Dodge Grand Caravan :: 2003 - While Driving At About 60 Mph Car Suddenly Drop To 40 Mph Then Shoot Right Back Up
Jun 26, 2013
I have a 2003 dodge grand caravan with about 111,000 miles on it. Overall it has been a reliable car. In the past month we had to replace the ECM because the computer died on the car. Now, very intermittently, while driving at about 60 mph the car will suddenly drop to 40 mph then shoot right back to where it was at 60. This only happens for about a second and then its fine.
Its quite startling but it has only happened to us 3 times in the past two weeks, so its very hard to replicate. There are no engine codes and it seems like the tachometer does not change during this sudden drop, although to be honest I wasn't paying that close attention to it when it happened.
Could it be related to the recent ECM replacement? The dealer "reprogrammed" the computer so I'm assuming all parts electrically have been checked.
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Recently I have noticed that when on a tune other than stock I am getting a surge at idle - my RPMs drop to around 621-630 then shoot back up to 660-675. On my stock tune my RPMs stay around 640-667 and don't cause the surge (felt as a shimmy so to speak). Is there anything else that causes a similar symptom? I attribute it to tuning due to it only happening when running anything but stock but could be wrong.
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1st problem is shifting from 1st to 2nd and sometimes from 2nd to 3rd though, 2nd to 3rd is not as bad as from 1st to 2nd. It stumbles and gets really bad if I don't let up on the gas. After the initial shudder it will go into 2nd just fine. I also have to gun the gas a little bit when I first start the car, or it will just sit there and idle and never go into gear.
2nd and more annoying is that it stalls after driving around a bit. It happens on freeway or city. It doesn't stutter or anything the rpm's drop to 0 and it just stalls and won't start up for a 5 - 10 minutes or so.
Codes pulled are P0731, & P0736. The transmission was replaced about 2 years ago with a refurbished one. Could it be going out again already? The guy at Autozone suggested replacing the TSS (Transmission Speed Sensor?) to see if that was the problem. I have not done this yet, but plan to.
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I have a 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan and while I was driving it stopped on me. It will turn on but once you put it in gear it will turn off and wont turn back on. I have replaced the fuel filter and fuel pump.
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I did a tune up on my 3.3L Dodge Grand Caravan only to find the engine is vibrating heavily. This tune up included a new coil pack, plugs and wires.
I did happen to notice a separate thing when looking at the Crankshaft Pulley that it seemed to be wobbling while the engine was running.
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1990 Dodge Grand Caravan, 3.3L
Three weeks ago, I had the starter rebuilt locally by a shop I've used confidently for years, most of their business is rebuilds like this. Besides a substantial coating of oil on the starter which was no benefit to the contacts, the tech also found a broken insulator which presumably was the primary issue. I installed the starter and have had no problems since (three weeks).
Yesterday morning, the battery was dead - no click, no lights, no horn. I could be wrong, but I don't think the interior lights were left on overnight.
I put my 1 amp trickle charger on it for several hours and when I reconnected the battery, the horn sounded right, interior lights looked good....until I tried the starter. In an instant, I got the chattering clicky sound of a starter with inadequate power , then nothing, and the lights and horn were gone too.
After charging overnight -almost 24 hours now, that same scenario has repeated: first good horn and lights, then clicks from the starter, then very weak lights and horn.
Is this simply that the battery is down and needs more charge? Or could there be something wrong in the starter causing this rapid discharge? A few months ago the same electrical shop load tested the battery and it was surprisingly good considering its age. I don't want to put a new battery in the car if the starter is somehow damaging the battery. I do have another battery I can swap in, but for the same reason I'm reluctant to install that without some better idea of what's happening.
Does this point conclusively to the starter? Or is this clearly the battery? Is there some way to diagnose the starter without removing it? I'm sure the shop would fix any mistake, but I don't want to pull the starter again for no reason. The cable connector on the starter looks normal.
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Drivers side not bowing hot air? We changed the blower motor and the resister on the passenger side. We hadn't tried to use the heat until last night when we needed the defrost and that's when we realized only heat on passenger side.
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So the other day I was driving to my storage locker about 30 miles away. All of a sudden my rpms would shoot up to 2000 rpms then back down to 1500 . Slowly they would go up higher every time. On my way back I was about 2 miles away and I lost 3rd and 4th a presume. I would be going 20-25 and it felt like it would be shifting up to third but would shift down to 2nd running 3500 rpms. I had to go 20 the rest of the time. Finally I got home and realized my dipstick tube wasn't in the tranny and must have lost oil. So I got it back in and added more. Thought it was the filter and oil so dropped the pan and replaced it. Still nothing.
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I have a 1993 Dodge Grand Caravan. I found a small leak in my fuel rail. Can I buy a repair kit for this or do I need to find a new fuel rail? If so where to find a rail for a van this old?
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My 2003 Dodge Caravan is shutting off while I am driving, starts up ok but goes a little and then shuts off, has to cool down all day and night to go about three miles, got a diagnostics done and it says I need an engine wiring harness and controller. My question is, is there a curtain part of the harness or wiring that could be bad that causes it to shut off, and what part would that be, can it be repaired instead of replacing the whole harness and wires?
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My van has quit me finally. It only has 98,000 original miles on it. Right now the car really smells like it is loading up and not properly burning fuel. Also a huge amount of white smoke is coming from the exhaust pipe. The oil pressure is good. could it be as simple as new plugs and plug wires, coil pack etc.
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My wife has been driving our 98 Dodge Grand Caravan the last couple of days and while she is driving the Tachometer and Speedometer will drop to 0. This does not affect the performance of the engine or anything else. Runs and drives "perfect" (or at least for its age and mileage). The dash seems to "reset" when she parks and turns off the ignition then restarts it.
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I have a 2000 Neon with about 170K miles on it. with in the last 2 weeks it has been having a problem with acceleration. When i start to drive the RPMs will get up to 4 before it will start to move. Also when i am drive and need to pick up speed the RPMs will also go up to about 4 before it starts to pick up speed, but will drop back down when the speed goes up. I have found a little oil in the spark plug tubes and will be changing the seals out, and I have cleaned to MAP sensor as will. What is going on with my acceleration.
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My 2008 Dodge Caravan SXT is having A/C problems. The back air works great, all the time...however, the front air randomly turns off and on. It doesn't matter what speed I'm going, what speed the knob is turned to (low vs. high), it just stops blowing. When I'm driving at a faster speed I can feel the cold air barely coming through the vents, but doesn't change when I move the knob. All along, the back A/C works perfectly. I've looked online and found a lot of things about the resistor, blower motor, fuse and WIN module. How I can narrow it down without paying the dealership an arm and a leg to fix things that might not even be the issue?
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2011 Sonata GLS, 95,000 miles.
This just started yesterday. While driving, the RPMS suddenly drop off. Depressing the gas pedal doesn't command any power output, even if I floor it, the RPMS continue decreasing and there is absolutely no power. The only way to keep moving is to completely release the pedal and then depress it again.
The transmission has been serviced twice by me and shifts smoothly. Should I plug a scan tool in ?
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My daughter has a 1995 Grand Prix - 3.1. The car has an intermittent problem that can go 2-3 weeks in between occurrences.
It runs like a top, but will suddenly lose power while driving and die completely. After a while it'll be fine. (starts up again.)
The lights will flicker and give a bit of warning before it dies. I had both crankshaft sensors replaced a month ago and I though that would do the trick.
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'98 Dodge Caravan occasionally loses power and dies while driving. No power steering or brakes. Have changed alternator, battery, starter, computer, and starter switch. What else could it be?
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My wife has a 2000 t&c with 150k on it its a fwd with 3.8 and about a month ago while driving we noticed the rpms will jump up 400 and go back, with cruise control on or off being held at a consistent speed. and about for days ago it started shifting late. Still has all gears fluid looks o.k. and is full no check engine light .
I am hearing transmission solenoid, tps sensor, input sensor, output sensor, tcm, iac, map, or egr are all possibilities or a rebuild . Or simple as a flush.. tonight i went out n started it it idles around 800 tried to hold it at 1200 and it would for a second and drop back to 800 with accelerator being slightly held. Not sure if related. Just observed it..
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I have a 2003 Grand Caravan, 3.3L, 75,000 miles. The van suddenly will not attempt to start. The strange thing is that when the key is turned to RUN I cannot hear the fuel pump. The normal 2 or so second on growl at the initial key turn is not there. When turned to start the clock on the radio goes out and no crank. I have found that the start relay is not passing on the signal to the starter. If I jump across the two pins going to the starter, the starter cranks fine. The van will still not start because I believe it has no fuel,due to the fuel pump not running. I thought first that it must be the neutral safety switch but does that have any control of the fuel pump also? I have found that the neutral safety switch requires that I remove the valve body for access.
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Our 2007 Grand Caravan with a 3.3 Liter Engine has intermittent vibration which feels similar to driving over rumble bars. It usually occurs between 30-50 mph but sometimes at 70-80 mph as well. Have had the suspension checked and had outer tie rod end replaced. Also had sway bar bushings replaced and front end aligned. We then brought it to transmission shop and had a transmission diagnostic performed. They found no faults with the transmission and thought the engine needed a tune-up which we did with no success. At a recent oil change, we asked for them to test drive it and check again for any suspension problems. They did not notice any vibration during the test drive and found no problems with the suspension.
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Sone water from the air conditioner drains on the carpet on the right side of the car. The drain hose is open and water in draining from it. Where could I look to find the problem? It is a 2003 caravan
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