ABS Control Unit

Tiny
MIKEOBI
  • MEMBER
  • 2002 DODGE CARAVAN
  • 6 CYL
  • FWD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 80,000 MILES
Recently, I replaced the rotors, pads, and E-Brake shoes on my wife's 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan. I had no issues and I compressed the calipers as I have always done on the 5 or 6 cars I have ever done brakes on. About a week after the job, my wife's calipers locked up as she was driving down the road and they started to smoke. I drove out to meet her after she had finally been able to pull off the highway and could smell brake dust like crazy. Not only are the rotors blue in a couple spots now, the pads may well be smoked. I understand all that but here is my issue:
I have taken it to 2 different repair shops to get it looked at and they are both telling me 2 different things and I need a mediator:

Repair Shop #1: It is possible that the Calipers are bad and they need to be replaced. The pads and rotors are definitely bad. They only appear to be bad on the front according to them so they want to charge $368 for that job.

Repair Shop #2: After a Diagnostics test, they got an error code 22 (Internal Failure) from the ABS Electronic Control Unit. He also says that three out of 4 brake sets are bad and he wants to replace the ABS Control Unit, the Hydraulic Control Unit, the Master Cylinder (Just in Case), all 4 sets of rotors, pads, and calipers, and also all the fluid in the Brake System. Total Cost: $2200. I only owe $4,000 on the damn car!

My question is: Is it possible that my compression of the calipers during repair may have caused the internal failure code that the one shop got? If so, would a complete Brake Fluid flush fix the issue? I am really apprehensive about plunking down a load of money on all this which seems to be just drumming up business for these shops. If I need to replace the calipers, rotors, and pads because I screwed up, I understand, but 2 Grand? Thats alot of cash to put out.
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 AT 6:22 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
RACEFAN966
  • MECHANIC
  • 5,029 POSTS
Ok if you colapse these caliper on newer cars with abs you must open the bleeder screw to allow the old fluid to leave the caliper instead of pushing all that old fluid with all the debri through the system including he abs hydrolic control unit. So what I would first is flush and bleed the system and then see how it reacts before replaceing any parts. Also you can do this yourself and get the hydrolic control unit from a wrecking or salvage yard. Let me know what you find and we will take it from there.
Was this
answer
helpful?
Yes
No
Thursday, February 25th, 2021 AT 8:21 AM

Please login or register to post a reply.

Sponsored links