12th Dec 2008, 17:41

I bought a 96 Town & Country LXI from a dealership last October 2008.

At a glance it looks nice, although it has 184000 miles on it already.

I had my niece drive it home and asked her how was it, and she said it was fine. When I drove it myself I started to discover a lot of problems, such as the power steering pump was leaking, struts were shot, it pulls to the left, the emergency brake doesn't work, it makes a lot of noise when it hits a bump as if the front is going to separate, and lastly, although I noticed it already when I bought it, is that the "check engine" light was on.

I said to myself "that is what you get when buying a used vehicle, the headache comes with it".

With a little knowledge of everything and most of all patience, I was able to fix all of the above.

Now it running fine except for one thing, that the noise coming from the rear left wheel hub w/c really is very annoying, especially at high speeds. I've searched on the web for the price of this part, but it's too much for me considering the time and effort to replace it. So if anyone out there who can help me find a good and reasonable deal on this, please do so. I guess as of now this is the only part that I need so I can tell myself that this is not a bad vehicle after all.

8th Feb 2009, 07:39

To the poster a couple posts back with the van cutting off in the rain. I had the exact same problem in my 91 Grand Caravan. The solution was to change the spark plug leads. They had worn down and rain would make them short circuit. Cost me a lot to figure that one out.

My 98 T&C LXI is driving me nuts. The electrical system has problems the dimmer switch won't work the inside lights stay at one level. Yesterday I got the van all loaded up went to turn the key and nothing, taking the key out the van started to ding, so I tried jiggling the key. After about 10 min of trying the power came on and the van started. However the clock was reset and the rear wiper lights with the recirculating and air conditioner lights were flashing. They did this for about 20 min. Now every time I have started the car they flash for 20 min.

I have loved Chrysler/Dodge in the past, but I might be getting a Honda to get away from these little problems.

18th Feb 2009, 09:37

My 1996 Chrysler Town & County has 109,000 miles on it and it has been in our family since driven new off the showroom. The most serious repairs under 70,000 miles included broken brake parts. Between 70,000 and 107,000 miles the major repairs included fixing leaking brake fluid and replacing the air conditioning motor.

Since 107,000 miles, the main problem that has occurred on two occasions is that the "service engine soon" light comes on. The local Chrysler dealership has charged me in excess of $650.00 to install a sensor that regulates/monitors fuel flow and/or fuel-air mixture. I was told that unless faulty parts were replaced that I would experience drastic reduction in miles per gallon performance as well as rough engine. The parts replaced at 107,000 miles were billed as EL ELECTRICAL 922 C ($204.26 net) and 4287189AB VALVE-EXHAUST GAS RECIRCU ($189.61 net).

At 109,000 miles the "service engine soon" light went on and the dealership charged me $52.00 to say that the van needs 2 sensor parts # 4686154 to correct the problem. With labor the bill will come to over $350.00, minus the $52.00 diagnosis fee. Again, I am warned that unless I authorize these repairs I will experience, "drastic reduction in miles per gallon performance as well as rough engine".

Questions: Would I be better off to simply place some black duct tape over the "service engine soon" warning light? In the comments above, nobody else has talked about problems with fuel/exhaust sensors. I monitor my gallons per mile and see no serious reduction. (There was no rough engine or unusual poor gas per mile performance when the first "problem" developed over the sensor issue.) The engine starts regularly and runs smoothly. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated. wajrej@chartermi.net (Subject: sensors)

20th Mar 2009, 19:45

Have a 1996 Town and Country that has been pretty good to me. The problem now is that the square light that goes around the park and neutral symbols will not go there. The light will go into every other gear symbol. But because the light will not go into park and neutral, the computer will not let the car start. Mechanic has it right now and cannot figure it out. By the time he does it might cost more than the car is worth. Has 120000 miles, never replaced the tranny. Anybody ever have a similar problem?

3rd Apr 2009, 10:50

I have a 96 Plymouth Grand Voyager. Only defrost works, I replaced the dash control, no change. It's an electronic heater box not vacum operated. Any ideas? ThanX.

20th Jun 2009, 09:17

I have a 1996 Chrysler Town and Country, and it runs good. My mom drove it until we bought her a 2004 Buick Rendezvous, which I think is a pain. The 1996 T&C is a good van. Right now I've got 141,000 miles on it and it runs strong. The problems we had since we owned it were something electronic. You didn't see what gear you were in and it said it had 14 miles. Now after running strong all these years, I love it, I just need shocks or struts in the front end, but other than that, lots of cargo.

31st Aug 2009, 02:24

I just bought a 1996 T & C with 320k miles! It has had the tranny replaced only once at 170k miles. Runs and drives good, but last owner changed the tranny fluid over to canola oil at 286k miles. I don't like that at all.

The head gasket is leaking by the waterpump, and the A/C doesn't work. These are great vans if you just maintain them, and 320k miles just goes to show that...

4th Nov 2009, 14:01

Anyone ever have a 96 3.3 that cuts out for no apparent reason? Sometimes stalls, sometimes drops to idle then jumps, it's driving me nuts.

13th Nov 2009, 01:17

Hey All.

I have a 1996 Chrysler T&C LXi. My husband and I just purchased it from a private party a few weeks back.

We are running into the same problem as described above. It has just out of nowhere died for no reason while driving. It first happened when I was with my toddler, and I was able to pull over two lanes and get on the sidewalk away from traffic. A few minutes later it restarted, then died again about 5 minutes later.

A few days went by, and all seemed to be fine until it did it again. My husband is baffled by what it could be. The battery was recently replaced, as well as a reconditioned tranny earlier in the year. I don't know much about why a van would just die, but then restart, but I need some help! We don't have the money to take to get it analyzed by the dealership. Does any one have any idea as to what is wrong so that we can check it out??? Thanks.