Questions and Answers

Chrysler Town & Country Battery Cable Q. Mr. Ciulla, I have a question regarding the following: 1997 Chrysler Town and Country SX 3.3 liter V-6 Automatic transmission 76,000 miles Fuel injection ABS Brakes P/S, A/C, Cruise

I have owned the van for about 7 months. Three months ago there were about four occasions over a 5 day period where it would not start. When the key was turned it would click but the engine would not crank. The lights and horn were working fine.

Each time it happened my wife was driving the vehicle without me, and each time she seems to have corrected the problem by jiggling the battery cables and tapping on the fuse box. When she told me this I naturally thought she was crazy. I brought the van to a mechanic who could not get the problem to repeat and found no problem with the battery, cables, etc.

The problem did not recur for three months, then about a week ago it started again, and has happened about 5 times in the past 7 days. I was able to get my wife to isolate that jiggling the battery cables fixed the problem immediately, but tapping the fuse box alone did not help. I was even able to observe it myself once.

I brought it back to the same mechanic who again was stumped. After that, it happened to me and I was able to isolate that jiggling the negative cable did nothing, but jiggling the positive cable made the vehicle start immediately.

The terminals are not corroded and all connections appear tight to me. I would appreciate any suggestions you may have.

Thank you,
Anthony
Meridian, ID

A. There's nothing crazy about this. You have isolated the problem and it should be easy to determine exactly what the cause is.

First thing I would do is take off the positive battery cable and clean the posy and terminal. Then put it back on and make sure the clamp is good and tight. Then do the same on the solenoid end.

If this does not fix it, you have a broken battery. The connections from the post to the plates inside the battery, on occasion, do break. This is a good possibility in your situation. Replacing the battery will solve the problem.