There it is. Our long-term Dodge Caravan parked in the shadows of the service drive at Cerritos Dodge. It's our 4th visit to this dealership since June. After the 5th visit we get our choice of an Avenger keychain or Caliber beer cozy.
This isn't the first time we've been here for abnormally noisy brakes. Last round the dealer machined our pitted rotors and the brake squeal vanished. For awhile. This time the front pads and rotors will be replaced altogether.
New rotors shipped here from back east, which took four days. So the Caravan sat waiting patiently on the dealer lot from Wednesday to Monday. We picked up a freshly washed Caravan Monday afternoon, and to our surprise were not charged for the service.
Mike Schmidt, Vehicle Testing Manager @ 15,349 miles
banhugh says:
05:36 PM, 09/25/08
What car would need rotor replacement at 15k miles? It should be covered by the warranty anyway.
billt9 says:
06:04 PM, 09/25/08
It could just be the brake pad or rotor material squeaks by design.
Some materials squeak.
In that case, nothing the dealer does will help, as the brakes squeak by design. Corporate Dodge engineers will have to choose a new brake material and release a TSB.
banhugh says:
06:17 PM, 09/25/08
No dealer mechanic would replace the rotors for free if they were just squeaking. I would suspect that last time they overdid it with the machining...
and now they probably tried to machine them again but they had consumed all the disk thickness from last time...
dragonflight says:
06:41 PM, 09/25/08
Embarrassing that it's been into the shop 4 times in just under 4 months. GT-R vs Grand Caravan for least reliable.
And you guys thought the Ferrari was gonna be the pain in the ass!
billt9 says:
07:36 PM, 09/25/08
Well the Ferrari is still holding a good record at 25 days out of service, stranding the driver once, and $4,700 out of pocket maintenance costs... although the car was sold for a $2,000 profit, which makes the $4,700 cheaper than depreciation on a GC.
How many days has the GC been out of service?
mopar424 says:
07:53 PM, 09/25/08
Will these 4 days really be counted as "out of service?" The van is not inoperable by any means.. it has break noise, ooooh. In the real world with real owners the vehicle would be returned on the first day and brought back in when the pars arrive.
dragonflight says:
08:04 PM, 09/25/08
@mopar424 when the brake noise could be indicative of reduced performance and a safety issue, I'd generally consider that 'out of service'
blankfocus says:
04:56 AM, 09/26/08
that looks like ford dealership font on the sign.
dougtheeng says:
06:09 AM, 09/26/08
My family's 99 DCG had break problems at around the same mileage, so its nice to see Dodge hasn't improved.
gmusic7 says:
09:31 AM, 09/26/08
i'm telling you, Chrysler is still using the same brake pad material from 1997, the year of my parents' caravan. Their van suffered from noisy brakes at 4,000 miles, eventually replaced at 20,000 miles with aftermarket NON- CHRYSLER brake pads. No more noise.
So wait for those Chrysler brake pads, drive a few miles, the noise will return...guaranteed!!!
slickersdrip says:
08:46 PM, 09/26/08
As a Dodge owner, I weep for the quality control since the Neon was discontinued.
jerrywimer says:
08:57 AM, 09/30/08
Uh, it may not have been anything safety related either. My wife's 07 Trailblazer's right rear brake squeaks. It's got 4 wheel discs, and nothing's grinding, warped, or anything like that. Just a fairly constant squeak when a certain amount of pressure is on the stop pedal. I've debated taking it in to let the dealership do something about it- hoping it'd be some of the stuff some places put on new brakes just to prevent such noises. Then I reconsidered, since I fully expect them to turn the rotor, charge me for it, and lead me down the road to replacement FAR earlier than necessary.
chrisnerin says:
08:02 AM, 12/ 4/08
I've owned lots of Chrysler vehicles in my past but never will buy another Grand Caravan again. At approx. 17K miles we took the vehicle in to the dealership and was told they weren't under warranty and it would cost $250 to replace pads. Took the vehicle to Just Brakes to have the work done because I was fumed at not being covered under warranty. The replaced the pads and machined the rotors which at this point were below spec. A few weeks later the dealership asked me to bring it back in and they ended up replacing the same pads and the rotors at no charge. I still could not get reimbursed for the work from Just Brakes. I just had to take the car in again (10K miles later) and they had to replace the brakes and rotors again. 90% of the driving done with this car is highway driving. I only have 6K miles left on the warranty (yes-we do a lot of driving!) and am afraid I'm going to be replacing brakes often!