Comments: 1-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46
This is the best sight I have found for the serpentine belt nightmare on the 2000 Dodge caravan. I have a 3.3 and had no problems until the bearing went out in the idler pulley. I replaced it with a new pulley from the dealer with the new bearing in it. That was at 85k and it must have been summer or luck because it went to 96k before the belt started coming off when you drove in puddles. Of course the dealers service departments were no service. After three belts and a new power steering pump pulley, tensioner, and two Saturdays under the van I now find out just how common this problem is. I am going to use the splash pan idea and the washers idea (which I already thought about doing) to continue to fight this. Hoping to keep this van for about 200k of course I am more than disappointed and understand the negative comments, but hey, seven yrs ago I did spend 5k less than for the Honda!
I made it to 203,000 before I lost my first serpentine belt on my 1997 Dodge Caravan. I didn't lose it. It shredded while I was teaching my 16 year old to drive and made a big thumping sound, scaring me and my son. When replacing the belt, my mechanic saw that it had a misaligned tensioner and replaced it also, not with a knockoff, but with a Dodge part.
Since then, it's come off 3 times. I'm taking him the link to these comments to see if any of them help. Avoiding puddles in Florida is, unfortunately, impossible. Same with avoiding driving in the rain. I'll have him check out all of the comments. It's extremely frustrating to him and me,
I have a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan, and my wife was going to a friend's house and it started raining, and ten minutes after she had left home, she said the van was hard to turn. The first thing I figured was that the serpentine belt had broken. She brought it back home, I put the belt back on, and the very next day she was on her to work it started raining and the belt came off again. My question is why won't Dodge address this issue? This is a serious problem with this vehicle.
Yes and Yes-- Damn Belt Comes out of Rainy Day, this is a Crime by Chrysler-- can you fight with it, well wait until Bush gets out of damn office then Fight with Dodge.
I have a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan and the belt jumped out any time it rained.
I solved the problem with a $2- package that I picked up from electrical department of a Hardware store OSH.
Here how I fixed it Cheap--
But you got to know how to do it, cheaters mechanic charges $600 but honest one chages $120
It takes a good 2-hours work.
You need to take the uppe serpentine pulley out and put this cover plate ON and screw it back.
Here how to Open the Upper serpentine pulley:
1. Go a Hardware store and in the electrical section there
is a "Round Metal Electrical Box Cover" for "Round
Electric Box-- get the one which is a very very little
bigger than the pully diameter.
Get the metal cover box", --Buy one.
2. There is a hole right middle of the Round Metal
Electrical Box Cover make the middle hole bigger little
bigger than the size of the Upper Pulley.
3. Unscrew the upper serpentine pulley and pull the middle
screw out-- but do not take the pulley out, or if comesup make sure you put the pulley first when you putting it back.
Now we are putting it back with Round Metal Cover:
1. On Middle Screw Put a washer first and then Round Metal
Electrical Cover then another washer and then put the
pulley the screw it back into the engine
2. Tight the middle screw with cover on sometimes screw is short get a longer one.
3. Put the "BELT BACK", this is a real hard to do, if you are a man with a little mussle it is not that bad, but if you are a woman forget about it; have some mechanic to do and and do not buy his argument.
Afterward make sure get a hose of water and leak it on the belt for 10 minutes while car is running to make sure it won't jump-out ever-- mine did not.
The end.
There is a new upper and lower pulley made buy "Good Year" it is $95 a set, check the google for this part, that is the best and more rliable solution change the upper and lower.
Good Luck..
We have a 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan with about 86k miles. We have only owned the car for 5 years and bought it at 50k miles. Our serpentine belt has come off twice in the rain stranding my wife and two small daughters at an intersection the first time, and the second time was just today when we loaned our car to a friend.
I doubt I will buy a Dodge again. Something this common that could potentially be this serious should be taken care of by a recall.
We have a Dodge Caravan 2000. Nov. 2007 our mechanic replaced the serpentine belt, March 2008 (after 4 months)it came off and left my wife stranded, good thing our daughter was not with her. I took it to the garage, they cleaned and put them back. The next day it came off again, so I just put them back on myself. My wife is too afraid to drive it ever since, so we're planning to replace it soon and NEVER TO BUY DODGE ANYMORE.
I own a 2000 Dodge Caravan. In the 5 years of owing it I had to replace the Tensioner Pulley 3 times. And plus the 5 Serpentine Belts it has chewed up during these troubled times. Also I live in a part of Canada where the snow fall does get extreme and when I "run" into a snow drift the Serpentine Belt would kick off. I called Dodge and they're aware of the problem. All they recommended for me to do is to purchase a snow shield (A round circular piece of metal that is attached to the Tensioner Pulley, its about a 1/4 higher in diameter then the Tensioner Pulley). This solution did help me when my van encountered snow drifts, but the van still goes through Tensioner Pulleys like an old man goes through Depends under garments! (LOL)
I own a 2000 Dodge Caravan. On one occasion the serpentine belt came off. I put the belt back on and had no problems until recently when I had the transmission rebuilt.
After 1 week of driving and 350 miles, I heard a loud squealing and smelled burning. I stopped the van, looked under the hood and noticed wear on the serpentine belt (top of the belt on the engine side). Called a mechanic; when he came to tow the van the problem had stopped and the van ran fine. He removed the belt and checked all the pulleys and they all worked fine. He replaced the belt, and no problems till now now. I am getting a humm from the air conditioning compressor and have developed a tick in the engine. Any ideas or suggestions?
We didn't have any troubles with the serpentine belt on our 2000 Caravan until the first time we replaced it. The mechanic told us that we needed to replace the tensioner, so we did. That was about three years ago. Since then, we have had the belt slip off five times, always driving through water that accumulates on a right curb in a rainstorm, and once snow on the curb.
The last time this happened (yesterday), the tow truck driver said he makes a pretty good living towing Chrysler/Dodge minivans in the rain.
Reading over these comments (very useful) I am beginning to believe it is an pulley alignment/bearing problem, since we had so many miles before with no problem whatsoever. Yeah, we have had two more tensioners, but never had the pulley alignment/bearings looked at.
It is about time for a new timing belt. That sounds to me like an excellent time to get the whole serpentine pulley system looked at.
Just purchased a new tensioner for my 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan 3.8l engine. I even read the insert that came with the tensioner and found something very informative. Here are some comments quoted from the insert.
"Dayco automatic belt tensioner Model 251 fits Dodge/Chrysler 3.3L and 3.8L 1990-2000 cars and vans. The Dayco aftermarket tensioner has been improved over the faulty original OE designs in several ways.
First, the Dayco tensioner utilizes a superior flat spring over the inferior round spring. In addition this flat spring is coated to resist rust and operates concentrically, providing a more even degree of constant tension throughout the motion of the tensioner.
Secondly, the tensioner was designed with an enclosed case keeping contaminants out of the tensioner.
And finally, because this drive is infamous for throwing belts, Dayco's aftermarket engineers, with extensive research and testing, discovered that there were severe accessory misalignment issues with these vehicles. The fix Dayco initiated in the design for the ""belt jump"" was to bias the pulley relative to the arm just by a fraction of a degree in the correct direction. This eliminated the belt jump.
THE OE ROUNDWIRE DESIGN WAS DROPPED FROM THE NEWER DODGE AND CHRYSLERS AND THE DAYCO OE FLATSPRING WAS ADOPTED. THE DRIVE DESIGN OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF THIS ENGINE (2001 - CURRENT 3.3L AND 3.8L) WAS AWARDED TO THE DAYCO OE ORGANIZATION, UTILIZING THE SAME AFTERMARKET ENGINEERING IMPROVEMENTS THE AFTERMARKET ENGINEERS INITIATED IN THE AFTERMARKET TENSIONER, CORRECTING THE ROUNDWIRE TENSIONER OE DESIRN FLAWS. THIS NEW DAYCO OE DESIGNED DRIVE AND TENSIONER IS ONE OF DODGE/CHRYSLER'S LOWEST Warranty SYSTEMS."
Some auto parts stores still sell the old style open back tensioners so make sure you get the NEW design which corrects the problems in this forum. I haven't installed this unit yet but thought I would share this info with you.
I haven't seen any tensioner problems pop up after 2000 so this design must be working well.
I have a 2000 Grand Caravan. The belt has fallen off 2 times since I got it in August of of this year. I've already replaced the belt 2 times. One time I was driving with my 2 young children and the belt flew off, and I couldn't steer and I was on the Boulevard in Rome, NY and I had to get off of it somehow and I almost hit a cement pole. I just missed this pole by a inch.
I'm scared to drive this van anywhere, and it's my only transportation. I think Chrysler should have a recall on these vans. I've stuck almost $1000 in this van since August and it's only December.
Thank you all for these valuable comments. I just began getting this problem with the belt going off when it rains. This happened already twice in the last two months. I own a Grand Caravan 2000. I will try with my mechanic to change the tensioner and see if that works. Today I had not to use my car. It just does not make sense to me, and I am scared to keep driving this car.
I have a 2000 Grand Caravan, and replaced the tension pulley a couple of years ago, and got robbed in my opinion, and paid over 200 bucks for it.
Exactly 4 months ago, the serpentine belt slipped off when I went through a huge puddle on the BQE in Brooklyn, NY (anyone who's driven on the BQE knows how it gets flooded out in a rainstorm). I had it replaced, the tensioner and all other pulleys were fine so I figured it was just time for a new belt, but here I am, 4 months to the day and the belt slipped off again, in another rainstorm, on the same damn highway!! I am going to be calling the regional manager at the Dodge dealership I bought the van from, since I bought it new and sent a ton of business their way with my family and friends, and we'll see where it gets me. This seems to be a major problem, and should seriously be recalled by the company!!
I am another victim of the serpentine belt. I never had a problem until my mechanic told me it was time to change the belt. Then after that it has squealed and whined. Then the other day I went thru a small puddle and the belt came off. I didn't know what a common problem it was until now my mechanic said that he had another van with the same problem that came in the same day. Oh well, the van has about 114k on it; going to drive it till it drops.
Can someone help me. I have a 2000 dodge caravan sport. The trouble is I press down the gas and van moves so slow until it actually gets into speed. I replaced fuel pump thinking it was that but still the same. Push throttle down van until gets into geared also has popping. Sound too. ReaLly need solution to problem. Help! Call 8018342088 ask for k.