Kevin,
Welcome to the list. Unless they changed the design, what happens is this.
The entire caliper floats on two pins. When the piston applies pressure
(through the pad of course) to the rotor, the opposite side of the caliper
applies pressure due to the backpressure of the piston (from the brake
fluid) pushing against the caliper from it's side. Hope this helps.
Rich - Ashburn, VA
-----Original Message-----
From: Davidson, Kevin [mailto:ked@iti-oh.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 12:59 PM
To: 'dakota-truck@buffnet.net'
Subject: DML: front brakes and rotor warpage - long one!
Hello all. I'm new to the DML, but I've perused the archived posts off and
on over
the past several years. Forgive me for the length of this post...
I decided to go ahead and join the DML in hopes of getting some feedback on
the Dakota's front brakes. I haven't had time to stay current with reading
the posts
for some time now, but I do remember a while back that a lot of people were
having problems with their front rotors warping. Forgive me if this topic
has been
rehashed or repeated.
I bought a 97 Dak cc, V6 5sp, brand new. I've been very satisfied with it,
except
for this brake problem. Here's a quick summary:
20k - Front rotors warped badly; entire truck shudders when braking. Took
to the dealer,
they machined the rotors and said "highway driving will do that".
!?!?!?!!!! This got me
off on the wrong foot...
40k - Front rotors warped badly again. I had read on the DML that a
solution to this
problem is to replace the Chrysler garbage rotors with plain old aftermarket
parts. So,
I personally replaced the front rotors with a set from napa.
60k (now) - Front rotors warped badly.
Ever since I drove the truck off the lot, the lug nuts have been installed
exclusively with
a proper torque wrench. I very rarely haul heavy loads or tow, and my
driving is about
75% highway, 25% city. I use engine braking when practical.
When I pulled the calipers off to replace the rotors at 40k, I was VERY
surprised at what
I saw. Now I don't claim to be an expert mechanic, but I have done brake
jobs on a handful
of cars before, and I've never seen anything like this before - and that is,
the outboard brake
pads are FIXED!! Every other brake system I've ever seen is designed such
that the rotor
is sandwiched between the inboard and outboard pads, which can both move and
squeeze
the rotor from both sides. NOT ON THE DAKOTA. The outboard pad is fixed,
and is not
free to move at all. I might be out in left field, but to me it looks like
one of the following
happens in this brake design:
(a) The inboard pad pushes out against the rotor, and the rotor BENDS
slightly outward from
the applied force, until it comes into contact with the outboard pad. The
rotor warps from the
constant flexing (as the rotor turns, the location of deflection movies
circumferentially)
...or...
(b) The inboard pad pushes out against the rotor, and the fixed outboard
pad just sits there
and does absolutely nothing. The rotor warps from intense heat and pressure
applied to only
the inside of the rotor.
In either case, it looks to me like the front brakes on this truck are
essentially ONE PAD per
wheel, and that the rotors are bound to warp due to this setup. When I
replaced the rotors on
my truck at 40k, the pads had plenty of meat left on them - but the outboard
pads had
considerably less wear than the inboard pads. This tells me that a
combination of (a) and (b)
above probably defines what happens when we press the brake pedal.
Now - I'd like to know, how many people have had rotor warpage problems?
Again, forgive
me if this topic has been driven into the ground already.
The reason I want to know this, is that I sent a complaint to
DaimlerChrysler about this,
and they replied by saying "there has been little complaint from customers
about the Dakota
brakes..." (I'll send my complaint and DC's answer in a seperate post).
My point is that we should all let DC know of this problem. I'm sure they
know it's there, but
they aren't going to do a thing about it unless we let them know we don't
like it. Will they
change the design? Doubt it, not just because of us anyways. But it can't
hurt to give
them some feedback. One way to give them feedback is at the following
address. In my
opinion, everyone who's had this problem needs to let them know about it.
http://www.dcanswers.com/contact/
Please let me know how many of you have had this problem, and also let me
know what you
think of the brake design and my description/concerns.
Thanks
Kevin
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