Electrical Nightmare

[blazingrace]

My 91 Dodge Caravan has many electrical problems. The latest one is the ignition won't work sometimes. The battery is strong. The interior lights work. The under-hood light works but when I turn the key I get no radiator fan, no fuel pump, no click and no radio. It may be a combination of things. The instrument cluster works intermittently, the windshield wipers come on in the off position so I keep the fuse out unless I need to use them and the power locks used to click, click, click on their own until I disconnected them. Any ideas? Could it be a combination of bad relay switches? If so, where can I find them so that I can check them and replace them? I'm a single mom of three and would appreciate any help!

[jsinton]

Sounds like you have a bunch of unrelated problems. The radiator fan is only supposed to come on intermittently, only when you're stopped in traffic with the engine idling, so possibly there is no problem there. The windshield wiper coming on by itself sounds like a problem with the WW switch, if it was an electrical problem like a relay or computer, it wouldn't come on when you needed it. Interior lights might work ok, but the starter might not turn, as turning the starter needs a lot of juice, whereas the little lights don't need too much juice.

It sounds to me like you might have a bad ground at the battery, it's really common, and it might produce the instrument cluster problem, the door lock problem, and the dicey ignition. Usually one relay goes bad, not a bunch of them. Also, make sure the ground between the engine and the body is good, this could do it too. Battery ground or body ground are really easy to fix, and a lot of repair shops will take advantage of a single mom and not check such things.

Once I had an old car with weird electrical problems, and I finally discovered that someone had methodically went around under the hood and loosened all the ground wires they could find. Probably some shop mechanic creating work.

Did you have the battery replaced? Did you have it charged before it was installed.

Describe your "instrument cluster not working" problem. I'm not sure if it's electronic cluster or mechanical like my 1990 Caravan.