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.

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 nothing wrong with the brakes that I can tell, it
may just be the brake compound on the pads is particularly aggressive.
Or maybe the auto adjust was sticking a bit? It was worth the $$$ and
time to have the brakes all done.

wrote:
> 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.

wrote:
> 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 nothing wrong with the brakes that I can tell, it
> may just be the brake compound on the pads is particularly aggressive.
> Or maybe the auto adjust was sticking a bit? It was worth the $$$ and
> time to have the brakes all done.
>
> wrote:
> > 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.

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

Rust?

Look at em after sitting for awhile.

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.