This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Upon slowing down to make a turn or when entering an intersection, vehicle will completely shutdown. Consumer noticed that when this occurs oil light illuminates.
- Teaneck, NJ, USA
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Consumer started vehicle and heard a loud noise, smoke started coming out from the front, consumer turned off engine, but it kept on running, consumer called fire department, claim 05-4650-711.
Engine started to have a loud squeeking sound on start-up & squeek continued after but not as loud. Brakes noted to have a longer braking time when travelling at 50 mph.
Ongoing problem with engine stalling intermittently while driving;.vehicle been in / out of dealer shop on eight occasions, and informed consumer that they are unable to duplicate problem. Please provide any further details on this matter.
Major problems followed months after engine replaced. While travelling on major highways, suddenly engine sputters, loses power, stalls. This has happened too frequently - on dangerous highways - rt. 1 in Florida keys, rts. 20 and 26 in nc and SC. Also occurred in very dangerous intersections in asheville, nc and myrtle beach, SC.
About two weeks ago our 97 Grand Caravan SE, 3.3L V6, 45,000 miles died at an intersection and would not restart. We had it towed to a dealer that Sunday evening. On Tuesday I was told that the problem was a blown head gasket ($700) as two adjacent clyinders were low on pressure. Later that week I was told that the head gasket was ok but the camshaft was broken ($1400). On Thursday I was told that the camshaft bearings were damaged and that I would need to either purchase a rebuilt shortblock or longblock ($3,300/$3,800). I went to the dealer to view my engine (now disassembled on a bench) and the camshaft was in two pieces. A clean break with no blue color on either the camshaft nor the camshaft bearings. I was told by the dealer that camshaft bearings were only serviced by using the shortbock (I.e., they wanted to sell me the whole works. From a hayes manual I purchased I discovered that you could indeed replace the camshaft bearings (seems logical as Chrysler does rebuild engines for resale). However I was told that the dealer did not do this. I asked them to find an automotive machine shop that would do this. After a couple of days with no call backs I found a couple of machine shops that would do the job for $35-$150. When I told the service manager this information he said they could get the camshaft but not the bearings. The service manager asked me if the machine shop could get the bearings. Their book showed camshaft bearings for mini vans up to 92 only. They probed further and discovered the bearings listed for the 3.3L cars were indeed the same part needed for the 3.3L Caravan. Next week I hope to be back on the road for a lot less $$$ than the options that were presented to me.... still not satisfied as to the reason for the breakage. It wasn't oil starvation as the oil ports on the camshaft bearings were still in alignment. The oil pump is also still working. It looks like the camshaft had an undetected flaw at the time of manufacture. My first attempt.
The vehicle will shut off while driving which causes it to lose all power steering and brakes. Most of the time the engine has to be restarted but there have been occasions where the power steering and brakes initially lost power, which made it very difficult to control the vehicle. The power steering and brakes will then just kick back on however, again causing loss of control of the vehicle since we are trying to oversteer it due to the original loss of power. This is an extreme safety hazard since the failures occur without warning and while the vehicle is moving. The vehicle has been to two different Dodge dealers on four separate occasions for repair but the problem has not been fixed because the dealers have not been able to have the power loss happen while they were driving it. These failures have occurred approximately 8 times since we bought the vehicle new.
Warm start, engine may stall or stumble when accelerating from a full stop. Attempting to pull out, across an intersection may result in being stalled in the middle of an intersection. Transmission shifts erratically/randomly with harsh engagement (apparently related to engine control trying to process erratic speedometer output). Speedometer erratic/random output from 0 to 120 mph and as a result engagement of the cruise control results in engine attempting to match random speedometer reading. Cruise control problem results in random & uncontrolled acceleration.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Silver Spring, MD, USA