Five problems related to engine and engine cooling have been reported for the 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Engine starts and immediately shuts off. After 3 or 4 tries it will not turn over at all. This happens completely at random and happens 3 or four times a month minimum. After 24 hours, engine will start normally. Replaced body control module and clock spring. A mechanic also checked for loose connections in the instrument cluster and corrosion.
Premature, sudden failure of head gasket, potentially leading to rapid loss of coolant, obscured vision, loss of control, etc.
The van started having problems last week. It does not want to go into first gear after reverse or after stopping. I have been told the the differential pin is broken and will take anywhere from $1700 to $2300 to repair. I am trying to get Chrysler to cover the cost of this as it is a known problem with these vans. I will never buy another Dodge again.
The car is on it's third transmission. We like the caravan as a package, but quality is lacking and problematic. The most critical problem is body rust through. The drivers side shock mount tower is rusted through and Chrysler owner relations refusing to fix it. Never mind that the dealers say the problem is prevalent and Chrysler used to fix it but recently stopped paying for (perhaps due to financial and market conditions).
Almost all of the air conditioning components were replaced only to find that less than 1 year later, July 2003, the evaporater is leaking and needs to be replaced at a cost of $750. 00.