97 Voyager Vehicle Speed Sensor Problem?

Hi

We have one of the above 3.3L v6. It's been suffering a loss in power
steering and while moving the steering just goes completely.

Other symptoms include no speedo and the doors deciding to lock
themselves.

My wife has also been complaining that the steering seems stiffer than
she remembers. I don't drive it that often so I can't really tell.

Sensor might be at the heart of it?

Could it cause the power steering to fail or do I have a number of
bugs?

thanks for any advise

 

On my GC, the doors lock by themselves all the time. It is a safety
feature. If the doors are unlocked, and you drive a small distance or
above a certain speed, then the doors get locked. I don;t think this
would be a problem unless they behaviour pattern of the door locking
has changed.

No speedo could be the speed sensor.

The power steering system is a hydraulic circuit. The system is
pressurized by the power sterring pump. As long as the engine is
running, then the pump should be pumping. I had to recently replace my
P/S pump - at about 170,000 km as it was leaking. One thing that can
happen with P/S is inside the steering rack. Apparently there is a
piston. If the ring on the piston wears out, then the fluid will
by-pass and there will be the appearance of no power steering. This
usually causes "morning sickness" - that is, there seems to be no
power steering in the morning when the vehicle is cold. But after
driving a short distance, the power steering returns.

How many miles or kms on your vehicle???

 

Hi NewMan

The car has about 90,000km on it.

I read in another post somewhere that if the vehicle speed sensor's
(VSS) are playing up, the vehicle doesn't register that its travelling,
so the safety feature of central locking doesnt kick in.

Yes - its supposed to. And normally I would mention it, but it seems
that with the speedo not registering - and then suddenly coming to
life, that the doors then locking > points towards these sensors.

The other thing is the limp mode where the vehicle doesnt seem to gain
much power, not changing gear. apparently this also fits with VSS
issues.

A background note is that we have had the steering pump reconditioned
recently and I'm wondering if somehow the workshop might have upset a
connection.

A Chrysler service tech seemed to agree with some problems possibly
being the VSS's but he was less sure about the steering going
altogether.

another thing with the steering is that we have power steering and it
cuts out after a period of time..sounds opposite to morning
sickness..must be "all the rest of the day" sickness

bloody cars.

 

Well, intermittant problems are the worst.

If the Speed Sendor is inexpensive, you could try replacing it and see
if that cures the problem (shot gun).

As for the steering, if you paid good money to have the pump
reconditioned, then take it back to that shop. Have them drive it
around and see if you can reproduce the problem for them. Have them
test the pump to make sure it is generating enough pressure. BTW, I
trust you have double checked the P/S fluid??? Low fluid levels could
cause this too.

If your van only has 90,000 km on it, it should have lots of life
left! I fully intend on going past the 300,000 km mark. I will likely
have to rebuild the tranny one more time, but the 3.3 l engine should
make it no problem. And rust is not a problem on the West Coast.

So hang in there. In general, a car should last a LONG time if it is
properly designed, properly built, and adequately maintained.

kep us up to date.

 

Well I dropped it into the local dealer who replaced both sensors.
Relatively speaking the parts were not too expensive.

We put 1900km's on it over the last month during Christmas and haven't
had another problem. Looks like it was those sensors.

Thanks NewMan.