We have had a 2009 Grand Caravan SXT since July (bought from the original owner who is a very close friend of my wife). A couple months ago it randomly stalled while my wife was driving (she was in a residential neighborhood and had only been driving for a few minutes at low speed). She started it back up and everything was normal. A few weeks later this happened again. She asked her friend if this had ever happened to her and she said yes, and that there was a recall for a faulty ignition switch and it was replaced a month before we bought the van. After it was replaced, she had no more problems with it.

We took van back to dealer who did the recall work and they checked everything and said there was no problem with the recall work or parts that were used. They kept van for a week and could not duplicate the stalling problem. We got it back and my wife continued to drive it.

A few weeks later it started stalling again and within two weeks it was happening more often so we took it to our regular auto shop. They had it for nearly two weeks and eventually diagnosed the problem as an air bubble that was causing a coolant sensor to shut off the engine when it didn't detect coolant (they figured this out by working backwards from the sensor shutting off engine when they couldn't find anything obvious). The drained the coolant and refilled with new coolant, making sure there was no air pocket and drove the car for quite a while with no stalling. They tried again the next day and everything worked good so they called and we picked it up.

I mentioned that one time when I started the car it ran real roughly, but after a re-start it ran fine. Seeing the problems with the air bubble, the mechanic said that almost sounded like a head gasket issue and to keep an eye on the coolant level (there are no obvious leaks).

The car drove fine last night. This morning, I took a short drive and the radio was working, but no sound (this is probably not related, but wanted to mention it anyway). At the second stop sign in the neighborhood the car stalled. It started, but not on the first try (it wanted to keep "cranking" instead of starting). On the second try, it started up. I noticed that the air coming out of the vents was not warm.

I stopped and let it sit for five minutes. It started right back up and the radio worked. The air coming out of the vents was warm, but not hot. I drove it for five minutes and aside from the not hot air, everything seemed fine.

I stopped again for about 15 minutes. It started up normally (radio worked fine) and this time the air was hot. Car drove fine back home. I checked the coolant level on the plastic tank and it's just below the line (I didn't think to check it yesterday when I picked it up).

Diagnosis anyone?