Thanks Montreal. It does have ABS sooo...

Any other ideas on what might be causing the caliper issues in the rear? I'd really like to just nail it down and find the problem, lol. We've thrown enough money at this van, chasing down issues.

 

Have you replaced the rubber lines yet? At some point it's more cost effective to take it to a brake specialist.

 

Not yet. I think he's going to try that this weekend. The problem with taking it to a brake specialist at this point is that we've pretty much exhausted our savings and expendable money keeping it running.

And not just our van, but this has been a really hard year for us, with vehicles, as his 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel was damaged during last winter's extreme cold. So we're chasing THAT down too. (We parked his pickup a couple of months back...as we are pretty sure we know what's wrong with it, but the cost of repairing it is beyond our means until tax refund time).

We were thinking of taking the van to Midas for a "free estimate".

My husband is usually pretty good at troubleshooting these things. But this one really has him stumped.

I hope its the rubber hoses and we can be done with it.

 

It's hard I know, but better than throwing parts at it and getting more and more frustrated. You have a good attitude about it.

 

Not really worth getting too worked up about. The van has nearly bankrupted us this year, lol, but at least it still works somewhat.

My husband is starting a new job next week, trading an hour and fifteen minute commute for a 5 minute commute.

If worse comes to worse, he can pedal his bike.

 

Since you mentioned he had issues with the autozone tool for rotating the piston back into the caliper, perhaps he went a little too far?

Check this link out below:

http://forum.chryslerminivan.net/arc.../t-33394.html?

 

Thanks for the link. He said he was aware of the issues discussed in that thread, and doesn't think he turned them too far. I guess he rented the tool? He said something about a video on youtube that shows a different way to turn them back by using a pair of pliers. (Or something...honestly, I'm probably way off on that terminology...at this point, between the fronts and the backs, I'm not sure what was done and when anymore).

We went ahead and ordered the brake hoses. Autozone had one side in stock, but the other side was a special order and we have to wait for it to arrive.

Hopefully it will be here by this weekend. And hopefully, this solves the problem.

Then, we can turn our attention to solving the idle issues.

 

I would take it to a Professional Mechanic

 

Yeah, that's a last resort. Hundreds of dollars later, and I'm fairly confident the mechanic would have ended up following the same sequence of replacing parts as we have, only...at a significant labor cost.

We're just waiting on the brake hose to arrive so we can get them replaced. See if that solves the issue.

 

Hubby replaced the rubber brake hoses today. Bled the system, started her up and took it for a test drive. Worked great!!! Both sides heated up evenly...got quite hot, in fact.

Took it for a longer drive and the driver side was hot and smelled of burning brake....and the passenger side was warm, not hot, not cool.