Dodge: 87 caravan - assorted stuff

That is the malfunction indicator light which will provide you with a
code telling what it is indicating if you cycle the ignition key on,
off,on, off,on and counting the flashes and noting the pauses between
each series of flashes.
Post them on here and one of these guys will tell you what it likely
needs. Also include engine size, mileage and anything you thind someone
may ask you about when they reply to your post.

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 18:55:52 -0600, net (James
Goforth) wrote:
 

1, long pause, then 2 flashes, then one and almost no pause before 5,
and then 5 more - counting the regular beat as matching that of the
door open chime

its an 87 caravan, 3l V6, 156k on the odometer, but about 80k on the
engine (a replacement done years ago). I've had to rewire the
eindicators on the drivers side ysterday to get them to work, butt
hats all i can think of. I'm going to do an oil, transmission and
radiator flush this weekend, but also the accelerator feels a bit
dead, and sometimes gets very very stiff, dunno if thats related.
 

i said a few questions in the subject, and realised i onl did one as
well - others were

what sort of power output did this engine have?

what sort of mpg is typical for this vehicle?

The fuel guage floats a lot, often ranging by over 1/8 tank within a
few minutes - is this normal (a flat tank?)

It has a tow-bar on the back, whats its towing capacity?


thanks in advance

K`Tetch

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 20:39:25 -0500, K`Tetch <for.you>
wrote:
 

ok, having gone though my haynes, it gives a list of the codes, and
what they mean, and how to read the flashes. I've just checked again,
and i've got the following codes
12, 15, and 17, followed by the 55 (end)

17 i know about, and will fix this weekend, i hope, but the
explainatiions for 12 and 15 are unclear to me. (should i point out
this is my first van, first V6, and first american vehicle ever owned
having stuck mainly to small european and japaneese hatchbacks with
1.5l or smaller engines, some with multiple turbos)
 

I have an '89 with the 3.0 and automatic overdrive (604) transmission
and it will get as much as 23 mpg in ideal conditions and probably down
around 20 when it's real cold, windy or whatever. I think that's pretty
decent mpg for a vehicle of that size.
I'm pretty sure they are Mitsubishi engines. I've had three of them,
two have had decent power but the one I have now is kind of a dog, was
never sure why as everything is adjusted to specs, even put it on a
scope when I was in school; it's just a dog.
But they'll go for a pretty long time (150-200K) with decent care,
although they're known for the valve guides either getting loose
resulting in poor oil control (a lot of them smoke); or they've been
known have the guides slide down toward the combustion chamber so the
valve will no longer close resulting in a "dead" cylinder.
I'd ask around a little bit regarding the flushing of the
transmission; I'd be a little apprehensive about that because in some
instances (esp hi mileage trannys) it can take out the transmission.
I THINK this is because the clutches may be sufficiently worn to where
much of the facing is gone off them, and then to introduce a complete
change of trans fluid with it's very high detergent characteristics can
sometimes be enough to wash the remaining clutch facing off much sooner
than it would have otherwise, not to mention the potential for loosening
up other undesirable stuff--I mean, this vehicle is pretty old. Perhaps
just changing the fluid & filter (in the pan) may be safer. But that's
just my opinion.
I don't have my books here to address your other questions, I thought
one of the other guys would have weighed in before now, many of them
more knowledgeable than me.