Hot brakes

tcmichnorth
Sat, 07 Sep 2024 10:53:39 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

2005 Caravan or Town and Country 300,000 Miles. My son worked on this as I watched. This was previously my vehicle. Ended up giving it to a widow. She brang it to my son cause it was driving funny for a week and front brake squeaked. Didn’t find any obvious signs of brake problems, but pads were 80% down so we put some new front pads on that I had kicking around in the garage (correct pads). Did not change rotors. I checked the oil and it only had 1.5 quarts in it. I lectured her about checking oil. My son seated pads. When he got back the right rotor was 250 degrees F, left 120 F. He probably got too aggressive seating pads. Checked that wheels released when brake pedal was released, no problem. I drove it to try and cool rotors And no symptoms. The rotor temperatures were still different, so I told her to go home so rotors can cool and come back tomorrow and I’ll check rotor temps. She came back and temps were equal and normal. Sent her on her way. Next day the right side rotor overheated. Brakes still released when pedal is released. So my son replaced pads and rotors. Next day left side overheated. So son is going to change out hoses. My question is what am I missing? Everything seems to be functioning properly and I’m still chasing diagnosis and getting frustrated. This should be simple. At this rate we are going to replace everything from rotors to master cylinder before we find the problem. The master cylinder would affect both sides at once, right? Any advice on what we missed is appreciated.

P.S. as I was typing this I realized that I didn’t inspect the hubs for Michigan contaminates when my son worked on it. This used to be my van, and I always put a light film of anti seize between hub and rotors, but there still might be hub corrosion. I’ll check run out today. Any other thoughts?

20 posts - 10 participants