2003 Dodge Grand Caravan SE from North America - Comments

I have owned a 95 Grand Caravan since 1998. I purchased it from the original owner.

I have had a great time with this vehicle. There was definitely a flaw with the paint job though. The paint gradually peeled off as years went by. There was a 6'',6'' patch missing when purchased that gradually grew. It is white and I must say I see a number of others on the road with the same problem. I have mistakenly tried to open one or two in parking lots. Anyway, it was a cosmetic thing and I couldn't care less about it. If I had purchased the car new the story would have been different.

Other than the routine repairs that occur over time, brakes, rotors, my repairs have only started to add up over the last year. Ignition box, fuel pump, radiator fan. But at 14 years old without a garage for storage, what do ya expect?

I have been very lucky and would not think twice about purchasing another. There are lemons in every car make. I owned a Dodge Dart with a slant 6 engine. I also owned a Plymouth with the same engine. You couldn't kill that engine if you tried! I know someone who did!

I am now looking to buy a 2001 or 2002 Caravan. This site has scared me, but I realize that the people who have had problems speak the loudest. There are plenty of happy Caravan owners who have no reason to complain so you don't hear from them. I just wanted to add a positive note here.

Just wanted to make a note on that last fellows comment. I agree that every auto manufacturer can have problems but there are many happy caravan owners. I have had 5 Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth mini vans and each one were great! Only one of them had the transmissions go on it. The rest were nice vehicles (old too!) that only really needed regular maintenance work. Caravans are a lot of fun to drive as well.

Thanks.

Rick.

I bought a 2002 Dodge Caravan a few years back from a dealership, and now there is a jerky motion in the front end. As when you are slowing down it jumps or jerks ahead. Feels like the front brakes are grabbing too quickly or it may be the transmissions.

Please let me know what you think it may be at langford1@hotmail.com

Thanks

Harvey.

I've had a Grand Caravan Sport 2002 since 2002. I bought it off the lot as a low km model with about 9000km on the clock. I have had virtually no problems with this van. The only odd thing is that I find I must put new front link kits on the vehicle every 70,000 km or so. I now have 210,000km on the vehicle and it runs fine and looks good.

I find it a great highway car and I get a little under 10 Liters per 100km when driven at 100km/hour.

I have question if anyone can help? I own a 2002 grand caravan and it will not start on the key, it will start however with the remote, and I was wondering if anyone else had this same problem? I have unplugged the remote under the dash and this has not helped.

I own a 2005 Grand Caravan SE that I bought brand new. It now has slightly over 96K miles on it (I used to drive 120 miles R/T a day for work for a little over year so my miles got racked up). When we bought the van we intentionally bought the 7 year/100K mile extended warranty knowing Dodge's track record on transmissions going at around 70 - 80K miles (just outside of the warranty period). I'm glad I did :)

Feb 08 (with around 80K miles on it) I took the car into the dealer because I was having MAJOR engine noises along with engine issues. When I turned the car on it made this horrible high pitched squealing/squeaking sound, like a cat was dying, when it was just idle. When I stopped (stop sign, red light, etc) and would then push the gas pedal, it would lurch forward and then all of a sudden accelerate way more than I was pushing on the gas pedal for it to do.

Dealer said there were several issues going on:

1) Transmission needed to be be rebuilt, they said that was the noises the engine was making. Transmission was rebuilt at no charge to me as it was under warranty.

2) Gas throttle was all gunked up and needed to be cleaned. They said that was what was causing the "lurching" issues. Had that done and it was not under warranty. Think that ran me around $300, give or take a $100, I don't remember exactly.

3) Water housing was cracked and needed to be replaced. Again not covered under warranty and ran me again around $300 give or take a $100.

4) Front brakes pads and rotors needed to be replaced. This was my second time in 2 years replacing them, BUT I am very hard on brakes as I normally stop short and know this, so this was not unusual that they needed replaced. That ran me around $400.

All in all it cost me around $1,000 for all repairs, BUT I didn't have an additional $3,000 for the transmission, so I was OK with all of it.

Fast forward to this past weekend. I took my van to Merchants Tire and Auto for new brakes, a new front passenger tire (it got replaced out of cycle b/c I bounced off a curb and got a slash in the tire) and a front end alignment. Merchant's called me back and said all 4 brakes needed new rotors/pads which was not surprising (I had them put on the ceramic pads). They also said that my drivers side outer tie rod needed replaced (which they did for $170) and that my passenger inner tie rod needed replaced BUT they thought that they couldn't replace just that part that the entire Rack & Pinion needed to be replaced (at the tune of $800 for parts/labor). I had them not do that as I wanted a second opinion (and estimate) for that work. I was already dropping $960 on the other repairs (tire, brakes and driver's tie rod) so they through in an oil change free of charge for me.

I am going to call the Chrysler service center to ask about the passenger side tie rod issue and see what they say about it. Our local Dodge dealer where I bought the van originally was one of the dealer's that got closed down with the bail-out deal.

Over all I have been very happy with my van and would probably buy another one EXCEPT Hyundai is now selling their minivan in the states (when I purchased in Dec 04 they weren't available here) and I had two other Hyundai sedans that were EXCELLENT repair free vehicles. So my next van will probably be a Hyundai.

I have also had the issue with the Driver's side power window getting "stuck" in the upper position, which I've never had fixed as I figure that'll run me $500 and it only happens when it is hot which for my area is only about 4 months of the year. It is only a problem if I want to go through a drive-through at a fast food place.

My 2002 Dodge Caravan Sport at 114,000 just broke down for transmission. As for brakes; being front wheel drive, it's standard for every year I think, even if you're not hard on them.

Also driver's window gets stuck in cold weather or damp; which is bad for drive thru and ATM's; otherwise I love it; good luck with yours; hope my transmission (a rebuilt one is under $2,000) which is also too much right now.