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Chrysler Town and Country EX/LX/LXi/Limited
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Comments
The Grand Caravan looks similar to earlier Caravan/Grand Caravan but the GC SXT with Stow-N-Go grille does not dip into the bumper as it does on earlier Caravan/Grand Caravan or 2005 Caravans and Grand Caravan SE.
LWB 2005 Town & Country and Grand Caravan SXT models are made in Canada while the Caravan, GC SE, and SWB Town & Country (Voyager) are made in Fenton, Missouri.
DC minivans are still the most attractive minivans closely followed by the Odyssey. Quest and Eurovans are the ugliest with others falling in between. The Sienna and Odyssey will probably have the best long term reliability and resale value.
Is your town still a military town? If so, do you see many military families with minivans? What is the most popular minivan in your area?
Columbus is a large military town. Fort Benning is the second largest Army base we have, so yes, there is a large military presence. I would not say that Columbus is a mini van town, though. The "macho" soldiers seem to prefer SUVs. If I had to guess, I'd say the Dodge line is the most popular in Columbus, followed by the Chrysler models and the Chevy Venture. Considering that the DC vans are the best selling vans in the country and that Columbus is the home of Bill Heard Chevrolet (the largest volume Chevy dealer in the US), this does not surprise me at all.
The '02-'04 Toyota Camry has had a lot of criticism for putting the Toyota badge on top of the grille, and the 2005 Camry will address it and move it more to the center.
Also, if anyone knows how to get the brakes to stop squealing, the dealership says it is "brake dust" or normal because they don't use asbestos in the brakes so metal on metal, but they squeal really loud and it is frustrating.
thanks for any help.
I've taken it to the dealer several times:
1st time the drain hose was cleaned out, this did nothing.
2nd time the drain hose was replaced with a longer hose according to the TSB on this vehicle. This fix was done late in the summer. This seemed to help for a while, but the next summer, the leaking had returned.
3rd time the dealer spent 2-3 days trying to get the vehicle to leak--they let the vehicle idle with the A/C on high. This did not cause the leak to appear. My theory is that the leak only occurs when the vehicle is in motion and the water is draining back against the body of the vehicle and not just dropping straight to the ground. The dealer wasn't interested in my theories and thought I was wasting his tech's time trying to find a leak. He even suggested that the water was the result of one of my kids spilling a glass of water!
Post 566 from this discussion may be the answer to what is happening here, does anyone know if the faulty units that grh7 referred to in post 556 were used in the manufacture of the 2001 T&C? Anyone else have any other advise on what to look for/do next?
Thx.
I live in Atlanta so heat is the main thing that could impact battery life. Both batteries devloped some sort of internal fault and would not take any charging current. Is this a common problem with MOPAR batteries or does it have to do with the T&C's electrical system? Anybody ever had Chryeler reimburse them under the 60 month pro-rated battery warranty for purchasing a non-MOPAR battery when it left them standed?
We took the van home and the next time we used it, one or two days later, the van would not start at the grocery store, we got it to the dealer and talked to another rep and this time the battery did not check out and they replaced it. Don't settle for a rep that knows nothing and doesn't want to help and blames the customer for whatever happens.
2001 as it has an in service date of October 2001.If one was to look at early verisions of the 3.8 liter engine for 2002, it looks to be silver in color with "3.8" etched into block. The later versions of the 3.8 liter for model year 2002 have a black color "3.8" engine block.These are the same engines with 215 horsepower. Does anyone know the reason for the change? Just curious. And does anyone feel a hard shift from 1st into 2nd gear at around 10 miles per hour?
I was unsuccessful in getting my Chrysler dealer to do anything for my battery failure. Even though it failed in only 19 months of service, the dealer said I was not covered by the battery’s 60 month pro-rated warranty because they had installed it as a replacement under my new vehicle warranty. If I had BOUGHT it from them, they said I’d be covered by the battery warranty. Since I’m over 36k miles, my vehicle warranty is done and I have no coverage. So needless to say, they did nothing for me. The dealer rep said they “don’t make batteries like they used to” and these failures are common in the Georgia heat. I consider 2 breakdowns in less than 3 years for a failed battery to be unacceptable and am very disappointed in Chrysler’s acceptance of any accountability on this. My neighbor’s Odyssey’s are not having this problem in the same driving conditions. I only hope my new $89 Diehard battery does better. I would steer clear of any MOPAR batteries.
Now at 70,000 miles I get a whirring noise from under the hood upon shutting the engine off. Anyone know what that could be and the fix? I have also been waiting 6 months for replacement front seat heaters as they are inoperative. Finally, I replaced the Michelin tires with Goodyear Assurances....best tire ever!
Looking at the options for the 04', it appears all that was added was: 1) Wiring Harness (no biggy can add), 2) Full Size Spare (Have that), but the next 2 items 3) High Capacity Engine Cooling and 4) Load Leveler/Self Leveing are not as easy.
Has anyone retrofitted a Non-Tow Prep to get it to the 3800 Tow Limit, up from the 1500-2000 # limit without the Tow Prep?
Can it be added at the Chrysler Dealer?
I checked and Monroe makes some Air-Shocks to help with Towing, just not sure what it would do to the ride.
Engine Cooling, do the Tow Prep have the same Radiator and does it include a Transcooler or Engine Oil Cooler.
Any advice would be appreciated. For the $400 bucks extra, not sure why they just don't throw it all in.
I will call tomorrow and confirm this with the parts department.
I did speak to a Parts Dept that was Open on Monday and he said the Radiator is the same for ALL 04' T&C regardless of Tow Prep, suggesting there is ONLY 1, so an upgrade Radiator is not required.
Self-Leveling Shocks maybe needed, but they are $400 each. So I may opt for some Monroe AirShocks, if needed, and manual raise the Rear if needed.
Alternator on Tow Prep may be 10 AMPs more, but I am not sure powering a couple more lights and Electric Brakes are going to push the T&C Over a 150 AMP Limit.
Anyone Tow a 3800 Load with a Tow Prep or Non-Tow Prep T&C.
Honda and Toyota are smarter to keep the same names long enough for consumers to know where each trim level fits into the pricing structure.
In Chrysler (and Dodge) minivans case, it appears when they went to the 2005 designs with Sto and Go on some models, they wanted to simplify somewhat the available models, and provide more standard packages, so they changed the naming conventions. For instance, one example I know of, I believe in either 2003 or 2004 they introduced the SXT package of options available on the SE Dodge minivans. Thus you had SE's and also SE-SXT's. for 2005 instead, now they just have the SXT as a separate model with it's own standard included options, separate from the SE model. They tried to make it a bit less confusing than the past. But yes, it does cause a bit of confusion when comparing adjacent model years.
I don't change vehicles often enough to worry myself about these minor issues anyways.
Originally, the Caravan was just Caravan, Caravan SE, and Caravan LE. The Town & Country was a luxury minivan but now the name has been watered down so the SWB T&C is a lesser vehicle than the Caravan SXT and the SWB T&C does not even offer a tachometer as an option.
Why drop LXi and call the mid-range model the "Touring"?
Most Hondas are LX or EX while most Toyotas are CE, LE, or XLE which is much more sensible.
Originally, the Caravan was just Caravan, Caravan SE, and Caravan LE. The Town & Country was a luxury minivan but now the name has been watered down so the SWB T&C is a lesser vehicle than the Caravan SXT and the SWB T&C does not even offer a tachometer as an option.
Why drop LXi and call the mid-range model the "Touring"?
Most Hondas are LX or EX while most Toyotas are CE, LE, or XLE which is much more sensible.
This is 2X that which I can get at a local Trailer Hitch store.
As I called about my Warranty they said this was the sure-est way to insure Warranty is not effected, as it would be a Mopar Part.
I may just have them install the Trans-cooler, as the Hitch as nothing to do with making the under-lying vehicle 3800# capable.
Any thoughts?
Still my point is, does it really matter? Also, doesn't Toyota have a whole bundle of different option packages for their three models? Myabe Honda too, though I haven't perused their offerings.
In the end, you really have to closely look at the options list of any minivan on the lot to determine what it has. You cannot just look at the letters on the back of the van. The letters on the back mean nothing to me.
Steve, Host
Whine was from bearing in A/C compressor which had an extended warantee of 70,000/7 years costing me nothing. Replacement eliminated mystery whine that only appeared when pulling off highway after a couple of hours at 65-70 mph.
Two other dealers in two other states never even considered the A/C and since the sound went away after five minutes I just got the "what problem?" routine.
The shutter from the steering under the same condition was air in the fluid and therefore caused cavitation in the pump when it got hot. Was told the fluid was also burned and that it should be flushed every 30,000. I challenged that with the fact that nothing in the literature received with the van called for such maintainence. I agreed however since I had observed once that the fluid appeared to be percolating in the reservoir. They were right. They flushed out the system and replaced the fluid with ATF trany fluid. No more shutter. It was worth the $98 cost.
Put on 4,500 miles in two weeks after these services. Noise free I'm happy to report. And I thought it was trany whine. Duh.
This van now has 64,000 miles on it in just about 3 years and this is the first repair required. Judging by all the problems people report I must have gotten an exceptional vehicle.
Thanks to all those who provided input for me.
Steve, Host
Steve, Host
A few months I started hearing horrible squeaking noises around the dashboard. After a quick examination I saw that the dash had separated from the A-pillar on the driver side only. I had the dealer fix it but its still squeaking everytime I go over a bump on the road. Placing prssure on some of the dash fixes the problem but not entirely. I'll be taking it back to the dealer for another repair. Any ideas why it could still be squeaking. I have a feeling the dealer won't do anything but in my opinion the dash should be removed and replaced to fix the problem.
In 2003, the Limited had all the items standard on the LXi plus Supplemental side-impact driver and front passenger Air Bags, Luxury floor mats, Driver's seat memory for power seat, suede inserts in leather seats, heat front seats, 8 way power driver's and passenger seats, security alarm, traction control, in dash 6 disc CD changer, tire pressure monitoring system, 16 inch chrome wheels.
One could add options to the LXi and make it almost as loaded as the standard Limited.
What is happening is the condensate drip tube is to short to allow the water to drain away from the floor pan. What happens, the water will run back into the firewall and cause the floor to be wet along with rusting out the rear air refrigerant lines.
All I did was cut a piece of 5/8" I.D. clear vinyl tubing and forced in over the existing condensate tube.
Works great!
I have taken it in 5 times. Currently they have had my car for coming on three weeks and still cannot find the problem. They are paying for my rental however.
Finally I told the service manager that if he can not fix it I would like Chrysler to remedy the problem with a buy back. They called me back and said that they would consider giving me top dollar on my car and an amazing deal on the 2005.
I don't know if this is legit or am I getting suckered into buying a new car. We looked at the new T & C and were impressed with the new stow away seats but it would not be my first choice.
Any advice would be appreciated as to what my options are. The problem started when the car was under it's warranty and has been in again 6 times with out any hope of having it corrected. I am in California and the dealership is in Cerritos. Thank you again for any advice both legally and those with past experiences like mine.