Problems with 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan STRUCTURE

Sliding door opens itself while in motion on highway. very dangerous!

The sliding door sensor did not trigger and prevent the door from closing. it closed on my sons hand and his fingers were stuck in the door until i manually opened it. this was the sliding door on the driver side. vehicle was parked and turned off.

On friday, 10/28/2016, i was traveling on flat rock rd. in starr sc coming home from work. i crossed over railroad tracks and the rear passenger door started trying to open on its own. the door made a loud noise and the door light on the dash lit up. i pulled over. the door continued trying to open until i opened the hood and disconnected the battery cable. when i checked the door, it would not open and was smoking. i noticed smoke coming from the bottom back corner of the door on the outside. i saw a flame inside. i had nothing to extinguish the fire with so i flagged down a passing motorist who thankfully had a jug of water. by this time, the door and trim under it were actually burning. i extinguished the fire and found the fuse for the door and pulled it. later i found out that the vehicle had a recall for this and that the recall work was supposedly performed. i contacted chrysler and they sent an inspector. recieved a letter today denying responsibility. i have a partally burned vehicle whose doors won't open (presenting a safety hazard because i have children and they could not get out if this happened again). i am terribly afraid to drive the vehicle anywhere now because of this.

Sliding door on the drivers side opens at random times. there are times when i am not even near the vehicle and will come out of a store and my sliding door is wide open, or i will be in the house and come out hours after locking the car and the door is wide open.

While traveling on an interstate on 4/17/15, the left rear sliding door opened by itself. this occurred once on 4/15/15 for the first time while left unattended in a parking lot. it occurred twice on 4/16/15 while left unattended in a driveway. the incident on 4/17/15 was the first time the door opened by itself while the vehicle was in motion. *tr

I own a 2008 dodge grand caravan in the past 5 or 6 monts i being experince problems whit the van. without warning the vehicle shot off on me, is being happen more and more every day. some day is only ones some others several times. i got a saferty recall in my vehicle i call the diller and they told me that the company (chrysler) don't have the parts jet. in october 2014 the vehicle shot of on me, to avoid crasing into another vehicle i try to steere to the left, " a very difficult to do sense the vehicle has no brakes or anyting funtional" i end it crashing into the gard rail. i wasent injured tahks god my kid were not in the vehicle. i contact crhysler deveral times and was very difficult for them to follw up whit me. they send an engineer to see my vehicle whom sayd that it was nothin wrong whit the vihicle. i have to pay $500 dollar deductible and $1200 in car rental. in may 2015 i had another letter from the company saying that i have not fix the reecall problem and i have to call to make an appoinmetn for my vehickle to get teh reecall fix. i got the vehicle to get teh new parts the change te ignition and he fob key. it took a week for them to get te vehicle ready only for me to get it back to them because the vehicle is doing the same, they said the fob kye was not activated. i got the vehicle back and is keep shoting off on me wile i'm driving. the insurance company send me a letter saying taht they are talking to chrysler to get the monye they pay to fix the damages, they told me not to get into any agreetmens whie my lowyer "if i have one" so who is responsible for all of this?. how many people have to die before chrysler do anything to fix the problem? why no lowyers wanted to taked my case? this is rediculos.

Tl* the contact owns a 2008 dodge grand caravan. after numerous attempts, the vehicle was started and the dashboard became hot. the contact received notification of nhtsa campaign number: 14v373000 (electrical system, air bags); however, the part to do the repair was unavailable. the contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. the manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. the failure mileage was approximately 80,000.

Passenger side rear sliding door locks and will not unlock with key fob or unlock button on both front doors. it also will not open with a pull on the inside door handle. you have to manually unlock it on that door before it will open. i think this would cause a issue if i ever need to get my kids out in a hurry! also this van has 30000 miles on it and it uses approximately 1-1/2 quart of oil every 1000 miles. its not showing any sighs of leaking anywhere in the engine or under the van and not leaving any puddles anywhere. i asked the dodge dealership and they said this was normal for a dodge vehicle.... in my eyes that should not be using that much oil. i am using what is required 10w20 sae according to me owners manual. i have replaced the pcv valve and still continuing to loose oil. *tr

The back passenger sliding door keeps opening and closing on it's own. the key fobs can be nowhere on our person and the door continually does this, even when locked. i have seen this complaint numerous times online. something needs to be done. our dog got into the van when the door was open and the door closed trapping her in there. thank goodness my husband saw her and got her out before she died of heat exhaustion. if that had been a child, it could have had a very tragic ending. please use whatever pull you have to make dodge fix this problem before someone is hurt, maimed or killed!! thank you. *tr

The side sliding doors are not functioning properly. this is a safety issue and a recall is needed. the side sliding doors have reopen continuously on many occasions after we have closed & locked the doors. the doors have tried to close when we are getting in & out of the car & we have had to quickly open the door to make sure it did not close on us. the doors has failed to close completely they reopen on their own. i have observed this many times. this is a very dangerous situation & is not safe & can cause injury. our vehicle can be easily stolen at anytime because the doors open randomly on their own. we have come out of the store, the mall, to find the doors open. my husband have been called out from work to lock his van door because the door reopened on its own. this problem is a nuisance.*** we have had this problem before & greenbrier dodge said that it was the keys so they reprogrammed them. the problem has recurred & we have had our vehicle diagnosed again by greenbrier dodge on 03-13-2013. they stated that the problem is the latch-sliding. we paid for the parts & labor out of pocket.. 03-20-2013, greenbrier dodge replaced the latch. we realized after we left that the problem was not fixed. we returned to greenbrier dodge & our service advisor observed the door opening & closing on its own. they checked the vehicle again. our service advisor informed us that they don't know what the problem is. they will call chrysler in the morning. 03-21-2013, received a phone call from our service advisor who told us they retook the door down & adjusted the latch. she wanted to keep the car in overnight to make sure that the door didn't open again. a recall needs to be done & dodge customer assistance refused to assist with the repairs. we haven't had our van for 5 years yet & we purchased it new. *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2008 dodge grand caravan. the contact stated that the rear passenger sliding door had water seeping in. the vehicle was not taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing. the manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure and current mileage was 64,000.

My 2008 dodge grand caravan has had numerous issues with the rear passenger sliding door. the doors belt which houses and protects the wiring that controls the button & motor would become loose and cause the door to pop back open. due to this issue constantly happening it caused the plastic casing which houses the recall pins and metal wire that open and closes the door to crack and expose the metal recall pin. once the plastic covering was fully cracked which by the way happened at the dealership in front of a service manager. the door then became stuck open. we couldn't even close it manually. i had hoped this issue would had been in the original door recall since the wire strap had to be zippy tied down. and the same wiring harness that needed to be zippy tied down due to it becoming loose is the cause of the break, i am very very upset with this issue. especially that door being the main door my young children 8,4,and 2 use for school. the door is to heavy for my children to open and close by themselves.. i have not once had a problem with my driver side rear passenger door. and what's even more upsetting is the small plastic piece that broke can't be replaced by it's self but as a whole door component. why would you use plastic to house such important pieces when other manufactures use metal? if i had notice this was plastic i wouldn't had purchased this van. and went with the original van i looked at. *ln

Tl*the contact owns a 2008 dodge grand caravan. the contact stated that after using the key fob to open the rear driver's side door, the door began to independently close. the contact used the fob again to open it. the door continued to close so the contact had to manually force it open. while forcing it open, the contact fractured the sliding door able. the vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where the contact was informed that the sliding door was not latched properly and needed a new motor. the vehicle had not been repaired. the failure mileage was approximately 56,000. the current mileage was approximately 59,000.

I have had problems with the power doors reopening themselves on this van. i have had items get trapped inside of the doors of this van as well. i contacted the dealer about it and of course could not get it to duplicate the problem. i had also said something about problems with the accelerator being sluggish in response and the dealer said they couldn't get it to duplicate that problem either. they said it was just the computer taking a little longer to respond to the accelerator which i feel is a safety hazard. i have also had problems with the overhead console coming down when the rear door is shut. i did not realize it had come down one time and i climbed into the back area and hit my head on the plastic part which caused a severe cut to my head and took a while for the bleeding to stop. i showed the dealer the problem and they said oh that's a plastic piece so if you want that to be right you have to pay yourself to have it fixed because its considered "normal wear". i feel that these are all severe safety issues with these vehicles. *tr

While the rear hatch of our 2008 dodge grand caravan was closing, our daughter walked behind the van. the rear hatch came down on her and did not stop. i hit the remote for it to go back up and it bounced on our daughter and began coming down again on her. i tried to lift it up while pulling my daughter out and it continued to come down. this van has been taken to rick hendrick dodge on numerous occasions for the power side doors failing. the side doors bounce open upon closing and we find one or both doors open when returning to the van from a store, etc. this has been reported as a safety issue to the dealership and to chrysler. we get the same response each time, which is they are unable to duplicate the problem. we have many witnesses who have seen this happen, including our salesperson. unfortunately, instead of rectifying the problem, our daughter now has a serious, complicated neck injury. she is being followed by a pediatric neurosurgeon at present. we have no idea what her prognosis will be. to date, she has had x-rays and an mri and remains in a cervical collar. she will have more x-rays in 2 weeks. she is a competitive gymnast who now has no activity. the power doors to these vans are extremely dangerous and people need to be aware of this. *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2008 dodge caravan. after opening the passenger side rear door, the contact noticed smoke from the latch interlock area, in order to stop the smoke, the contact sprayed water into the area of the door where the interlock was. there were no injuries or reports filed. the vehicle was being diagnosed by the dealership at the time of the complaint. the current and failure mileages were approximately 23,000.

The side sliding doors do not function properly when pushing button to make them close. they will close then reopen continuously. the doors have tried to close when my son was getting in the car. thank goodness i was standing there to grab the door, because it would of caught his leg and hurt him. something needs to be done with these doors, because i am not the only one that has had these problems. *tr

Automatic sliding doors fail to stay open when parked on a hill and have closed while child was getting in. automatic sliding doors fail to close when sitting on a hill. this always happens when sitting on a hill and sometimes when sitting on flat surface. there is a service bulletin for these problems but no recall. this could be very dangerous for a child getting in or out of the vehicle thinking the door has latched open when it has not. *tr

Premature wear of brakes and rotors. original front-end oem brakes and rotors needed replacement before the vehicle even reached the 20,000 mile mark. saw this same problem reported by many, many owners of same model/year van. others have stated when dealership replaces rotors/brakes, the new brakes/rotors wear just as fast. this seems to be a dangerous situation because new owners are not expecting brake problems so soon, and thus may overlook squeals from brakes as being caused by brake dust, or glazing, not realizing their brakes/rotors are completely worn and in need of immediate replacement (like i did). i do have the brakes/rotors that were replaced, i asked to have them returned to me from the dealership when they were replaced with new parts. *tr

Brakes, transmission, doors. *tr

I have a 2008 dodge grand caravan sxt with 28,612 miles (mostly interstate). on november 23, 2008 i was going east on interstate 70. a few miles from hagerstown, maryland the car's front end started to shake. i called the dodge dealership in hagerstown. after having the car towed to the dealership the mechanic determined that the car's right front axle had snapped. they did not have the part in stock and had to order it. when i picked the vehicle up one week later the service manger told us the cause of the failed front end axle hub was due to the nuts being loose, thus allowing the axel to disengage. after doing some research on the internet i discovered that dodge has had similar problems with some of their other vehicles. according to edmunds inside line, there was a recall on the 2008 dodge charger, magnum, and chrysler 300. the article on edmunds inside line stated, 'the federal government says 5,509 2008 dodge chargers and magnums, along with some 2008 chrysler 300 vehicles, are being recalled for a problem that was first spotted in march on a 2009 dodge challenger pilot vehicle undergoing prelaunch evaluation at chrysler's chelsea proving grounds. the torque retention crimp feature "was missed" during the manufacture of one lot of rear axel hub nuts on the affected cars. 'this could cause the nuts to loosen and allow the half-shaft to disengage from the wheel hub,' said the national highway traffic safety administration (nhtsa) in its recall summary of the problem. 'this could cause the vehicle to lose power and result in a crash without warning.' *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2008 dodge grand caravan. the was driving 30 mph when the rear driver side sliding door opened independently and could not be closed. in addition, the rear hatch opened independently and without warning. the contact took the vehicle to the dealer but the dealer was unable to duplicate the failure. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure mileage was 21,000.

Tl*the contact owns a 2008 dodge grand caravan. the contact stated that the vehicle is equipped with a remote control that operates the rear hatch. the remote is used to place the wheelchair inside of the vehicle with the lift. the remote control is defective, and opens and closes the rear hatch and side doors without warning whether the buttons have been pressed or not. the manufacturer stated that they would investigate the issue, but he has not yet heard a response. the vehicle was taken to the dealer and they claimed to have reset the remote, but the failure still persists. the contact believes that this is a safety hazard because if the vehicle is parked and unattended, it could easily be stolen due to the doors opening randomly. the contact stated that there was a recall for the remote control. the vin was unknown. the failure mileage was 29 and current mileage was 6,000. updated 09/01/09. *lj the sliding doors would open on their own. updated 09/03/09.*jb

I bought this vehicle on june 25, 2008 and the very next day it started making a loud squealing noise from the passenger side dash board area. it does not do it all the time. it comes and goes. it is loud and has been in the shop twice and they do not know what it is. it is going to the shop tomorrow for the 3rd time. this loud squealing noise is loud and happens a lot. *tr

I purchased this vehicle on march 31, 2008 and have had it for 2 years. we were headed out of town on vacation and had to stop at 2 different dealerships a long the way for them to try to correct the pulling. neither one could correct the problem. in the 2 year time it has been back in forth to the dealership service dept several times for it pulling to the right and eating the front edge of every tire that has been put on the front. tires have been rotated regularly and crossed and still has the outside tire wear from the pull. cam bolts have been installed by the dealer to help correct the alignment with no results. it still pulls. i have filed a lemon law complaint with chrysler who has performed the final repair attempt and it still pulls. i have took it to 2 local tire alignment shops here and both have said the alignment can't be fixed. chrysler's position is that the vehicle drives as designed and no further action will transpire. i don't understand how a vehicle can be designed to immediately pull off the road to the right if you let go of the steering wheel. it is not a drift to the right. a drift doesn't eat tires from what i understand. my hand actually falls asleep while trying to drive the van for long distances because you have to fight to keep the van on the road. we have driven 2 other chrysler vans for comparison purposes and they pull to the right as well but not to the extent of my van. i am still in the lemon law process and don't know if i will get anywhere with chrysler but someone needs to check the steering and alignment of this make and model. you should not have to fight the vehicle in order to keep it on the road. this issue has made me despise this van and it was perfect for a family with 3 kids. bad safety hazard and chrysler should be made to correct the issue and not just play god with the final statement of "this vehicle performs as designed". *tr