hi. i have a 2000 dodge caravan with the 4 cylinder. my dad worked on it one time because the horn went out. well so did the cruise and the air bag light stays on. still does till this day. well he said that the electricity was coming up the wire but stopping at the harness (i think thats what he said). so he took the horn wire and attached a separate horn.
my question is...what do i need to do to restore life to my cruise [and presumably my air bag as well]? can i just buy a wiring harness that can easily be installed in the steering wheel. or....what? my next day off im going to just start taking it apart and see what i can see.
i would love suggestions on what to do! i miss my cruise control! plz and thanks yall.

 

First have the D17 recall done, for the clockspring. That will cause the horn not blow or the speed control not work and cause the air bag lite to come on. The recall is lifetime recall.

 

that is absolutely correct. recall on gen3 vans for bad clocksprings. recall only performed when one or more of those problems arise (horn, cruise, air bag issues)

 

ok. well how do i go about doing that? is it something difficult i have to do myself...? and will it fix the cruise control as well [its sorta high on my list]?
any details are very helpful. thanks!

 

Take it to a dealer, it is FREE.

 

sometimes, I have seen proof that the dealers will charge for this repair and unless you're educated to know that it's under a recall, which means FREE repair, they'll try to make some $$$ of unsuspecting people... And if you come back with the recall info, they'll play dumb and refund your money with a Oops response. I have also seen them 'claim' other parts were also at fault just to pad the old pocket book.
how you go about doing this repair is you locate something called a phone book or even use one of the online internet phone book web sites, you find a Dodge, Chrysler or Jeep dealer that is a reasonable distance from your location. Using a telephone, you call the dealer of choice (prior to calling, have your VIN -vehicle identification number infront of you (they will ask for it). When someone at the dealer answers, you ask for the service department. When you connect with the service department, you ask to make an appointment for the recall on the clockspring. There is NOTHING else you'll have to do to fix this problem other than bringing the vehicle to the dealer at the time you have arranged with them. You will not need to make the repairs yourself and infact, they will not just give you the part to do it yourself. However, if you really want to make this repair yourself, you can buy the part and installed it, but I can't see why anyone would want to do that since it's a free repair.
this Recall WILL fix your cruise problem, your horn problem and your Air Bag light problem!!!! It's just that easy. I hope I provided enough details. If you are having a hard time with finding a dealer, locating a phone number or communicating with people at the dealership, provide a location where you live and I can do all that work for you. I can provide you with step-by-step directions on how to get to the dealer from your house to their facilitied. However I won't be able to actually drive the van there for you. You'll need to come up with a way to get that task accomplished

 

Thanks so much! I just had no idea how it would work.
The only other problem I think I may run into is...my dad put in a secondary horn button. He did this by taking the original horn wire and rewiring it to another button on the side of the steering column. Do I need to put this wire back and attach it to the regular horn button at the wheel? Or does it even matter to them?

 

you better beleive it matters. they will NOT repair the vehicle if it has been butchered. You will need to make everything look as OEM (just like it came from the factory).

 

great. ill look into seeing if it's cut or anything.
under which circumstances should i not bother trying to get the recall? because i don't want them to stick me with a bill without telling me theyll charge.
from what ive been told he just tapped into the wire or split it off. but he didn't mess everything up.
its dodge's fault that it went out from the get go. they just had to have a horn. and didn't even know what the problem was until i started driving it and looked into it.

 

what's the BFD, just put it back so it doesn't looked f-d with and take it in for a FREE repair so everthing works as it should. man you sure want to argue about doing it right!!! So what if it's Dodge's fault for it failing... thats why they had a recall because it was failing. It's your dads fault for not doing some minimal research into the problem