The saga of the free caravan continues. I saved this one from being donated. Now when I got it, the front brakes were trashed by the previous owner, and then it had sat for 6 months. I replaced rotors, pads, and calipers on both sides. And bled just the fronts. (I did not want to even try the rears, as it looks like they are the original drums and have NEVER been off. ) So here is the problem. When I drive the van its fine. I have not had the brakes stick.

When my wife drives the van, the brakes run hot, drag, and smell bad.

Tonight (with my inlaws and infant in the car, just to add insult to injury) While I was driving "gently" in chauffeur mode. The right front brake started dragging and smoking. Its always the right front, and it was the brake with the most damage when I got it.

Last night (a shake down after working on some other things) I did about 90 miles of highway, with no problems. Yet tonight 7 miles of back roads to the resturant at 35mph, and I smoke the freeking thing.

What the heck did I miss when I did the brake job, calipers are new, pads are new, rotors are new, and I bled them till I had new clean fluid coming out. Is this the crappy brake hose issue? Do you think I got a junk caliper?

any help would be appreciated. I would rather some insight then just having to start throwing parts at it again.

Thanks
Richard.

So far on the "free" caravan: Front brakes (calipers, rotors, pads), power steering pump, power steering lines, transmission cooler lines, missing alternator bolt, serp belt, oil change. Left to do: front lower engine mount(pending soaked in ATF from leaky trans lines) transmission filter and fluid change, polish headlights, fix broken passenger side power lock switch, replace factory speakers,

 

did you remember to grease the caliper slide bolts and the outside of the guide pins. I forgot to do this when replacing the calipers and the brakes overheated from sticking or hanging up and yes it smoked and smelled bad(i thought it was because everything was new) but after i kept replacing the pads every few weeks (2 times) someone at advanced auto told me to grease those, so the next time I changed the pads I did the whole grease job and now it's been 2 months and i'm still on the same set of pads..oh my bad..

 

instead of soaking everything in trans fluid try using PB Blaster you can find it at your local parts store it's better than the other popular spray

 

That should have read, Still needs to be replaced, got soaked in ATF and the rubber disintagrated. It looks like the hoses have been seeping for a while. Though having the thing soaked in ATF should make the bolts come out easier. (PB blaster and I are old friends.)

But right now its the brakes that are causing distress.

 

When driving, which side is dragging? Did you keep the old calipers? If you did, this way you can put back on the van and see if if the brakes are still dragging.

 

Its the right (passenger) side that is dragging, it had a seized caliper when I got it. I did not think too much about it, as the previous owner had run the pads down to steel on steel. So I changed out that caliper (and the one on the other side too when I broke the bleed screw off) and did the rest of the brake job, new pads, new rotors, bleed them till the fluid looks new, and your done.

So I think that I fixed all the symptoms, the warn out pads and rotor. But did not fix the thing that was causing those problems. Which could be a (fill in the blank)

Unfortunately I do not have the old caliper, it was definately seized, the piston was cocked in the bore, and locked into place, I could not push it back in even with a huge c clamp. It went back to Advance so I could get my core charge.

Richard

 

We just went thru this with a 2000 Caravan, & found the problem.
History:
Aug. 13--Had smoke from under the hood, couldn't find problem or source of smoke.
Sept.-- Replaced brake pads & rotors both sides. Found that the caliper on rt ft was bound up. The rubber seals around the piston were burned up & the plastic wheel cover was heat warped. Replaced the caliper, bled the brakes & all appeared to be OK.
The fix: [last week]
Smoke coming from rt ft wheel. The brake was binding. We could get hi pressure fluid out but the fluid wouldn't flow back into the line when the brake pedal was released. Thusly, the caliper wouldn't retract. Eureka!! We must have a blocked brake line!
The rubber flex line going to each wheel has a crimped on support bracket in the middle that bolts to the strut. After X number of years, the line deteriorates & the crimped bracket squeezes it shut. Had we known that, we could have just released the 'squeeze' on the line to let it open up [a 5 min. fix]. We elected to remove the flex line to replace it & broke the solid line going to the master cylinder. The fitting going to the flex line was seized around the solid line, so we twisted it off trying to loosen it. We had to replace the lines all the way to the master cylinder. This cost was less than $40, but very time consuming. As a precaution, we released some of the pressure on the flex line to the left ft hose by 'uncurling' the crimped bracket with a big common screwdriver.
Hope this saves someone a lot of time & stress.