try this again :(

[Shelby]

just spent 45 minutes typeing this thread only to have it go away

so i'l try again

 

some 5 months ago i was haveing dash and gauge problems with my 96 caravan , every dodge forum i found said the same thing , replace cluster and body bcm well i did that in fact 3 or 4 of each

and nothing , at $100 to $150 a pop for used parts this got old fast

 

finally i joined all data for a yr : another as i have 2 caravan's and both were giveing me problems all ready wasted 5 months of that ,

 

 

heres what it was doing only thing working on cluster and info center was tach , engine ran fine but no speedo, gas or temp gauge and not one system indicator

lamps for any thing abs air bags ,door open etc worked

 

all the dodge forums said replace dash cluster and or bcm , well after 3 clusters and 4 bcm's i was no where same thing , i spent weeks going thru the diagrams and they are not user friendly , the more i read the more i was thinking this is

not a ecu problem but a power to these diff systems but flowing power flow charts

was impossible due to embeded circuits in a molded fuse box circuit board , after

looking for a week and 5 diff fuse boxs for the same yr 96 caravan i lucked out

and found one with same wireing and numbers

 

well this week end Mike took pity on me cause i still ain't able to get under

the dash and work on the car , he swap'd the fuse box i had been carrying

around for 5 months , and wha-la i had speedo ,gas , temp gauge , abs.air bag

system and all indicator lamps

 

only two systems i can't get to work,, remote lock indicator horn sound ( locks

work))and radio power amp i can hear the relay close but the amps don't work

minor stuff

 

me i'm happy as hell not for spending $500 for parts i may not have needed

but the fact i was right in my diagnoses that it was the fuse box all along ,

but at the same time pissed it only took 5 months to fix and i had to have some

else finish my work

dam geting old sucks

[importwarrior]

Glad to hear you fixed it.

sad to say i agree. getting old sucks.

[freebird]

my sister drives this same van to work.

She has always had the same problem, but never bought or wanted to buy a dash cluster, as everyone said she needed to.

 

She drove it up here from Tenn. one day I looked into it.

I started to remove it and it just started to work, came right on????

 

So I looked it up on the internet, found someone saying that you should soldier a section of the back of the cluster because they fail.

I did that.

 

She drove it around here and it shut off again.

I went to remove it again.....it came back on all by itself again!!!

 

So my solution was to keep it loose...it has no screws in it right now.....lol

When it quits working she bangs on it....kicks it whatever...and it works again....ha ha...she loves it...makes her feel like a mechanics she says.

So you say it is in the fuse box ehhh?

[Guest]

Hey, you got it fixed that's what counts. Sometimes pride gets in the way and will not allow you to recognize you need help from a fresh outside mind.

 

Now put all them extra parts you back for sale on them Caravan forums to someone else with the same problem. lol j/k

[87redcat]

Dodge.... Mmmmm had an ex GF with a 1st gen neon. dash also quite working. pulled it and found some solder connections that were bad. resoldered them and they started working.

maybe its a factory thing. that sealed fuse box... open one up...

Glad you got it working though.

You must be feeling better to look at wiring diagrams.lol

[Malykaii]

Wow, sucks to hesr that shelby. I remember you were once writing up a how to for cam degreeing for me and same thing happened, lost all your work.

 

My first car I high school was a 96 Caravan. Loved that car till it hit 100k and then the next 30k were hell. Everything broke besides what you mentioned. Speaking of, my oil pressute warning lihht would always come on and ring despite perfect pressure. Could be related?

 

Tell me Shelby, how many trannies have you put into it so far?

[Shelby]

first off started looking into wiring diagrams back in early jan , things got put on hold due to being sick,, had that fuse box sence jan , just got arround to installing it

 

trannys, let see i rebuilt the one in there at 229k it has 265k on her now , as far as i can tell it only had one other tranny replaced at 135k

i'm only puting 8-10 k on her per year so it should be good for a while yet , i've owned it for 5 yr

drives like a new car still and gets 25 mpg on highway

[Malykaii]

So you mean to say your happy with the car. I envy you sir cause mine was awful despite my mom being the original owner and all.

 

So no rack/pinion failures, cracked radiators, clogged heater cores, brake problems, and on and on?

 

We finally gave up on ours at 145k. And off all my customers never seen anyone turn 200k with one.

[Shelby]

So no rack/pinion failures, cracked radiators, clogged heater cores, brake problems, and on and on?

 

 

well I have replace all 4 axle bearings but the fronts were already new when I got to them , same with timeing chain , some one had taken real good care of the van before I got it,, only one rear was ,making noise I replaced the rest just to be safe

I picked it up for $100 at an auction with a bad tranny, cost me $500 to rebuild the tranny ,with the

mileage on the van I figured I'd have to do some maintiance on it but it has not had any thing real

major expense the dash thing wasn't all that much to fix it was a pain to find the real problem part

having to guess on this part and that part did get to cost a bit but the real cause wasn't all that

expensive ( the guessing was a lot of $$ )

other then that it has only been normal maintenance parts nothing more then with any car with 260k

miles on it

[Xtclink]

Guessing is AWESOME!!! Almost as good as assuming =)

 

makes for good times