My 5 yr 50,000 waranty just past (at 52,000 miles after a long distance trip) and wouldn't ya know it, suddenly stuff is just falling apart here...

Hoping to get some ideas from fellow dodge owners, I have a grand caravan es edition, problems I am having are these

1. Passenger window works when it wants to, doesn't matter if you use driver or passenger switch it works when it wants to, you can get it to go down or up fine then all the sudden next time you go to use it nothing (no motor hum etc) doesn't seem to be the switch since drivers switch same thing happens.

If you roll the window down half way then stop the process and try to continue down or up it acts as if it has no power (no motor binding, no sounds or motion), no slamming of door or baning seems to get it to react but if you physically jiggle the window itself back and forth just a bit it somehow kicks in and starts working again, I am wondering if the connector to the motor itself is loose (since when you jiggle the window and hold either driver or passenger window switch then it kicks in), anyone had this happen and what aproximately should I expect to see it fixed?

2. The radio and cd player works fine but the presets are messed up, i even re read the manual thinking it was me, but suddenly now when you set a radio station and want to save it and hit save it flashes you press the preset button and "think" its saved only to go to another station or another preset and go back to that preset it suddenly shows station id of 138.7 and is just static... We had moved recently and I was going thru re-setting stations (not knowing this was happening) till I reset them all and now all 5 on the row are set to 138.7 (very strange),,, anyone heard of this happening? My radio and cd work fine just cant get presets to work right, thought about unhooking the battery and rehooking it up hoping maybe it would reset itself???? Anyone got any ideas?

3. It is cold here in Michigan so we generally have the zone heats on 70 or 71 for driver passenger and rear, when we shut car off and restart in the morning suddenly the a/c seems to be on? Is this due to my wife using the defroster possibly? I guess I just never noticed the air showing itself as being ON like that before but on the panel even when you shut car off with air off and pull out key and restart the ac seems to be on, (wife uses defrost mode alot) I tend to just leave on vents, maybe its that but curious of other owners input on that subject?

4. Suddenly in or under the dash about where the front passenger speaker or side mirror is (cant figure out where exactly) but as you drive down the street every once in a while you hear this weird plastic to plastic sort of snapping or squeeking it comes and goes but of course never heard it till now and now it does it on almost every trip to the store etc...
Is there anything in particular known to make this kinda noise that I can check or do? I confirmed the power mirror is stiff and works and nothing behind it in the holder, and nothing fell down into the dash area between winsheild etc, (no pennies etc)....


Other than that I shouldn't be too hard on it, other than trim and paint issues (bubble front lip, trip constantly coming off doors and DODGE logos all chrome coming off everywhere) it has gotten us around pretty safe and never broken down, just figured after warranty wears out all this stuff starts happening,,, hoping there are some things I can do or check to resolve these if not I guess its one big trip to the dealership...

Bill

 

1. Sounds like the window motor has a bad spot on the armature, would need to replace the window regulator in that door to fix that problem

2. Something internal to the radio, you could try unhooking the battery to see if that helps, otherwise you might have to get another radio.

3. The ac is on in defrost and defrost/floor regardless of anything that you do. This is a factory default programming, helps keep the windows unfogged in the winter.

4. Not sure about the noise, could be anything.....

Always when the warranty runs out....

 

Anyone got an idea of what costs should be for labor and a window regulator?
Will call the dealer in the am and maybe another one across town just in general to see if they will give me an estimate on the phone...

Will the dealer charge me to diagnose what it is if I bring it in?

 

Called dealer today explained problem he said it would be min $40 charge to diagnose it, possibly more depending on how deep and long they had to look to figure the problem out, then that amount would be taken off the total bill if i got it fixed there.

Asked what a 2001 regulator would cost (I suspected that as the problem) to replace he said there are many variables and many other things they check and do so without bringing it in to see it they couldn't quote me a number of anykind.

So I guess I have a broken window till I have an idea what it will cost to fix... can outside shops do work like this or just a dealership?

 

had the drivers side window & regulator replaced, According to the dealer you have to do both. It was about a $800 job. I thnk that the dealer should have been wearing a mask.

 

Had the same problem with the window. The problem was moisture got into the motor. It is not a hard job to repair if mechanically inclined but would not attempt if you have not done something like this before.

What I ended up doing was rebuilding the motor while still attached to the assembly. Just used the old gear casing which is a component of the motor. Was tricky job though.

If I were you, I would remove the door panel and give the motor a light tap with the platic end of a screw driver and see if it then works. This would point to the motor.

I do not know if they sell the motors seperate from the window cable assembly do they? This could be why the $800 charge for OldElvis.

 

With the window, it seems to be a common DCX issue - My Jeep Grand Wagoneer, 1995 Jeep Cherokee, and 1999 Plymouth Grand Voyager all had front passenger window screw-ups - the first Jeep had the same problem you're dealing with, the Cherokee and Grand Voyager windows refused to roll down. Try having a private shop other than the dealership do the work or do it yourself - When I started working on our van myself instead of taking it to the dealership, all of those "mysterious" after-warranty problems similar to your's quit happening (Makes you wonder, huh?). As for the radio, look on eBay for one - there are TONS of cheap, good OEM radios, cassette, and CD players for your van.