general problems of the 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan

My van was parked out side luckys on mitalda near w maude avenue in sunnyvale CA 94086 I was using the water refilling station and started to smell smoke when I turned around I imideatlly noticed that the drivers side rear taillight was on fire. Not having a fire extinguisher I took the bottle of water I had in my hands and started to throw water on it until the flames went out. What in the hell would make that happen? is my van up for recall? I just purchased the van just a week ago. It has been a night mare for me not to mention extremely costly replacing everything's that's been going out. The a/c cluster the dash cluster the power window motor. The rear vent motor. Countless bulbs and fuses.

Part 1 1/2 the gas line decaying and the suspension strut mounts rusting away, both of these are deadly, a rusty/corroded break line will just leak a drop at the time, most people just refill the fluid reservoir and never think about again, eventually the break line fails all at once, this is because you actually put more pressure on the lines than usual and the weak spot ruptures like a weak spot in a balloon would. That means that you were in a bad situation already and now you don't have any breaking power at all. What do you think happens next??? all break lines are stainless steal so as to resist rust and corrosion, the only reason a break line fails in this little amount of time is because the manufacture is producing an inferior product and should have already been made to correct the problem. Now,, the strut mounts, as soon as the company found out that they had a problem with the mounts rusting they should have recalled the vehicles and sprayed $10 worth of undercoating over the parts after removing the rust to stop any more rust from forming. If the strut mount is rusted enough, it can fail at any time "usually when at higher speeds and you hit a bump in the road,, that sends an extra amount of force to the suspension. The strut comes up through the hood and the wheel may go any way and hit any part of the wheel well and suspension the axle may come out of the wheel or transmission , all of that means you may have total lose of breaks and or steering. All 3 of these problems could have easily and should have been corrected when first realized many years ago, instead they kept right on manufacturing vehicles the same way with the same imperfections and if you go to a dealer today with either of these problems they will say it is the first time they have herd of it, it out of warranty, etc. And will not even think about fixing it unless we pay.

Part 1. . . . I used to be a mechanic and tow truck operator. My Mini van "like most others" is usually driven by a female & with a load of children. If driving in rain or through a water puddle the belt jumps off causing loss of power steering overheating battery drain etc, is a dangerous even deadly problem, if a turn is needed at the time this belt jumps off, even a strong healthy man can leave the line of intended travel and hit what ever is in the way, a curb, a pedestrian or even cause a head on collision. This mostly happens during rainy/nasty days & because of the complexity of replacing the belt, and the damage that is caused when it comes off, the vehicle usually requires a tow 4 repair. It is stated that, when a consumer makes a complaint & if the same complaint is repeated an investigation will be started. This is an old problem with many, many, many complaints yet, I see "no action, not even an investigation into this problem", why?? consumers are depending on you "safecar. Gov, NHTSA" etc. What will it take, "a death" to start an investigation? or, should I say, how many??? I know there has been accidents because of this, and a lot of damage just from the belt as it jumps off and goes flopping around, not to mention the people that burned up their motor even started a fire trying to get home, to a shop etc. This problem has been a plague since day one and should have been at least fixed on the next years model but Chrysler just ignored it. Their have been many vehicles with these serpentine belts,, Chrysler vans is the only ones that I know of with this particular problem. This is a deadly problem that should be repaired by the Chrysler corporation since they knew about the problem from the start and just flat out ignored it. The gas line decaying and suspension strut mounts rusting away on these same models will be my next post.

While driving rusted brakeline ruptured and lost fluid.

While driving our 97 Dodge Grand Caravan le to drop off a visitor, halfway through the trip, I had to stop at a light and all of a sudden the brake pedal just went all the way to firewall. Since caravan has a foot brake, I managed to drive vehicle with hazard lights on using the foot brake. There was a smell of brake fluid that instant so I figured a leak had occurred somewhere. After getting home, I checked area where leak was coming from and saw it on the stainless steel braid connection underneath driver seat near the abs module.