Reasonable match to its price
My power steering belt fell off in deep snow at 91000 km.
In general low maintenance car, however consumes too much gas.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 26th February, 2006
Love the vehicle, hate the defect
The belt will not stay on. This first happened on wet roads. Now it slips off for no apparent reason in all road conditions.
I have had the belt replaced 4 different times and it has been put back in place 5 times.
Each time the belt slips off, I loose all power and the engine immediately over heats.
I am afraid to drive this vehicle, as I do not feel it is safe.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 17th August, 2005
I had a 94 ES AWD Same problem, replaced the idler, never had a problem again. That was the only thing that ever broke on that that van. Have 97 TC belt pulley had been replaced when I bought it, drove it for 25 K, selling it to move up in years. Again no problems. Summary buy new pulley.
Awesome
Nothing yet.
This van's acceleration is amazing and the engine is powerful. I have had it for about a year and nothing has gone wrong yet. If you floor it, she will sit there spinning her tires and throwing up smoke, then lurch foward, sucking you into your sit. I have a friend with a 4 cyl, and he was following me home. We stopped at an intersection for a red light. When it turned green I throttled it and left a massive skid mark, he throttled it and his tires skipped and made a little noise. I love this van. Nobody expects to be beat by a minivan. The engine has Mopar Performance upgrades, which is part of the reason she takes off so fast.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 8th September, 2004
A danger
My van blew up!!
I thought that my van was very reliable.
I hadn't had any problems with it except normal wear-and-tear during the last two years.
I had not driven the van for two days, and when I neared it, I smelled something coming from the van that I couldn't quite pinpoint. I had my son check the oil, and while the hood was still open, he tried to start the van to warm it up. Gas spewed out all over the engine.
Four days later, my husband took a look at the van. He was able to move it closer to the shed where his tools are located. The engine caught fire and exploded almost immediately! The van is now totaled and almost burned my house down. If I had been driving it, I'm not sure that I would have been able to get out in time.
I research recalls on the Internet after this happened for the 1999 Dodge Caravan. I found a recall online. Certain engines have fuel rails with nitrole rubber O-ring seals that can degrade over time. Fuel leakage from the under hood fuel injection fuel rail could result, increasing the likelihood of a fire.
It was found by the Insurance Co. Investigator that the fire did start in the fuel rail. I never received any information on this recall, even though I have discovered that the recall was originally issued 9/8/2000, and they started notifying owners 1/25/02.
If you own this year model, despite engine size, I urge you to get your engine checked! As I said, I never had any problems with this engine during the last two years. Once it ignited, it exploded almost immediately.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 21st August, 2004
I sincerely hope that by "he was able to move it closer to the shed where his tools are located," you don't mean he STARTED it up to move it. I don't know why gas would just explode though, if not exposed to heat or spark. I hate to say it, but if you started the car, WITH A GAS LEAK, what did you honestly expect to happen? Let this be a lesson though not to ignore your recall notices, and to NOT drive a car with a gas leak unless you are 100% sure it is SAFE.
Given the seriousness of the situation, you should have stated which specific engine the recall covered, since Dodge offered 4 engines for this model alone, all with different fuel delivery. As far as I know, this effected the 3.3 and 3.8 only... not effecting the 2.4 or 3.0.
6th Oct 2005, 17:20
I own a 1999 Carava Sport as well. The same thing happened to us when there was 65,000 miles. You may want to have the belt tensioner replaced. Dodge replaced this part and we never had another issue.