'93 villager help

[aNeaNa]

Our villager has over 250,000 miles and is generally old and tired. Unfortunately for it, we are still coaxing it along. We know it will need new timing belts soon, but cannot afford them yet as the quote was $800. In fact, we are thinking of just driving it till it dies, since we recently purchased another supposedly more reliable Ford Taurus (2000). Well the Taurus has given us a problem recently, so we put more miles on the old van.

Now the van is putting out small amounts of smoke just over the left front tire. We also smell an acrid burning smell while driving. Plus the ride is not as smooth as normal, but when going 40-55ish is has a methodic jerking each time the tire rotates (so it seems). Then we thought maybe it was too hot since we have had radiator leaks (used stop leak), so we put some more water in the resevoir and let it cool down for 45 minutes, then continued our way home. After filling up the water, the breaks were spongy (soft and then hard) but still worked. It seems like maybe there was a bubble in the line for a bit, but now the brakes seem normal. Also there is a noise when coming to a complete stop that sounds like a groan. Then it does it for 1-2 seconds when starting back up from a complete stop.

Do you have any idea what is wrong? Should we still be driving it? We really have no choice right now, short of a taxi, but do want to be safe. Also, we are very short on funds, so any work to be done we would like to try to do ourselves, but have limited tools and no access to a garage. WWYD?

[steamplant]

I would jack up the van remove the wheel and inspect the brakes. It could be that you brake caliper is siezed or needs pads or the wheel bearing has issues.

[aNeaNa]

Yeah, we need a jack. Thanks for the input.