I have a 2003 Dodge Caravan SE (3.3L v6) with a little under 50,000 miles on it. Last night I was driving it and it was fine. After parking the car, the car wouldn't start again. Had it towed to the shop, and this morning the shop tells me that the PCM has gone out on the car, and they need to replace the PCM. $1,000.

They said they were able to start the car after trying it for 5 minutes with the key; but then it died when they went around the block. They said there's no power coming out of the PCM, and they checked everything else (starter, fuel line, etc.).

My question is: is there anything else that might be causing the PCM to act this way? It just seems strange that the car only has 50,000 miles on it, and the PCM just "died." Does anyone have any ideas about what might be going on besides just that "the PCM is dead"?

Thanks for any assistance!

Neil

 

Sounds like it needs to go somewhere else for problem solving! No mil lamp on?

 

I'm not sure what a mil lamp is. I talked to the mechanic who diagnosed it. Since they were able to start it, but then it died, I asked him if it could be the ignition switch. He was insensed that I suggested that, like he didn't know what he was doing, and said that he tested the ignition switch and everything else, and there's power coming out of the ignition switch, but not making it past the relays to the PCM. No power coming out of the PCM he said.

 

Malfunction Indicator Lamp,(check engine light)the dude needs a diagnostic scanner to really check it out and see what is/isn't working. Could be a ground problem or something.

 

Well, when you turn the key, the regular dashboard lights go on, as they do when you start the car. But nothing happens. There's definitely juice in the battery (tried jumping it even), but nothing happens. No click, no nothing.

The mechanic said that he couldn't get any reading out of the PCM; that it's just dead. (When I picked up my car, I saw he had a diagnostic scanner hooked up to it.)

He also said that he couldn't get the check engine light to go off. That must be referring to when he was able to start the car and it was on for a few minutes before it died. I asked him how he was able to start the car, and he said, "We got lucky. We just got lucky."

 

I don't know if this is your problem, but I work on a fleet of Taxi's. All caravans from 92 and up. I know that when either/both, the crank positioning censor and the cam censorsgo bad. These van's will not start.You will getjuice toeverything but thespark plugs. We had onevan that had a part time faulty crank sensor, it would run when cold and stop when hot. Changed the crankcensor and its stillrunning 2 years and a flood later.