2005 Chrysler Town and Country window (power)

RAVENS1FUNBABY

MEMBER
2005 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY
3.3L
V6
FWD
AUTOMATIC
75,000 MILES

Hello, Our driver side front window will not roll down. Every once in a while if we close the door it will work for a minute. All of the other windows and locks work fine but last week we started having problems with the other windows and door locks not working. Then our battery died on us but thank god we were at a Sears/Kmarts. I looked in the guide in the store and it said we should use a battery with 550 cold cranking amps, which I purchased. When I installed it I noticed the previous owners were using a 880 CCA battery. As soon as I started it up all of the electronics worked fine again except the drivers side window ! My question to you is could that too large of a battery have burned out my switch? Or is there any other relays or breakers inside the door that could have gotten damaged? Any help you could offer me would be greatly apprieciated as my wife is the primary driver of that van. As you probably know that " if mama aint happy, no ones happy" so if you can see my problem! Any help will be apprieciated. Thanks Phil

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,727 POSTS

I can't diagnose the window problem over the internet. But as for your battery, you're thinking about this all wrong. A new vehicle will almost always come from the factory with the smallest, (electrically), battery that will do the job. When you replace it, "bigger is better", but not required. A larger "cold cranking amp", (CCA) battery is like installing a gas tank with a larger capacity. The engine won't burn more fuel per mile just because the tank is bigger. That battery is not responsible for burning anything out just because it has a larger storage capacity.

You actually did yourself a disservice by installing the smallest battery that was called for. All batteries work due to a chemical reaction, and all chemical reactions slow down as the temperature gets colder. In winter climates your battery could lose half of its power. That's when the original battery was just barely large enough to get the engine started. To install a larger battery at the factory would translate into millions of dollars over the course of a model run, but for you to buy a much larger battery might cost an extra twenty bucks.

Those extra CCAs would give you more starting power in cold weather, and it would run the radio a lot longer before it ran dead. Next time you need to replace a battery, look for the larger CCA rating as long as it's a good value.

When a cell in the old battery shorts while you're driving, it will affect system voltage, and since all the dozens of computers are very sensitive to supply voltage, they get confused and do weird things. The insane engineers have seen fit to hang computers onto every part of today's cars that never needed computers before. That dying battery is almost certainly what caused all the other problems.