Any warnings before purchase?

I'm going to look at a 2005 Town & Country with 84,000 miles. It's a one owner in excellent condition and pretty much loaded with options. Anything to watch out for? Anything to avoid? I will be replacing a 1998 Chevy Venture. It has been a great van but has cost us a lot in repairs, head gaskets once, intake gaskets years later and transmission repairs to name the major ones. Thanks in advance.

These vans like to be maintained well and will require good service practices for long life. Get it fully checked and fix everything as soon as it is a problem. Leaving one issue will make it snowball. Otherwise, I personally LOVE my 2002 Grand Caravan and don't regret it for a minute, even after the few relatively minor issues I have had.

Bring it to autozone to have a code scan or bring your own if you have one. I recently bought a 2002 caravan. I didnt realize the check engine light (bulb) was removed. Turns out 02 sensor was bad but unknowingly I went to get it inspected and it failed.

Bring it to autozone to have a code scan or bring your own if you have one. I recently bought a 2002 caravan. I didnt realize the check engine light (bulb) was removed. Turns out 02 was bad but unknowingly I went to get it inspected and it failed.


How did you repair it? I was under the assumption that it was a LED diode or soldered to the board as there is no access on the back of the cluster to replace any lights except the guage illumination lights and you'd be required to disassemble the cluster to get at that area as well.

my moms got a 2000 and all i've done to it is put new front brakes on it and i keep her oil changed. i'd just take it to your m.c. and have them check brakes,rotors,exhaust,tires and tranny&moter mounts.good luck..... scrapper

I was lucky My dash light is located in my "information bar" on top of the dash. I was able to pry it up (apparently loosened by the P.O. ) and flipped it to look in back. The circuit was printed with the name of the light. I called a dealer and then napa they had the light for like 2.50. It is a little light with its own circuit board bottom. The whole unit just twists in place like any other light. I can take pics if you want

We have a 03 Grand Caravan with 150,000 miles on it's 3.3 engine. So far just normal things like brakes and tires. Have absolutely no complaints about it.

Well some people have luck with them and some dont. We have owned 2. One was a money pit, the other is caughting up. the 01 to 04 have the best interiors/seats, the 05's got cheap seats maybe because of stow and go, no infomation center either, they added it to the dash.. 80,000? most only have up to 80,000 warranty and then your on your own unless there is a recall. ask if it has the extended 100,000 warranty. Otherwise they (01-04) are nice..the 05's ok. we drove an 05 100 miles or so and seats got uncomfortable, they seem harder...

And most important - if you do buy it - i would really recommend putting automotiveforums.com (this site), on your desktop, there are some really good people here to help if you need it......

This is why I buy a Dodge MiniVan, I have no problem buying used, maybe a little dirty and such, but most importantly, WITH a known problem...

A lot of times, owners dump huge amounts of money into them, and then oops, the engine goes, or oops, the transmission goes, then I buy it for under $1000 and fix it myself... Chances are they fixed everything else!

I have read that to, the Dodge GrandCaravans do have a better reliability than Town and Country, by far...

I've looked at a lot of T&C and Caravans in the 2004~2006 years and am amazed at how many of them are starting to rust already. I'm looking to replace my 98 Venture who's rocker panels are almost completely rusted away. The Dodge and Chrysler vans are starting to rust in the exact same place my Venture did, right in front of the rear wheels. I looked at a 2006 tonight and would estimate in about 2 more winters of salty roads there will be a significant hole on the bottom of the rocker panels and probably creeping up the outside of the sheet metal. The rust on the drivers side was actually bulging the metal and paint in that typical volcano like fashion, about 1" in diameter.

I just replaced those sections on both sides of my 2002 and the passenger side rear wheel arch had one of those blisters which required replacing about 3" of sheetmetal. No big deal really for me as I have friends with body shops, but even on your own it is not an expensive repair. This seems to be very common with all minivans.

Well the north and northeastern vehicles can be prone to that...

This is why a lot of people get their car washed every week in the wintertime... It helps...

My suggestion is to try to find a van WITHOUT undercoating... It REALLY doesn't work the way it should and whoever the dealers use (or if they do it themselves) to DO the undercoating, don't usually do a good job...

Many times the undercoating RETAINS that salty water because the undercoating has sort of, "loose ends", that will collect water and trap it...

Every time I see a van without undercoating, it tends to be pretty clean...

Maybe that can be a starting point in your search, and maybe what I say can be collaborated...

Good luck
Mike

We finally ended up purchasing a 2005 Caravan. What we found was an SE that looked more like an SXT. Grand Caravan, 75,000 miles, roof rack, 16" alloy wheels, dark tint glass, nice pin striping, quad captains chairs, front and rear heat and air, etc. But no power sliding doors or power lift gates or uncomfortable stow and go seats or other useless options that cost you money and gray hairs. And without stow and go you get a full sized spare tire.

I'm on the fence about stow and go. I'd love the ability to stow the rear-most seat when needed, but it really isn't that big of a deal to pull it out since I only have 2 kids and my wife so I really only need the 4 chairs most of the time.

I have made a lot of repairs to my 05 caravan. Some under warranty such as intake manifold leak and water pump and many not covered by warranty. Struts, alternator, sway bar bushings and links, brakes of course, idler pulley and belt. I bought it with 57k and now have 188k. I have had it rust checked regularly until this year when I noticed what started out as small rust perforations in the drivers side rocker panel had turned into a hole you could throw a cat through. A body man told me the other side isn't far behind and its caused by foam stuffed inside for noise supression. I was willing to keep making repairs in the hopes I could catch up to them all but this issue really discourages me. I would not buy another for this reason.

So basically you bought a used car, got over 130K miles out of it only having to perform maintenance work to it, it has some rust thanks to the local governments lust to use salt in winter and you advise against it for some rocker panel rust?

ALL MINI VANS have rusty rocker panel problems. Look around, Pontiac Montana/Chevy Venture vans of the same year range are BRUTAL for this.

I think you got more than your money's worth out of your van if you ask me but you ARE entitled to your opinion.

Actually that is km not miles. I bought the caravan because it was rated as the best of the North American built vans. In my research before I bought I found no warnings of rust, at least not to this extent. The area rusted is 3 feet long and about 4 to 6 inches wide and includes the actually frame of the vehicle. I had a 1994 voyageur that had no where near this kind of rust and I also own a 2002 Intrigue that has over 200,000km with no apparent rust. I wash the van at least once a week, year round and rust check every year.

The water pump problem and intake leak were bad from the factory I suspect. I take very good care of my vehicles and like to drive them for many years. I like many things about this van but the quality has left me disappointed.

I have already replaced my rocker panels on both sides so to me this is a non issue. As for it being KM instead, that is still over 80K miles. I've put over 50K KN on my can in the last 3 years and I have had to make many repairs, but nothing ridiculous. MY biggest pain is the damn blower motor and resistor with repeated failures.

In my mind, the Caravan is the least of all evil when picking a mini-van. The Honda Odessey is the best but it is double the cost, even used. Caravans are cheap and easy to fix and parts are cheap, even in Canada.

I always recommend Caravans, but I do add the warning that it IS a Dodge and it will require some "love" from time to time.

Any recommendations for fixing rocker panels? I am not much of a body man but want to give it a go.

IF you have access to a press brake (even a manual) to bend sheet metal, they are not made of complex bends so they not TOO hard to make. Otherwise, try finding some aftermarket. Chop out the old, tack weld/seal the new and use rocker guard to paint.

I'm no body man either and mine came out pretty good with some patience.