04 Grand Caravan complete shut down

bhigg

I have an 04 grand caravan sxt 3.8 v6, and while driving, will intermittently shut down. engine shuts off, gauges will "max out", and all power is lost. no power window/lights/door locks, no electrical power to anything. I removed battery tray 2 days ago and cleaned the ground wire attached to inner fender, and replaced the battery temperature sensor in the bottom of battery tray. Problem fixed for two days. today, shut down and won't restart. ant ideas are appreciated

Mr_Shiftright

With intermittent problems like this, the only surefire way to get anywhere and not waste time and money is to be ready to diagnose things the instant the car does the bad thing it does. So once the car dies, you'd have to be ready with a spark tester and a fuel pressure gauge to determine which of the two vital things---spark or fuel--have given up the ghost temporarily. A third handy tool would be a NOID light, which tells you if the injectors are receiving a pulse to open. That might lead you to a bad crankshaft or camshaft sensor. None of these tools are very expensive, perhaps $15-$20 apiece at most for a basic non-professional grade tool.

You might scan for stored codes to see if the car's computer can give you any hints as well. Such a condition as you describe can be caused by many many things, so throwing parts at it can get very expensive.

bhigg

it has no power to anything. loses all electrical, dash computer/EVERYTHING is dead!!!!! battery still has 13.5 volts with new clean terminal connectors. I am totally at a loss as to what to do next.