I can't believe it!! Anyone ever seen this happen?

I was a proud owner of an extremly sharp..1994 T&C loaded up with all the fancy do dads..leather, digi dash,AWD, ABS, fancy rims, infinity premium stereo..electric everything you can think of available..and well Ill admit we loved everything about it ...But then the B.S. started..little things at first (keep in mind I bought this in May 2004 with 68,000 miles)
lower ball joints ..and a axle shaft...no biggie...then next it was front and rear struts-shocks-and because they were bad...my tires were shot ..so new tires ...I am still not to concerned...well then while coming down out of the rocky mnts. with my wife and our children.. my ABS light comes on ( yee haa) well whattya think happens next I hit my brakes and the pedal goes all the way to the floor (are we havn fun yet)..well I thankfully get the van stopped with help from down shifting and applying the emerg. brake...well after we all cleaned our shorts out...I call for the tow truck..do you know what it costs to get a van towed out of the Rocky Mount.s...just walk away right there is what I should have done...well later the next day the dealer calls and says you need blaa and blaa and blaa and some of the major parts are replaced by the Manuf. but of course they still got me for $430.00 plus 270.00 for the 60 mile tow..next you wont believe this one ..christmas day coming home from mother in laws all of a sudden a huge vibration from the front and the rear and were talking major ..loud grindy noises up front and loud thumping noise from the rear.I get it to the house and borrow my dads 91 grand voy. to use and on the way home with that I hit a deer and total it (lol). well get mine to the tranny shop and wow my tranny is shot ..and my transfer case housing is cracked ...get that all in and then they call me and my rear diff housing is also cracked (AWD rem.)
so $2,900.00 later I get this piece of crap back and its got a vibration..and the friggn ABS light is back on...so I call the place that worked on the ABS ..of course they are 1200 miles from me now( I live in N.D. had it last fixed in Colo.) and they say disconnect the Batt. for 10 min and try it again..same thing ...I give up on this Van..it is a piece of crap and I would now say "its better to be seen riding on a Moped than in a Chrysler Mini Van

yikes

yikes, Did the tow truck driver put it on a flat bed? Did he know it was a All wheel drive? If not he probally smoked the tranny can pull a dodge more than 10 miles

YUP! The driver could very well smoked the poor thing. Automatics dont take kindly to being towed, even in neutural.... good possibility.

yikes, Did the tow truck driver put it on a flat bed? Did he know it was a All wheel drive? If not he probally smoked the tranny can pull a dodge more than 10 miles
Oh definatly ..it was put on a roll off

Seriously, get AAA PLUS and pay about $110 per year for it. They'll tow up to 100 miles whenever you break down. Plus there's lock-out protection, out-of-gas-protection, flat tire installation, free maps, trip planning assistance (great for vacations), 10% discounts at hotels and eateries, and more. You can add family members for about $16 per year.

I've got four kids, three of whom drive and AAA Plus pays for itself many times over each year. And get this, AAA works for you no matter WHAT vehicle you're in... your AAA policy covers YOU, not your vehicle, so it works whereever YOU go. It's terrific.

Personally, I would trade the thing on another vehicle. After all that excitement I don't think my heart could take any more. The repair bills alone are enough to make one age prematurely. Good Luck!

Wow! Sounds like you have had a rough time with this one. DOn't gove up on Chrysler products. I own 3 of them and they have all been GREAT!
I do ohave to agree with HeadlessHoreman about AAA Plus. It's a real life saver. Take it from me...I use to drive a towtruck for a AAA Cotract Station. THere is always teh possibility that when the towtruck driver "hooked" the front to pull it onto the bed, he could have put the hooks in the Tranny boots and bent the shafts when he taughted the chains to secure the vehicle. There are holes in the subframe for towing. Good Luck!

We have a 1998 Caravan. I have thought about buying a plate for the front that says "MONEYPIT". In 3 1/2 years we have spent about $3000.00 in repairs. Rebuilt transmission, new radiator and new lifter struts for the rear hatch. The new tranny was a result of the transission line that goes through the radiator broke and flooded the tranny with coolant. I spent about $300.00 on 3 seperate occasions having the tranny flushed. I was desperate. Once the water is in there, there is no saving it. Today I just bought a new resistor pack because the heater blower only works on high. The reason I am on this forum today was looking to see if anyone had good instructions on how to get to it from under the dash. I can see the front of it sticking out the firewall. I feel your pain. Actually, if you can't get a laugh out of the misery these Caravans cause, you'll get ulcers or go insane. Every thousand dollars or so I think, "now I am trading this thing off", but then I think well, we've spent this much money on it and maybe we'll actually get some use out of it. Before that happens, we get another big bill. I wrote a letter to Chrylser telling them what I thought of the Caravan and just got a letter telling me they appreciated my comments.

Any of you Sams club members. If you get their higher priced membership, they have free Roadside Assistance plans. It saved me a few times already

Any of you Sams club members. If you get their higher priced membership, they have free Roadside Assistance plans. It saved me a few times already

Most Insurance companies offer towing and service call reimbursment coverage for a reasonable extra fee included on your policy as well, but that doesn't help you if you don't have the cash or plastic on you at the time of need.

I wondered when I read this, where did you buy the van from? Was it a car lot, or an individual? Reason I ask, after working for some used car lots (oh, the stories I could tell you), when we'd get a very nice vehicle with low mileage that the dealer wholesaled out to us, it was usually because they knew something of the car's history that led them to believe it would be a loosing deal to try to back it with a warrantee. If not in cost, in terms of word of mouth image of their dealership.

So alotta times we'd get beautiful cars that had suffered some hideous trauma that just hadn't become apparent yet. Some here brought up questions about how it was towed. The same thing crossed my mind. That, or running seriously mismatched tires for long periods, or very aggressive driving with lots of wheelspin on ice spotted roads are some of the few things I can think of that could cause this kind of total internal and structural failure of the entire driveline. The chances are the previous owner was aware of this possibility, and had been advised to sell the vehicle before it became unsellable.

I have seen what can happen to AWD's when you don't follow the recommendations in the manual. I had to rollback a Jeep Grand Cherokee AWD once after the owner had been running for several days on a small temp spare, even at highway speeds. He said it started grinding, and loosing power, and then smoking before he stopped. When I looked it over, it was blowing tranny fluid out of seals, the transfer case was leaking, and both diffs clattered like they were full of rocks when we pushed it inside. He bought a new car, and the Jeep was towed away by another company.

Now you know that being a high-end vehicle, with low miles (40's, I think) and all the gadgets, that someone was gonna buy it at auction, fix it as cheaply as possible, and pawn it off on some poor individual that would never see it coming.

That, my friends, is why I will never buy from a secondary lot. Individuals usually won't mess with selling something they know isn't what it appears, either out of conscience, or fear of reprisal, instead trading it in so it is a dealer's problem. They figure that way, whoever buys it will have a dealer and hopefully warrantee to back it when it fails. A new car dealer will not sell a used car off their lot to the public if they have any reservations about it's reliability. Bad for image. Those go to auctions and secondary used car lots. There, people who generally don't have enough money or good credit to buy from a new car dealer find the car of their dreams, and end up getting a nightmare.

It sucks, but that's the system.

I know most people are at least somewhat aware of this system, but thought I'd toss it out there for anyone who might not be.

P.S. Whatever you put down on a used vehicle at one of those lots is generally very close to what they have in it. That way, even if they never see you or your money again, they didn't loose. Something to consider.

Well im having a hell of a time with my 1997 voyager it has the 3.8 4 speed tranny in it i bought it 2 years ago and only drove it for 10 months only had 68,000 miles so as soon as i got it couple months both front sway bar links go on it that was $300 soon after that the radiator blew internally mixing tranny fluid and anti freeze and new radiator another $150 and so 2 days after that tranny starts slipping and it sat for about 1 year in my drive way and now im looking to have the tranny rebuilt and thats probably at least $1500 i will never buy another chrysler or plymouth product never again :banghead: i seen and spoke to hundreds of people with tranny problems on these vehicles i even wrote to the chrysler coorporation and they never answerd my letter. never again. I am pretty sure some poeple will disagree they probably had better luck with there vehicles but i just seen and heard to much about tranny problems with the chryslers. Good luck to all FrankC

I've been thinking of getting a Caravan or Voyager mainly for the ease of getting in and out. After reading these exploits maybe I'll stick with the '89 Corsica and the 149,000 miles. New brake pads and tune-up annually and that's it.