2008 Dodge Grand Caravan: doors won't lock, open or latch

Filed Mar 30, 2020 · Electrical · 73,000 miles · CA

The driver side sliding door does not operate properly . It does not open automatically with the remote if the door is manually locked. If the sliding door is left unlocked it will open with the remote. A safety concern of mine is that when the van is in motion lets say 60mph on the highway, someone can pull on the open door latch and the door will open, because the safety system in place does not lock the door when in motion. I did notice that wires on the sliding track harness on this side of the sliding door are broken. Just got off the phone talking to chrysler and mentioned the wire harness issue with them, told them of the safety concern this could have on my and many other families out there that own these vans. Imagine going 60mph or 70 MPH on the highway and the door opens, well chrysler does not seem to care about my family or others, they told me it's out of the warranty period, guess I'm going to have t fix it myself.

Filed Feb 26, 2020 · Airbags, Electrical · 86,000 miles · MO

Electric door locks and air bag system have stopped functioning normally. When you first start driving, the electric door locks are supposed to lock at 15 MPH. Sometimes they will not lock until you are going 30 MPH or 45 MPH. Note that all three speeds are multiples of 15. After the doors eventually lock themselves, all of the door locks in the vehicle will unlock without warning as you are driving. This can happen at any speed - 20 MPH, 70 MPH, whatever. Once they unlock, the vehicle will continue "unlocking" the doors repeatedly every 5- 10 seconds continuously. The front doors can be manually locked by pushing down the door lock button located at the top rear section of the door. As soon as you manually lock the doors, they will unlock again and continue to unlock the doors every 5 - 10 seconds as you are driving the car. In addition, the air bag warning light in the dash lights up when you start the car and stays continuously lit as you are driving it. I consider these dangerous defects. It is unsafe to drive, and my dodge dealership told me there no "open recalls" for my vehicle. This vehicle has only 86,000 miles on it.

Filed Jan 19, 2018 · Electrical, Lights · 127,600 miles · VA

While parked in driveway, the horn started blowing erratically, headlights were on, and front and rear windshield wipers and washers operating. Door locks would not respond to remote. After s short period of trying to unlock the doors with the remote, they either responded to the remote or unlocked by themselves. At that point I attempted to turn the ignition on and start the vehicle. I started it and then turned it off but that did not stop the horn, wipers, etc. A few seconds after shutting the ignition off, everything stopped. Front and rear wipers did not return to park position until I manually turned them on and off. I started the engine again and had a check engine light with error codes related to the TCM, transmission control module. In addition, while driving, the heater blower motor intermittently stops working. All of this appears to be the result of a faulty tipm,totally integrated power module. This has happened twice in the last two weeks. First occurrence was 1/11/18 and second occurrence was 1/16/18. Searching online revealed that mine is not an isolated problem as there are many reported instances of tipm failures with similar symptoms.

Filed Jun 26, 2017 · Electrical · 137,500 miles · AL

Driving, parked, starting, and on its own sitting in garage. The electrical system goes crazy intermitently. Horn, wipers (front and rear), door locks, and wiper fluid engage. While driving the power steering and brakes fail. Very dangerous problem and needs attention with the amount of complaints I am seeing on the internet on forums for this model of van.

Filed Nov 25, 2016 · Body, Electrical · 138,000 miles · SC · fire

On friday, 10/28/2016, I was traveling on flat rock rd. In starr sc coming home from work. I crossed over railroad tracks and the rear passenger door started trying to open on its own. The door made a loud noise and the door light on the dash lit up. I pulled over. The door continued trying to open until I opened the hood and disconnected the battery cable. When I checked the door, it would not open and was smoking. I noticed smoke coming from the bottom back corner of the door on the outside. I saw a flame inside. I had nothing to extinguish the fire with so I flagged down a passing motorist who thankfully had a jug of water. By this time, the door and trim under it were actually burning. I extinguished the fire and found the fuse for the door and pulled it. Later I found out that the vehicle had a recall for this and that the recall work was supposedly performed. I contacted chrysler and they sent an inspector. Recieved a letter today denying responsibility. I have a partally burned vehicle whose doors won't open (presenting a safety hazard because I have children and they could not get out if this happened again). I am terribly afraid to drive the vehicle anywhere now because of this.

Filed Oct 9, 2016 · Electrical, Fuel system · 118,540 miles · NY

After parking my car, after about 5 minutes, the horn started blowing, the wipers, front and rear started running and the washers started spraying. The door locks started locking and unlocking on their own. The car, when started had no dash lights, or gauge function. The drivers electric seat started adjusting itself. Radio came on and off on its own. Car acted like it was possessed. I had to unhook the battery to make everything stop. Please note, the car was parked in my driveway when all of this occurred.

Filed Apr 13, 2016 · Electrical, Engine · 93,000 miles · NY

My van was sitting in my driveway. I used the key fob to attempt to unlock the doors and instead the horn started honking, wipers going, washer fluid spraying and lights flashing. It did not stop and the doors would not unlock. I had to use the hidden key in the key fob to manually unlock the door to open the hood and disconnect the battery. I reconnected it and attempted to drive it to my mechanic. It stalled after about 50 feet. I ended up being able to drive it to the mechanic four days later. My mechanic said it had 6 recalls on it (which I was not notified of) and needed the tipm replaced, which was not a part of a recall. He said chrysler would not allow him to buy the part and I would have to take it directly to the dealer. He said the part is $780 and does not include labor! I cannot afford this and I need this vehicle! I have three kids! I did some research online and saw that this part on my van was a part of a lawsuit. When they settled the lawsuit, they did not include the 2008 grand caravan. This is the same exact faulty part that is in the other vehicles that are covered by the lawsuit/recall! There is absolutely no reason I should have to pay for any of this.

Filed Mar 3, 2016 · Electrical · FL

Timp failurtes have resulted in incidents with random horn, alarm, headlight, door lock, panel and windshield wipers activities.

Filed Feb 18, 2016 · Electrical, Fuel system · 114,000 miles · NJ

All the electronics in my car started going crazy. My windshield wipers (both fwd and aft) started, while the washer fluid was being dispensed, the car horn was blaring, and the electronic door locks were very rapidly being cycled. While driving on the highway the car stalled. Luckily, I was able to pull over to the side of the road without being hit or causing an accident. The dodge dealership diagnosed it as a bad totally intergrated power module (tipm) and replaced it. Apparently, it distributes electrical power to all the systems in the vehicle. So, when the car stalled it was due to power being cut off to the fuel pump. I could have easily been killed, due to the sudden loss of engine power or another electrical component such as the air bag, brake, or traction system could have been affected.

Filed Aug 21, 2015 · Electrical · 104,050 miles · MO

My 08 dodge grand caravan sxt had random electrical malfunctions including intermittent activation of horns, front wipers, rear wipers, front washer fluid spray, rear washer fluid spray and door locks they were stopped by turning off the ignition and starting again. They worked ok then. It happened twice same thing again in one month. The vehicle was taken to dodge service department and had diagnostics which were no codes stored or active and no updates found.

Filed Jul 23, 2015 · Electrical, Engine · 140,083 miles · NH

The first thing that happened was; we were driving down the road and the van just stopped running. Luckily we were only going 20 miles per hour and there wasnt a lot of traffic. The power steering wasnt working but my husband was able to steer the van off the road to safety. We called aaa and my husband went to the store to get dry gas because we thought that there may have been moisture in the tank from condensation. When he got back to the van he put in the dry gas and he decided to try to turn the van on and it turned over. We went home after that. After that the van seems to work for a while, then one day my husband came home from work and tried to shut the van off, but it would not shut off. The horn started blowing and the wipes, wiper fluid, lights and door locks were all working all by themselves. We unattached the wires to the battery but that did not work and finally started pulling fuses until it all stopped. He drove to work without the fuses until we could get it fixed. I called chrysler and they said that there was a recall around may 2015. We brought the van into the dealer and they replaced the ignition module and gave us new key fobs. The van stalled again on the way home from work and we called aaa to get the van and take it back to the dealership. They said that they checked all the electric and ran a purge monitor test and others. The dealership said that they could not find anything the matter with the van and charged us $200. Just recently we were driving in traffic at around 20 miles per hour and the van stalled again. This time we did not have time to move it and a truck driver helped to push us out of traffic. My husband took the wires off the battery and put it back on and the van started. We went to the toyota dealership and bought a car that day. We still own the van, but I am afraid to drive it.

Filed Jul 22, 2015 · Electrical · 138,000 miles · MO

We started smelling an odd smell coming from the A/C vents on 7/4/15. After a few days the smell went away and we thought nothing of it. 7/8/15 multiple lights show up after starting the van..ABS, brakes, traction control, etc. Two days later these lights went away. 7/18/15 we got into the van and A/C in the back was blowing, but the front wasn't blowing at all. Turned it on while driving and it worked again. The next day when I went to work the blower was not blowing anymore, but worked on the way home. After that second day it has consistently worked. This morning when I hit the unlock button on the keyfob the horn started honking, windshield wipers went on, and wiper fluid was squirting out. I got into the van and started it and everything stopped. I drove the 20 minute drive home from work without any problems. Later that day I got back into the van to drive and everything was still normal except I had a check engine light so I planned on getting that checked while I was out. I was parked at a residence with the van still on when the same horn/wiper/wiper fluid problem started up again. I turned off the van and it kept going. I pulled fuses out for the horn/wipers/fluid and could still hear things in the box clicking. This time the door locks were locking by themselves and the lights (both inside and out) were turning off and on. I drove to the closes auto parts store and was told there were 2 codes coming up. It gave me p0685 (asd relay circuit failure) and p0883 (TCM power input high). After doing some online research it seems I have to have my tipm replaced and this seems to be a common problem. I'm frustrated at the amount of money I keep having to put into this van. Right now my van is sitting in front of my house with the battery disconnected until I can take it in to have it looked at. I'm really lucky this didn't happen on my drive to/from work.