Brake and antilock lights come on (92 Caravan)

[waltham41]

We just got this vehicle ( 92 Caravan 3.3L auto) and I am going over it to make sure it is as safe as I can get it.

One of the things I am worried about is the fact that while driving if you press the brake pedal quickly as soon as the pedal starts to depress the brake and antilock lights flash and as the pedal depresses on down they go away and you can feel a shudder type feeling in the brake pedal that I assume is the antilock working.

If you press the brake pedal slowly the lights do not come on. The brakes work fine this way also.

I have checked the fluid level and looked at the pads and shoes and things look ok for a used vehicle with normal wear and tear. No leaks in the brake system.

Any thoughts?

[waltham41]

test

[oneeyeguy]

Originally Posted by waltham41

We just got this vehicle ( 92 Caravan 3.3L auto) and I am going over it to make sure it is as safe as I can get it.

One of the things I am worried about is the fact that while driving if you press the brake pedal quickly as soon as the pedal starts to depress the brake and antilock lights flash and as the pedal depresses on down they go away and you can feel a shudder type feeling in the brake pedal that I assume is the antilock working.

If you press the brake pedal slowly the lights do not come on. The brakes work fine this way also.

I have checked the fluid level and looked at the pads and shoes and things look ok for a used vehicle with normal wear and tear. No leaks in the brake system.

Any thoughts?

according to what I have read if your ABS light comes on.. followed by your brake light then coming on... this is to tell you there is a problem in the ABS and that there has been a error code recorded that must be retrived to determine the problem to be corrected ...take it to someone who can retrieve the code and you will know the source of your problem..good luck

[oneeyeguy]

Originally Posted by oneeyeguy

according to what I have read if your ABS light comes on.. followed by your brake light then coming on... this is to tell you there is a problem in the ABS and that there has been a error code recorded that must be retrived to determine the problem to be corrected ...take it to someone who can retrieve the code and you will know the source of your problem..good luck

well actually the book says ..If the ABS light comes on and is followed by the" brake light coming on and remaining on, means that there is an ABS problem and the code has been recorded and needs to be retrieved to determine the problem... the way I read your post you brake light isnt staying on ....so I am not sure if this will be your solution or not...

[waltham41]

Originally Posted by oneeyeguy

well actually the book says ..If the ABS light comes on and is followed by the" brake light coming on and remaining on, means that there is an ABS problem and the code has been recorded and needs to be retrieved to determine the problem... the way I read your post you brake light isnt staying on ....so I am not sure if this will be your solution or not...

I could understand it if the lights stayed on, but they just quickly flash if you press on the pedal quickly, and do not show at all if you press slowly. Go figure. The brakes work fine including the ABS as far as I can tell

Thanks for the post though

[jwalker1970]

If your caravan has a unitized master cylinder/ anti-lock brake controller, there's not much short of spending $1000 at the dealership to get a new one. In 91 and 92's equipped with this system, they have had massive problems.

What happens it that the master cylinder begins to leak past the seals, indicating poor brake pressure to the ABS system which activates the ABS light, and alot of time the ABS pump on every hard braking situation.

Our local Dodge dealer was replacing/rebuilding these units up to 100,000 miles and 5 years old at no charge.

With any other normal vehicle you could simply replace the master cylinder. This one you need to replace the assembly. Unfortunately there's not many 92 caravans worth $1000 in ABS repair.

[waltham41]

Originally Posted by jwalker1970

If your caravan has a unitized master cylinder/ anti-lock brake controller, there's not much short of spending $1000 at the dealership to get a new one. In 91 and 92's equipped with this system, they have had massive problems.

What happens it that the master cylinder begins to leak past the seals, indicating poor brake pressure to the ABS system which activates the ABS light, and alot of time the ABS pump on every hard braking situation.

Our local Dodge dealer was replacing/rebuilding these units up to 100,000 miles and 5 years old at no charge.

With any other normal vehicle you could simply replace the master cylinder. This one you need to replace the assembly. Unfortunately there's not many 92 caravans worth $1000 in ABS repair.

Is this a dealer only item or could I get it cheaper at an automotive store such as Autozone? $1000 is about what we payed for the vehicle itself!

[HiRez_L]

$19 at autozone:

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...7C%7EEA%7C%7EB

[waltham41]

Here it is a year later, and the dealership finally got the unitized electric abs/mastercylinder unit in and got it put in under recall warranty. They were very nice about it, I no longer have the lights comming on, and wow the brakes work so much better!

Other than taking so long to get the part, (a little over a year) I have to say thank you to Dodge for putting a part on the vehicle that is worth almost what the vehicle is worth, at no cost to me !!!

[Stevo2]

Originally Posted by waltham41

Here it is a year later, and the dealership finally got the unitized electric abs/mastercylinder unit in and got it put in under recall warranty. They were very nice about it, I no longer have the lights comming on, and wow the brakes work so much better!

Other than taking so long to get the part, (a little over a year) I have to say thank you to Dodge for putting a part on the vehicle that is worth almost what the vehicle is worth, at no cost to me !!!

I sent you a PM...I would like to know what the Recall number is for this problem. Thx-Stevo

[waltham41]

Stevo, I sent you an IM with the info, good luck for your friend.

[Hoody]

I have the same deal with this 92 T&C I got from a guy also for 1000 bucks, the van is in real good shape other than the ABS and break light deal, only on mine the ABS lights stay on all the time, and the red break light only comes on when stopped and depressing the break peddle, it doesn't come on when driving and using the breaks.

I also went to the local Dealer, and they are also ordering the parts and will also fix it FREE, even though the van has over 147K milage. The guy at the service desk said that chrysler has the recall on these for LIFE of the vechicle, and it doesn't sem to matter if your the 1st owner or the 5th. Pretty cool of Chrysler to do that. My parts were orderd a couple weeks ago, I hope i don't have to wait a year though haha.

[waltham41]

My brakes worked fine for about 70 miles and now the pedal is going all of the way to the floor now and when you first turn the vehicle on you hear the pump run forever before it stops. Also the ABS light is back on. I called the Dodge dealer and they said to bring it back monday and they will take a look at it again (sigh)

[Hoody]

damn. maybe the guy that worked on it didn't do a good job, or the parts they used were also defective, man... well I guess this kind of thing can happen. All I want it to get mine fixed and see myself.

I like this old 92 T&C its nice other than these break deals.

I had a 88 caravan new from 88 to a couple weeks ago when it got stole and messed up the trans, I got it back and took it to the junk yard, got 125 for it so I figure i only gave 875 for this 92 T&C, for that I can wait for the parts, if its not any better I can always get 800

[Hoody]

BTW waltham did you have a problem with your rear break lights staying on when you had this problem? My van also seems to want to keep the rear break lights on when I stop and turn off the van, I have to re depress the peddle again to get them to turn off, I'm wondering if this is caused by this ABS deal too, maybe due to some preassure in the line, I don just thinkin. One guy on another site said there was a switch behind the break arm, but i haven't seen it. Just wonder if you had the same kind of problem.