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I drive a 2000 Dodge Caravan that has 260,000 hard driven miles on it.

Now it has had several thousand dollars worth of work done on it to keep it on the road but let's be realistic-260,000 miles here.

It just went into the dealer for it's first alternator-pretty good eh? 258,000 miles on the first one.

Well,there were some seals leaking and I knew the front pads had to be replaced and after alot of extra work,the bill ballooned to just over two grand.

Well,got it back and low and beholda bolt washer failed on a crank pulley and that along with some added other work, added another three hundred dollars of repair to the van.

Company paid for it-but I did'nt like that it had to be done but....IT HAD TO BE DONE.

Drove it two weeks and the brakes started sqealing like crazy-I mean terrible.

I was sure that the dealership did'nt do the front brake job but I knew that the rear shoes were brand new.

Anyway,I also knew this van had a tendency to have brake squeal when the rear drums filled up with brake dust.

So,today,I lifted the van up on four jack stands, cleaned and inspected everything and was very happy to see that,indeed,the dealership had done the work they billed us for.

AND-the simple act of cleaning all the brake dust out of the rivet holes in the rear shoes and all over the drums and the brake assemblies returned the brakes to quiet perfection.

So,if you just had a brake job done a month ago and the brakes start squealing like they are metal to metal,don't panic or get all upset,either do the work yourself or go back to where you had the work done and ask them if they could clean the front disks and rear drums out of brake dust.

That may be all that needs to be done.

(This applies to those cars,trucks or vans that have front disc and rear DRUM brake assemblies.

I don't think that those vehicles that have front and rear disc assemblies would have the same problem.

Disc brake assemblies are usually self cleaning due to the design,drum brakes being totally enclosed,and because disc pad brake material is usually bonded-not glued to it's mounting piece of metal.

But some do have rivets.)