Dodge caravan 1997 front passenger brake locked
You have one of three problems. 1) Dodge makes their caliper pistons out of phenolic material similar to what they make circuit boards out of instead of metal. Sometimes these will warp with age. Or 2) I first saw this in a Ford Pinto but it could happen in ANY brand and that is again, with age, the rubber covered plastic flex hose that connects the steel brake line to the caliper, (All cars have these so you can turn the front wheels without breaking the line.), as they get old with all the up and down and twisting motion that they go through, they begin to break down inside and swell shut. If this is your problem, when you step on the brake, you are pushing break fluid through the line at around 2100 pounds per square inch. when you let off the brake, there are NO return springs in a disk brake system, there is nothing to force the brake fluid back into the master cylinder. if this line is swelled shut, it acts like a one way valve and, if it is bad enough, it will lock your caliper down. 3) This one I don't think is likely in your case but I'm putting it in just in case for some reason your front brakes are working together at the same level. This happened to me in a 1973 Pontiac. I replaced the front pads and had the rotors turned. I put it all back together and drove it down the street. I stepped on the brakes and they both locked up. I jacked the car up right there on the street, one wheel at a time and spread the calipers apart with 2 screw drivers, put the wheels back on and backed up the street to my driveway, stepped on the pedal and they locked again. This car was no spring chicken at the time so I pulled it apart and swapped out the calipers for 2 rebuilt ones. I put them in, bled the system, took it on down the road, stepped on the brake and they locked again!!! Things that make you go HMMmm??? I called every brake shop in the county and no one had a clue as to what was wrong. I got to the last one in the yellow pages. Some little mom & pop shop. He said to look under the hood where the two lines come out of the master cylinder into a block where four lines go out to the four wheels. I forget what it was called but this is the the unit that allows more pressure to the front wheels and, in that car, it also has the switch that turn on the dummy light if there's a pressure imbalance, (Read a leak), He said, and I quote, "Give it a good whack with a hammer." I did and drove it another 45,000 miles that way. There's a valve in that block that if there's a leak in the front, it's supposed to swing forward and shut off the brake fluid as a temporary fix so you don't pump out all your fluid. If there was a leak my brakes would have released themselves. The "leak" in this case was when I bled the brakes. When I closed off the bleeder valves, there went the "leak" but the valve in the block didn't swing back to center. Not until I "Gave it a whack with a hammer." What I would do is put on a pair of safety glasses, (preferably goggles as the brake fluid will probably spray out.), open the bleeder valve on the stuck caliper. It looks something like a large grease fitting. CAREFULLY put a fairly large flat blade screw driver in the caliper on the INSIDE pad and CAREFULLY pry putting the pressure on the round disk. You are doing this and I'm stressing carefully so that if your brake pad isn't burned up, you don't crack or chip it. If your caliper is NOT locked, you will encounter some resistance and brake fluid will spray out. If this is the case, it is probably the rubber covered plastic hose that runs from the caliper to the metal line bracketed to the body on the inner fender. If you encounter a LOT of resistance, it is probably the caliper itself. If this is the case, it probably didn't just happen all of a sudden and your front pads have most likely have been dragging for quite a while. If this is so, your rotor will probably be a deep shade of tan, brown or blue. If this is the case, it would be wise to replace the caliper, pads and rotor as a set on that side. If it was mine, I would do both sides to keep the brakes in balance. Otherwise, in the long run, it could effect tire wear, brake wear and even wear and tear on such parts as tie rod ends, CV joints and front struts as you will have more stresses on the new side while the old side will be doing less of the work load not to mention that when stepping on the brake may cause it to pull to the new side although that usually happens more with front drum brakes rather than disk. In any case, good luck. Jeff M.