Well, I made it to 44K miles with my rear brakes on my 2009 Caravan 3.3L. I have done brakes on all of my cars over the years and have probably done 10 full pad/rotor replacements.

This was the first time I had to do these 'twist-in' type caliper pistons.

I followed the procedures in this thread nearly exactly:
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-c...09-gc-sxt.html

Except that I didn't know to twist them in, and pushed pretty hard with a C-Clamp on the passenger side. After renting the tool from O'Riley, everything went fine, one of the easiest brake jobs I have done. The pads did include shims, which I did attach. They were steel with some sort of very thin rubberized layer on them. They clipped onto the back of the pad. I tried everything to get this rubberized layer off, and I could not, box cutter, exacto, screwdriver, I could not get it off, so rather than going without shims, I installed them as-is. It is a lot like what you would find on a new Stainless Steel appliance, or stanliess piece of hardware.

I also removed, inspected and re-lubed the pins, they were in flawless condition.

I took the car for a 4-5 mile drive after, slamming the brakes a couple times hard, and then hitting 40mph for 2-3 minutes. Things seemed warm-ish as expected, but no warmer than the fronts were, no smells etc.

I also drove it a few times this last weekend, all short trips, but everything seemed fine.

Today my wife goes for a 8 mile drive to work, and says that they are smoking by the time she gets there.

On the way home, she says that she hits no lights and there is a smell, but no smoke.

My thought (hope) is that the plastic/rubber coating on the shim burnt off. The steel of the brakes, and the material on the pads wouldnt smoke in any way, it would just get that 'hot steeel' smell, not a burnt plastic smell with white smoke.

I can jack the car up and make sure that they spin just fine (if the above is true, they should). I can take the tire off and see the back of the pad (and shim obviously) and see if I can see some charring on it.

Any other advice? Anyone else have this same thing happen?

Thanks.

 

Welcome to DF
Did you use OEM parts? If you didn't, I would put OEM parts on the van.

 

believe it or not pads will smoke.
id lift all 4 wheels and try to spin em by hand, if any seem to be dragging those are the ones to take apart and see whats what

note almost all rear calipers are of the rotating piston type, good rule of thumb is if there are slots that look like a tool will engage in them then they spin, if the piston is a true cup with no slots, grooves then it presses in

 

Thanks guys,

I will dissassemble them tonight.

I just jacked it up to check them out. The Rear Passenger, the one I had the trouble with, spun fairly freely. I gave it a good spin and it went two additional revolutions. I was able to get my finger through the steel wheel to run my fingers across the disc, and it felt good as new.

The driver side had a little more noise to it, and didnt spin as freely, but again both the inner and outer surfaces of the rotor felt very smooth.

When I get them apart, what should I look for? Like I said, I have done 9 or 10 brake jobs, but they all went fine until this one, so I am not 100% on what to look for when I get everything torn down again.

 

If they spin fine, I don't know that I'd worry about it.

 

Hmmm.. So a locked caliper, I wouldnt be able to move them, thats always what I thought.

Then again, I thought it would be tough to screw these things up too!

I guess I could take it for a long, fast drive, say 65, and see what they are like when I get back.

 

fully inspect the hoses, sometimes they rupture inside but dont blow out the outer casing. then a bubbe of fluid will stay in the hose applying "phantom" pressure.

as well as verify you didnt "twist" the Ebrake cable causing it to be on a little