1997 Dodge Van problems
Owners have filed 41 complaints with NHTSA about the 1997 Dodge Van. Brakes is the most reported problem area, at 17% of complaints. Next are suspension (17%) and air bags (12%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 41 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Brakes 17% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 4 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 6 and 0
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
What the data shows
Safety-related details: 4 complaints mention a crash; 6 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1997 ranks 1st most-complained-about out of 4 model years of the Dodge Van with enough data (25 complaints in that window).
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
On a divided highway traveling 60MPH, approached a red light and another vehicle coming from the left, ran the light and hit consumer's vehicle on driver's side, running it off the road into a ditch head-on. Upon impact, driver's side airbag didn't deploy. Contacted dealer.
My 3 years old doughter was able to disengage the gear from park to neutral without depressing the brakes. She ran over my son who was going around the car to enter from the other side. The car is a dodge van 1997. I spoke to the dealer about the incidents and they said that the caravan model 1997 did not come with this safety feature"to change gears from brake, drive or neutral. You do not have to press the brakes' I belive this is a afty feature tht should be recaled and fixed.
Driver's side seatbelt does not retract back into position, and middle row captain seat by the side doors has never worked, totally inoperative.chrysler and coachman will not take the respondsibility for providing the parts or fixing the seatbelts. Also, received recall notice for air bag. But dealer was unable to fix because their analisis machine was off.
The heater core sprung a leak while driving which rendered the defroster system inoperative. Vehicle immediately fogged up. This reduced the driver's visibility because the driver was unable to see out of the windshield. Consumer pulled over and cut the windshield off, and drove the rest of the trip with the windows down, and defogger switch in the off position. The heater core was replaced by a mechanic who had difficulty finding the part. This may be due to faulty manufacturing design.
The problem that I am having is with the gauges. My ABS and check engine soon light comes on and the gauges go out. I can tell how fast I'm going I can tell how much gas I have and my doors will not lock themselves. I have had the computer reset. We have diconnected the negitive battery cable and reconnected it. We have beat on the dash till they come back on. These are only temp fixes because pretty soon here comes the lights out goes the gauges.