The saga continues. A lifetime power train warranty means nothing when your brake repair costs are approx. 200-400 dollars every 6 months. This vans brake system is not engineered for the proper braking of this vehicle.

Brakes are a safety issue and Chrysler/Fiat need to step up and come up with a solution to premature wear, calipers hanging up,rotor warping and brake shudder. To many families ride in these things to put their lives at risk from poor bake performance. Reimbursement to owners for excessive cost should be initiated too.

Brake job #7. The usual. Front bakes shot after 20,000 and now rears have seized in their calipers. The brake system on this van is such a POS. Add to that wheel bearing replacement about every 2nd brake job and the cost has become enough that I could have purchased another car. Recycled Campbell soups must make up the metallurgy of the Chrysler suspension system.

Have read on other forums that the problem is a defective brake proportioning valve that does not send enough brake fluid to rears and they seize. Meanwhile fronts are doing all the stopping so they wear quickly. Some REAL GOOD engineering! Not. Hey Chrysler, stand behind your product because you don't dare stand in front, you might get run over because of faulty brakes.

Oh and by the way using better pads and rotors doesn't help either when you dragging your brakes for thousands of miles. Does wonders for your gas mileage too.

Brake repair and rebuild #6. As previously stated the brakes on this vehicle wear excessively unless they are disassembled and serviced every change of season in my area. From winter to summer to back again the caliper sliders cease to function properly thus causing the pads to hang up and then warp the rotors. Driving around with brakes that smell on fire and the loss of mpg and vibrations in the steering from warped rotors has become a right of spring for me.

This latest episode started after taking a summer vacation and parking my car at the airport for 2 weeks without the e brake engaged. Got into van started it up and in trying to drive away the brakes acted like they were frozen. Driving home approximately a 2 hr. trip caused the warping to set in as every time I stepped on the brake on the way home the burning smell came back. Apparently I was dragging a brake the entire trip.

Poor design, engineering flaw. Changing pads, rotors or calipers to different type of material never seems to help cure the problem. Chrysler needs to step up and admit to this problem.

The brakes and rotors have been replaced three times. The first time was at 6,000+- miles, then again at about 26,000 miles and now again at about 50,000 miles. Apparently the are sticking, at least that is what the local dealer keeps telling me. When I ask why they don't fix it so they don't stick, they say that the replacement parts should take care of it. I have two other vehicles and have not had the need to replace brakes or rotors and they both have upwards of 100,000 miles on them. Most of the miles I drive are over the road, so there is not a lot of brake wear the should take place as evidenced by my other two vehicles (2012 Honda Odyssey and a 2006 Chrysler PT convertible).

Dodge needs to recall and replace the brakes and rotors on these vehicles with a quality product!

Fifth set of brakes on this van. Unless you have the caliper sliders taken apart and greased every 6 months, you will find yourself with brakes that grid, warp rotors and wear prematurely. This is a definite vehicle defect because FCA even issued a TSB about these crappy things way back when offering to pay for brake jobs before 24000 mi. and/or 36000 mi. Brakes on this thing have cost me well over $1500 since new. These vans need some sort of recall for this. No wonder Dodge is ending this vehicle this year.

This is the FIFTH - 5TH - CINCO -time my brakes will need replaced due to premature wear. This time its the front, with a slightly hard brake you can feel the pads hit the rotors. First time this occurred, which was less than 1 year into the NEW vehicle, I was told rotors were warped. All 4 rotors were too thin to turn, fought with Chrysler for warranty repair. Have been back to dealership EVERY YEAR for new brakes - either front or back. Last visit, Service Manager told me they came out with better pads, so problem should disappear. WRONG. I plan to post each of those Brake repair visits separately. Also, many other issues, but will post separately.

Front brakes caused shaking of the vehicle when braking downhill at the tender age of about 24,000 km (14,000 miles.) We were told by a Dodge mechanic that we were out of warranty, and that pads and rotors would likely have to be replaced entirely, but that we could persevere without any danger until it got much worse, e.g. if it happened every time we braked on level ground. We eventually got a letter from Chrysler recognizing this early failure and extending the warranty to 40,000 km or 2 years, but by this time we were outside the 2 years (though well under 40,000 km) and Chrysler said "you didn't get a brake diagnostic, just some mechanic's thoughts, and you're outside the 2 years." The ultimate insult is that if we had gotten the work done in the first place, Chrysler's letter says they would reimburse us. In other words, if we didn't think twice about spending the funds in the first place, they would be sending us a cheque. But we had to watch our money and wait... so now they feel they owe us nothing. There is no way rotors should be failing at 24,000 km, so we'll be taking this a step further with Chrysler.

Rear pads and rotors needed replacing at 34,000 km, but that's my next post...

Note: In the U.S., they wisely extended the warranty to 3 years, less a $100 deductible.

Had to replace pads and rotors at 36,000km ....problem started far before that. Warranty has been extended to three years in U.S., but only 2 years here in Canada. Although we were outside the 2 years, we only had 29,000km (18,000 miles) on it when we first called Chrysler on it. After we got the work done, I revisited the issue with Chrysler and they paid 50% as a goodwill gesture. Fair enough, I don't expect infinite brake life, so I'm satisfied. The takeaway is that if you're reasonable with them, you may get some results outside of the warranty period.

rear brakes failed at 34000 miles-had to be replaced. Factory recall of front brake-parts was completed on 9/20/10 and new front brakes were installad--allbrakes inspected. At service it was discovered that rear brake pads were all worn down and rotors damaged--so waiting was not an option--had to be replaced. Obviously--and attested by technicians--the original parts were faulty and extremely poor quality. Request reinbursement for parts and extention of warranty on the newly installed break system. Service provider: Douglas Jeep, venice, Fl.