Links, Boots and Pins - Finding the Clunk (LONG)

[atomic_hoji]

On the Dodge Grand Caravan just assume it needs brakes, or at least front passenger side pads, every 6-8 months! For the good features like Stow N Go that I miss, there are some maintenance issues tyat make me genuinely glad to be rid of the damn thing.. lol

-- Adam

[06YarisRS]

Originally Posted by atomic_hoji

On the Dodge Grand Caravan just assume it needs brakes, or at least front passenger side pads, every 6-8 months! For the good features like Stow N Go that I miss, there are some maintenance issues tyat make me genuinely glad to be rid of the damn thing.. lol

-- Adam

Yeah, everything I read about brakes on the 4th gen. vans is that they are under engineered - aka, too small for the mass of the vehicle.

Our 2006 DGC was generally pretty relaible. I'd get decent brake pad life, but we live in a rural area. I literally have two stop signs between our place and work - and it's about a 15 minute drive. LOL. The one annual maintenance item - that shouldn't have been an annual maintenance item - was sway bar bushing replacement. Man, my van would eat them like candy. I tried so many different brands, including the updated OEM ones with the nylon liner. On the upside, I got pretty good at changing them out, often in under 15 minutes. All of that said, I would replace them at the very first and slightest indication that they were getting loose, clicking or ticking or anything. I think the design was flawed as the sway bar bushings would sit right in the beginning of the curve of the bar and the bar would twist slightly causing the inner bore of the bushing to go oblong.

I did quite a bit of routine maintenance on that van - all fluids - transmission drain and fill annually via the Dorman pan with a plug and a pan drop and new filter every 2 years (ATF+4 only), Coolant drain and fill annually, brake fluid annually, PSF annually, plugs about every 3 years, throttlebody cleaning annually etc.

When we traded it two years ago, we got $4500.00 toward our next used van - a 2011 Kia Sedona - as the 06 was mint (zero rust as I'd done an annual rustproofing with ATF and Fluid Film. The odometer read just over 330000 km at trade in time. We were quite pleased and honestly shocked. I sort of jokingly said I'd like to get $5K on trade-in. The van did have a major electronics upgrade with NAV, headrest DVD players etc.

What year and trim was your Grand Caravan?