Well, I went to drive the Saturn to physical therapy yesterday morning and when I put the brakes on at the end of the driveway, they made a terrible screeching sound. My wife just about jumped out of the car. I told her it sounded like the rear brakes and that I'd check them out today. I figured I'd give my son a lesson on checking and replacing the brakes, so I started with the front pads. I showed him how to jack the car up, put it on jack stands and inspect the front pads. They were fine. I did notice that the boots on the outer tie rod ends are damaged. I'll replace them this weekend as I had to order them. I pulled the rear drums off and the shoes were about 1/16" thin. No wonder they were squealing. I purchased new shoes and hold down kits because the pins and springs were rusty. Don't need that! It's been so long since I replaced a pair of shoes on a car, that it took me an hour and a half to get it done. What a pain in the butt! But at least they're done now and I have great pedal in the car now. I told my son that unless he wants to go through all of that, he should get a car with four wheel discs when he gets a job and enough money saved up. I really prefer discs to drums and now I remember why.

 

Do you remember when discs first came out and there was a super premium charge on servicing them? I do.
Rear discs on almost anything about 20 min from the time a tool is picked up to having it done. Love'm. The emergency brake can be a bit iffy though. My Town and Country has a seperate drum section of the rear disc that uses little baby shoes to act as an emergency brake. My 1930 Model A Ford did too. Nothing new, eh?
I like the new ceramic brake pads. My T&C is heavy and for it's size the rotors are a tad small and stopping with Ceramic pads is a big difference. They last twice as long as Semi Metalllics but are a bit harder on the rotors. No brake dust. I like that part.
On my Chrysler the front Rotors are about $60.00 a piece but can get them to last through two sets of pads. The rear rotors are worn out using Ceramics but for some reason are only about $20 a piece. I watch for a sale on them and buy them cheap. I keep a complete set on the shelf.
But I do like the Ceramics.

 

What year is your T&C, uncljohn? I've got a 99 Grand Caravan with 183,000 miles on it. Just rolled that many today. I'm running the 3.3 V-6. I really like it because it has a timing chain and not a belt. You couldn't give me another 3.0. I had a couple of them and hated them. What a pain to work on. Mileage for the GC is around 23, so I'm not complaining, but the e-brake is a pain in the butt when it's time for a change, I agree. The SC is getting about 36 mpg right now. I'm digging it! I've got to replace the outer tie rod ends, but it's supposed to rain this weekend, so it'll have to wait a few days.

 

The TC is a 2007, the transmission were redesigned in 2002 according to source. Runs and shifts like a 700r4. Mine has a 3.3 a smidgeon short on power but if you wanna push it run premium it retunes itself and it runs hard. It gets 24 at freeway speeds fully loaded with both A/C running.
I bought it with 8000 miles on it Dec. 2007. It is just shy of 80,000 miles now.
My 96 had major electrical glitches and I bought that one used and put 3 transmissions in it before I gave up on it. This one I bought new. Stow and Go seats and timing chain. A Dodge 2.2 lost a timing belt at 80,000 miles. I really did not believe that they would go that soon. Damn engine would run forever with out a problem except for that belt. My mitsubishi 1.8 ran 270,000 with 16 valve 1.8. Great car except I put 3 timing belts in it. The last car I will ever buy with a timing belt. Period.
At 250,000 the Mitsu blew a head gasget, the oil line for the overhead cam blew out the side of the engine through the head gasket. Bought it new and it did not owe me a dime.
The Saturn? A chain drive. I have not pounded it, other than brakes, tires and a set of spark plugs and owned since 1996 (a 94) the only thing I have spent money on was cosmetics and the sun roof. It has about 110,000 miles on it. This is one car I still can not figure out why it was not successful. Other than my Mitsubishi which I drove the heck out of for almost nothing, this is probably the lowest maintanence car that I have ever owned and I have yet to figure out why I would want to get rid of it.
So? The clear coat is letting go. I guess that is my fault for not getting enough coats on it when I repainted it 3 years ago. Next year I wil repaint and clear coat it again I think and have the driver seat re-upholstered. Although it will have to wait until I get the Mercruiser engine installed in my Hornet Sportabout.

 

I've found the key to keeping the Mopar transmissions from failing is to run ONLY the Mopar ATF+4 fluid in them. Dexron with an additive will kill every one of them in time. I refused to let a transmission shop add fluid to a 94 New Yorker I had for that reason. He told me it wouldn't hurt it, but I noticed he had several Mopars in the parking lot. I paid him for reading the CVI's in mine and left. I can add my own fluid. And I've only had this Saturn for about a month now, but it's easy to work on and very economical. I don't see why they weren't successful either. I really don't need my GC anymore, so I'm thinking about selling it and buying a four door Saturn. I like these cars!

 

Had to get back into the passenger side brake shoes yesterday. I took the car to visit my 98 year old mother and when I got to a traffic light, I noticed a scrubbing sound coming from the back side of the car. So after I turned off the radio and got to the parking lot, I noticed it was fairly loud. Brought it home and let it cool off and after removing the drum, I noticed a shiny ring around the entire inner edge. Hmmmm, the shoe wasn't seated properly and was making contact. So, I took the springs and shoes loose, re-positioned them and put the wheel back on. I drove it about 20 feet and heard it again. So, once again I took it all apart and made sure that I had even spacing all around the outer edge and put the drum back on and spun the wheel. No noise. Put it all back together and put the tools away and tried it out. Viola! No more scrubbing and they stop just fine. I'll leave the radio off for the next day or so when I drive it and make sure that all is well. Tie rod ends will be the next job. Will I need to get an alignment after replacing them? I will mark when they are when I remove the old ones.

 

The joys of owning a car.

 

Especially one with almost 300,000 miles on it.

 

Yuh, you will need an alignment when you get done replacing the tie rod ends. Plan on it. It probably needed one before you replace the tie rod ends too.
I have rebuilt a lot of front ends and they always do.

 

Thanks, uncljohn. I had a feeling it would, but I like to find out from the guys who know.