Manager Forum

I have a customer who has a couple of these 2002-2003 G. Caravans and have lots of power steering noise, the one another shop has just put in a new rack. That one is the worst one. Sometimes after it warms up a bit it gets better to where you only hear it at low speeds, parking lot manuvers. Has anyone seen this and had good luck with getting these things to quiet down. I didn't want to recommend a pump and hae it still the same after replacement.

Well, the first thing i think of is: Is the correct fluid being used? Chrysler wants the ATF+4 in its power steering systems for those years.

another point here is to make sure there are no kinks in the cooler line. there is an updated cooler offered to eliminate noise. used it a few times with great sucess.

I seen about the replacement cooler. How do I know if it has it or not, is it a matter of the cooling fins on it? After I typed it I thought about the fluid, and I have the company pulling up the invoice from the other shop to see what fluid they put in it. They are supposed to get back to me. But the other van they are having issues with I don't think it has been changed at all. Well if I hear anything or figure it out I will keep it posted. I had another company that had many of these at the last place I worked and they rarely had issues.

mainly make sure the correct fluid is being used atf+4 also the correct level is very important if the rack was just replaced and in the process, on start up they didnt keep the fluid level topped off it can damage the pump there is a tsb threw chrysler on a revised bleeding proceedure you use miller spec. tool which basicly has you use a mighty vac with a fanncy adaptor on the reso. housing to evacuate any air which was caused by the repair. it calls for letting the reso. sit under vac. for a couple of min. to remove all the air thats in the system if that doesnt help you can always put a bottle of mopar friction modifyer in it that with the vehical up in the air clock the steering several times helps. good luck let us know how it went.

I've had a few of these. There's a TSB for a shudder, which reroutes the hoses and sometimes adds a cooler. If it's a whine, take a look at the resevoir. There is a fine mesh screen in there. It gets partially plugged up, causing the fluid to accelerate through the free area, thus causing areation. If you look inside after dropping the fluid level, you won't see it. That's usually the area that's clear. Go in with a borescope or similar and you'll see the blockage. The first one I replaced I conducted 'surgery' on the old one. I have pictures here somewhere. If I find them I'll post. Everyone is right on the fluid. +4 is what's required. I've had a few where the pump was replaced to no avail. Both were the resevoir.

i looked to see what you location was and i'll add that being from n.e. i see a lot of kinked lined from snow bank slamming. look near the r/f lower control arm area. also if the line is resting against the fire wall it will sound like someone is cutting the car in 1/2. loop out the cooler with injection hose and see if the noise goes away. this is an ongoing issue with this vintage voyager, caravan, and there have been a series of bulletins that have addressed this. i've found it to be the cooler 75% of the time.

Thanks guys. I needed these posts so I could show a customer that I'm not just making this stuff up. Had the very same thing happen yesterday with an '02 Caravan. The customer just would not understand that I can't be sure, but I think the screen in the reservoir might be restricted. We had previously flushed the fluid trying to stop the pump whine (it was nasty). Now the customer thinks we're just grasping at straws and using his wallet to do it. It will be nice to show this customer just how much of a problem these vehicles are to other technicians around the country. I love this forum.

I cannot count on both hands the number of resevoirs I have replaced on these. When I worked at Chrysler everone told me I was nuts, (which I am) but Replacing them was fixing the problem. After that everyone was replacing them. I have at times used my Vacuum pump to make sure all the air is removed from the system.

...just did another one on Monday...