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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / April 2008Dodge caravan ground points?
I am getting wierd things happening on a 2001 dodge caravan - all electrical related. I suspect grounding issues. Can anyone advise of the main ground points on this vehicle? - Battery - I guess cable from engine to body. - I am aware of one in the rear tail lamp assembly (left rear I think). Any others to check before I itemize the issues? Also - does anyone know how difficult it is to remove the main fuse/ relay block near the battery in order to 'flip' it over and clean and check things? tia for your patience and assistance. I found this that I am going to start with. It may be of use to others: This is a tuffy. My Chrysler service manual from Detroit only shows how to remove the dash, headlight switch etc. in ref. to a ground location. It doesn't show exactly where the ground is or how to get to it. The Body Control Module (over your left leg under dash) has a junction block in front of it that is separate and may contain ground points. The connectors for both should be cleaned and checked. The connectors on the PCM that is located up against the driver side fender behind the power distribution box should also be cleaned along with both ends of the battery cables. Also the Instrument Panel "leg" supports are grounds that apparently initiate in the printed circuit. I doubt that this is a problem but who knows. They show four ground points at the Instrument Panel "legs". As for the cowl you may have to remove the glove box or pillar trim to get to it. Here is the ground points inside the car as listed. G200---Inst. Panel Center Support (4) G201 " G202 " G203 " G300---Left Side Cowl G301---Right Cowl Panel G302---Left Rear Quarter Panel G400---In Liftgate (rear door) This looks like a grounding strip with several wires run to it) Here is the ground locations elsewhere. You might also look under the right rear tail light for a ground associated for a trailer wiring configuration. G100---Under Battery Tray G101---Left side of engine G102---Under Battery Tray (listed twice?) G103---Left Rear of Engine I think Chrysler made a retro wiring harness repair kit for the engine to alleviate a wiring problem. I was also told that there are grounds close to the radiator but I have yet to locate them. Hope this helps! >I am getting wierd things happening on a 2001 dodge caravan - all > electrical related. [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > tia for your patience and assistance. What type of problems are you having ? The first thing to do is have the battery checked. If it is the original just replace it, it is well past it's life cycle. When they get old they do not filter all the electrical noise and that plays havoc with the electronics in the vehicle. Cars today are mobile computers and cannot withstand any electrical noise in the system. >I am getting wierd things happening on a 2001 dodge caravan - all > electrical related. [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > tia for your patience and assistance. > The first thing to do is have the battery checked. If it is the original > just replace it, it is well past it's life cycle. When they get old they do [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > - Show quoted text - It is a brand new battery. I hope to get my mitts on the vehicle this weekend to take a peek. Problem is it is always in use. Rear tail lights out, rear wiper out, sometimes the dash lights up and will not start - funny thing is the latter only occurred after the battery was changed... Well - I had a chance to check things out for a bit this weekend. I was preparing myself for the worst, but so far so good..... - It turned out the rear tail lights was a relay issue. I swapped relays and they function ok , but now the horn does not - so obviously the relay. I'll get a new one tomorrow. - The heater I think turned out to be low coolant level and associated vapour locks. I filled it up, ran it with the cap off for a bit, and it seemed ok to me. Time will tell. (shhesh women - now I know why she is soo exasperated with me and the way I do laundry....) lol. - The issue was that the dash lights would come on and it would not start or even crank. She said if she wiggled the gear shift a bit it would start. I redid the battery connections and found an 'iffy' power + take off connection, so cleaned and tightened and it seems to be ok, but she'll have to drive it for a bit and see if it re-occurs. - The rear wiper motor I am sure is a relay and a gummed motor. I ran out of time to try to find the relay. I did not see it marked, so it must be in conjunction with another one. I'll have to check that further another day... I have had a bit of an issue with the caravan since new - it seems ot eat relays at the rate of several every few years it seems. Usually swapping them fixes the problem and causes something else to go haywire, so I have just been replacing them. When I was checking it out, I examined the large fuse/relay panel under the hood. It appears (but not sure on that one) to be secured by plastic snaps on on the bottom somehow. I am afraid to mess to much lest I break them. Has anyone ever had one of those fuse/relay panels out? I'd like to examine the underneath for any so-so or corroded contacts. thanks and regards. |
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