Electrical problem in our van

Hi,
I posted this query on misc.consumers.frugal-living since I know the folks
there. I was directed to repost this here and hopefully get some ideas on
how to fix this problem.

Original post:

We have an electrical problem in our van. We are not sure if we should
take it to a dealership to see if they can figure out the problem because
our mechanic is stumped. So I thought I would present the problem here to
help us decide what's the most frugal thing to do with it.

Our van is a 1996 Plymouth Grand Voyager, 79K miles. Since last Monday, it's
had an intermittent starting problem. When you turn the key, everything
works but the engine will not start. Our mechanic discovered that a fuse was
blown in the part of the transmission that tells the car it's in park.
Replace the fuse and the van starts fine until the next time it blows that
fuse. We can't tell if the fuse is blown until we try to start the van
(that is there is nothing unusual happening while we are operating the van).
Our mechanic is racking his brains but hasn't be able to figure out what is
blowing the fuse over and over.

Two weeks ago, my DH installed a new CD radio in the van. He's a very
meticulous guy and followed the directions carefully. The odd thing was
that the battery was dead the next day. It was an old battery - original to
the van. It was so dead it could not hold a charge and we had to buy a new
one. The van then worked perfectly for a week until this electrical problem
popped up.

When the van didn't start last Monday, we had it towed to our mechanic. He
replaced the fuse, checked all the systems and couldn't get the problem to
reappear. We got the van back the next day. I drove it to Aldis, then to
Tops (another grocery store). At Tops I couldn't start it and had to have
it towed again to the mechanic.

Our mechanic doesn't think the new CD/Radio could've caused this problem but
he took it out, checked all the wiring, drove it all around with the radio
out and later put the radio back in. He couldn't get the fuse to blow
again. So on Friday when I went to pick up the van, our mechanic said that
he thought he solved the problem but just in case, he wanted me to take a
spare fuse and showed me how to replace it. Good thing he gave me that
spare fuse since the damn van decided not to start in the parking lot of the
local copy store. I popped in a new fuse like I was shown and off we drove
back to the shop. After I got back and turned it off,
it couldn't restart. During our drive back, it had blown the fuse again.

I'm not sure who hates this van more, me or the mechanic. My suggestion
that I drive around with a case of fuses was not met with much
enthusiasm.

We are wondering if we should take the somewhere else. What are people's
experience with electrical problems? Is the fact that he's not finding a
solution a sign he's not competent or are electrical malfunctions always so
complicated?

Chris

 

Could be just a coincidence, but I certainly would suspect the radio
that was added. Try taking it out for a week or so of driving and see
if the fuse still blows. If it does, then I suspect that you are
somehow pulling power through the circuit with that fuse when you use
the radio. Hard to say without seeing how it was wired.

I wouldn't call the mechanic incompetent just yet as electrical problems
can be hard to diagnose, especially when they involve equipped added to
the vehicle later.


Matt

 

have your tech remove the left front wheel then the inner splash shield then
carefully inspect the wiring harness that runs from the battery/pdc to the inner
body by way of wheel well