Greetings, everyone! My wife has a 1995 Caravan we've had for a few months now. It was previously her father's, since 1998. It has some things I need to address.

First, the history. My wife's father was an EXTREMELY easy driver. For him, driving was more about enjoying a good pipe than actally paying attention to the road. Due to his habits, the vehicle is mainly in great mechanical condition.

The wife cannot read gauges. She pulls off the road and calls me to explain that the temp gauge is "way up there". Bad thermostat. The endgame is she blew the headgasket. I had a shop clean and plane the head, and re-install with new gaskets (pressure checked ok). This was in December. Runs great.

Now, for the meat of things! 1995 Caravan, 4-cyl motor. 62k miles.

1) A few days ago I heard noises at startup that can only be described as a cam belt snapping against a plastic timing belt cover. An inspection this morning verified the belt is loose. I plan on replacing the belt this weekend. Looks like I'll have to remove the A/C compressor and front engine mount, and maybe the water pump and alternator. Does this sound about right? Anything else I'll need to deal with? Are their any particulars about other items in that area? Is the front main seal easily replaced at this time? Do the timing belt tensioners tend to go bad near this mileage? Anyone know the torque specs on the timing belt tensioner?

2) There is an infrequent popping noise in the right front suspension. Occurs mostly when turning the wheels from the right to the front, sometimes the opposite direction, seems to prefer for their to be loading of the suspension occuring. Anything in particular down there that would be worn at this mileage? Other than this noise, the suspension seems tight.

3) The passenger side doors lock and unlock intermittantly when locking/unlocking the driver door (from the inside, not with the door key). At times, the driver's door lock makes a very, very loud, vibrating noise when automatically locking or unlocking. When the father-in-law owned the van, it occured everytime the van was locked or unlocked from the driver's side inside lock. I offered to fix it for him years ago, but he swore it was a feature, not a problem.

4) Are there remote key fob's to go with this unlock feature? The driver's side door does not seem to do anything when we lock/unlock the passenger door from the inside, but as the previous paragraph indicated, there are problems with the circuitry.

5) The heat settings seem to change with accelleration. Weird, but true. I will have the heater set to floor/panel. During accelleration, it will fade out to some other setting, at least air stops blowing out the panel, but I can still hear the fan running. As soon as I let off the gas, air starts fading back into the panel outlets again. I could have this backwards, but I think it's correct as stated. Sounds as if there's a vertical blend door that's actuated by a vaccum diaphragm that's weak? Or is this another "feature"? How easy to fix?

6) Heat is not that great at times. The fan blows fine, although the blend door or directional door or something else is funky. It seems related to engine temperature. When we had the head gasket replaced, I specified a new thermostat as well. The engine remains amazingly smack in the middle of the temp gauge. It moves so little, that it always touches the hash mark in the middle of the gauge, even though it does move from one side of the mark to the other. When the needle moves to the colder side of that hash-mark, typically when at idle, the air is warm, but not enough to actualy heat the van when it's in the 30's. During acceleration it moves to the other side of the hash mark over about a 5-10 second period, and the heat from the vents begins to feel like real heat. Are the 4 cyl's goofy like that? I have not yet checked to see if the fan stays on during stopped idle. I can't recall having yet heard the fan run, but it should at least be working since the A/C worked fine this summer without overheating in idle traffic.

Thanks in advance for the help!

I hope I didn't load you all with too many questions on the first post! I'll be digging in this weekend, and can really use some help here!

Thanks!

I am in a rush to get out this morning but I know that I have seen Anwsers to many of your questions on the forum. Check all previous posts on all three Town & Country, Voyager and Caravan. Good luck and I am off to work. Ride On, digimon

Well, at least the timing belt, tensioner wheel, cam and crank seals, accessories belts, cleaning supplies and pulley puller all came in under $100. The belt alone for my car costs $80. Of course, it does drive four cams instead of one.

I didn't think that the other upscale lines would sport the 2.5L I4, so I didn't check there. I'll go look about now.

Thanks!

Oh joy of joys, the store gave me the wrong pulley puller! Argh...

They had two of the accessories belts, and I have to go elsewhere for the third. I have 15430 and 15470. Does anyone know which two these are, and what the third one's number should be?

I also could use torque specs on the crank timing belt bolt, the cam pulley bolt, crank pulley bolts, timing belt tensioner bolt, the other belt's various tensioners (one is done by the alternator), a/c compressor bracket bolts, and proper timing belt deflection. I don't have a Lb-in torque wrench, just a Lb-ft unit, so I figured I'd wing it if necessary.

Interestingly, the timing belt tensioner has more play to tighten the belt. Looks like it wasn't re-installed properly after the head was replaced.

And lastly, since they are actually socket drivers, why oh why do we call them torque WRENCHES?

Flaming Taco,

You wrote:

3) The passenger side doors lock and unlock intermittantly when locking/unlocking the driver door (from the inside, not with the door key). At times, the driver's door lock makes a very, very loud, vibrating noise when automatically locking or unlocking. When the father-in-law owned the van, it occured everytime the van was locked or unlocked from the driver's side inside lock. I offered to fix it for him years ago, but he swore it was a feature, not a problem.


I've been told the same thing about the driver's side door lock. Whenever you _don't_ use the remote to unlock/lock the doors, the car fights the key for the first few tries as an anti-theft "feature" and also to get you to keep using the remote. No one can confirm or deny this as a circuitry problem, but I see no rhyme, reason, or any pattern whatsoever to using the key to unlock the doors. The only lock that doesn't do this is the rear hatch. Funny.

If you run across the answer to this key "feature" and if the feature can be turned off, I would love to know.

Thank you,

Susan
Caravan 96, 99K
Oakland, CA

Hi Mr. Taco,

About your door lock problem. I found a possible fix in another thread on this forum: Crazy doorlock.

Here's the orig advice. You can check out the whole thread as well.

Susan
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gforster []
AF Enthusiast

Joined: Dec 2003

01-13-20 06:52 PM Re: Crazy doorlock (Post #2)
Dennis,
This is an easy fix... remove the door panel and carefully unclip the white plastic switch on the back of the lock mechanism. there are two wires going to it. Now you need to carefully take it apart and clean the old grease out of it and clean the contacts inside really well. Reassemble and test. Should now be working A ok. I had this problem with mine, exactly as you stated. Or you can just purchase a new lock switch. Good Luck,

Geoff

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FT-Try this link to get to the thread:
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=175399&highlight=Crazy+doorlock

Susan

Thanks, I'll check it out someday. We've never had a remote for the van, that's our reasoning for not using one.

The popping noise you hear when you turn is more then likely the front bushing if it kinda sounds like you are on a boat. But i would say go to SpeedyLube, JiffyLube and for $5.00 they will lube your car including the bushings and most likely you will not hear teh noise anymore. Good Luck

-Chris

Front bushings? Which one? There are two that come to mind; the outer tie-rods and the lower ball joint. It looked like all other bushings were of the rubber variety.

If it is only one pop while turning, I would say your ball joint is bad. Jack your vehicle up and try to pull out on the bottom of the wheel a couple of times. If you feel loose play in it then your ball joint is bad. Try wiggleing your wheel side to side like your trying to turn the wheel. If you feel loose play then your tierod end is bad. Another thing to look at would be the control arm bushings where it is mounted to the frame, there should be one bushing on each side of the frame. If you cannot see the inner bushing you can use your fingers to feel for it, and feel if it is all there. Either way if you are hearing a popping noise, taking it for for a lube job will NOT fix the item that is already bad.
Hope this helps,
Dave

About you heat problem. Since you have had the head gasket replaced there is probably some gasket material clogging up your heater core. I've seen this happen many times, when scraping gasket from the deck of the block. Peices of gasket would fall down into the water jacket of the block, then getting circulated thru the wate system and getting stuck in the heater core.
Remove both heater hoses from your heater core, then take your garden hose and begin to gently flush out the core, in one direction then the other, until you get no more debris from your core.
Hope this helps,
Dave

in my case is was teh front ones, but spee dee lubed them all for $5.00 the noise was there for about a day until the lube kicked in and it lasted for about 8 mounths good deal if you ask me