The power lock for the driver's side sliding door is broken on my van. It's been broken since I bought it. I can see what looks like a broken ground wire in the flexible raceway and that may be the problem. I haven't gotten around to trying to fix it.
If you value whoever's riding in this theoretical van, go watch the crash test videos. You'll avoid anything GM made. They're awful.
dankspeed said:Went and checked out the van. Overall it looked like it's been well cared for. There's rust on the passenger side sliding door at the bottom and below that on the body. Not too excited about that.
Other than the exhaust leak the lock on that passenger sliding door doesn't work. You have to manually lock and unlock it. I assume it's an actuator or something gone bad inside the door.
It is the base model so 3.3 ltr and no fancy stow and go.
Seemed to have enough power though and shifted smooth.
I told him I could $1800 but had research the door lock issue.
Thoughts?
As mentioned, don't be too scared of anything on the door lock. The power doors (on every brand of van) have issues with those wires in the caterpillar track. I fixed the problem with my first van in about 20-30 minutes, by visually inspecting the wires and saw a break. I cut it out and crimped in a patch wire. new harnesses are available under $100 if repairing it doesn't work, but I figured I had nothing to lose. It's held for the past two years. I have a problem on the second van where it doesn't always work & lock, but it's been too cold to investigate that one. I've just been telling the kids not to use that one with power.
The rust is a real and common problem on these from about 2000 up. Anything before that is rusting other places, but these in particular are known for rotting out here. See this thread as an example. My solution was to pop down to VA to buy this second van. No rust! And you don't pay any more for an old van in a non-rusty part of the country. Otherwise, on the first van, I cut out the rot and welded in some new panels with more drain holes. It's starting to get some surface rust around the patch panels now, so I'll have to visit that again. There's other rot too here in CT, the hood has some rust and the front quarters are showing bubbles. I don't know how much longer this thing can stand CT winters, but other than the rockers, the non-cosmetic bits look great underneath. The suspension pickup points just have some normal non-concerning surface funk and the subframes, chassis, and other things look fine.
Just as a price point, I just bought my second van in September down in VA. I paid $4000 for it, 2005 T&C long wheel base Touring model with leather so it has stow-n-go with 123k on the clock. Since I bought it, I've done shocks/springs/brakes & fluid, filters and put a radiator in it. The only remaining things are the passenger side sliding door diagnosis and new light bulbs in the center console as soon as Amazon delivers them, and transmission fluid & filter change. I probably outta do the belts & idlers while I'm mucking about in there. So, call it $1k worth of catch up. Cosmetically, it wasn't too bad with normal wear and tear and a cracked front bumper cover.
In reply to dankspeed :
What was the fix?
Some of the reverse pistons were flawed and developed hairline cracks that allowed reverse to partially engage in higher gears. This wears out the reverse and 3-5 gear frictions. All of the parts can be replaced through the end case in the wheel well without removing the transmission. I had no experience with autos before and had no trouble fixing it. It's not easy and looks daunting, but you just need to pay attention and buy everything back how it came apart. It took me longer to source the parts than to do the work.
Deal fell thru on the van. He didn't want to take $1800 and not that excited enough to pay more. The search continues
In reply to dankspeed :
There are 8 million of them out there. Unless you're walking to work currently, there's no reason to overpay for one.
I used minivans to deliver auto parts for years. Think of the worst possible driving conditions, on the road everyday, driven by the uncaring, at extra legal speeds. We mostly used Chrysler / Dodges because they were plentiful and cheap. Basically, the more equipment, the more down time. We had a couple of Dodges we added 100,000 miles to with no real issues. It's easy to do at 300 miles a day. We had a Chrysler T&C that everyone loved to drive, the problem was it was always in the shop. I swear we put more miles on it vertically on the lift than horizontally on the road. It lasted about 6 months, or $6000 in repairs when I gave up and replaced it with another cheapo Dodge. Your actual mileage may vary.
In reply to dankspeed :
In the price range you're looking at, sifting through a few turds has to be expected.
Boost_Crazy said:In that price range, don't forget the Mazda MPV. A little smaller, but easily the best driving and best looking van from that time period. '02 and up had the 3.0 Ford motor and 5 speed trans. They are not immune from tranny issues, but the most common problem with them can be fixed for cheap without removing the tranny. I bought a nice one for cheap that way- I looked for one with a bad tranny and fixed it for less than $300.
I've noticed a few of these pop up lately. I like the rear seat slide that allows the seat to be moved towards the center to access the third row. Might have to check one out.
I've had a 96 voyager (went through 3 or transmissions before 200k), an 02 Montana (transmission started having issues before 120k), an 00 T&C (only got rid of it because it was rear ended and got enough money to buy) our current 09 GC. Our current van has had no serious issues and it has 165k on it. we bought it at 110k in 2012. My brother had an uplander for a short time, but the driving dynamics stunk. It lumbered rather awkwardly. Our 09 GC was miles ahead in driving dynamics. We also have an 01 GC and an 05 GC in the family, The 01 just lost its heat this year and I haven't checked it out yet. The 05 got totaled NYE, but my father in law wants an identical one as he absolutely loved it.
Ended up buying a 2006 Mazda MPV this past wednesday. Really like it!
I'm really happy with my purchase and happy these were brought to my attention.
Thanks for all the great info everyone!
Congrats! Post pics! And buy quality ignition coils!
I'll try and gets some pics here soon. Not much to see really just a stock LX
Congrats!
I like minivans. They make great tow cars and I have used them for that since they came out - and abandoned a series of American station wagons that had been doing the job.
I have owned both GM and Chrysler models and on the whole much prefer the Chryslers. When we moved I bought a Chrysler Grand Caravan with the Stow n Go seating that folds into the floor. It hauled a lot of wine and stereo gear I didn't trust to the movers!
Figure it cost me $1,000 in the year I had it as that is the difference between what I paid and what I sold it for. Pretty cheap compared to renting a van!
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