dodge caravan brear brake noise

I have been experiencing rear brake noise that is there when I start out and then goes away as I travel and use them. I just replaced the front pads and rotors. I thought I would find that the rears were worn or trashed although they of course wear much less.

The victim is a 2001 dodge caravan with about 70K KMs on it.

I am into the rear brakes today, and much to my great surprise, both drums and pads are like new with minimal wear. No scoring, the wear is maybe about 10-15% on each, all shoes are wearing evenly and no cylinder leakage, no scoring. There was a small amount of brake residue in each so they are working fine I think.

The rubbing noise on the rears does not come and go when I spin as I would suspect were the drums out of round.

But - the noise is definitely from the rear brakes. I spun the axles and they turn freely with no noise at all, so that is good news. About all I can think of is to polish the very slight edge that is there from brake wear on the drums on the off chance that it is causing some slight rubbing against the side of the brake shoe.... I do not see any areas with the metal polished that would indicate rubbing though.

I pressed on the brakes and the cylinders move as would be expected Ideas? Thanks! RSVP ASAP as I would like to get my garage back! LOL.

Reply to
BSAKing
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I cleaned up the drums, knocked off all the rust, also the insides, shot penetrating oil on springs and also the shoe auto adjustment mechanism, backed it off so the drum would slide on easily - and noticed the same noise when I rotated the drum by hand. I pulled it off and tried it in several other positions with some difference in noise. So - I picked the one where it almost disappeared.

I put everything back together and took it for a spin. Everything auto adjusted nicely. Some initial noise when braking on rears as before, but not nearly the same. Now, with a short jaunt to crappy tire, it is totally gone and it stops like new with the new front brakes and the rears cleaned and adjusted.

I'll try it later. The noise decreased a lot before with use, but not like this. I'll see what it is like once it has been sitting for a bit.

For sure - there is noth> I have been experiencing rear brake noise that is there when I start

Reply to
BSAKing

99 caravan on this end, rear drums, damn things are noisy as hell when hitting the brakes going backwards. They look great, just noisy sumnafarginbitchinbastiches.

Dave

Reply to
spamTHISbrp

Rust?

Look at em after sitting for awhile.

Reply to
phaeton

just an update - I took the beast out today and all is good. As someone else noted - a little more noisy when stopping in reverse, but much improved. Rolling forward - perfectly normal now.

I am not any sort of expert, but:

- knock the rust off the drums to get rid of ridges

- I also polished the slight lip from brake wear with a wire brush on a drill

- cleaned the pads and drums with brake cleaner

- backed off the auto adjust and cleaned the threads up

- shot penetrating oil on springs and threads (don't overdo it obvously)

- found the position of least noise for the drum positioning on the axle bolts.

This assumes all else is good - like drums, pads, no leaking, etc.

FWIW - this worked for me.

Reply to
BSAKing

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