I have a 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan, which has been giving intermittent problems. Some times when I am driving the ABS light comes on and all the lights on the dashboard would go off. The indicators, namely the speedometer, odometer, and the fuel indicator, will go down to zero and at this point you will not know on which gear you are driving. Shortly after that, the Check Engine light will come on. These lights will stay on till I turn off the engine. After several hours of cooling off, the ABS light may go off on the next restart of the engine, the indicators and light will come on and work normally, but the check engine light may stay on for a day or two before it goes off. When I get the problem I have outlined above, the remote will not work correctly. I have to manually lock the doors by pressing down the driver’s side door-lock for all the doors to lock. However, the remote does open the doors when next I come back to drive the car.
Some time if I bang on the dashboard, the lights and indicators will come on. I have been to two mechanics, but they have not been able to figure out the cause of the problems.
Thank in advance for your help.
It sounds like there is a intermittent connection problem with the main power to those areas. Using a factory wiring diagram I would try to locate a common power source that ties to the areas that are effected and look for trouble there. It will most likely be under the hood. The trouble may be a bad connection to a fuse or in a connector.
My family has has this same problem with 2 different Caravans, in both cases it was a cracked circuit board in the instrument cluster.
How mouch work is involved in fixing the craked circuit board and how much did such a job cost?
Is this work something I can do by mmyself?
I don’t know what all is required to do the job. But 1 was replaced under warranty and I think the other was about &400 don’t really remember it was a while ago and we no longer have that van or any of the paperwork for it. Sorry I know that really doesn’t help much.
Thanks for the info PvtPublic, that is good to know about.
If you know how to use a soldering iron and are careful with the removal of the cluster I would think you should be able to fix this yourself.
Thank You cougar.Brilliant!Sounds like a McGyverism if ever i heard one.These days ,I like to think that $400. would be better used elsewhere.