Steering Column Problems of Dodge Caravan

I am the second owner of a 1998 Dodge Caravan and bought a carfax report when purchasing which was clean showing no accidents, no problems. The one recall alert on this year and model was taken care of previously. The car has generally been dependable, other than ongoing problems with the instrument cluster which fails intermittently and all the panel lights go off. On January 6th, 2015 I was shopping not far from home and upon exiting the store parking lot to leave (2-3 mph) turning the wheel normally while backing up from my space, the entire steering wheel just fell into my hands leaving it attached by only a few wires. There was no prior warning of the upcoming failure, no shaking, no wobble, nothing. I am a senior and was in the car alone. Luckily, some strangers helped push me back into parking space by holding and turning the steering wheel in place, as it would not snap back in. The tow truck driver stated that in his career he had never seen this, my experienced mechanic said the same. The car is currently in the shop. The entire column has to be replaced, the clock spring, etc. And even with used parts it will be costly. I live in the la area with a lot of traffic on every street. What frightens me is that I would likely have been killed had this happened while driving, and especially since I had first planned on going to a mall via freeway. This was a tragic accident waiting to happen. How many more of these steering wheels have fallen off unreported? how many more are ready to occur to some unlucky driver?.

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Driving on interstate using cruise control. Steering column refused to respond when attempting to steer the van with the curve in the road. Van drove off road onto embankment and flipped over. The van was totaled. Suffered a concussion and damage to back and elbow from impact. Eye glasses were broken. Eye witness behind me told state trooper that they could see that I was struggling for control of the vehicle.

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I have a 2001 Dodge Caravan. First noticed (a few months ago) the cruise control did not work; then the horn would work intermittently. Now, the horn does not work at all. Had the dealer troubleshoot and they said the clockspring is faulty and needs to be replaced. I noticed that there had been a recall to replace clocksprings in Caravans up to year 2000. I ordered my Caravan in November, 2000 and received it January, 2001.

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Had rack in pinion and front end work done December 28, 2005 and took back the car on January 2006 twice for front end not being aligned. Took the car back to deal to have them look at ignition and alarm because car won't start and alarm light was flashing. Steve- fixed the alarm but also notice that the steering wheel won't lock and the ignition was having issues starting car. He suggested scheduling an appointment to get them fixed, got the car back today and the steering wheel still isn't locking. Back in Dec-Jan service dates, densie-service advisor stated that they replaced my steering column with a rebuilt because the had issues fixing my original one. Now the ignition issues has happened and the dealer and service manager stated that the rebuilt steering column was never replaced or in the computer history. Denise is no longer working at the dealership and I had to pay for the replacement parts for the ignition problems.

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2002 Dodge Caravan sport. 1) vehicle equipped with tilt-wheel. Driver attempted to ajust wheel. (2) tilt-wheel would not lock into place, leaving steering wheel "flopping" up and down. Extremely difficult and unsafe to drive vehicle in this condition. Almost caused loss of control/accident.

Contact stated: contact received a recall on the steering column. She had the steering column replaced twice, but was still is messing up. While turning the wheel in either direction it made a noise. Contact has the last recall letter and she could get the service invoices from dealer if we needed them.

When driving the vehicle in the parking lot, the steering wheel failed causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle. The consumer towed the vehicle in to be inspected. The mechanic informed the owner, that the steering column bolt had snapped. Please provide any further details. While pulling out of the gas station consumer heard a noise coming from underneath the vehicle. Consumer later could not steer vehicle and believes that the brakes went out as well. Consumer exited vehicle and picked up the tensioner off the ground. Consumer still has broken parts and plans to hold them for another 30 days. Mechanic informed consumer that the steering column bolt on vehicle had snapped.

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After 8 repair attempts there continued to be a ticking noise in the steering column upon tight turns, such as parking lot maneuvers. This is most noticeable on high temperature days. There is a less noticeable tick in the steering column at 25-30 mph slight correction steering.

The steering column failed to lock.

The bearings broke off the steering column, which caused the steering wheel to be replaced.

Consumer stated the steering column would lock up without warning.

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When driving a "wind" blowing sound is heard in interior compartment. The dealer advised that the noise was as a result of a defective wire in the steering column which could cause vehicle to catch fire, Chrysler recalled 96-98 models due to aforementioned problem, the consumer's vehicle was mfg on 12-98 and sold as a 1999 model.

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Failure of the 'clock spring' can prevent air bag deployment or even cause the steering wheel column to bind, rendering it inoperable. Even though this is clearly a safety defect, Chrysler refused to repair at no cost as per federal law.