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Comments
Jeff
He said that Chrysler says it is not a safety or emissions problem, so they won't fix it for free. I got the car back saying they had flashed the BCM meaning they had reprogrammed it, but there was no charge! Hooray, but wait, its not fixed! The locks quit working yesterday!!!! You'd think that after paying megabucks for a very well equipped car, at least the door locks would work as advertised.
Last Saturday, I removed the instrument cluster. To remove the cluster, I had to remove a connector from a socket more or less in the middle of a printed circuit board (PCB) on the back of the instrument cluster. Inside this socket there were pins (at least nine). The solder joints that connect the pins to the PCB circuitry are on the "back" of the PCB. With the naked eye, I could not see any problems with the solder joints around the pins. However, using a strong magnifying glass, I could see small cracks in the solder around the pins. I re-soldered all the joints around the pins, and put the cluster back in the van. The van has been starting flawlessly ever since!!!
THANK YOU to the folks who posted the information about this fix. I have no idea how somebody found the problem with the solder joints on the PCB, but I am certainly glad they did.
#2-3 At 15K miles, took in on three consecutive days for great deal of trouble starting vehicle. After visit 3, they said there was a "bad cell" in the battery. Car failed to start when I picked it up.
#4 Left it there from visit #3. No problem found. Dealer told me that the problem was that I didn't know how to start my vehicle.
#5: Engine malfunction light comes on and starts flashing while on the highway. Car sputters and shakes. Towed to dealer who said "Cam and Crank sensor."
#5 A week later: same light comes on; car sputters. Drive to dealer. "Evap filter. Changed EGR valve."
#7 A week later, en route home from Thanksgiving, same light comes on on highway; car sputtering. Towed to dealer 5.5 hours from my home. Rent a car to get home. Call "Customer Service" who declines my request for a buyback, rental reimbursement or to get my vehicle back to me. I pay someone $1000 to drive the rental car back 5.5 hours and bring my car home. Dealer said "Crank and Cam shaft."
#8 The guy I hire gets 100 miles into the return trip and the same light comes on and car sputters. He drives it to a dealer, now 3.5 hours from home. The car has now been there 5 days and they have no clue what's wrong with it. At this point, Customer Service opens a file and refers me to a case manager.
Case manager does nothing. Get a different one who tells me she will then she won't give me an equivalent rental car and cover my expenses. The dealer has no idea what's wrong with it. He called Chrysler, who told him to check the transmission--which he had already done. No clue how long the dealer will keep looking before calling the "field advisor." After pressing the Case Manager, she decided to escalate the matter to the Regional Manager who has authorization for a buyback. But my state, Michigan, very unhelpfully gutted most of the lemon law, suggesting that the best I'd do on a buyback offer isn't very good. And mean while, my car remains 3.5 hours away and I have a tiny, inadequate Neon --a loaner from the dealer so my paid driver could get home. If anyone has any ideas, I'd really appreciate it.
Be careful with this one; if it is an alternator, the van could strand you alongside the road somewhere when the last of its juice is squeezed out.
Al
ssatl@videotron.ca
the fuse box underneath the hood. The wiring harness that plugs into the
fuse box was extremely corroded and needed to be cleaned. I had a local
mechanic find it out and fix it ($130 well spent) He said he cleaned the
connections and put dye electric grease on it to prevent corrosion again. I
think he had to take off the fuse bux to get at the wiring harness... I hope
this solves your problem also.
Matt
We live outside of town and our closest repair place won't even look at it since we're having to mess with the main fuse box. In the winter we need the lights 24hours/day here in interior AK so I don't really like having to turn on the interior lights to see how fast I'm going! Any help is greatly appreciated! [not sure if this is relevant but it has 159K on it]
Was there ever a fix?
Thanks,
GVieth
1. Little lights that illuminate the buttons are burning out, first just the rightmost, now half of the lights are burned out.
2. I can adjust the blower zone (i.e. vent, floor, windshield), and the lights move around the dial, but physically, it's stuck on vent. So even though the dial indicator lights that surround the dial show it on "windshield" for instance, it will still blow 100% to the front vents. Blower intensity level (low to high) works fine, however.
3. I press the A/C button (snowflake) and it does not kick on the AC compressor at all. But the rear defrost button does indeed activate the rear defrost.
I am under the impression that there is some greater electrical problem at the root of these issues. My radio/GPS unit is messed up.. left audio channel only gives of a high-pitch ringing noise. It used to be intermittent, but now it's pretty much stuck, leaving me to move the balance all the way to the right so that I don't deafen my family.
Any tips? Maybe just unplug and reseat all of the fuses?
Thanks for ANY help you can offer. Honestly, if I can't get these fixed for a reasonable price, I just won't buy another Chrysler, ever. You don't blow a huge wad of cash on a mini-van to have it electrically crap out after less than 3 years.
My guess (I'm not a mechanic) is that it could still be the alternator. Last fall I had a '98 model year car that quit running and I had to get it towed. Anything electrical barely worked or not at all.
The shop tested the charging system and the alternator didn't indicate any problem with it. As the original owner I knew the nearly 10 year old alternator was probably ready to be replaced soon.
The shop charged the battery, I drove it home, replaced the alternator and everything was fine after that.
A loose ground or corroded connection has been the cause of electrical surges in some other threads.
When key is on run or acc mode, all systems (radio, fan motor, wipers)
work. as soon as you start vehicle, they all shut down.
Charging system running at 14. volts, No codes in computer, Switched acc system relay..No change.
Anybody have this happen to them?
Trying to help out a friend with their Caravan and though I've been a tech for 23 years. I'm failing miserably on this one.
Tony