Three problems related to steering have been reported for the 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Serpentine belt comes off while driving in snow causing loss of power steering on slippery road surfaces. Loss of vehicle control and ability to regain vehicle control was compromised by lack of steering assist causing the vehicle to leave the roadway. I contacted Chrysler and they said there is no recall for my vehicle. This was a very dangerous situation as a school bus was near my vehicle when this incident happened. This issue needs to be addressed and a recall should be mandated.
Part 2 I've read on here that gates has a belt/pulley fix for this problem. If they have one, Chrysler can make one. This is a dangerous problem that can happen any time to many Dodge vans, it results in other damages, sudden loss of power steering control, possible injury even death to many people at one time. Many other vehicles have serpentine belts without this problem so it can be fixed. It's a repeated design flaw & should be corrected immediately. A ntsb rule goes something like this "a company is responsible for any foreseeable problems in their product" the same goes for the brake lines corroding enough for failure to occur in just a few years, this is also unacceptable. This is a $29,850 vehicle not a $2,000 1967 Volkswagen beetle, my beetle has the original break lines. And in good shape. All break lines are to be stainless steel to resist rust and corrosion. This is purely lack of quality in materials used to make these lines and the company also should be made to correct the problem by warning all owners about the problem and replacing all defectable lines with good quality lines.
While driving through water the vehicle will lost steering ability.