice since purchasing the van new to repair/replace/service the rotors, pads and calipers. Like most others that have contributed to this thread, I found that the pad "ears" were exceptionally tight in their slide guides and made adjustments to make them slide easier. However, we still get times when one of the brakes "hangs" and causes the wheel to get hot (and smelly).

As I read the whole thread, a possible explanation of the problem occurred to me (in addition to all the other causes mentioned). I started thinking about how the brake piston "self-adjusts" with the parking brake screw. I figured out that application of the parking brake caused a lever to actuate a screw mechanism (hence the special piston retraction method required). Could it be that, every now and then when the brakes are applied, that the piston moves far enough to index to the next "stop" of the parking brake screw? (please excuse my crude and possibly inaccurate description of the parking brake self-adjustment mechanism -- I've not taken one of them apart yet to see how it actually works -- I'm just trying to figure out what would cause a PERIODIC brake drag instead of a CONSTANT brake drag). What we have observed is that the brake drag problem usually goes away after a few miles (and after a few stops to let the dragging brake system cool down).

We are still going to service the rear brakes again. However, I first try to contact Chrysler to see if there is some kind of "silent" bulletin on this problem and/or if we can get anything replaced for free at the dealership.

I wanted to float my idea about the parking brake self-adjusting process causing the periodic brake drag issue and see what some other experienced people have to say about it. It won't necessarily lead to a long-term fix to the problem, but it might help to at least understand the problem a little more.

Thanks!

 

Couple points....


1) the rear brake piston screw-in reset design has been commonplace since the 1970's so it's a proven design. An almost identical setup was used on 1982 Lincoln Continental brakes, for example. This Kelsey hayes design and iterations of it are found on many Ford and Lincoln cars. If the pistons screw back into their bore without much difficulty then the internal e-brake mechanism probably isn't defective.


The most common issue with emergency brakes sticking relates to the cables themselves. They are out in the elements and the cable and housing rusts. This issue can be diagnosed by removing the cable end from the actuation lever to see if it moves freely in the sheath. The lever on the caliper should fully reset when the e-brake pedal is released. This can be checked with your eyeball and a pair of pliers while someone else operates the e-brake.


2) Your van is 4 years old and you stated you had to service the rear brakes at least twice since new. How is that abnormal? The average vehicle in the USA is driven 18K miles per year. Having to service the brakes every 30K or so would be considered entirely normal. Unless you tell me this is a low mile garage queen, brake jobs every 18 months would be customary. Some cars will go 50K mi or more between brake jobs, but cars are a lot lighter plus drivers and vehicles vary. My Corvette went thru a set of premium 13" brakes in one Saturday morning under certain conditions lol.


3) I agree that one hot rotor and one not so hot on the same axle would NOT be normal. Something is wrong. It indeed sounds like your pads are not releasing due to defective floating caliper mechanism troubles, pads sticking on tracks or piston sticking.


I never found it very difficult to tell if the floating mechanism was faulty. The pads should freely slide on their track, and if they don't, you have rust built up or design clearance/tolerance issues.


The piston reset mechanism and bore inside the caliper would only rust if the brake fluid was contaminated with water. Lots of folks like to clean their engine bay and this leads to such issues. The master cylinder cap isn't exactly water tight. Flush the brake fluid yearly by bleeding to each caliper. The system takes 2 quarts to completely flush.

 

Your uncle was suggesting you use a file to clean rust off and smooth out any wear ridges that may have built up on bracket track that the pad backing plate slides along. Yes, you must remove all rust from the track where the clips and pad sits, so it doesn't cause the pads to bind up and stick. I have been doing that since my first brake job 40 years ago. Hopefully you completed that step!! Owners and mechanics who skip this step are completely wasting their time and money changing pads and rotors like underwear with the same bad results. A bit of anti-seize compound applied under the rattle clip on the bracket track works like non-drying paint which will also help rust from forming. As you may have noticed, the anti-rattle clips are made of rust prone metal, not stainless steel. That cost-cutting measure was quite stupid from a customer sat and reliability perspective.


The revised caliper bracket is NOT the same sort of fix. The revised caliper bracket allows more clearance with the pad backing plate. The effect is the same though...pads move more freely in the bracket track.

 

If indeed you have read ALL the thread, you should understand that there IS a serious defect in the design of the rear brake system on these models. It is true that ALL brake system parts need correct maintenance which requires the removal of rust and crude. Also adjustments need to be made so the pads are free to float.
However that does NOT address the fact that a single rear wheel gets extremely HOT, while the other remains cool! It does not account for the fact that the problem occurs INTERMITTENTLY and then goes away!
In my experience which I posted previously, I have installed new pads and rotors, cleaned and adjusted all moving parts, applied anti-seize to all moving parts and assured that everything moved very freely. I still found the intermittent, smoking hot wheel, (You can smell it as you get out of the van) while the other was COOL! At one point my dealer serviced these brakes and admitted one caliper seemed to act strange. He replaced it for free and lubed and adjusted all the parts. I left there and drove about 15 miles on open curvy roads. When I stopped, one wheel was so hot, the lube he applied was bubbling and smoking. The rotor was Blue! The other wheel was cool! He just threw up his hands and admitted he didn't know what to do.
After that I took it to a good, trusted mechanic who does brakes. He also replaced the pads and rotors and cleaned and adjusted everything. I still have intermittent HOT brakes. I have gone through 5 sets of pads and rotors in 60,000 miles but only changed the front brakes this fall at about 55,000.
So, it pretty well narrows it down to the ESP system applying braking pressure to one rear wheel, on a curve or cornering, and NOT releasing that pressure.
The ESP is supposed to monitor when one wheel spins faster than the other. It then applies the brake to the spinning wheel and ALSO to a rear wheel to counteract skidding. The ESP seems to work correctly with the front DRIVE wheels but for some reason doesn't release pressure to a back wheel. I have found either back wheel hot, but mostly the driver's side.
The dealers will not admit that there is a problem or give out any information on how to contact Chrysler directly. Of course, remember, they are reaping good profits on all the brake service as the majority of owners just pay the bucks for new brakes every 10 to 15,000 miles. I do my own brake service so that keeps the cost down. However, think of the added fuel cost of wearing out a set of rear brakes every few thousand miles...

 

If I were you, I would disconnect the e-brake system and see if the problem vanishes. I read nothing about checking those cables which are known to intermittently hang/stick due to rust, weak reset spring or foot actuator pedal dog ratchet that does not fully reset.


If the ESP is intermittently operating, it could be caused by leaky tires or uneven tire wear. The system relies heavily upon comparing the "effective radius" of each tire with weight applied. Tires with slight size variation due to loading, wear, brand or pressure may cause the antilock wheel speed sensors to falsely detect tire slip.