I just bought a dark red '97 3.8L AWD Dodge Grand Caravan at a chrysler dealership in south st.paul minnesota on concord ave and they sell brand new chopper motorcycles too.
I guess they are a car/motorcycle dealership.

But the thing about the van was that I could hear the fuel pump hissing really loud & I can hear the tranny chattering during idle. When I asked the salesman what those things were he just said older cars just picks up a few noises after a while and the van is running great since they got it as a trade-in and he claims to not hear the tranny chattering when I can hear it loud and clear and he says that the loud hissing noise is just a pin size hole in the exhaust system and a quick spark weld will seal it up. The salesman was a middle aged guy that was really into chopper bikes.

When I took the van out for a test drive it seemed to pick up slow & heavy but when it got going it was fine. I thought that since it was AWD it had to use alot more power to turn all 4 wheels and that might be why.

It was listed "sold as is" for $5,900

I decided to take his word and got a loan from my bank and headed back to the dealership and pickup up the van. I put $1,000 cash as down payment and handed it to the salesman and all docs are signed and done and my bank will give me the rest tomorrow to give to them since my bank close at 6:00pm and it was already 6pm. So after all said and done I get to take the van home tonight.

And what do you know! I hop online and read this forum to only find out that caravans has the worst tranny ever.....
I fear that the reason that my caravan feels slow & heavy is due to missing first gear or worst a first step to a complete tranny break down.

Since I haven't given them the rest of the money yet. Do you guys think that I can still return it or do you guys think the salesman is right and the van is perfectly okay.

I fear if I try and return it they'll say "the van was listed sold as is and it's your problem now since all the docs has been signed"
But they don't have the rest of the money yet and I'm the one not the bank that's going to give it to them tommrow from my savings account since my bank put the loan money into my savings account instead of handing me a check.

 

Is my caravan fine?

 

You're in Minnesota? Check out this link.
Attorney General

 

wtf, OMG

 

Sorry, I'm in Colorado, I've always thought we have 72 hours here but have never checked into it.

 

Why is my fuel pump so loud and is the chattering noise normal?

 

I don't think that the chattering noise should be normal, could be a lot of things, not necessarily the transmission. Sometimes the fuel pumps are noisey to some degree, without hearing the noise, none of us can tell you how normal the noise is.

 

POS won't shift out of gear.
It's stuck in a gear and won't shift up or down at all.

WHY DOES THESE VAN'S TRANNY DO THIS?

 

I really wonder about what it is about the trans....my family has owned numerous caravans dating all the way back to the eighties....My father had a 92 and NEVER did any pm type stuff an it ran great til 150k . Of all the caravans we have owned none of us have ever had to do a trans...even my uncles that went to 300k I hear the same about the rams and a few mechanics have told me that often people put the wrong trans fluid in them.

 

They go into limp in to protect the transmissions internals, usually 2nd gear and that is the only gear other than reverse. There is some sort of electrical problem or an internal mechanical problem.