My van from hell!
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My van from hell!
I bought a 2009 Dodge Caravan SXT 4.0 6sp in 2009 and which suffered from a misfire engine code from the day I drove it off the lot. Here is the link to my post over two years ago.
Whenever I would pass, the engine light would come on and it would misfire like it was running on 3 cylinders. The only way to reset it was to pull off the road and reboot the engine by turning it off. After 7 trips to the dealer while in warranty, the dealer still could not fix the problem. That was three years and 100,000 miles ago. Now Chrysler customer care is involved and there is a new problem. The catalytic converter has failed (code 420).
The good news: After Chrysler got involved for the third time and a total of thirteen visits to the dealer fro the same problem, they steered the dealer to hard-wire the crankshaft sensor and the misfire condition that plagued me since day ONE, is now fixed (Yea!). But the dealer is denying any correlation between the misfire condition and the premature failure of the catalytic converter and wants to charge me $876 to fix the catalytic converter.
My argument: The severe misfire condition that went unrepaired for 100,000 miles has caused the catalytic converter to prematurely fail. If they had fixed the crankshaft sensor wiring that was causing the misfire condition three years ago, I wouldn't need a catalytic converter now.
Their argument: When the misfire condition would occur, the engine ran lean, therefore, it did not cause the premature catalytic converter failure - it is just coincidence.
Chrysler is still engaged with an open case and I am continuing to argue that the catalytic converter needs to be replaced by either the dealer or Dodge. Since the engine light kept throwing multiple codes on a weekly basis due to the misfire condition, I do not believe the dealer can say with any certainty that the misfire condition never ran rich and never flooded the catalytic converter with unburned fuel that eventually led to it's failure.
I am reaching out to all you Chrysler/Dodge techs to help me understand if I am right or if the dealer is right. Any technical information that would help me in my quest to solve this issue would be greatly appreciated!!
Whenever I would pass, the engine light would come on and it would misfire like it was running on 3 cylinders. The only way to reset it was to pull off the road and reboot the engine by turning it off. After 7 trips to the dealer while in warranty, the dealer still could not fix the problem. That was three years and 100,000 miles ago. Now Chrysler customer care is involved and there is a new problem. The catalytic converter has failed (code 420).
The good news: After Chrysler got involved for the third time and a total of thirteen visits to the dealer fro the same problem, they steered the dealer to hard-wire the crankshaft sensor and the misfire condition that plagued me since day ONE, is now fixed (Yea!). But the dealer is denying any correlation between the misfire condition and the premature failure of the catalytic converter and wants to charge me $876 to fix the catalytic converter.
My argument: The severe misfire condition that went unrepaired for 100,000 miles has caused the catalytic converter to prematurely fail. If they had fixed the crankshaft sensor wiring that was causing the misfire condition three years ago, I wouldn't need a catalytic converter now.
Their argument: When the misfire condition would occur, the engine ran lean, therefore, it did not cause the premature catalytic converter failure - it is just coincidence.
Chrysler is still engaged with an open case and I am continuing to argue that the catalytic converter needs to be replaced by either the dealer or Dodge. Since the engine light kept throwing multiple codes on a weekly basis due to the misfire condition, I do not believe the dealer can say with any certainty that the misfire condition never ran rich and never flooded the catalytic converter with unburned fuel that eventually led to it's failure.
I am reaching out to all you Chrysler/Dodge techs to help me understand if I am right or if the dealer is right. Any technical information that would help me in my quest to solve this issue would be greatly appreciated!!