Thank you

 

Hello all. I have been having issues with my 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan CREW. A little history: I bought this "lemon" back in feb of 2012 with 700 miles on it. It has been reliable for the most part up until about 3 weeks ago.

First off, I am experiencing the EXACT SAME startup issues that the Video shows on this thread. When starting the van, it makes that awful ticking sound for 3 sec. only with the engine cold. This has actually been the case for a couple of months leading up to the issues I'm about to explain below.

3-4 weeks ago I was driving the family (Full load, 7 passengers) to go eat. Once I got on the highway and got to my coasting speed, the engine displayed the Check Engine Light (MIT I guess you folks call it) and the Traction control icon (directly to the right of the check engine light). At this point the cruise control would not work, and the van starting loosing power, no matter how hard I pressed the gas pedal. Once the van coasted to 60, the van Jerked hard and started responding to the gas pedal. Once I reached my crusing speed (70 mph) the engine pooped out again. This happened all the way to our destination (35 miles later). When we were finished eating, the van drove home perfectly fine. No issues.

I disregarded this and figured it was a fluke. Sure as heck, the next weekend rolled around, and the same exact thing happened with 5 passengers. At this point I took the lemon to my dealer. The found 2 bad Phase sensors. and a PCM upgrade was done. A oil change and tire rotation was also performed. Got the lemon back and about 2 days passed and the check engine light (along with the traction control) came on. Luckally I was down the street from the dealer and rolled the lemon right in there, keeping the engine on. The determined that the "other 2 phase sensors" were bad, and replaced them.

Well, last night, we went out to eat (and this only seems to happen at night, after or before eating, guess the van gets jealous) the van made the horrific clacking noise (such as the video shows) upon the startup and I knew within a split second that the lights would come on, and sure enough they both came up. Rolled the lemon into the dealer this morning and spoke with the senior shop foreman. He said that he will need to contact chrystler on Monday to see what the F-ing deal is.

I live in Florida and my states lemon law dictates that after the 3'rd repair, the manufacture must try one final time and then it will qualify as a lemon.

THANK GOD I put the maximum warranty on it and they are taking care of my rentals. They are giving me base model vans, which sucks because I don't have my touch screen and XM.

Dodge DID offer to reimburse me for 1 month worth of car payment. Which was a very nice gesture. I am anxious to see what they do for me at this point. I really hope they just throw in the towel and upgrade me to a 2012 CREW.

I will follow up with this forum for research purpose and let everyone know what the final results are. So far dodge has been involved in every step of the way.

 

Jerry, sound like cam phasers again giving you the problem. Your original faulty ones may have been replaced by similar faulty ones or installed incorrectly. If you can score a '12 Crew as replacement, go for it!