98 Town and Country starting problems

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robingates - 07 Sep 2006 23:47 GMT

I have a 98 Town and Country LXi minivan that has an intermittent
starting problem. It will start and then immediatly die three times.
On the fourth try it will not turn over at all. Also many of the dash
lights will not come on. If I wait a day, it will usually start and
have no problems for a week or so. It has been to the Chrysler dealer
four times now and they can't find the problem because often it will
start when they get around to looking at it. Does anyone have leads on
what the problem is? Thanks.

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Robbie and Laura Reynolds - 08 Sep 2006 01:37 GMT

> I have a 98 Town and Country LXi minivan that has an intermittent
> starting problem. It will start and then immediatly die three times.
> On the fourth try it will not turn over at all. Also many of the dash
> lights will not come on. If I wait a day, it will usually start and
> have no problems for a week or so. It has been to the Chrysler dealer
> four times now and they can't find the problem

Wait a day, and the fifth time they should be able to fix it.

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NewMan - 08 Sep 2006 17:31 GMT

How old is your battery???

Lots of weird behaviour is associated with an intermittent short in
one of the battery cells.

Also, check the ground connections and make sure they are secure.

>I have a 98 Town and Country LXi minivan that has an intermittent
>starting problem. It will start and then immediatly die three times.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>start when they get around to looking at it. Does anyone have leads on
>what the problem is? Thanks.

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OrigDirtyOldMan - 18 Sep 2006 00:27 GMT

Had a similar problem. Had a "Pop" sound while cranking and the entire
electric system went dead. Thought I had some how grounded the starter
cable. Nothing found. tried jumping nothing. Next day it jumped fine.
About ten starts later dead system. Next day jumps fine. And again. This
time I wiggled the wires and it started. After going through this for a
month chasing wire after wire, I put the car on a crank tester putting a 100
Amp load and started cranking.
I received 12 volts, 12, 12, 12, 12, 4, 8, 10, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 2, 4,
8, 12, and so on.
Found out one of the plates in the battery had buckled causing an internal
short in the battery. Next time try turning on the headlights and see if
they come on while it won't crank. If the lights are off/very dim it might
be a bad battery.

>I have a 98 Town and Country LXi minivan that has an intermittent
> starting problem. It will start and then immediatly die three times.
> On the fourth try it will not turn over at all. Also many of the dash
> lights will not come on. If I wait a day, it will usually start and
> have no problems for a week or so.

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