Chrysler seems unable to determine root cause for certain "common troubles" that plague the product line. Instead of transparency and good customer service, they prefer the "I dunno route" unless you get nasty with them. This seems to be causing them to spend an inordinate amount of money for costly, fruitless repairs like changing cylinder heads. The mechanics are not getting adequate guidance from corporate. Chrysler is not alone taking this approach. BMW is far worse, denying problems exist and blaming the customer for EVERYTHING.

In cases where driveability is suffering some from tranny chatter or clunking, they are trying to minimize super costly warranty repairs like tranny swaps. These problems are somewhat subjective NVH issues and therefore not necessarily going to cause premature failure. If you can string more discriminating/picky customers along by resetting the computer calibration every few months, it might be cheaper. For example, the 4spd tranny in my 2001 GC has been chattering in reverse for the last 140K mi. It currently has 210K mi on it & I've never complained at the dealer. Fyi, it was out of warranty when I bought it. I've accepted this behavioral quirk lol. If my van was a Honda, the smooth tranny clutch assembly would have likely worn out and began slipping at 150K mi, requiring a $3K rebuild. I feel fortunate experiencing the extra 60K mi of occasional chatter.

I'm not sure, but it seems like they are missing a department within the corporation that would take component failure statistics and TSB's to another level. For example, in 2008 they identified a problem with Siemens-sourced WIN ingnition modules and shifter assemblies. For whatever reason, they only fixed a handful of vehicles that were still sitting unsold on dealer lots. Vans already in customer hands were not recalled to correct the same factroy defects. They relied upon TSB's and customer complaints to fix those. At 90K mi, mine has both issues, yet I'm stuck with the bill if I want reliable starting and smooth shifter operation (I have the sticking shifter and intermittent no-crank condition from bad WIN, as described in their TSB's).

 

Class action lawsuits seem to be an excuse for lawyers to shake down corporations and enrich themselves whereas the plaintiffs get a $50 coupon off their next Chrysler vehicle purchase. I am not at all happy with my '08 T&C and wish I had never traded my '99 GC which had less problems in 10 years than the '08 in any one year. But I will keep on fixing it until it reaches old age or there is a good trade opportunity. My wife keeps on telling me to get rid of the T&C and get a Sienna.

 

Your right . But at this point im dont want to get rich. I Just would like a decent working vehicle. I am completely embarresed when driving the van with friends or family. They always telling me "what is that noise" ... etc.

I wish someone from corporate would listen to us and reach out to us. I cant keep takimg days off work to go to the dealer that Cant fix it.

 

I feel exactly the same, and it is frustrating. We purchased the '08 T&C because our '99 GC had served us well. The 3.3L is sturdy, even the 41TE had no issues. Little did we know that the newer 41TE shift software is so mediocre. It's as if they took the 6 speed software, deleted two ratios, and stuffed it into the 41TE. There was nothing wrong with the old 41TE software. Don't fix what isn't broken!

 

Well I hate to bring more bad news about the Dodge Grand Caravan. I didn't learn my lesson. I started this post when I was having problems with my 2011 GC's transmission. One rebuild and one new transmission install and various other problems with it, the final call was when I got stuck in a rain storm, the serpentine belt went with only 30,000 miles on it. I had it towed back to Dodge and ended up trading it in for a 2013. Guess what? I was backing out of my uphill driveway and felt a shudder in the tranny. Belts were also squeaking. Brought it back to Dodge at 3000 miles and then installed a new water pump. What is going on with this product! How do they stay in business, oh yea that's right the Government bailed them out. They should have folded until them come out with a better product. I guess I have to say I have finally learned my lesson.

 

My earlier posts included the comment that all of the Dodge vans I've driven since 1998 have been corporate, thus, I have no expenses at all. But I still have to suffer the issues that can't be repaired. Our best van was probably the 1998, which we really loved. I even did a buyback, and sold the van to my son in law's grandparents.

The two vans that stand out as "irritants" would be the 2005 and the 2008. I think it was the '05 that had a "whistling sound", which later turned out to be a poor seal on the windshield. I called a Chrysler engineer who was working the issue, and he was kind enough to tell me that the fix would be running silicon around the metal bezel holding in the window. I did the repair myself, and it worked. The '08 issue was the gutless engine. When I got the 2011, I was overjoyed to see the Pentastar.

If it were not for the 2011's tranny shuddering in reverse, I'd really love the van totally. When I just now read that GTOY had a shuddering in reverse on his new 2013, I was surprised. I have been renting 2013's when I travel on business, and I haven't had that problem. I wonder if it's unfortunately GTOY's bad luck, or if there are a significant number of vans that continue to have that issue.

Your trans issue saddens me, as I honestly thought they remedied that last year? As I've said...... if that is the only issue I have with this van, it will be one of the best models I've had since driving the DGC series.

 

I have a 2011 GC with 3.6 liter pentastar. It also has shudder in reverse . Dealer drove vehicle could duplicate the problem . While it seems like it is the tranny, he sugested that it was as a result of a defective head that didge /chrysler knows about and is fully covered under warranty to 250,000 kilometers and until 2023. He says the misfire occures at low RPM because of a sticking valve that occured during a manufacturing process. I do nothice at idle a fluctuation on my rpm guage and when i put my Scanner in its about a 50 rpm up and down range but not enough to register a misfire. In any event, car goes in tomorrow to be properly diagnosed. We bought it ten days ago and frankly there is talk of a 50/50 split on any tranny repair. My 50/50 was a donation of 13 grand ten days ago. I expect a vehicle still under the 30 day warranty to be fixed free. So just a FYI it may well be that the head problem suggested by the dealer is the cause of all the tranny issues. I will know better tomorow and advise .

 

I've personally seen this with a 2011 GC Pentastar

 

What happened?

 

Oh the joys of Dodge ownership!

Well after fighting with Dodge for months about the TIPM (Total Integrated power module ) fuel pump relay issue. We finally got them to meet us a little more than half way on our Dodge caravan.. Got them to pay for the part and we had to pay for the labor..better than a sharp stick in the eye but really still sucks...It sucks because though it is a clearly documented "known" issue..Our caravan VN number was not included in the recall..same failure, same problem as all the vehicles recalled but mysteriously our model was not found to need to be included in the recall..

Well that a whole other issue..

So we get the van back and while in the shop they did a few other recall / updates including the M38 "reprogram the tranmission control module"

The van does have almost 130,000 miles on it ( we bought it from the company that had leased it as a pick up delivery van) My son in law had driven it for them from day 1 so knew it well.
I have a OBD scanner and recorded the codes when we brought it in for the Tipm ..no codes regarding the trans..

Never had an issue with the trans...and definitely didn't have a problem when we brought it in for the TIPM replacement.. as soon as we got it back the trans was making a weird whirring noise) we drove it for a few days and it seemed to be getting worse..over the weekend that trans started slipping in drive so we parked it. Iran the scanner and it showed an error code that 3rd gear was out of sync..
We contacted the dealership and asked if the M38 could have caused this as we were not having any issues prior to them doing this...Of course they said they doubted that it would but told us to bring it in for inspection.

I drove it there barely ..by the time I got to the dealership it was undriveable I literally coasted into the dealership driveway I had to leave it in the driveway..it would not go in drive or reverse.

So two weeks later they finally get back to us..to the tune of about $4,000 dollars in repairs..

They said it needed a new trans solenoid, a new torque converter, compounder ( whatever that is) a master kit..
After taxes just under $2,000 in parts and 16 hours of labor at another $2,000+

all from a 3rd gear out of sync code..pretty cool..

I am posting here to see if anyone else experienced the same issue after the M38 reprogramming update.

I'm going to buy a used transmission with low miles and have it put in by a local trans shop the total will be @ $2000.... I suspect I have about even odds on the end results going the $4,000 Dodge dealer route..

After it's fixed probably just going to sell this lemon and stop the insanity. It is unfortunate because it is a nice vehicle and I have been a Dodge fan since my first Dodge van in 1972 ( with the slant 6) it was an awesome vehicle and ran forever......Have a 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 that has been very trouble free

I learned very quickly that it appears Chrysler is running in crisis mode with regard to recalls and putting out the fires..

There is probably not enough money in the budget for them to staff a team that analyzes these failures, identifies the problem and resolves the issue before allowing the same failed systems to be incorporated into next years models