Too hot brakes?

2005 Grand Caravan, 3.3L, 80,000 miles. This van was a recent purchase and it did sit on the car lot for a while. It does not have 4 wheel disc brakes. I Recently changed the brake rotors and pads. The old discs were pulsating slightly and when I removed them the back sides of them were pitted and very rusty in spots. The local machine shop would not resurface them, they were to far gone. Everything went fine with the repair. I did install a new hardware kit and cleaned the guide pins and their holes and used silicone based brake grease. The new brakes run very hot. I don't know how hot is to hot but if you do some higher speed braking during a short trip you can smell that typical hot brake smell. To test if the brakes are not releasing properly I can park it in my driveway (it has a slight pitch) and facing in both directions it will roll freely when releasing brakes. It can also be pushed easily when on a flat surface in neutral. I jacked it up the other day and both front wheels spin easily with very little rubbing sounds or drag. So how hot is too hot? The alloy wheels can be very hot to the touch after a drive. But not too hot that you can't keep your hand on them.

My Saturn SL2 alloy wheels on the other hand (just did a brake job on it as well) barely get warm. I also did replace the calipers on it.

It sounds like you have a swelled rubber brake line that goes to the calipers.I had a voyager that I replaced the calipers trying to solve the hot brakes syndrome. New pads,and calipers, checked slides and same problem as yours. Finally took it in to a mechanic to look at, he found the rubber hoses were failing internally. No bulges or fluid showed on the outside of the line. The rubber gets old and breaks down internally making a partial obstruction inside. The brake pressure will let fluid thru but it has a heck of a time releasing the pressure back, with the blockage inside, and holds the caliper closed longer than needed.New hoses solved the heat problem.

In all my 36 years of doing my own brakes I never heard of that one until just recently in some other post. So it actually is a real problem. It would be a fairly easy fix. I'll see if I get any other suggestions but will look into the availability of the flexible brake lines in the mean time. Thanks.

In addition to the brake lines that grog11 mentioned, I would also check the rear drums. If they're not helping you stop it makes the front discs work harder and heat up more. Make sure the wheel cylinders aren't binding or locked up & the shoes are properly adjusted.

Everything appears to be working fine with the rear brakes.

I just replaced the front sway bar links tonight (the drivers side was rattling bad) and looked over the front brakes. Just how far back will the front brakes release? Just enough to make them rub slightly? And road vibration will make them release a bit more until you apply the brakes again?

After jacking up both wheels they spun easily. A little rubbing sound but they spun with little effort. After putting everything back together and taking a short drive I pulled in the driveway (very slight incline) and with the brakes applied hard I put it in neutral and released the brakes. It immediately started to roll backwards and picked up speed quickly. Other than the heat (and some smell) I just don't see the signs I'm used to seeing that point to what I would have considered sticking calipers. Or now maybe bad flexible lines.

I hate throwing money and it while taking my best guess. But sometimes it's necessary.