2008 Town & Country Brake Issue, Opinions Welcome

[mwilson]

Good Morning.

Looking for input here, wonder if I am overlooking something..

Background....2008 Chrysler Town and Country, 90,000 miles. Owned since it was a year old with 16,000 miles on the clock. Brakes are prone to issues by nature with frequent pad, rotor and caliper replacements made worse due to the use of road treatment chemicals here. Plus the 5th Gen vans from 2008 thru 2012 have the worst brake system on the planet. Not big enough.

Complaint...Wife calls yesterday to inform me that she "Lost the brakes on it!"....After making sure all was well I got the story.
She was coming up a mile long private drive (dirt road) and when she braked while pulling up to the dwelling the brake pedal went soft and the Traction Control Disabled light came on. She is fairly good about observing these things and assures me that was the only idiot light on at that time.

Later that day she left to drive the thing home if it was fit for it once she got to the tar road. Voila, the brake pedal came back and all seems well. Checked for both regular and ABS codes when I got home and nothing, clean as a whistle.

Master cylinder is full, no leaks that I could see with a flashlight in the dark

Thinking master cylinder, or possibly faulty ABS control module. I asked her repeatedly if there was some pedal left and she thought there was just a little so that sounds to me like the front brake circuit in the master cylinder may be bad. Can't quite figure the light out yet unless the wheel speed sensors sensed some actuation (and speed loss) to the rear wheels and nothing changing in the front??

Opinions please. I want to deal with this tomorrow and I'm thinking master cylinder.

Thanks in advance.
Mike.

 

[jhenderson]

I'm with you on the master. I've had them bypass with light pressure while holding with a hard stab. I'd grab a beverage and sit in the driveway with very light pressure and see if something shows itself. .

 

[B.G. Smith]

Might have a leak on front or rear system and shuttle valve shut off fluid to that end. If you have some loose dirt road nearyou try panic stop and see if brakes are working on both ends. bge

 

[Bob4x4]

As a rule our abs does not play nice in the dirt,I always disable mine before playing off road.I would start by trying to recreate the exact conditions your wife had before throwing any parts at it.Any conditions that the abs controller interprets as normal will not leave any dtc's

 

[Wayne M.]

I'm with bob. Trade her hoopty and drive it yourself. You'll see stuff on the road you may not get in the driveway.

 

[jgillott]

Side question, where is the abs pump located in that van?

 

[mwilson]

First off, Thanks to all for your responses. I really appreciate it.

Wife and I were discussing the brakes again this morning so that all the details got on the table.

This private drive is steep as far as the last 1/8 mile goes. They recently hosted a wedding for friends so some potholes were filled with fresh gravel for appearances sake.

When that nugget of info was laid on me I said "Eureka!"....."Did the traction control light come on when you were climbing that last bit of road?"..."And you didn't put the brakes on until you got to the house?" Yes and Yes.

So I think there was an air bubble in the ABS pump that moved when the traction control sensed wheel slippage which activated the pump. It has had several caliper replacements and I bet I didn't get the ABS purged properly. Brakes are still rock solid this morning.

 

[TFucili]

Self repairing problems are the best kind.

 

[mwilson]

Side question, where is the abs pump located in that van?

Below the master cylinder I think. Will look later for you.

 

[The patriot]

My wife's 08 T&C had terrible brakes.
In addition to this, she tends to drive the car like its a rental. I quite literally did pads every 10K miles.
(If you can see it's a red light a mile away, why are you hammering right up to it?)
The 12 we currently have is entirely different in this dept. She still somehow managed to warp the he** out of the front rotors (never use the parking brake so they dont get adjusted, so... the front is doing 100% of the work)