1997 Chrysler Town and Country: ball joint or control arm failure

Filed Aug 1, 2015 · Electrical, Wheels · 204 miles · MI

Well I'am having electrical issues now I close my hood and my 4 ways start blinking, I turn on my van and the ABS & and air bag light come on when I start it but never go off.the cv boot is bad and the half shalf on passenger side I think its making alot of sound when I go down the road ,I already brought brand new outter tie rod ends for both sides, and swag bar lings brand new for both sides springs and mounts, and struts the radio seems to fade in and out you can not see any station numbers or clock time on it so I figured its and elec issues and now in the last couple of day like about july29th, 2015 , I got back home and noticed my temperture light on dash came on and it said h it was it was hot, the day before I just paid for and oil change and thats because their was oil all over the engine and to find out the bolts were all loose but 1 which was striped, but anyways now my fans are not going around and its not keeping my van cool my husband has checked all fuses but can't find the relay for the radiator fan if that even has anything to do with it, I have put over 1,000 in this van now, I'am handid cap and I really need my van to get me around I also don't have the remote to open the doors or lock it so I have to do it with the key , it surely would be nice to have a remote that goes with this van , but it surely would be great if things would work right to, I can be driving it down the road and the automatic door locks will be locking and un locking while I'am driving all by their self also the window wipers wipe but the fluid will not come out on the front windows or the back windows, I hope you can help me out I walk with 1 to 2 canes and sometimes a walker, I have braces on my legs and have to help myself at putting my legs in , I really need a mini van that will work for me, thank you.

Filed Jul 31, 2006 · Suspension · 110,000 miles · NE

Auto in generally very good condition, with 110000 miles on odometer. I bought from chrysler dealer in 2004 with 90000 miles on odometer. I noted a fairly sudden "friction" in the steering (I.e. Slow to return to center after a turn). Entered a parking lot to inspect, stopped, then turned the wheel to enter a parking space and the left ball joint broke (was not moving). Repair shop (not the dealership) replaced the "permanently lubricated" original joint with after-market part which includes a grease fitting for future lubrication. The shop found that the other ball joint had a grease point, indicative of previous replacement, and lubricated that joint. In my judgment, this is a very critical failure; it could easily have resulted in injury or death. The car is too new and the mileage is too low to justify this as normal wear, and the shop foreman said "we see these all the time". I believe chrysler should look at this and a recall or improvement may be in order.

Filed Nov 19, 2003 · 60,000 miles · CA

While unloading groceries from rear storage area the strut slipped down from the anchor point. This was caused by a fractured ball joint screw. *ak

Filed Dec 21, 2000 · Transmission · PA

Make: chrysler town & country VIN:[xxx] all-wheel all the time drive vehicle. Well maintained by the owner at the dealership, the following problems have arisen. It was taken off the road last friday,december 15, 2000. Symptoms: somewhat of a crunching noise when turning left or right. Difficult to steer at low speed. Some thumping heard - progressively faster until vehicle was up to road speed.repair history: dealer maintained vehicle. Dealer had repaired it before and in fact had replaced bolts on the transfer case yet never made any statement about any damage to the transmission.dealer & visual observation reveal:the dealer rep told me that it must be from abuse. We saw the front frame struts - in perfect shape - and the damage is all up above it. The transfer mechanism appears to be eating the case from the inside. The drive shaft was whipping against the body strut and actually "carving" through it just by the rotations. Transfer case, which is metal, had shattered from bolt to bolt on all visible sides.the front of the case was sheared to the degree that it was hanging there not doing much of anything - the back of the housing would shift to about a 30 30 degree cant to the rear if the drive shaft was physically lifted by hand (hence the whipping "like a jump rope") and would touch the upper body parts.there was no sign of abuse of any sort or any reason to have this happen during normal wear. This surely could have caused a very serious accident.the entire trans-axle housing was shattered on all visible sides and the bolts had sheared allowing the drive train to bounce against the chassis housing. Two bolts were found on the front cross-struts, most bolts were missing several in a backed-out position. Left tie rod ws very loose. The floor manager looked at and said that this sort of thing should never happen and again agreed that there was probably some internal problem in the drive that was causing the housing to disintegrate. Help!!! Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act

Filed May 24, 1999 · Steering · FL · crash

Tensioner on the power steering belt froze, causing loss of power steering control. Also the tie rod end broke, which resulted in a collision. Please give any further details.

Filed Feb 26, 1997 · Steering · OR · 1 injury

Due to the broken steering control arm knuckle, the front tire moved side ways, causing accident.