electrical problem????

[millernancy]

Hi I hope someone can help me . I have a 1996 dodge caravan , The dash board panel goes completely dead sometimes and alarm will set while I'm driving . If I smack the top of the dash , sometimes a few times it will fix itself. Now when I start my car the panel does not work and the van will turn over but won't stay running . If I hit the dash and get the panel to work the van will run . Now it's taking about 2 hours to get it to work. Does anyone have any ideas about what the problem is ? Or how I can fix it ?

[RIP]

I would suspect you have a common problem that's been popping up lately. The solder joints connecting the connector to the instrument cluster circuit board have cracked due to torque created by the connector's wire harness pushing up or down on the connector. When you smack the dash, the solder joints close temporarily, closing the circuit. Temperature will effect them as well. Take it to the dealer and they will replace the instrument cluster and charge you around $800. You can fix it yourself for the cost of a soldering iron and a day of your time. There is a tutorial on how to fix this somewhere on this forum. I'm sure someone will pipe up and give you the link.

You're asking how can this possibly keep the car from starting? The Chrysler Collision Detection data bus, better known as the CCD bus (consists of 2 wires) allows all the computers/modules in the van to talk to each other. The instrument cluster is a primary user of this bus. If this bus opens anywhere you'll see erratic instruments and/or starting issues. I'd bet the cluster solder joints have cracked, opening the bus.

[millernancy]

Thanks so much RIP . Me and my husband followed your advice. We fixed our van today.....wow! neither one of us knows to much about cars other than basic stuff , or soldering and we did it . Thanks for saving us a bunch of money that we really didn't have. The van works great! You should have seen the cheesy grins on our face .

Your the best! We followed your video.

http://photoshow.comcast.net/rlshaull/

[RIP]

Happy to hear you found a video and it worked out for you. Now if we could just come up with a fix for the gas prices we'd all have that cheesy grin!

[jrprich]

Originally Posted by millernancy

Thanks so much RIP . Me and my husband followed your advice. We fixed our van today.....wow! neither one of us knows to much about cars other than basic stuff , or soldering and we did it . Thanks for saving us a bunch of money that we really didn't have. The van works great! You should have seen the cheesy grins on our face .

Your the best! We followed your video.

http://photoshow.comcast.net/rlshaull/

The photo show fails to load

[RIP]

This is off the Photoshow help page:

Note: in order to watch a PhotoShow, you must have Flash Player 6 or higher installed on your computer. If you don't have the Flash Player browser plug-in, you can download it for free from www.macromedia.com.

If that doesn't do it I'd guess it's some setting on your browser. Contact Comcast or your browser help page for help.