I have an 03 Caravan that died on the highway. Will just crank but won't fire. Hear fuel pump, tried starting fluid with no success and have spark. Sure do miss the old easy to work on cars. I have a 92 Caravan on its last leg with 250,000 miles on it that I like much better than this 03 right now.

 

The early 4 gens, including your '03, have a well-known problem of the injector wiring harness melting. It happens in the section of harness that runs under the P/S reservoir, and can only be seen by lifting the res, removing the harness covering, and examining each wire individually for melting. It's unusual to have one shut down completely because of this, but the MAP wire also is in this harness, which makes shutdown more of a possibility. You should also check OBD with a reader to see if codes or pending codes were set.

 

diagnostic report was that cam sensor and crank sensor were not synchronized. ??Things that come to mind-timing chain(2 months old!!) & ecm. What else?

 

When describing a new problem it's always a good idea to include information about recent, related repairs. So you're now saying the timing chain had been replaced 2 monthis ago? It's really unusual to read about a chain being replaced on thise vans. Can you describe what happened to cause that replacement, and everything that was done?

 

With high mileage an leaky fuel injectors you may have washed all the oil seal from the piston rings .
I had a motor 40 years ago I had to pour oil in the throttle body @ times to reseal my pistons oil film that had been washed away by the leaky gas to make possible compression .
Pour about 3 ounces of oil in the throttle . Then spin the engine over to reseal the pistons & build compression needed to burn the fuel'.
You will get lots of smoke till the excess oil is burned from the cylinders.
As soon as the oil lubercates the rings the engine will start up.
My method always worked till I could get a better low milage engine.
good luck. I really appreciate the *** that is messing with my post as I type !

 

When I got this from my step daughter the head gasket was leaking. Not a huge leak but annoying enough. I also noticed the oil light coming on occasionally when the van was warm so figured the oil pump was failing. I also had a problem with the van having to heat up before driving or would choke out and die. In the winter that meant at least 10 minutes. As changing the oil pump involved removing the timing chain cover it made sense to me to replace it all. I also replaced the radiator and hoses, spark plugs and wires, oil sending unit, and the oil pan gasket was also leaking and replaced. My son in law replaced the front struts, springs, and stabilizer links and it still made that rattling noise. I figured it was the strut mount but unfortunately he did not tighten the bolt on the stabilizer link on one side enough so if the mount was good at the time it wasn't anymore. And I think he must have bought the one year warranty ones that didn't need greased because I had to replace the one that snapped when all the stuff was tightened up. By this time the weather was better but it still didn't want to go right away when starting for the first time in the morning. I have owned Caravans for years and never hated one before. I am also leery of this flex fuel. Can I just use it even though I have used regular fuel all this time?

 

It sounds like your current problem is likely to be caused by something done wrong on the chain reinstall. But I've never had to do that on my vans, so maybe one of the techs here can give some advice on that.

I hesitate to make the following comments because it will sound a bit like kicking a guy when he is down, and that's not what I'm trying to do. But you're saying lots of negative things about this van and unfortunately I think it's possible that much of what's happened is self-inflicted.

Oil light coming on is very common on our vans, and the great majority of the time is fixed with a new sending unit. So it's likely all of the oil pump-related work was unnecessary. And the prime suspect for rattling noise from the suspension is sway bar bushings - happens like clockwork on these vans. I have all original suspension parts on my '03 with 160K miles (with the exception of those bushings), and it's still solid as a rock.
But regardless of any of the above, I hope you get your van fixed quickly, and also that it's problem free going forward!