1998 Caravan SE 3.3 liter with automatic tranny

1. I only had the van a few months now and once in a while my ABS light will come on and won't shut the key off. It doesn't happen too often but I am taking a 4 hour trip to the shore in September. It usually happens while I am in the middle of driving, not after I just applied the brakes.

2. I never got good airflow to the defrosters. When I put them on, most of the air goes through the door vents to the back seat vents. I barely feel any air coming from the dash. I flip the **** from floor to panel then to dash and I hear a flapper slowly shut. I don't hear a quick thump like I do in other vehicles. I am not sure if it is a flapper or a hose hooked up wrong. Is there a way to access this without removing the whole dash board?

3. Sometimes when I have the steering wheel turned all the way to the left and am leaving a dead stop, the noise will give a weird vibration when I first accellerate. While I am driving down the road, the steering wheel has a slight pull to the left and to the right. Kind of like it is bouncing back in forth. Any Ideas?

Thanks Master Tech for all the help you given me in the past and on my last post about the spare tire other questions.

 

The abs should leave a code in memory that can be pulled with a scan tool. Not alot of common issues. Some wheel speed sensor stuff.

the actuators for the hvac are above the gas pedal. They move slowly so no thunk is heard

Maybe you have worn outer tie rod ends causing your wandering issue.

 

Thanks Tizzy. I have a scan tool and never get a code when I check it. The check engine light never comes on. As far as the defrosters, I have a few questions about it. When I have the dial all the way clockwise on the defrost, is that the position that turns on the rear passenger air? When I open the doors, I have strong fan air blowing through each ends of the dash which goes through the front doors when closed. Does anyone know how to get a good air flow to the windshield and what could be my problem? Winter is coming and I will need this to work properly. Does anyone have a schematic on the air flow by chance?

 

Anyone ideas?

 

1. to enter calibration/diagnostics test, set park brake, Start and warm engine to operating temps. With engine idling set Blower switch to HI. Turn mode switch to panel, open all vents, and move temp slider to full cold air.

2. Press and hold rear wash & rear wiper buttons simultaneously for 5 seconds (untill all LEDs light up), they all should light up for about 5 seconds.
Rear wiper and intermittent wiper lights will flash alternatley during SELF TEST.

3. after about 60 seconds, if only the rear wiper button is flashing. Calibration was sucsessful and system is ok. If rear wiper and intermittent rear wiper LEDs are both flashing then there are codes stored that u will need to retrieve.

4. To exit Self Test/Calibration at any time press rear window defogger button, rear wiper button, cycle key to off. Test will automatically end 15mins after entering Self Test/ Calibration

I have a list of codes if you manage to pull any

To read codes you must:

1. Perform Calibration/Self Test(see above)
2. System will flash rear wiper and intermittent rear wiper lights in sequence.
Rear wiper button represents Code Level and intermittent light represends code value
3 each time rear wash button is pressed, rear wiper light will cycle to next code level in numeric sequence. After code level 5 is reached rear wiper light will cycle back to code level 1.

Now if she has any codes I can tell you what they mean, let us know if it fails this Self Test/Calibration

Hope this helps you

 

I did do the test and it after the test was done, only the top wiper button was flashing. So it looks like it passed the test but I still don't get any air flow at the windshield. How do I take the dash apart to access it or how do I remove the blower box?

 

This is what the top of the air distribution housing looks like and where the duct work seals against. that model of van never did have real good defroster.




1 = Blend air outlet (second seating)
2 = a/c outlet
3 = defrost outlet
4 = side window demister outlet

let me know if you want dash panel r & r instructions and I'll send them to you.