We have a 2011 dodge grand caravan crew with just over 42000 miles. we just had to replace our alternator out of warranty, sigh. Now our cruise is continuing to malfunction. When we press the button sometimes it turns on and sometimes it doesn't. It appears to work ok when on and will turn off, but tempermental about turning on. Is that common? any ideas on issue and what I need to replace? hoping i can do it to save some money. All of the other buttons on the steering wheel and all else in the car seems to function well. thanks for any help you can provide.

 

Did you ever get this resolved? I have a 2014 and pressing the cruise button on the steering wheel does nothing. I happened once before and I turned the van off and back on and it seems to work fine. But now I can't get it to come on at all.

 

Is your airbag lught on and your horn working???

 

The airbag light is not on and the horn works. After putting up the post about the problem I think it was two days later that the cruise began working normally. Since then it refused to come on maybe once but generally it works fine. I think it may be the switch contact but it doesn't help to press it harder when it is not working.

 

We never were able to get it fixed. Our horn always worked and no lights. Check engine would come on randomly but we were told it was the gas cap. We even tried replacing the switch.

 

I had a similar problem and replaced the cruise control stalk. It is not expensive and not hard to replace.

 

Thank you for the suggestion lg411. I have seen nothing else on forums on this problem. If the problem continues I'll look into it.

 

mine does a very similar thing. it will always turn on, but sometime when i hit "set", it will turn the cruise off. it usually takes a bit of trying over and over before the cruise will actually engage and hold speed. once it's engaged i can increase speed, coast down and resume without issue.. but actually "setting" the cruise will often cause it to totally crash. let me know if you find anything.

 

I just remembered that 2011s don't have stalks like my 08. You have steering buttons. In that case I would look into replacing the clock spring. They are known to fail on these vans.

 

my 2011 caravan does the same thing. sometimes it works, sometimes not. I find if I turn the steering wheel sharply, it works. This may be do to the recall on the steering column. It also plays havoc on the turn signals.