I've done tons of research on this issue and it appears as if there are dozens, if not hundreds of people with this problem across the entire Dodge product line.

My sister's 2011 Caravan does all of the wacky things described in various forums and you tube videos. Wipers go non stop, dash lights up like a Christmas tree, random chimes, instrumentation dead, etc. It does it completely at random.

I know the "no bus" error is a generic loss of communications problem that could have a nearly infinite causes. My question is whether anyone has narrowed down the cause specific to 5th Gen Caravans?

The stealer just wants us to pay them a diagnostic fee to plug it in and tell us it's a loss of communication problem, which we already know. Then they'll want to replace stuff at random until they finally get lucky and find the issue. All the threads I read on this stuff go that way. I'd like to do my own diagnosis and repair but need a starting point.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I joined up to start some research on this for a 2010 we just bought and are experiencing something that sounds similar. Basically the console appears to lose power for like a millisencond off and on for a few seconds. Indicator lights all flash on and off, sometimes a few remain on after, always different ones.

Still researching the issue, but please come back and share your experience on this! I'm taking mine in for a diagnostic Wednesday and will do the same.

 

Thanks for the reply. Here are some youtube vid (there are several like this) of what it does:



With as many people that have this problem you'd think they'd know what it is.

My sister was at my house when I got home. The van was sitting there with the lights and wipers on (both switches shut off) so I checked some of the trouble spots I read about. The wiring harness by the rear door slider-brackets look good on both sides. I pulled the kick panel trim and randomly wiggled the harnesses. I goofed around with the wires at the underhood fuse panel and at the PCM. Nothing stopped it. It's totally random.

I'll post back with any info I glean over the weekend.

 

Found it.

The van was doing its thing non stop yesterday. I pulled the trim off the passenger side kick panel and wiggled the wires and it stopped. Hmmm. I pulled the glovebox down and reached behind and grabbed the wires and it started with the wipers, dash thing again. This time no matter what I did it wouldn't stop. I followed that harness to a large connector attached to the body behind that kick panel. It was one of those big block connectors with a clamp. It was unclamped and had come loose. I connected it, snapped the clamp down and it's fixed.

It had to be like that from the factory and took this long to finally work itself loose.

 

I'll tell you what the problem is. It's a bad TIPM (Totally Integrated Power Module). This has been a plague of all 5th gen vans and other Dodge vehicles, but particularly the 2011 year models. I just had mine replaced after having spent a total of 45 days at the dealer on 11 different trips over the past 4 years for things related to the TIPM, but were never properly diagnosed as a faulty TIPM.

Guaranteed that once you have this replaced, all your problems will go away. Mine did. Expect about a $900-$1000 repair bill. I complained to Dodge Customer Care and got some relief on the costs.

Good luck.