OT- Question for a Plymouth Voyager Repairman

Question is on a "99 Voyager van that I might buy, but I have not seen it yet. The owner says the instrument cluster sticks when it"s cold, what it means is that the cluster does not work till it gets warm in the inside of the van, after that the cluster will work just fine. What is the problem and is it something I should be concerned about?

Probably. Someday it simply will not come on, even when warmed up.

I've not had any experience with Mopar clusters, but on GM clusters coming on and off (the entire cluster or a portion thereof) was a preliminary to going off and staying off.

Remans could be several hundred dollars plus labor.

Looks like you could end up purchaseing
someone elses troubles.
One of the reasons Chrysler Corp. went bankrupt
is because they had to purchase so many vehicles
back, under the "Lemon Laws".
(due to defects)

You can get a used cluster on Ebay, starting at $55 up to $95. You should be able to get them even cheaper if you pull it yourself at your local junk yard.

I wouldnt sweat it, its plug and play. Just takes a little of your time to swap it out.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...amp;_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313[/url]

I have worked on and owned quite a number of chrysler minivans over the years. That vintage did have some issues with clusters. Also, connection problems in the wiring harness connectors at the cluster plug ins were an issue. I don't have information here at home, and I don't remember if a replacement cluster was plug and play, or if it needs to be initialized with a scan tool.

The dash cluster is probably the liest of your problems when buying a 99 model van.

I've got a 98 AWD Grand Caravan with 160K miles on it. Had very few problems. A few glitches with electronics but all were caused by bad connections - in the dash and at the doors. That being said, I wouldn't buy it unless cheap or in excellent condition. Mopar minivans are for sale all over the place and relatively cheap.

I never buy used electical parts....NEVER! You can get one that will last a while or have my luck and it will go bad the next day! New and reman dash clusters are not cheap.

With the history of Chrysler mini vans I wouldn't even think about buying one new, much less used! Heck I talked to one guy that's all he and his wife will drive.....this couple thinks everyone has tranny trouble somewhere around the 80K plus mark! Even called me a liar when I pointed out to them that we had driven several GM and Fords with autos past 240,000 without tranny problems.

In my area you see about an even number of Ford and GM's on the road. Out of every 10 vehicles you see pickup and smaller about 4&4 Gm/Ford split and the others are Mopar and very few foreign. Local tranny shop claims that even with that break down that 5 out of every 10 trannies they work on are Chrysler. Sure the Dodge diesel has a great motor.....but it comes in a really crappy shipping container! Now that Fiat owns it it's only going to get worse.....look at what Fiat is doing to CaseIH and NewHolland and what they did to the Allis Chalmers construction division!

Stay away from the Ford Windstar too, pre 02 are worse but newer are not great.

Now that said mini van safety comes into question. Couple of years ago NONE OF THEM PASSED! Not one! So they wrote new, lower standards for em! Cause the EPA and tree huggers think they are better than an SUV!

Just my 2cents!

Rick

Sir,I had similar issue instr.cluster would go dead and it would not start or going down the highway all guages would go to zero,I would slap the dash hard and it would correct it self instantly.I took the dash apart and it was the cluster,salvage yard had one for 35.00.I put the used one in and it was fine.Check connection at cluster,its not to bad to take apart either...good luck

Maybe somebody taking the miles off.

That I would like to know where, not around me. And I have had 4 of them.

I have had 4 of the Chrysler vans and no complantes and have driven others and looked at others but will only buy a Chrysler product anymore. And for GM not having tranny problems I had 2 Olds Ceira cars that were in the shop on the same day due to transmissions going out. Anyone beat that?

Leroy, tell you what you tell the guy to his face at the tranny shop he's a liar. I do know that for every Chrysler you see around here you 2 Fords and 2 GM's. And he claims that 1/2 of his work is MOPAR. Also you had 4? How many miles when you got rid of em on the average? Wife's sister drives Chrysler, never has a problem, drives em 3 years about 12K a year. So they get traded at 36K. I generally trade in about 240,000 miles. Drive about 50, 000 a year. Last 6 vehicles I've driven with NO tranny or engine problems were both Ford and GM, FWD 2WD and 4X4. Lowest mileage at trade.....214,000, highest was about 385,000 on a diesel PU. Current one is at 255,000 and going strong but we are looking to trade in the next years or so.

Rick

I luv Chrysler mini vans CUZZ they are EZ to work on.. I have worn out 2 of'em,,, the first ate 4 transmission's but they were all warranty trans under the 7/70 deal when i could spin the speed-o back :shock: after 7 years was up I built one in a sand box it out lasted all the dealer one's...

The one I have now has 200K on the original trans it owes me nuttin... But to make ya happy i just brought a GMC full size van,,, If I can not afford the gas I need to stay at home :lol:

They get loose solder joints on the back side of the board. I repair several a year.

All driven on a rual newspaper route of 130+- mile a day 6 days a week in all kinds of weather and stop and go driving averaging a stop per mile and with some vehickels over 200,000 and that is more wear than 600,000 miles of highway driving.