NSR....but van shares a garage with the scoot?...and bikes?

[Iahawk]

Had a maintenance day with my minivan. Ever since I'd replaced the rear shocks, about 8 months ago, I've been having a clunking noise coming from the back end. When I did the shocks I also dropped the spare tire carrier to clean and lube everything...so the new noise could have come from a few different places? I couldn't pinpoint the source of the noise and even my good independent shop couldn't. They were stumped. They thought it was coming from the brakes..

So today I replaced the shocks, again. ($30 each so not a big deal). I also replaced the original rotors and pads in the rear on my 2014 Caravan with 112K.
Fronts are still original with over 50% of the pads left.

The shocks were easy, 2 bolts each. Done in less than an hour. I found the source of the noise. It was coming from the left rear shock. It seemed the first inch of travel in the shock was undamped...so any small bump made a clunking noise. Big bumps didn't and when I carried a heavy load of mulch in the back it must have compressed the shocks enough to eliminate the noise.

The brakes took a long time. Mostly it was the cleaning and rust removal on the caliper brackets. I must have filed on them for an hour each to get down to clean metal. If I'd have known I'd be spending that much time cleaning them I would have just bought new caliper brackets to save me time. I also had to make sure the hubs were spotless and then covered in a thin layer of anti sieze before the rotors went on.

So new shocks, new rotors and new pads. Everything  cleaned up and anti siezed where necessary. I also cleaned the inside of my wheels and ceramic coated them while they were off the van.

I am sore all over and hoping a few beers will ease my pain this evening. This job would have cost around $600 USD at my shop...I figure I saved almost $500 USD by doing it myself. I also know that I did a much more thorough job than the shop would have.

Sort of scooter related because it was after working on my scooters and motorcycles that I realized working on my car wasn't much more difficult and would save me $ and give me a lot of job satisfaction.  Attached a few pics. (van, new shock and caliper bracket)

[Iahawk]

few more pics...my mess, the new, coated rotors (helps with the rust we get) and wheel pic

[Stig / Major Tom]

few more pics...my mess, the new, coated rotors (helps with the rust we get) and wheel pic

New to me!
So the rotors will never wear down?
A different feel to the brake pedal?

I'm impressed, Hawk.
The closer I get to joining the Octogenarian Club - the less I feel like crawling around on the garage floor!
Stig

[Iahawk]

Stig, those are coated rotors, the coating wore off where the pads contact the rotor during the first use. Helps with slowing down the rust. Pedal feels the same but the dang clunking is finally gone!! Frustrating to have a noise that is abnormal and not be able to find the cause. Didn't clunk over big bumps, just over little ones and expansion joints in the road.

I was a whole lot sorer than I had anticipated...my back was screaming at me.

Also funny how on cars for most of my life the front brakes wore out much faster than the rears...but on many newer cars the rears will wear out first. I don't ever anticipate replacing my front brakes on the Caravan...they'll probably outlast me.