Expert: Roland Finston - 12/15/2011

Question
I have a 2001 Dodge Caravan Sport that suddenly the battery was dead on.  We replaced the battery and the van worked for a week and then it sat over Saturday and Sunday it was dead again.  I had it jumped and took it to a mechanic to have it looked at it.  They told me yesterday that there was a short in the instrument panel (speedometer etc) and that that part was like 800 to 1,000 dollars and had to be reprogrammed and reset by the dealership.  They said there was no "used" part options.  My van is 10 years old and has 145,000 miles on it.  We don't want to put that much money into a van that the plan was to get rid of in the spring.  But...now is not the time to be replacing it.  So...any thoughts on the possibility of a quick "home" repair for this.  Or do we go with plan "Z"....share a car for a while?

Thank you!!!!

Answer
Hi Heathir,
The id of the instrument cluster as the cause of your problem can be verified easily. First, remove fuse #24 in the power box on the left side of the engine compartment near the inner fender. That is a 20 Amp fuse, the smaller of two fuses, located between the Accessory relay and the starter motor relay. Then see if that solves the problem of the battery running down. If the battery does discharge then the cluster is not the cause; if it doesn't discharge it MAY be the cause but also there are several other possibilities that we can check out that might be less expensive to fix.
Do you happen to have a simple volt-ohm-milliamp meter because that would be a much quicker way to find out about the cluster theory and to evaluate the alternatives? You should be able to get one for under $25.
If you don't want to get the meter, you could next try putting the #24 fuse back in and instead try asking the cluster to tell you if it sees a problem: push and hold the trip odometer reset button, then turn the ignition switch to the run position, while continuing to hold the button until you see "Sof.3" or a similar message in the odometer window. Then release the button and wait to see if a second message appears in the window. Let me know what it is. After that the work 'end' will appear in the window and the self-test is over. In fact you could do this before you try the #24 fuse removal.
The #24 fuse has the purpose of providing power to the cluster when the ignition is off, and also powers the body computer at the same time. Its sole purpose has to do with powering up the Hazard warning light system. So when you have that fuse removed that function will not work. Otherwise it is safe to drive without fuse 24 and to leave the van parked to see if the battery indeed drains out.
If the battery doesn't drain with the fuse removed, then the next move #without a meter# would be to unplug the cluster and see what happens while it is parked. That is a bit of dismantling but not compared to $800.
Even if we find there is a problem with the cluster, we could try just cutting off the supply to the cluster in the belief that the hazards would still work but not show the flashing symbol on the display when you do so, for example. Or we can see if there is a short circuit in the board associated with the pin that is connected to that incoming fuse wire.
So I think this can be solved with buying a new cluster. Do you or your mate have an interest in do it yourself?
Roland
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Roland