1996 Dodge caravan 3.3 Gauges not working

gasjake · 03-29-2004, 07:26 PM

My 1996 Caravan gauges do not work at all. I have checked the fuse(s), and thay are all fine.
The rest of the van works just fine. The fuel, temp,tach, and speed gauges do not work. The odo does not show up either. What can o do?
Thanks in advance.

shiNer45 · 03-30-2004, 12:37 PM

hi there i have a 2000 caravan that had this same problem a year ago, i took mine to a dealer in my area who is excellent, after buying a body computer ($250) and some other stuff,i have the 2000 model which may or may not be totally the same now heres what i had to do::
remove the A/C panel, radio panel cover after having to remove the ashtray/coin tray, on this panel u will find a few wire harnesses that plug into it, the problem is one of the harnesses wires, im not sure which one yours will be but turn the car on when u do this and start to wiggle the wires one by one pushing them in towards the harness, soon enough your dash will lite up again. my dealer told me u can try to find the same part which is hard and u have to goto the junkyard , but what i do is simply this, and once u get it all working tape the wires up so they dont move as much, i have to do this about every 3 months or so, but it really sucks in the summer when the air controls goto default which is defrost low heat on mine anyway, yours maybe different because of the year but i would look here first before u bring it in,
email me @ kcrawman@hotmail.com to let me know how u made out and if it worked id be interested to hear.
my van now the speedometer wont show me how fast im going sometime and my high beams dont work, im thingking it has something to do with this wiring harness because it is intermittent but the high beams have no power to the fuses,

good luck with all that

gasjake · 03-31-2004, 02:49 PM

Well i went the local dealer. They called me and told me it was the Gauge cluster that was bad and it would ONLY be $430 parts $100 labor + tax to replace.
I told them i could not afford it, and would pick up the van. When i got to the dealer they told me that they were able to fix the problem for a temp fix, but that it MIGHT go out again.
They did not tell me this until I told them no on the replacement. I now have a working guage cluster for only the $65 diagnostic fee.
TWO things here, they could have told me that the temp fix BEFORE the $530 price, That way if it went out again I MIGHT have gone back to them to get it fixed. Now they will NEVER get my business because I feel they tried to get the $ from me w/o the option.
Maybe it was not a bad cluster, and maybe it was I'll never know..

shiNer45 · 03-31-2004, 08:00 PM

hey what was the temp fix?

what exactly did they do to get ti going again, did they tell u so u can do it yourself if u have to?

gasjake · 04-01-2004, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shiNer45

hey what was the temp fix?

what exactly did they do to get ti going again, did they tell u so u can do it yourself if u have to?

That is the thing, they said it was done with the diagnostic computer.
I will have to search for a more honest dealer, fortunatly I live in a city with 5-6 dealers that can service dodge caravans.

scottw · 04-01-2004, 11:30 AM

Mine goes out from time to time but I can always get it back.
Try this, go to the fuse box under the hood, there is a 10 amp fuse all the way to the right (furthest from front bumper) labelled memory IOD or something like that. Pull it out, and put it back in.
I have no idea what IOD stands for but it fixes my dead panel every time.

gasjake · 04-02-2004, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottw

Mine goes out from time to time but I can always get it back.
Try this, go to the fuse box under the hood, there is a 10 amp fuse all the way to the right (furthest from front bumper) labelled memory IOD or something like that. Pull it out, and put it back in.
I have no idea what IOD stands for but it fixes my dead panel every time.

Thank you I will try it.
Does anyone know exactly what this fuse is for?

slandrs · 05-10-2004, 11:20 AM

My 89 Caravan is sending what appears to be false alarms with the temperature gauge running to hot and the Check Gauges indicator flashing and then falling to 3/4 toward hot in a matter of a couple of seconds. Today the fuel gauge showed empty with the Fuel Low indicator ON and then suddenly showed a more correct 3/4 tank.

I do have some cooling system issues with the fact that I cannot get a good amount of heat into the cabin through the temperature control of the HVAC system. I've replaced the radiator, some hoses, thermostat, etc. When I manually try to operate the heater valve at the firewall I get little to no change in the air temperature.

I'd like to get the dependability factor back up to a level that I can trust this vehicle to the rest of my family, especially for longer trips. Have any of you any recommendations. Thank you in advance. slandrs

crash8168 · 05-12-2004, 11:13 PM

I will tell you what the temp fix was. They disconnected the battery. The display has a habit of locking up on that model. Except it may never do it again.

LunchBoxDon · 05-18-2004, 11:37 AM

I have a 98 Grand Caravan with the same problem. I tried the Battery disconnect and the memory IOD fixes and ...NOTHING.

I also get the ABS light on consistantly.

Any other ideas?

/d

25trigger · 05-21-2004, 12:33 PM

i have had just about everything electronic go wrong with mine and i have come to the conclusion that it is the relays in the panel under the dash. I've had ABS, horn, radio, door locks, interior lights, ETC!! all have problems. I have bee able to remedy it each time by replacing the relays under the dash.

asotovx · 06-14-2004, 11:15 PM

My 2000 gr. caravan have the same problems described above, Iam already did the fuse thing, conect reconect the battery even replaced the bcm
same problem I about to replace the gauge cluster , I"ll let you know....

scottw · 06-17-2004, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gasjake

Thank you I will try it.
Does anyone know exactly what this fuse is for?

I found out that IOD stands for ignition off draw.

familyvan · 06-27-2004, 07:53 PM

To the original post of this thread. The dash is not working because there is a short. Go to this thread...http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=210076.. His fix seems to work.

housetwofull · 04-11-2006, 01:21 AM

I have a 98 dodge caravan with the gauges not working. It started that the gauges would intermittently work. Then the door locks would click open and shut. Then the lights went out. Then the windshield wipers. Then all of the above stopped working completely. No one could figure it out. Thank heavens for these forums. The IOD fuse fixed my van. I did what they said but it took two times for it to work. First I took the IOD fuse out. Which is located next to the battery in that fuse box all the way in the back, little red fuse, close to where the battery wires enter the fuse box. Then I disconnected the battery and cleaned the posts. Waited ten minutes and the replaced the fuse, then reconnected the battery. When this didn't work I tried again. This time replacing the fuse in additiom to everything else. To my amazement it now works. What a cheap fix. Definately worth a try. Thank you to the ones who posted this originally.

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