97 Caravan starting / electrical woes

[Mark3316]

We have a 97 Grand Caravan ES with a 3.8 engine. Here is the convoluted electrical history, most recent first:
Yesterday my wife drove to school, parked, and came back less than an hour later and the car was completely dead; no dash lights, seatbelt / key reminder chime, no clicking from the starter -- no nothing. I believe that she said the power locks worked but the power windows didn't. My immediate thought was a dead battery, so I stuck a meter on the battery posts, and got a reading of about 14.4 volts. I tried starting it just for fun, and it was as she said -- nothing. Thinking it over last night, I wondered if it could be the key switch. Today I stripped off the trim around the steering column and poked around a little waiting for inspiration to strike. Eventually I put my key in the ignition to see if that might help inspiration along a little, and the key reminder chime started binging [I had the driver's door open]. That was new, so turned the key and lo and behold -- the dashboard lit up in all the right places, the clock came to life, power windows worked, and the starter began clicking like mad. I have no idea what I did, but I'll take any credit that might be available.
An oddity that appeared at this point is that regardless of whether the key was in or out, the reminder chimes sounded whenever the driver's door was open.
I didn't immediately get under the van to stare at the starter, because the way the van was parked, the front and one side were blocked by high curbs, I don't know where the starter is on that vehicle, and the van's tiny ground clearance [or my large belly] kept me from getting under for a good look. Besides, that asphalt parking lot was HOT.
So I started poking around the "power center" with my handy multi-meter. Everything seemed OK -- 14.4 volts at the battery and at the starter relay, relay itself seemed OK, no inspiration to be found. I finally verified that I could neither locate the starter nor fit under the van, and started putting the steering column back together. Before I got finished with that, the mosquitos found me, and was ready to call it a day. At which point the power windows [which were now down] started to go up very s-l-o-w-l-y and stopped after only a couple of inches. I hadn't even worked up a good panic before realizing that the interior lights dimmed w-a-y down and the dashboard indicators were doing really wierd things [for a few seconds there, I was traveling at about 45 mph at 300 rpm, which I think is pretty good for an old fat guy in a dead van]. I hooked jumper cables from my car to the van, and let it build up for a good little bit. Got back in the van and the windows went right up, dash indicators behaved properly, and I decided to give it a try -- and darned if the van didn't start! Please remember that when the starter was only clicking, the battery and power center metered at 14.4 volts.
I left the van running, drove the car home and got my beloved, and we brought the van back home. At this point, it had either been hooked to jumper cables to a running car or running on its own for more than a half hour. When we got it home, my wife turned the van off, immediately tried to start it again -- and the starter only clicked. I was somewhat more expressive.
I put the meter on the battery posts, and got a reading of 14.2 volts. Hooked up the jumpers until we could roll the windows up, and at that point got a reading of 14.7 volts.

So, my question for anyone who is still reading is what the heck is going on, and in what part or parts is it going on in?? There isn't any current drain, since I got the same meter reading yesterday and today before I started letting the interior lights and that infuriating chime run for a couple of hours. More to the point, why is it that 14.4 volts isn't enough to roll up or down a power window [or start the vehicle], and 14.7 volts is enough to make everything happy. And, oh yes -- where is that starter?

If you will bear with me, two other, earlier bits that might be relevant -- and I promise they will be much more brief. About a month ago, we went through a spell where the van would intermittently die while at a stop light. There didn't seem to be any pattern to it, or correllation to engine temperature or anything else we could think of. The check engine light never came on, and although the shop did have it die on them, they didn't get any error codes or any ideas. It hasn't done that for probably 2 weeks.

The day before the first time it died at a stoplight, the "check engine" light came on when the van was started, stayed on the entire [maybe 10 minute] trip, and after that only came on "normally" -- while the enine is starting. Remember, please, that the shop didn't discover any error codes -- and while it might be possible that the car was started enough times to clear out the memory, I don't think it is likely.

If anyone can give me solace or suggestions about any of the above, I would appreciate it. Many, many thanks.

Mark Johnson

[yogi_123rd]

You should check your battery's connections - specifically the heavy ground wire. There may be bad ground/high resistance in that line. You might want to take that one off, clean it and where it mounts, then retighten it.
You've seem to have indications of low voltage in all things electric, but with a battery known to be good.

[rogertees]

I have a 98 Grand Caravan and I am having the exact problem. I get a lot of weird noises after I stop the engine, but everything else is just as described above.

I really the information also.

Thanks.

[reallynotaclue]

Mines a 98 caravan and exhibiting similar problems. I took the battery to be stress tested and it came back as OK althouth the tester made a comment that the battery seemed abnormally warm.
Reconnected it and nothing when I try to start it.
Next bizarre thing is that as I try to remove the key, a relay starts chattering violently under the steering column (slot 13 - cannot identify it in my Haynes manual). tried swapping it with one in slot 11, but slot 13 continues to chatter until I turn the key to ignition on location.
Decide to disconnect the battery and lie down for a while. As I remove the positive feed, I notice that it is VERY hot. ALso notice that the AETX relay is chattering in the engine compartment.
Totally baffled.

[sparky19692]

Most Batterys will read a good voltage when there is no load on them.
You will need to do what the other Gent did and have it load tested before you can rule it out.
If your battery connections are getting warm this is a indacation that you have a bad connection.
Simply remove them and clean the post and the inside of the clamp.
I would also check the ground wire from the battery to the motor it should be good if it will start with a jump.
How ever if your jumper cable ground is to the motor (witch it should be for saftey) this could still be the problem.

[reallynotaclue]

Yes , you're right. Immediately after hitting the send button with my problem, the penny dropped - hot battery, hot terminal, high resistance contact. I polishes up the terminals, reassembled all the panel I had removed to get at the relays under the steering column (what a waste of time that was) , and eureka!. Perfect start every time.

Thanks very much for the quick (and correct) response.

[Mark3316]

If anyone cares, here is the update and solution on the original post -- I did a bit more testing on the battery and discovered that although it was "fully charged", it only had about 2 amps! I replaced the battery and that solved all of the problems we had been experiencing.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions or applied brainpower!