Brake problems, 99 Dodge caravan, help!

Termin8orFox

Termin8orFox

Club Member
My old man is driving me fucking nuts calling me with questions about the brakes on his 99 caravan. It seems he did the pads and rotors over the weekend, and now the brakes are dragging like a mofo. He said when he changed the front passenger side pads, the caliper would not compress. It would only compress when he opened the bleeder. Just the passenger side did this. So today, he changes the pass side caliper, and it is still doing the dragging brakes thing. He makes it sound like BOTH the front and rear are doing this. I know this thing has some wierd "height sensing proportioning valve" because it doesnt have ABS. He seems to think maybe the Master cylinder is going bad or shot. He plans to change it tomm after work. Anybody got any ideas for me to pass along, or know wtf is wrong with this thing? I searched the internet for like 4 hours last night and could not find anybody having any similar issues.

Thanks ! Rudy
 
I can't comment on the older Caravan, but we have a 2008 T&C and the rears did that. I changed them and the caliper to rotor alignment seemed off. When I got the rotors turned the guy even said they were worn really weird. Put it back together and it felt like the brakes were stuck, I couldn't even spin the wheel when jacked up. Ended up re-aligning the calipers with a 16 thou shim and it's been fine ever since.
 
if you can push the piston in with the bleeder open, it is not the caliper

replace the pass. side front flex hose, bleed and see what happens
 
What pads did he use? I got the lifetime pads from Autozone when I did my 99 blazer. Well they are not exactly dimensionally correct to slide like they should in the caliper bracket. I discovered (after dragging the brakes and killing a set in a week) that I had to grind the tabs that slide in the caliper bracket down so the pads could slide as they were intended. Whatever aftermarket company reproduced the pads, they did not keep to factory specs. The paint they put on those things was WAY thick and only part of the problem. I literally had to grind the tabs down so they would slide freely in the bracket. Have him check those. They should not be too loose as to rattle. But they should be able to slide along the channel in the bracket.
 
Hugger Z said:
What pads did he use? I got the lifetime pads from Autozone when I did my 99 blazer. Well they are not exactly dimensionally correct to slide like they should in the caliper bracket. I discovered (after dragging the brakes and killing a set in a week) that I had to grind the tabs that slide in the caliper bracket down so the pads could slide as they were intended. Whatever aftermarket company reproduced the pads, they did not keep to factory specs. The paint they put on those things was WAY thick and only part of the problem. I literally had to grind the tabs down so they would slide freely in the bracket. Have him check those. They should not be too loose as to rattle. But they should be able to slide along the channel in the bracket.
Click to expand...
did you clean the rust off the brackets (under the stainless slides), this is the #1 cause of reduced pad life, it is called rust jacking
 
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