1999 Dodge Grand Caravan SE from North America - Comments

The Gates kit absolutley works for this belt falling off crap. I bought it and it was the best $100 that I ever spent. No more belt falling off for me. I love my van once again. The way I look at it is... you can either install the gates kit and be happy, or pay the tow truck driver and be right back to sqare one messing around with the belt. I highly recommend that gates kit to anyone who owns one of these delightful vehicles. I would not let my wife drive through snow or puddles prior to installing the Gates kit. Now, I have assurance that she is protected in all types of weather. THANKYOU GATES engineers for designing a real solution, and putting and end to this nightmare!

My 98 with the 3.0 eats the belts I will try to change the tensioner, I used to have the belt throwing problem, but my local mech contacted a dodge dealer and got me a 12$ guard that bolted on the tensioner it acts as a wall to prevent slipping off the idler no more throwing belts just eating them they start at the bottom rear engine pully and shread from there.

I have a 98 Caravan 3.3L. It has only thrown its belt three times and had it's tensioner pulley replaced once. But it always seem to happen when the weather is bad. It's no fun trying to fix this in freezing rain. Chrysler, why don't you avoid the coming class action lawsuit and either;

1) Issue a recall and pay for all our documented repairs or

2) Just come out a say it. Your Caravans are not to be driven in wet weather. See how that effects your sales.

I will not be buying another Dodge again, and I'll also warn everybody I know about their poor reliability, and reluctance to admit and/or deal with consumer problems.

16th Feb 2008, 21:41 wrote "my local mech contacted a dodge dealer and got me a 12$ guard that bolted on the tensioner"

Do you know the part number? Dodge dealer near by does not know about the part.

I purchased the Gates retrofit kit from RockAuto.com. It arrived promptly ($116) & my local mechanic installed it for $116. He had previously replaced the tensioner, which froze up, AND put the slipped belt back on 3 times! He agrees this retrofit kit is really slick. So far (1 week) it's been great. We're just going into Spring in the Chicago area and I certainly have some piece of mind with my wife driving our Grand Caravan.

If only Chrysler would own up to their design failures (this and the rusting drivers' side strut tower). I am a life-long Chrysler owner and have just about had enough of them not standing by their products.

Can you list the part name, description, or number? "Gates retrofit kit" doesn't seem to get me anything specific at AutoRock.com or the Gates website.

I have a 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan 3.0 liter. In the course of 2-3 years I had the tensioner replaced twice and the serpentine belt come off 5 or 6 times. I had the Gates system installed in mid-2006 and have had no problems since. This includes our current winter in Wisconsin with record snowfalls.

The two gates retrofit kit part numbers are 38342K (3.0L) and 38379K (3.3/3.8L). These kits are for 1996-2000 model years.

Hope this helps.

I have a 2001 Dodge Caravan. Every morning I drive my kids to the bus stop. When its rains or has rained over night, my power steering locks up. I couldn't figure it out because when it was nice outside the van ran fine. After reading this site it all makes sense to me... dodge caravans just suck. I can't wait to get rid of this van. They should have ' DON'T DRIVE WHEN ITS WET OUTSIDE' in their manual.

I own a 1999 Caravan and have been experiencing the same problem as the other 219 Caravan owners posted before this posting. I can't count the number of times I had to replace the belt, or have had to put it back on, usually causing great inconvenience to me and my wife. It had to be towed once from a busy interstate with the belt broken and the water pump busted. Just a few weeks ago it shredded the belt, causing strands of the belt to get tangled around the power steering pump, making it burn up. This problem has cost us dearly, both money and time. I guess I will have to shell out several more hundred dollars to get the kit, so hopefully this problem will vanish. I say all of these things as a testimony against this problem with the Caravan. Don't just look at my posting, look at the hundreds of others that write the same thing. This is a definite safety issue, concerning the power steering going out while driving, especially since this usually happens while the roads are wet. One more thing concerning my 1999 Caravan. Last year I had the clock spring replaced on the steering wheel due to a recall. The airbag light was staying on, the horn would not work, and the cruise control would not work either. I searched the net and found out about the recall, my local dealership fixed the problem no charge.

Got the chirping noise, and had the belt slip off many times, on my '98 voyager.

I hear lots of talk about class action, but what's the best place to complain officially so something actually might happen? If it's been mentioned already in the 200 posts before me, the URL probably bears mentioning again and again so complaints are actually heard.

I own 2000 Great Caravan. It started to have the same problem half year ago. I replaced 4 belts so far with all different kinds of brands. Now I am about to replace the tensioner. It is out of alighment. But after I read all the posts here, I felt that this might not be the solution at all. I am going to try the retrofit kit somebody mentioned above. I am so shocked this is the common problem. It is even more unbelievable that Chrysler ignores this very serious safety issue. I think the only way to wake them up is to go through the class action.

I have a '97 Caravan. The serpentine belt began falling off after the water pump was replaced. This was about 2 yrs ago. Since that time, the belt has fallen off 4 times. It was replaced once and the tensioner was replaced once. It came off again 2 days ago and the car needed to be towed since the distance to drive to a service station was too far and the battery may have died. While it sat at the service station waiting once more for a belt replacement, the belt was sliced by pulley, I started looking on the net for advice. Thank goodness I stumbled upon this forum and the advice here. I contacted a NAPA part store who distributes Gates parts and ordered the car fix kit. It was a little pricey but to fix this belt falling off, whenever the rain falls, is worth it. The part came overnight and I had my mechanic install it today. He will let others know about this fix too. He hadn't known until I brought him the fix it kit from Gates. Thanks everyone. I'll post again later to let you know how it goes with the fix.

I have a 97 Grand Caravan. I am experiencing a chirping noise coming somewhere from the passenger side where all the pulleys are. It goes chirp chirp chirp constantly, and does it faster when you step on the accelerator. I replaced the idler pulley. That didn't fix it. Any other ideas?

We have a 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan with all of the above mentioned problems. We have replaced the belt about 10 times in the last 1 1/2 years. Had the vehicle towed numerous times and had many "near-miss" accidents when the belt falls off! We have replaced the tensioner and been told to replace splash pan underneath. We will try the Gates Kit--hopefully this will work. Thanks for all the information--thought it was just a fluke we had all these problems.