$%#& Van!

Just got a call from my wife telling me the rear brakes are shot, and it's $550 to fix them. I just replaced them myself in the last 20k km. Apparently, they are dangerously bad. I'm trying to figure out what can cause the POS to eat through them like that (metal on metal). Pretty sure I couldn't have done anything improper when they were installed. My only other thought is pulling the 2 800 lb trailer, and the trailer brakes don't seem to be grabbing as much as they should. Also, the air bag let loose, so it was riding low in the back. However, I think we've had 8 trips, maybe a couple thousand kms total, if that.

We've been on the fence about trading it in. I'm trying to think of what could cause this, because if it's now going to eat brakes, might as well get rid of it. Even me doing the work myself is almost $200 just for the back. Any ideas?

 

Riding low in the back could cause the proportioning valve to send too much pressure to the rears as well. Assuming that the van is equipped with a load sensing proportioning valve.

 

AKA "Woman Driver"

 

180k on mine, still doing fine. With drums you need to keep them adjusted and lubed up or they will seize.

 

this van. does it have drum brakes?

my first drum brake job (i was young) was on an early bronco..hmmm, maybe a 71 camaro. anyways, i didnt adjust them correctly and i vaporized them...

to this day, i still dont like doing drum brakes.

 

Four wheel disk, and the only ones they sell locally are the premium discs. As well, the parking brake is actually a stand alone drum brake system inside the rotor (weirdest thing I've ever seen, but apparently it's common in trucks with 4 wheel disc...don't know, never had one.) She doesn't ride the brakes, or use the parking brake.

However, she got a call from the garage saying it might be seized calipers. I'm so tired of those words. One of the reasons I got rid of my Mustang was it started eating calipers for some reason. I've never had a seized caliper in my life, suddenly my last two cars decide that it's a "thing" they should do. She's looking at cars this afternoon, and wanted me to come up and throw new pads on for the trade in, but I told her they should only deduct the amount of a brake job for a trade in, so don't bother. That, and she's 2 1/2 hours away right now.

 

Just bought premium brake pads for the kid's Tribute and they are all lifetime warranty. Don't they have that sort of thing in Canada? Full set fr/rr for her deal was 80.00 and I got a 20.00 mail-in rebate besides them being lifetime warranty.

 

Some vehicles have a separate parking brake. My fiance's car is 4 wheel disc but the parking brake is a drum that operates separately from the rear disc brakes. I'm not sure how common that is though, her car is a Suzuki and has a lot of weird shit like that going on.

 

Common. 4runner is the same way.

 

Yea, the disc/drum combo, from my understanding, is a truck thing. Regardless...

There's no warranty on parts if you do the work yourself. Normally, I could replace the brakes a couple of times for what it would cost to do it once. Problem here is she's 2 1/2 hours away, and it'd cost almost as much in gas and parts to go there and do it as it would to have the stealership do it. And what really pisses me off is I was talking to the speedshop that has been selling my Mustang parts, and they sold some more for me, and I was just going to order some Tacoma stuff.

Here's hoping she finds something new she likes better than the van (personally, I can't think of much I wouldn't like better...). Calipers shouldn't seize at 130k kms. Hell, unless it's sitting for a while, or has contaminated brake fluid, I don't think they should ever seize.

 

So they replaced the pads, and saved us some bucks by turning the rotors, which makes sense because they are thick as hell. But no indicator why they went after only 20 or 30k, when the set I replaced lasted about 100k. The worse part? I had just talked to the shop helping me sell my Mustang parts, and discussed some Tacoma goodies. I was supposed to call him back to tell him what to order, and now I have to ask him to send me a check.

God I hate that van.