Power steering pump leak, 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan

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JTK

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Aug 14, 2003
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Buffalo, NY
Today I noticed a burning oil smell on the DGC. The van has just over 8K miles on it. I don't drive it nearly as often as my wife. Having recently done my own oil change, the first thing I checked was my work. Not a drop around the o/f housing, dry as a bone around the oil pan drain plug, oil filler, etc. No signs of motor oil dribblage, but yet you can clearly smell it under the hood with a hot engine.

Jacked the front off the ground and crawled under to find all kinds of red wetness around the power steering pump.

It's funny too, because our van made a cold start moan/whine/wirring noise when we first got it and it eventually stopped doing it.

FWIW, the PS pump looks extremely unpleasant to remove/replace on the Pentastar. It's buried in there.

Gotta check our schedules and make a dealer appt. Wonderful.
 
Good thing it's got warranty. Bit early for a pump to go out though, better think about getting extended warranty.
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of Dodge Grand Caravan ownership (I have a 2005). Let's just say be ready for many, many more issues. My wife loves the thing but so do the repair shops. Good luck.
 
Originally Posted By: Corollaman
Welcome to the wonderful world of Dodge Grand Caravan ownership (I have a 2005). Let's just say be ready for many, many more issues. My wife loves the thing but so do the repair shops. Good luck.


Huh.
I wonder when stuffs going to start failing on my charger. It's an 06 and 70000+ miles and nothing has blown up yet.
I must be lucky
 
Thinking back, I've owned three minivans: 2001 Ford Windstar LX, 2008 Honda Odyssey LX and now the 2013 Grand Caravan.

Every one of them had P-steering problems! The windstar got a new steering rack under warranty due to leakage.

The Odyssey had issues from day one with a noisy pump and basically no p-steering (at times) during parking lot maneuvers. Honda did replace the PSF reservior and suction hose to pump per a TSB/recall. It helped some, but not much. We lived with it.

Now a basically brand new van with a pump covered in red, right near exhaust of course.. YAYYY!!

Have to schedule something with the dealer this week hopefully.
 
Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: Corollaman
Welcome to the wonderful world of Dodge Grand Caravan ownership (I have a 2005). Let's just say be ready for many, many more issues. My wife loves the thing but so do the repair shops. Good luck.


Huh.
I wonder when stuffs going to start failing on my charger. It's an 06 and 70000+ miles and nothing has blown up yet.
I must be lucky


Yes, you are extremely lucky.
 
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Not sure it's fair to compare an 05 to a 2013 but what domestic vehicle doesn't have its issues?


Whenever I'm at the local dodge dealer for parts (2005 GC), there seems to be a larger number of Caravans in for repairs (newer ones 2009+) than any other model.
I asked the service guy about it once.."no comment".
 
Dang! That shouldn't be. I'm on my 5th. Caravan/GC. Just have not had those kind of problems. Granted, my 2013 GC has been in the shop 3 times since last June, but they were all trivial things. I hope that's the end of it since we just turned over 32,000 miles.

Good luck,

Wayne
 
Follow up.

Dealer confirmed the PS pump is leaking. Of course they don't have a replacement pump in stock. I love this. How can you run a huge service dept and not have something as basic as a PS pump in house? I know no-one leaves anything on a shelf so to speak any more, but really?

3-5 days to get a replacement in. Now I get to figure out how to get the van back in again. Had a nice 90min shuttle ride home (all thru the 'hood and whatnot), only to have them call 30min after I got home to tell me they're done with it for now. Yay!
 
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Hmm.. wonder if this issue will be more widespread. I looked under the van last week and there were no signs of leakage... yet.
 
The pumps on our two 4th generation vans were always noisy. Replacement of the fluid with fresh ATF+4 usually helped, at least for a short while. We did have to pay out of pocket to have the PS pump on our '03 replaced at 80k miles. Our '07 still had its original pump when we sold it, but it only had 46,000 miles, too.
 
Had the van in two days ago for the PS pump replacement. They basically had it all day. The write-up said a fitting on the high pressure side of the pump was leaking, which required removal and replacement of the pump. They also had to re-use the original pump pulley and replaced any ATF+4 lost in the process, which appears to mainly be all over the subframe.
frown.gif


I didn't look it over in detail, but a PS pump replacement doesn't look pretty for a Pentastar in a minivan. It's down low, firewall side.

Anyway.. The van still makes it's Pentastar cold start moan/whirr noise for a few minutes. Main thing is, hopefully no more leakage/smell.
 
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Originally Posted By: JTK
They also had to re-use the original pump pulley and replaced any ATF+4 lost in the process, which appears to mainly be all over the subframe.
frown.gif



They weren't tidy when they did the pump on our van either. It looks like they used a fluid cannon from about 5 feet away to fill the reservoir.
 
LOL!! So true. I gave the engine bay a quick clean after a quick driveway wash today. I just wish I could keep that black interior somewhat clean. My kids, in combination with their sports and outdoor activities is destroying it. ~11K miles and 8mo of ownership and it looks like 4x that.

I'd love 3 rows of Husky liners or weather techs, but I just don't want to do $300 for that purpose.
 
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