Hey guys and gals, newbie here, Glad I found ya. I had a qick question about my 02 Grand Caravan. I have developed a rod knock. I have already removed the pan, found the culpret, and replaced the bearings. This ifx lasted only about 30 miles. I know everything was torqued to specs but still no luck. My question is, has anyone had this problem? How long can I drive it? Or should I? I know my way around an engine and have always heard that if its knocking don't drive it. Hoever, I have heard and read lately that people just keep driving their vans like this. ????? Any help would be great. Oh, and have any of you ever just put in over/undersized bearings to solve this? I can't afford and engine replacement right now.

 

Welcome to the site. I moved this thread to the Caravan section,
FF

 

Welcome to DF
I would remove the pan and inspect the bearing you replaced and see if its the same bearing. It could be a other rod that is knocking.

 

There is a reason the rod bearing failed in the first place. Why do you think it failed?

 

Thank you all for replying. I have already inspected it. It is, in fact, the same bearing that failed the first time out. I imagine, that it failed due to neglect at one point in time. I bought the car with 66,000 miles on it. It now has just over 68,000. I only drove the car around town, and its a small town. I had owned it for only about 9 months when the bearing went out. I know why they go bad...but would going to an undersized bearing fix this problem? at least for awhile? And...is this an issue that Dodge had?

 

Well, there's a good chance the journal is scored, rod cap is stretched. I assume oil is coming out when you take the rod cap off? You thinking the last owner neglected their oil changes? I don't rmember any issues with internal on those engines. Good news is they aren't hard or that expensive to work on.