2006 caravan brake problems?

My '06 caravan has had bad brake vibration problems since around 3K miles.
The dealer replaced the rear brakes (pads and rotors) at 6K, again at
9K (which helped, but didn't entirely fix the problem). Now at 12K miles
they are claiming it was the fronts all along, rotors are badly warped and pads are
down to 4/32". After much bitching, the dealer and Chrysler agreed to split the cost of
replacing the fronts, but won't warantee the brakes and any further work is on my bill.

The dealer has no idea what's warping the rotors so quickly, have tried to blame our
driving style. Since our last van had over 100K w/o any warping and we're driving the
same I find that hard to swallow.

Has anyone else had problems with warping? In looking around it seems that these
vans have bad brakes, many need replacing at 12-15K and warped rotors. Anyone have
success with aftermarket pads and rotors? What's available for the caravan.

I'm hoping to avoid complete brake jobs with every oil change.

thanks,

 

No brake problems that I have seen, do you live in the mountains or drive in
heavy city driving? How is the gas mileage? Do you drive with 2 feet ? These
vans DO NOT have brake issues. And yes driving habits could have alot to do
with it especially high speed braking. Brakes are only warranted for 12/12

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech

 

Joe, this sounds like the problem that I posted in Nov. of 2006:

Will a bad brake booster cause front disc pads to wear out in less than six
months. The rear drum shoes are engaging while stopping and are less than 6
months old. I have had no problems with them. I have tried all types of disc
pads from ceramic to heavy duty semi-matalic. I have also replaced both brake
lines to the front calipers and cleaned and lubed the brake contact points.
This is on a 2002 Plymouth voyager and I have had this problem since I
purchased it new. Each time I replaced the discs pads I have the rotors
turned
or replaced. Help!

I ended up replacing the brake booster and master cylinder which included
bleeding all four wheels.
I have not had any problems since!

 

Hi Glenn,
I know you are the guy with experience but my luck with the brakes in
my 2002 Caravan hasn't been good.

I had the rotors replaced under warranty at 5,000 miles due to
vibration from warpage noticed from day one.

As I later discovered, the dealer only replaced ONE rotor.

At 11,000 I had the pads replaced under warranty.

With the warrantly over at 12,000 miles, I had to replace the pads
again at 22,000.

At 40,000 miles I finally decided to NOT use OEM parts and put in
organic pads in that lasted until 75,000 miles. I also trashed the OEM
rotors and put in Chinese made rotors that were balanced better and
ran truer than the OEM's. Did this work myself.

At 75,000K I installed ceramic pads that seem to wear less and dust
the wheels less while still not causing excessive rotor wear.

My conclusions overall were that the OEM rotors and pads from Chrysler
were junk. I've had much more brake wear in this 2002 Caravan than
any other vehicle that I've owned..

One possibility is that my unit has the 2.4L 4-cyl engine. It seems to
have minimal engine braking. When I back off the gas, the car slows
minimally on a level surface. Low internal engine friction? Four
cylinders not having much breaking effect on a relatively heavy
vehicle?

It reminds me of the 1965 SAAB 3-cylinder 2-cycle wagon that I used to
drive during work while in college.
That darm car had "free-wheeling" to keep the engine from being
starved for oil when you backed off on the gas (no gas, no lubrication
since you used one quart of SAAB Premuim "M" oil for each 8 gallons of
gas). The transmission declutched every time you backed off the gas
pedal.

I had some white-knuckled moments while the car was going down hills
loaded with color TV sets being picked up from the local hotel for
servicing... Those vacuum tube sets were HEAVY!

I'd pull the underdash lever to lock out the freewheeling but then the
boss would yell at me for the potential risk to the engine.

Doug

 

A bigger component than friction is the effect of the engine trying to
act like an air compressor with the intake blocked off by the closed
throttle body butterfly.

I remember those 3 cylinder Saabs and looking at one in the showroom - I
wanted one at the time, but I was just a kid with no money of my own.

I had always heard that freewheeling clutches were illegal on road
vehicles. Guess that was wrong info. That was kind of hard on the brakes.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

My wife has a 2003 Sebring convertible that she drives in to the city every
day , I have machined her rotors twice already due to her driving habits,
The car has 56k on the original brake linings now, her Caravan before that
got about 35K to each set of linings, My old 95 Ram 4X4 went thru front
brakes about every 35K and now my 03 Durango is on the original linings with
63K. Not to say that there are not problems with some vehicles that would
cause a premature brake wear problem but I believe for the most part it is
driving habits and conditions. I work on some vehicles that I have had to do
brake work every 6K and when I get done I tell them see you in another 6K.

Glenn

 

Was it actually due to warping? I thought that I had read (in the very
newsgroup) about uneven deposition of friction material on the rotors
causing light brake judder.

My experience has been that EVERY voyager/caravan that I have driven since
'97 (my own plus rentals) has experienced this judder between 20-30k
miles. Since this judder has always been intermittent, I have not believed
it to be due to warping (I can't imagine rotors un-warping themselves!).

Last year, I replaced rotors and pads with Brembo/Akebono units and
so far, the brakes have been very good.

 

Yep. People hear about rotor warpage so much that they barely hear you
when you talk about uneven pad filming. Mechanics seem to be totally
unaware of the possibility.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Yes, it was definitely warpage.
I don't remember what the runout was but it was substantial.

I noticed it as soon as I drove the car home from the dealership with
only 75 miles on it. I waited a bit before complaining thinking that
it might have been poor breakin while the car was driven from one
dealership to another, with resulting brake lining build up. It
wasn't.

However, it only got worse and was never intermittent.

I've never had front end braking shudders since I've replaced the OEM
rotors.

Doug

 

the cars sit on the dealer lots a while and the pad covers that part of the rotor
up and the rest of it gets rusty so the rusty part sits higher(.002) than the
clean steel and a warpage starts that can not be cleaned up and replacement is the
only fix