2003 Dodge Caravan - Please Advise - Transmission Problems


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2003 Dodge Caravan - Please Advise

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Auto Repair Home>> Automotive Repair>> Transmission Problems

SaMarfia
New User

Dec 23, 2011, 6:04 AM

Post #1 of 3 (2190 views)

2003 Dodge Caravan - Please Advise	Sign In

Year of vehicle: 2003
Make of vehicle: Dodge
Model of vehicle: Carvan
Engine size: Unknown
Mileage/Kilometers: Roughly 130,xxx

The wife was driving the van to and from to work one night she contacted me via Text to inform me that the van was making a weird noise then "JERKING" into gear so I got a ride to go investigate. I got in and the van drove like a GEM.

The next day she had no issues at all. Then the day after that the van dropped outta gear at a stop light and "Jumped" into gear (again while she was driving it), So I trolled it around a few blocks locally just to be cautious of being stranded. Again nothing wrong for me. I went ahead and checked the fluid levels, I even added a small amount of Lucas due to there not being much room in the fluid to hold much.

2 Days later She comes into the bedroom at like 7am and tells me that while she was trying to back outta the drive the van Dropped outta gear, and that she couldn't get it to engage in gear.

It took me about 2 hours to get around to looking at it but sure enough it wouldn't go into gear with normal shifting, but I noticed I could Coax it into gear VERY SHORT term by slightly revving the engine and letting the RPMS drop it would go into first and Reverse.

So I tried it once or twice more during different temps outside to see if that was a factor, it didnt appear to be.

Then the other day I tried to Coax it into gear to back it up like 5 feet to clean the garage and noticed the battery was almost DEAD.

I had remembered reading somewhere that the 2003 had some kind of electric transmission.

So now Im wondering if the battery had a DEAD CELL and/or wasn't storing power correctly could this cause all my problems?

Or am I gonna need to start looking for a new vehicle? (I don't wanna spend more fixing it than I did purchasing it so basically the Transmission Repair would exceed that after the other 2 repairs this year)..

Sorry about the long winded message, its like almost 7am and I have yet to be asleep

Id like suggestions before I spend money on it

Thanks
Shaun

Discretesignals
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
Discretesignals profile image

Dec 23, 2011, 8:30 AM

Post #2 of 3 (2155 views)

Re: 2003 Dodge Caravan - Please Advise	Sign In

First thing that you should do is take the battery out and have it tested. Make sure the battery connections are clean and tight after you know the battery itself is good.
After fixing the battery problem you'll need the power train control module scanned for trouble codes. You'll probably need to take it into a repair shop that has an enhanced scan tool to retrieve stored codes in the transmission control side.

Since we volunteer our time and knowledge, we ask for you to please follow up when a problem is resolved.

SaMarfia
New User

Jan 24, 2012, 6:15 PM

Post #3 of 3 (2066 views)

Re: 2003 Dodge Caravan - Please Advise	Sign In

Thanks for the reply, sorry about the time frame of my response we were just trying to debate if we were gonna repair or replace the vehicle. I think we have decided to proceed with both options and just have an extra vehicle. The battery was an issue but not the main issue so the next step we are gonna take is scheduling a tow truck to get it to a repair location and have it scanned to see what is wrong I will try to follow up with what I find out so I know im not getting SHAFTED. Again thank you all for your time in assisting us uneducated mechanics :)

-Shaun

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