2000 Dodge Caravan starting problem

SCOTT3696

MEMBER
2000 DODGE CARAVAN
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
140,000 MILES

Heres what happened. My wife drove about ten miles and van started having gauges go up and down and dash lights flashing on and off then it died and would not start back up. I hooked up a code reader and no codes were there. But I did something your not suppose to do. I tried starting the van and it fired up fine but whrn I removed the code reader it died just like shutting off the key. Also the eatx shutdown relay contiinusly clicks and so does the auto shutdown relay. When I remove battery cable and replace they stop until I try starting.

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 AT 7:58 PM

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
34,400 POSTS

Hi scott3696. Sounds like you may have a run down battery. Use a cheap digital voltmeter to measure the battery voltage with the engine off and again when it is running. You may have to charge the battery to get it to start but the charger should be turned off when you're making the voltage measurements. We want to know what the van is doing, not the charger.

With the engine off, battery voltage should be around 12.6 volts when it is fully charged. If you find near 11 volts, suspect a shorted cell in the battery. When the engine is running, you must have between 13.75 and 14.75 volts at the battery. If it is still around 12.6 volts, the charging system will be the next thing we're going to diagnose.

Caradiodoc

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Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019 AT 2:46 PM