When the weather is cold 15F and below and you first start the Durango, within first 5 minutes the windshield wipers will sweep (up to 3 times) and the steering column volume control will only decrease volume either when you push up or down. After that all seems fine. Kind of weird, perhaps temperature sensitive CTM? You would think if that were the case, lots of other things would misbehave.

Anyone else seen anything similar? My concern is that if my CTM is wonky I would like to get it fixed while on extended warranty which will soon expire rather than have serious (expensive) problems later.

 

Did you find out what the issue was with your D? I am having a very similar issue with mine. My wipers do 3 swipes after start up and then randomly until warm, steering wheel volume will only decrease the radio volume. Also, I find that my gauge lights flicker, then go to full brightness than back to 'normal' a few times the dome lights also came on. Thanks.

 

Wow sounds exactly like me. I took it to local garage and it had a few wired non-logical codes, but my battery had died and when tested was pretty lousy so I replaced the battery so that we might get more consistent results and cleared all the codes. I don,t drive the D in the winter much as it is so poor on gas. So now I am in about $400 into the investigation. Problem continues as before. However, in taking for a periodic run the other night, the wipers did their ghostly thing and the lights (dash & exterior) blinking occasionally I switched the lights from "auto" to "on" and that stopped the blinking. So I am going to try to decipher what circuitry is eliminated when lights are set to "on" rather than "auto". Perhaps some one on the forum already knows that! I would be interested to know if yours is the same, and anything else you might discover. There may be some common circuitry between the light sensor on the dash and the other wonky stuff

Chris, I also think that the exterior headlights are going from full on to daytime running lights when the blinking takes place, but I can't be sure as I would need to be in front of the truck when it happens. When you say that it works properly when warm, are you referring to the truck's cabin being warm or the engine? My impression is that it is the cabin being warm that clears the random stuff leading me to believe that whatever circuitry is involved (wiring or module) is inside the cabin. Do you have the same impression?

So as I mentioned above, I started looking in the service manual in the section 8W-40 which is the wiring section for the instrument cluster. Every function that is screwing up when cold leads to the instrument cluster (but so are a lot of other leads). It is one busy circuit board. Since I think that the problem occurs only when the interior of the car is cold, I am going to try putting a heater in the car cabin and see if the problem is abolished. It may prove that the problems is in the interior of the car and may very well be the instrument cluster. I must say I have read of some people who have had not exactly the same problems as this, replacing the instrument cluster and it not resolving the problem.

 

Dave, the wiper issue seems to go away once the cabin has warmed up. I am having that issue even at 30 degrees F. My volume issue still seems to be present thou. Do you have a sunroof? I have read that if the drain gets clogged, water can make it's way down behind the kick plate on the drivers side, that's where a lot of wires meet. I removed my kick plate and there seems to be moisture getting down there. I had drops of water under the carpet. I haven't had a chance to examine any of the wire harnesses yet, I'll let you know if I find anything. (I did notice that the lights don't flicker when when they re not in automatic.)

 

Hi Chris. Yes my Durango does have a sunroof. I can look for water or dampness in the carpet, but since I am in Canada, even though I have winter floor mats in, there is an excellent chance that the carpet will be damp when the car cabin is warmed and frozen when it's not warmed up as it impossible to not track snow into the car whenever you get in. To add to difficulty, in their infinite wisdom, Ontario puts salt on the roads in the winter, so that salt gets tracked in as well and soaks into the edges of the carpet. It is quite common in the spring to have to wash the carpets where the edges of the rubber winter floor mats are with vinegar to get the encrusted salt out.

Where is the drain for the sunroof located? I didn't know it had one.

Is your volume control issue present, warm or cold? If it is, another culprit is the clock spring in the steering wheel which passes the contacts of the devices that are on the rotating part of the steering wheel on to the instrument cluster. If the volume controls are okay once the cabin is warm, then who knows. Their are tests and codes for the clock spring when looked at by a scanner.

Chris have you seen this? It seems to relate to water in fuse box area coming from clogged drain hoses for sunroof. Has some very good pictures as well.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/4th-gen...of-leak-4.html

I know it is in Ram section, but there is info from a Durango owner there as well.

I also found this which alludes to electrical weirdness as a result of water getting to fuse area.

http://www.justanswer.com/dodge/1qdv...indshield.html

 

Dave, If you check out the photo's in the link below, it will show you where the sunroof drain is. The hose runs down the drivers side pillar, so I have read.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/4th-gen-...of-leak-4.html

The volume issue is a constant problem. The up/down controls on the steering wheel usually will only lower the volume and at times the radio volume lowers by itself. As for the wiper issue, it was still present this morning after some light rain and temp of 49 degree F.

 

I was thinking the clock spring too DaveAlex42.
FF

 

I'm pretty sure now that most of the problems I am having are related to the clock spring. I didn't make the connection until I looked up the part online and found there is one clock spring specific to D's with Stability Control. The "traction" light has also come on a few times in situations where I didn't think there was a loss of traction. Hopefully this fixes my problems. Fingers Crossed!

 

Chris,

Are you the original owner of the vehicle? Have you checked to see if there are any outstanding recalls on the vehicle.

If you'd like assistance you can PM me your VIN# or you can visit:

www.dodge.ca
Select “Vehicle Brand”
Select “Owners” in the upper right hand corner
Select “Vehicle Recall Inquiry”
Select a brand and “View …Recall Notices”
Select “Get Recall Information”
Enter last 8 characters of the vehicle identification number (VIN) in the
space provide and Select “GO”.
It will list the vehicle with the complete VIN, a verbal description of the vehicle and recall, if any apply.

Let me know if there are any other questions or anything else I can help with.

 

Hi Katie.
The www.dodge.ca website just takes me to a sales screen allowing me to look at or "build" a new vehicle. The upper right only has a search box and if I put "owners" in it it doesn't find anything. Same if I select Durango, I just get a screen regarding the new Durango. I must be missing something.