Nine problems related to air bag not deploy have been reported for the 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
The contact owns a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan. While driving approximately 5 mph downhill in the snow, the brakes locked and the vehicle began to slide. The contact released the brake pedal and the vehicle accelerated. She reapplied the brakes, but they locked again. The contact struck a tree head on and the air bags failed to deploy. The vehicle sustained major damage, but was still able to be driven. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the error codes revealed that the vehicle was not in a crash, which is possibly why the air bags did not deploy. A police report was filed. The current mileage was 200,552 and failure mileage was 200,500.
Driver side airbag did not deploy. After the Dodge caravan sustained a head on collision. 96 Dodge g. Caravan.
The vehicle was involved in a collision yet the driver's side air bag failed to deploy. The passenger side air bag opened but was deflated. Consumer received letter regarding faulty air bags after accident.
The clockspring in the steering column failed. This causes the horn, cruise control and airbag system to fail. There is no indication that the horn is out. Only the airbag light on the dash comes on. You don't know the horn is out until you need it! I had the same problem on my personal van and on my company van. They were bought from different dealers at different times. It is very hard to believe that a single driver can have the same problem on two different cars without there being an inherent design defect in this part. Please investigate this problem before lives are lost through the loss of the horn or airbags that don't work when needed. The conductors that feed the explosive charge to the airbag are open during this continuous fault and the airbag will not deploy in an accident.
I first noticed that the airbag light on the dashboard of my 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan was on while driving through a parking lot. This first occurred on 7/3/2001. It went off after 5 minutes. The pattern of the airbag coming on started occurring more regularly and staying on longer. We took the minivan into koon's Dodge (falls church, va) on Saturday, July 14, 2001. They diagnosed the problem as a problem with the clock-spring in the steering column that had gone bad and had made the airbag go bad. They gave me an estimate of $800 to fix it. I asked them whether Dodge would pay for it since having an airbag go bad should not be an ordinary "wear and tear" item for any automobile. The assistant manager (scott) told me that his boss (ray rasado) would have to talk with Dodge on Monday, 7/16/2001 to see if they would pay for it. I called back on Monday and they said that Dodge refused to pay for it. Dodge had said it was not their fault that the clockspring had gone bad and made the airbag go bad. I then called Dodge myself and talked to their warranty department (jessica). After talking with her Dodge manager, she said that they would not pay for it. She said that there were no engineering problems with either the clockspring or the airbag. She gave me a case reference number of 8889836. I called koon's, the Dodge dealership, back and asked whether they were positive that the airbag itself was bad in addition to the clockspring. The reason being that a repair of the clockspring was approximately $200 versus $800 for both the clockspring and airbag. They again said that the clockspring had made the airbag go bad and that the airbag would not deploy unless it was replaced along with the clockspring. I told them based on their recommendation to replace the clockspring and airbag. The final cost was $816. 37. I strongly believe that this is an engineering safety defect on Dodge's behalf. The consumer should not be put at physical risk for this.
Air bags did not deploy.
The airbag readiness indicator lamp would come on intermittently while driving and occasionally stay on after startup. The cruise control also did not work. A local dealer indicated that these symptoms may be a clockspring assembly failure and that the airbags would probably not deploy in an accident. I have read that there are many other minivans that have had their clockspring assemblies fail.
Passenger's airbag did not deploy properly, during a 40 mph frontal crash, staying in the dashboard and not protecting the occupant. The right front passenger went over the airbag and struck the windshield because bag did not fully inflate. Vehicle has not been inspected.
12 year old child received neck injury in crash. Air bags did not deploy.