Questions and Answers

Caravan Electrical Weirdness Q. Hi Vince, Have a 1996 Dodge Caravan, 3.3 liter automatic transmission. It died the other day due to a shorted cell in the battery, the third one in six years. There was no warning, just went to start it a couple hours after it had been running fine, and nothing. There was a strange relay chatter that came from under the dash with the key off, but it stopped.

I replaced the battery and all was fine until I noticed the four amber lights flashing on the center panel. They are for the rear wiper, delay rear wiper, inside air, and air conditioning. The rear wiper was also on, which hadn't been before. Pressing the buttons would turn on or off all the devices, but they still continued to flash, all at the same time. After driving (and driving me crazy) for about 20 minutes or so, they stopped and all functioned normally.

Every time since, when the vehicle is started, they flash and eventually go out. It may be a coincidence, but it seems that when the heater is on and warms up the van, it takes a little less time for the flashing to stop.

This has been one of the many strange electrical problems with this vehicle. The automatic interior lights, speakers that go on and off, and cooling fans that wouldn't shut off are just a few more. Other than donating the van to the military for target practice, do you have any suggestions for my latest dilemma?

Thanks,
Tom

A. I guess I don't have to tell you that this is one hell of a problem. Electrical gremlins like this are a technicians nightmare.

I think the problems can probably all be traced to one component. The Body Control Module (BCM). All of the functions you have "mysterious" problems with are controlled by the BCM.I would want to be sure that it was definitely the problem before I replaced it, but that will be difficult in this case.