I'm a little rusty on Caravans. Last year I removed the tranny and engine in my girlfriends 04 and rebuilt an 05 engine i got at the scrap yard and swapped it in. I went through the entire wiring harness and eventually ended up pulling apart the IPM and found that it was in bad shape. I cleaned it up as much as possible and the van ran better but still has flickering head lamps and runs a bit goofy. I still think that IPM needs replacement. I also fixed the melted harness to the injector rail.
On to the 2002 Caravan I'm posting about. This is my neighbors. I have a bit less knowledge on the 2002 model since our 2004 has the NGC ECM. It has decided not to start and had gotten stuck at his work place. One day it suddenly started and he drove it home. It does not start at all now. I helped him tow it around the yard the other day. I turned the key and the entire electrical system was going crazy; lights and turn signals going crazy, etc. My very first thought was that the IPM was probably corroded. But he is thinking it is the ECM.
I didn't get much time to play with it but i did do a brief continuity check between the battery and chassis near the ECM. The resistance was very high. Besides for possible ground connection issues, is there a common wire harness short somewhere in the pre-NGC Caravans? I pulled a couple relays out of the IPM and I noticed a very slight corrosion on the terminals. The neighbor mentioned that he pulled out the connectors on the bottom of the IPM and it was fine. My memory is a bit foggy but if i recall, my 2004 IPM looked fine on both the harness connectors and fuse/relay terminals until I cracked the box open and found the circuit board in absolutely terrible condition.
Does the no start/crazy lights sound like an ECM or IPM issue? Wire harness issue maybe? Like I said, I used to religiously read through this forum daily when I was rebuilding the engine in our 04 but it has been well over a year now.
One more question: Which year Caravan IPMs are interchangeable? I still need to replace our 2004 IPM but I'd like to know before running to the junkyard.
On to the 2002 Caravan I'm posting about. This is my neighbors. I have a bit less knowledge on the 2002 model since our 2004 has the NGC ECM. It has decided not to start and had gotten stuck at his work place. One day it suddenly started and he drove it home. It does not start at all now. I helped him tow it around the yard the other day. I turned the key and the entire electrical system was going crazy; lights and turn signals going crazy, etc. My very first thought was that the IPM was probably corroded. But he is thinking it is the ECM.
I didn't get much time to play with it but i did do a brief continuity check between the battery and chassis near the ECM. The resistance was very high. Besides for possible ground connection issues, is there a common wire harness short somewhere in the pre-NGC Caravans? I pulled a couple relays out of the IPM and I noticed a very slight corrosion on the terminals. The neighbor mentioned that he pulled out the connectors on the bottom of the IPM and it was fine. My memory is a bit foggy but if i recall, my 2004 IPM looked fine on both the harness connectors and fuse/relay terminals until I cracked the box open and found the circuit board in absolutely terrible condition.
Does the no start/crazy lights sound like an ECM or IPM issue? Wire harness issue maybe? Like I said, I used to religiously read through this forum daily when I was rebuilding the engine in our 04 but it has been well over a year now.
One more question: Which year Caravan IPMs are interchangeable? I still need to replace our 2004 IPM but I'd like to know before running to the junkyard.
