I have had to replace the serpentine belt 5 times since I bought the 1998 grand caravan a year and a half ago. I have also replaced all idler pulleys, tensioners etc multiple times trying to get rid of the squaking noise and the belt falling off when you get it wet.
1998 Dodge Grand Caravan engine complaints
Page 4 of 5: complaints 71 to 100 of 129, newest first, as owners wrote them.
When it rains hard the serpentine belt comes off the engine. This results in loss of power steering, and overheating.
While driving the drive belt came off and shredded into pieces which caused loss of power steering and the vehicle to overheat. *nlm. *ak *cb
Serpetine belt has shredded two times in the last two months. A small section of the belt on the inner side next to the engine appeared to have been cut, both times this occurred the damage was the same. Vehicle had 99,000 miles and was well maintained. This event never occurred until the vehicle was over 95,000 miles.
The drive belt came partially off while driving. The belt shredded and then came off completely. The belt was replaced 6000 miles ago. It was a wet day outside (light rain).
On january 24, 2003 at about 10 p.m. My 1998 dodge grand caravan just stopped dead while I was driving on route 7 in ridgefield ct. The engine with 67,000 miles just seized up. I was able to use the cars momentum to pull to the side of the road, but if this had happened on a highway, we might have had a serious problem.
Tension, idler pulley. Second time this has occurred. Wet pavement causes belt to slip and loss of power resulting to vehicle during operations. This has occurred during regular driving, as well as highway driving under what should be normal operating conditions.
The engine serpentine belt slipped off the pulleys. *ak
Leaking head gaskets at 61,000 miles causing oil and water loss.
Serpentine belt fell off when driving through a puddle. This disabled all of the accessories and made the van undrivable. This has happened once before. Vehicle was disabled in the middle of a busy street
All of the original tires on the vehicle experienced tread separation. *jg ph
I have a 1998 grand caravan 3.3 ltr with only 57,xxx miles. I just took it to a mechanic to check out an antifreeze smell, and he informed me that the head gasket is leaking, and to talk to chrysler asap. He also informed me that he has been seeing this problem quite frequently.
Serpentine belt comes off often causing loss of steering and other functions.this is something that happens very often in the short time that I have owned this car.there must be some way this can be prevented or corrected!!
Vehicle caught on fire while engine was off. Dealer was not contacted has gone out of business. Ts
I looked on the internet and was surprised to see how many people were experiencing oil leakage from the rear of the engine. Dt
Within the first month of owning our van, the belt came off the pulley system rendering the van dead. When it came off it was cut in two and wrapped around the crank pulley. We replaced the belt 8 times since that occurrence. We have also replaced the crank pulley and tension pulley. After becoming totally frustrated with this problem, we contacted the corporation, which was of no use. A fairbanks dodge service consultant shared with us the fact that they often receive several towed in caravans on rainy days due to the belt slipping off. My concern is that when this belt comes off there is no power steering, nor alternator, nor A/C. If this occurs at a high rate of speed, the use of power steering will be lost, meaning quick reaction if needed would be hindered. Our mechanic called chrysler to verify if it was purely the use of a wrong belt type, only to be told no. As a matter of fact, they told him not to use a chrysler belt. In addition to that, we were also informed that the belt system is being redesigned for 2003 because of this problem. Please help! I have a wife and two kids that ride in this vehicle everyday and I am concerned about their safety.
Starting at about 15,000 miles, this car produced clicking noise from the head/valve train. Upon initial inspection, a dealer (not the one where it was bought) told me there was nothing wrong, at 35k, during a highway trip, the noise became pronounced. Soon thereafter, I took the car to my local garage and explained the noise and that I noticed the head was running dry without the type of oil splash I have seen in all other cars I have owned. He said that it seems that chysler mini-vans have a lot of problems with the valves and that it was, in his opinion, an oil delivery problem. He said that he had 2 in during the prior few weeks for the same type of problem. He suggested that I should take it to the dealer as this was a serious problem, one that shouldn't exist in a car with 35k miles. When I took the car into the dealer, to my shock, I was told that they would have to do major repairs due to "camshaft failure". Although I asked for more detail on the cause of the failure many times, both in writing and on the phone, "camshaft failure" is all they would say about the problem. Fortunately for me, they agreed to provide a full "long block" engine replacement (under "courtesy" warranty with $300 "deductible.") because of what my non-dealer mechanic said (that this is a common problem in chrysler mini-vans of my car's vintage and because he opined that there may be a systemic problem with oil delivery, plus the fact that when I checked this site, I found that other people had reported like sounding problems, I feel I should report this. Fyi, this car always seemed to run dry (no oil splash when engine run with filler cap off). I think the federal safety agency might wish to consider investigating to see if this is a common defect due to a manufacturing error. Thanks for the help keep up the good work!.
Belts have been braking after ~ 18000-20000 miles. Dodge does not seem to care.
Consumer has notice bolt on the intake manifold separated from the vehicle causing anti freeze to leak onto the engine. Nlm
Vehicle caught fire while consumer was driving, claim 13-7276-388
Vehicle experienced engine fire, claim 75-a337-158.
While traveling through parking lot, vehicle caught on fire under the hood, there was one injury, claim 22-v298-813.
Vehicle caught fire in the engine compartment, claim 20-5406-593.
While driving, engine caught on fire, claim 05-4542-179.
While driving, consumer noticed smoke coming from under the hood, consumer parked the vehicle and called the fire department who put out the fire, claim 35-w772-194.
Chrysler refused to help with the over $600 repair bill for head gasket. Did not call them on the valve cover gaskets in october. Now with the failure of the head gasket it makes me wonder why the failure of their gaskets. This is premature failure on both cases. Chrysler refuses to stand behind their vehicles. No wonder they will soon drop out of the big three.
We had to trade in our 1998 dodge grand caravan on 01-05-02 as the engine was worthless. We lost over $7500.
We were driving down the interstate and the van came to a sudden stop. With the thought of engine trouble furthest from our minds with only 48000 miles on the vehicle. We were told that the camshaft was broke and no explanation given, we were told by the dealer it was rare but that one of their technicians had seen this in about 2-3 other vans like ours. The dealer refused to pay anything and daimler chrysler was notified and although they would not admit to factory defect they did reluctantly pay half of the more than 3000.00 in damages. The vehicle was inspected by a none dodge dealer first who could not believe how bad the engine looked for 48000 miles. We purchased the vehicle in march of 2001 from the dealer and the engines appearance was good we owned it less than 4 months when malfunction occured. Chrysler was contacted directly by us and told us this was rare, however for one technician to see 2-3 vans besides ours in one state does not seem that rare to us.
Serpentine belt will come off in heavy rain, this has happened 4 times. Dealer will put on new belt.
Engine belt has had to be replaced five times since date of purchase. Also, all electrical components including lights and hazard lights and power steering are lost. Vehicle cannot be driven more than twenty miles per hour when this happens. Dealer has been contacted. *ak consumer stated that the tensioner failed and was replaced for the fifth time on 1-04-02.
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