I have a 2000 Pleasureway motorhome built on a dodge 3500 ram van. Recently I replaced the front brake pads. Now the front pads are stinking and burning when used even lightly. I am told by this symptom I have sticking brake calipers. The people also tell me to replace the calipers, rotor and pads and fix the problem. Well my problem is we are on the road and I would much prefer not being equipped on the road to do it myself to not spend the 1000 bucks to have a brake shop do all the repairs.
My question is are these replacements always required?? or can cleaning and replacing some caliper parts fix the problem. Can a person check the exsisting pads and rotors and see if there is or is not a problem and then clean the calipers and bolts and bushins???
Any suggestions appreciated, not only hate to pay the big bill I prefer to do my own mechanic work; STRANDED IN A COOL PLACE WITH NO WAY TO GO
Thanks much
Grumpy

 

The piston chamber in the calipers probably has debris in them and is causing the piston to bind to the chamber walls. If this is what's happening then the only solution is to rebuild or replace the calipers. You can likely leave the pads and rotors alone for now.

 

When you drive the van, does it pull to the left or right after the brakes have been applied? I also have a class B and also smelled what appeared to be a brake sticking, however, my van rolled with no resistance and did not pull one way or another. Pulled off the wheel where I smelled what appeared to be a brake binding, and found a small amount of grease on the back side of the rotor. Grease came from a grease boot on tie rod. Cleaned the rotor and the brake, and after a few days, the smell went away.

 

it doesn't pull to either side. the brake smell is strong after any braking. Did you have to change the pads after cleaning off the grease? Do you think you could just clean the pistons and get by without rebuilding the calipers? we are on the road with very few tools.

 

A possibility is the flexible rubber brake hoses are collapsed internally. Hydraulic pressure can still push the fluid past, yet not allow it back out.

Replacing the calipers is simple. Getting a quality remanufactured pair is more the challenge. Getting new is likely impossible or ridiculous $$$$. Replacing the flexible brake hoses is also simple, unless one shears off the steel brake line where the flexible line joins.



Take the stress off the steel brake line by undoing the plate's mounting bolt, and be careful, because bending up a new steel brake line is a lot more work and some specialized tools, while not absolutely needed with preterminated/ flared brake lines available at Napa, ensure a much better result.

If there is grease on the pads, I'd wipe the majority off and use brakecleaner to get all traces of grease off pad and rotor. I don't see the need to replace the rotors. Most brakeshops will always recommend doing the rotors, and If I ran one, I would too.

Less chance to have to do warranty work that way, and today's customers blame the last person who touched the car, even if a new issue is totally unrelated.

 

thanks to all for the help; the problem was solved; the answer may prove interesting to you all; we got a price of 500 to 1000 for parts and labor for the job. and a guy in a small shop, real redneck like myself said a 20 dollar bill will do real fine: I went with the 20 job. I had told everyone the front breaks get screaming hot; rear brake drums are cool. well we were told calipers are sticking; This young man listened to my story again and said, sure; you got a dodge; dodge rear breaks don't self adjust worth a ::::::. they just need adjusting to take up some slack and let a lot of the brake work go to them instead of all to the front; your towing a vehicle and pushing a 9500# truck all on the front pads. He said could be something else but I bet not. He said 20 dollar bill for adjusting the brakes; we pulled and dropped off two real nice passes today in Colorado and no smell at all ; well until I dropped down one really big hill and rode the things forgetting to down shift my fault; brake problem solved ; sometimes the old KISS system works ; sure is nice to come out and be the windshield in stead of the bug some days thanks for all the help. Grumpy

 

I have an '01 B2500 on a B3500 chassis. Two years ago I had the rear brakes looked at... as usual the drum brakes looked new. I had the same thing wrong... no adjustment, until I had a certified brake mechanic friend of mine show me that the adjuster was put on improperly.

I don't recall now specifically, but he said that most everyone that works on rear brakes will put them back together wrong, and that takes out the self-adjusting part from the equation. He fixed something... I did not pay that much attention when he did it. Now after 30,000 miles my brakes are fine.

Maybe these PROs on this forum can tell us more about that rear brake adjustment.

BTW, the front rubber hoses NEED to be changed at the age your van is at. I had a '94 B250 that had that problem you talk about... I was going through brake pads constantly, until I replaced the old hoses. They collapse internally and do not let the caliper retract enough to loosen up the brake pads.

 

Often the adjuster wheel assembly is installed backwards, thus no adjustment. As to this whole rears not doing their job theory, well I'm not there but it sounds pretty bogus to me. In my experience, when the rears are insufficiently adjusted there is an excessive amount of brake pedal travel to the point that the pedal goes almost to the floor. But like I said, I'm not there and grumpyone says it's fixed.

 

.....

 

no excessive pedal to speak of...
I had this problem with my '94 B250... always having to adjust the rears by hand... at that point, as I recall, I was told that hand adjustment was SOP. I rear-ended a big box truck with 225,000 miles on that van, in a driving rain storm, and sheared off the steering box and bent the frame, so I junked it... could have been a front only brake problem, but other than a junked truck, there was no ticket issued as I did not hurt the truck.

When I picked up the '01 with 130,000 miles on it, the owner was proud that he kept everything mechanically perfect. I looked at the forum, and took advise from this forum about front brake hoses, etc. When looking at the rear brakes, as I noted the rear brake pads looked new. I just had them looked at again after 25K miles since the last brake inspection, and they are being used up now, after the adjuster was fixed.

Again, I wish I remembered what he told me was wrong. Next time I see him I will ask him and post it.