I recently replaced the battery on my 2014 grand caravan. Now every time I put the key in the light on my rear defroster button blinks for about a minute and then goes out. Is there any way to fix or reset this? I would rather not have to take it to the dealership.

 

The flashing light is the system testing itself or trying to recalibrate the blend door. It's called the EBL status indicator. (EBL is Electric back light or something, means the rear window defroster)

Normally this calibration operation is only performed once on a new install of a control head or by a scan tool. the values are supposed to survive key cycles and power-off (battery disco) conditions. In your case that non volatile memory is not working. So is recalibrates every key cycle.

Seems you may have a malfunctioning blend door or other climate control problems. Dealer will need t use a scan tool to determine the issue.

 

Thank you! Is there anything I can do without going to a shop?

 

Other than hope it finally cures itself or just ignore it, probably not.

 

I had this problem in my '14 Ram 3500 Limited & my friends '14 Charger (must be a MOPAR thing).

While the mirror defrost button (which I mistakenly took for rear defrost which my truck dosen't have) was blinking, I could not change any hvac settings. No heat, no cool. I took it to the dealership & they offered no solution except to flash it. They did that, charged me $115 and it didn't help. They then suggested that I pull the dash out and check all blend door actuators and recirc door. No way. I pulled fuses, unhooked the batteries to try & reset - all to no avail.



I bought an oem hvac control module for $100 and changed it in under 10 minutes. When I started the truck the light blinked and I thought it didn't work. After just a few seconds the blinking stopped and all of hvac controls worked again.



When that light blinks, the vehicle is telling you that it has failed a self check. Apparently, the module can run out of memory and when it does, it just stops working.



I hope my pain will be someone else's gain.

 

This happened to me on my 2013 GC SXT Plus when they rebuilt my transmission as the shop took the battery out of the van as soon as everything was back together and started the rear deforst button light start blinking but you could hear the blend doors moving open and close after a few minutes the light stop blinking and everything worked as it was suppose to back to normal.

 

Mine stayed on for at least 5 months. It sucked.

 

At minimum you should try unhooking the battery for a few minutes and hooking it up positive first and then negative (the order is for safety).
Also I would search youtube for "oem hvac control module" (Erik mentioned) and Grand Caravan (year) and see if there is a video on doing it yourself. Then you can judge if you are handy enough to try and replace it yourself.

Edit: here is the video on youtube