I replace the front pads on our 2008 Grand Caravan and they worked great. After pumping the brake pedal a few times it was solid.

I then replaced the rear brake pads. I used a tool kit from Advance Auto to screw in the cylinder. After completing, the brake will pedal goes to the floor. If I drive slowly and hit the brake, it is firm resistance and then it slowly goes to the floor.

What else do I need to do? Does it need to be bled for some reason?

 

No bleeding needed. The rear design is quite complicated, so the instructions need to be precidely followed. Did you do that??

I am guessing you screwed the pistons back into the calipers too far causing excessive pad to rotor clearance. This is a rookie mistake for rear calipers with integral parking brake. That works OK for fronts but not rears. Whatever you do, do NOT apply the parking brake or the caliper e-brake mechanism may go over center and jamb. That could lead to requiring the calipers to be rebuilt. Some designs do that, others don't..I have no specific knowledge of the caravan caliper mechanism, so I'm just speaking in general for rear calipers.

I would borrow the tool, pull a wheel and remove a caliper. The piston should only be retracted far enough to squeeze it back on with the fresh pads. If you have 1/16" clearance or more the thing may not autoadjust. Screw the piston out to decrease clearance until the caliper can barely be installed overthe pads with some coaxing. The e-brake would NOT be applied of course.

Follow the factory manual R&R instructions to the letter and don't guess or you will be sorry. I heard there are some bolts that need torqued to a certain value or binding will result. I'm not convinced of that, but I have not done the job on my van yet and I haven't read the manual. All rear calipers are a little different. The floating pins mechanisms need cleaned and greased EVERY TIME or you will have rust and brake wearout problems.

 

The system should not need to be bled unless you disconnected the brake hose from the caliper for some reason. Of course, as long as you know how to bleed the system and you follow the procedure exactly, it wouldn't hurt to do that either. Another thing I thought of is that if you completely unbolted the caliper (which you would have done if you cleaned and lubed the slide pins like Lscman said) and just left it hanging by the hose you could have damaged the hose. I'm guessing that's not likely, though.

Along the lines of what Lscman suggested (that there is too much pad to rotor clearance) pull off a rear wheel and, with the parking brake released and without unbolting anything else, see if you can wiggle the caliper in and out along the slide pins. I agree, if it wiggles more than 1/16 of an inch that's probably too much.

 

I'm going with junk calipers and they will need to be replaced. Better practice up on that bleeding thing.

 

Thanks. Just a nub problem. I screwed out the cylinder till it took some effort to get it back and it now works great.

Thanks again

 

Good to hear the newbie piston clearance error was your problem. welcome!