1998 Dodge Grand Caravan from North America - Comments

Two transmissions.

3 recall repairs.

Fuel leaks.

Audio equipment failure.

All in 14 months.

This van is a nightmare and should be

recalled.

Dodge grand caravan left my family

stranded in downtown L.A. twice.

I will never buy another Dodge

product as long as I live.

The Crap-a-van as it came to be

known in our home set us back five

years, we do not even own it

anymore and we are still trying to

pay it off.

I'm 51 years old. I have have quite a few different variety of auto's new, used, and of different Manufacturers. I have owned and still own two of three Dodge Grand Caravans.

I started with a 1989, with only some of aging parts replaced. The transmission never failed and the 3.3 motor with ac never did, the van was sold with 155,000 miles and still kicking at trade time. I purchased a Ford 1996 Aerostar EXT at 95,000 miles, It was disaster. I then purchased a 1994 Grand Caravan Se used, with all the cars history included. I did have the transmission rebuilt even though it had not failed at 125,000 miles. I have replaced aging parts and it only stranded us once. It now has 167,000 miles and all systems are still running fine. Finally I purchased a 1998 Grand Caravan. It was purchased with 42,000 miles on the odometer. I have replaced the serpentine belt as it showed wear, and I replaced the tensioner even though the part did not fail. Otherwise only than the two recalls at 54,000 miles this Fully loaded LE 3.8 AWD van is fine.

I feel that all vehicles have their certain ailments at times, and some people will certainly disagree with me, but everyone has different problems and some have the same as others.

I believe that it all depends on how the vehicle is used and treated.

Some vehicles can withstand extreme conditions better than others. Constant high speeds and come to a dead stop and then stomp and go is hell on a vehicle.

Parts will wear and do fail, but more quickly under extreme conditions like towing and defering maintenace. Like I said drivers will get mad and will dislike how vehicles perform, but of this day and age everything is fast paced and we do a lot of dumb things, but simple maintenace is good as a apple a day.

Brian Cummings Ma.

Brian, I'm in total agreement with you. I just purchased a 96 carava, 3.3,w/3 spd auto. Top end of motor been rebuilt, new timing belt, waterpump. new transmission. My starting mileage, was 95,205. God I'm really aprehensive and wondering if I have made a critical mistake. time will tell. Circumstance's didn't alow for any pre-purchase reserch otherwise, I may have advoided this vehicle due to transmission failure reputation I have read all about. That said, from personal observation's, driver's do in fact bolt away hard from stops, and do what I call FA-18 carrier landings at red lite stops. They all seem to drive excessively hard, and fast. regarding the transmission problems associated with caravans, I suspect that vehicles taken in to these jiffy lube type centers, are possibly having small amounts of mercon type f or even dexron atf added, because these personel do check fluid levels and possibly add fluid's where they discover low levels. A lot of caravan owner's may not be aware that these particular transmissions require a unique atf+3 type of transmission fluid. Also, the service life of the filter and the atf is critical meaning, it is important to have this filter and atf+3 changed at regular interval's. It seems to be more relivant than in the old days when chrysler transmissions were of the tourqueflite 727 type. But even so, hard starts and stops can be a factor in these transmission issue's. When the lite changes to green, see how hard and fast most driver's bolt out from the standing stop. I lack sufficient evidence to support my theory here, but my research has discovered the criticalness of having only atf+3 used, changing the filter and fluid at 45,000 miles, and driving a little easier. Several owners with failled transmissions have ask'ed if there is any class action against chrysler regarding the 3 spd, and 4 spd transmission. the answer is negitive because even though there are a lot of failures, no evidence is showing that this particular problem is related to the manufacture. if there had been sufficient evidence, discovered by certain organization's that protect the intresst's of the driving public, it would have been produced by this time, and settled in a civil action. If any evidence demonstrated manufacture related failure's, it would be in chyrsler's best interrest to have corrected this by now. To date, nothing is showing in this regard. As a result, it is necessary to objectively look elsewhere as to why these failure's keep occuring, year after year. This is a special transmission that requires special care. I'ts not a performance vehicle, these caravans. These are my thoughts. I think it's necessary to look at the succsess rate of some caravan owner's, as apposed to the failure rate of other owner's and ill bet with the failure rate, there was hard driving, possibly the wrong atf added, and a lack of propper maintainance. These are my thoughts.

My last vehicle was 15 1/2 years old, 115,000 miles, and never cost me more than a hundred dollars in repair parts. It wasent a dodge caravan. a Ford F-150. Thank you.