Keeps overheating!!!!!

260

Asked by jamesburgess Aug 29, 2013 at 02:34 PM about the 2000 Chrysler Town & Country Limited LWB FWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Ive replaced just about everything in the cooling system and our van is still overheating. ie thermostat, radiator, radiator fan assembly, radiator fan control switch, water pump, and coolant temp sensor.
Radiator and ac fans are still not coming on.

42 Answers

okay barring normal operation of the cooling system have you had a new battery installed, 'cause five years is all you can expect from modern tin/antimony alloy [no lead] batteries....look at the knock-off labels on top of the battery to be sure...but the important item is the Black cable and NOT the clamping end....the LUG end which bolts to the chassis/ground....Coarse Wirebrush the LUG and spot where grounding is established...bolt together...CPU's are sensitive about varying voltages and varying amperages and with the corrosion that builds up a start at a time because this connection actually "welds itself" leaving burned residue from both metals (the lug material) and the chassis material creates a layer of "iffy connection"....that you cannot see, but can be wirebrushed clean for another trouble free 1000 starts~

11 people found this helpful.
260

the battery is only a year old. I'll try that with the wire brush to make a better connection. have changed the fan relay...

4 people found this helpful.
19,985

I take it you replaced the relay that is under driver side headlamp?

9 people found this helpful.
260

No the fans don't come on with the a/c on. They don't come on at all. And yes I replaced the relay under the headlamp housing. Which was a pain.

9 people found this helpful.
19,985

make sure fans are plugged in. pull 40 amp fuse in fuse box under hood and make sure you have voltage at one of the pins. if all of this is good, you will have to go back to the relay underhead lamp. Ck for power and ground. If you look real close at relay connector, there should be 1234 on it, so you know what the pin location is. If all cks out ok, The problem will either be wire from pcm or the pcm. The a/c sends out a request to pcm to turn on fan. so beings it never comes on, it has to be between pcm or wire if all else is ok. hope this helps...........

17 people found this helpful.
Best Answer Mark helpful
260

Thanks for the info. I decided it must be electrical bc the conventional cooling system is working, (turning the heat on to bring it off the high, idle at 2000 rpm for short periods brought it down to normal) just need the fans to keep everything regulated. Diagrams give me a great start to checking things out. Would an ohm meter work best for checking those points? And is it best to check when vehicle is cool or at normal runnin temp?

4 people found this helpful.
19,985

well to inspect. wiring at fan, better off cold. There it no real reason to heat up the eng. You could use a test light to ck powers and grounds. if you find power at fuse and ground wire tight. unplug relay and hook test light leed to neg. side of batt. and ck for power at relay. then hook leed to pos. side of batt. and ck for ground. if you hvepower and ground then its wire to pcm or pcm. you really dont need ohm meter.

9 people found this helpful.
19,985

im thinking there is a connector at lower side of cooling fans. make sure it is plugged in.

6 people found this helpful.
19,985

if you hook a jumper wire from batt pos. to pin 3 of the relay. fans should come on.

10 people found this helpful.
19,985

if pcm is bad. you could wire in a relay to the asd circuit. fans would come on when vehc. starts and would stay on till you turn it off. Im just sayin....

8 people found this helpful.
260

Okay, I finally got back to it thanks to weather and working all weekend on 3rd. So I checked the coolant temp sensor and it indicated its sending a signal. The pin at the 40amp fuse also indicated good. The 4 pin plug going into the relay, indicated grounding, but when I checked from the pos side of the battery, it indicated power and only one of the fan wires would indicate. It was the one closest to the ground pin that failed. Am I wrong in thinking its getting a signal from the PCM but not getting it to the fans do to the connection wiring? And the check engine light has come back on which went away when I replaced the relay switch.

4 people found this helpful.
19,985

ok, the wire next to the ground wire is the pcm control wire. this relay is duty cycle controlled. this means the it can speed and slow the fan a longer on and off time. the dash lights in your van are the same. by giving them more on timethan off time they are brighter. by giving more off time than on time, they are dimmer. they cycle so many times per second. but its the lenght on the on time than speeds them up. Hope that made sense to ya. one of the wires goes to the fan. hook batt. voltage to it and see if fans come on. if it does, it looks like a pcm issue. like I had state before. You can hook a relay in to asd circuit and make fans come on when eng. starts. you will need to ohm out fan control circuit wire between pcm and relay at headlamp. I need to get back to work now, but I will log back on tonite to tell you what pin at pcm to ck.

4 people found this helpful.
19,985

pin 73 c2 connector at PCM. light green wire with dark blue tracer. I will let ya know which on is c2

2 people found this helpful.
19,985

The C2 connector @ the pcm is gray. the C1 is black. So knowing this, you need to find the #73 pin. If you look closely at the connector you should see numbers at the ends of the rows of wires. examle...26 at one end and 42 at other. You just start counting the holes. when you find pin 73, unhook relay at headlamp area. Then hook the test light to positive on battery. Then you will need a skinney needle or even a staple, to insert in cavity #73. You need to be careful as to not jam needle in. So you dont damage pin. Hook a wire to the pcm control pin at relay. this wire needs to go to neg. side of battery. touch probe of test light to needle. should light up. if it doesnt wire has an open. if it lights up pcm is bad. Now before all is condemed, Have you hooked batt. power to fan supply wire at relay to see if they come on?

6 people found this helpful.
19,985

on previous post here you said when you unplugged relay.....ck eng light came on? when you plugged it back in it went off?

3 people found this helpful.
19,985

if you unhook relay and put power to pin3 the green wire, the fans should come on.

2 people found this helpful.
260

Fans come on when putting power to pin 3. It's definitely a PCM issue which as I've found out is a Chrysler issue in these models and years. Looking to bypass the PCM and just connect into the asd circuit to have them come on and stay in when vehicle is on.

5 people found this helpful.
19,985

you really should use a relay to control fans. large load to add to asd circuit.

3 people found this helpful.
35

Hi thejeepdoctor,i need yr assistance on the same issue on my Chrysler minivan yr2000,3.3L on more or less the same issue. Both my fans are'nt functioning when d AC was ON. It started wit d AC fan did'nt move first and later the radiator stop moving as well. After reading few articles,I found out that d Radiator relay cud be the caused. So ,I bought one from RockAuto. Wit d battery nagative terminal removed,I replaced with d new one. But once I connect the negative terminal,both fans runs instantly even w/out starting the engine. So,I took the negative terminal out to stop the fan. I then put back the old relay n repeat the whole thing again,both fan did'nt move. I'm LOST,what cud be the problem,pls assist me,tqvm.

2 people found this helpful.
700

Chrysler and GM v6 is from 97 to 2003 have a horrible problem when air gets into the cooling system it's almost impossible to get out without a special vacuum system however there is a bleeder valve on top of a thermostat housing you can try and get it out because if you don't the problem will never ever go away

3 people found this helpful.
700

air in the system bleeder valve on top of yours thermostat

2 people found this helpful.
700

if you haven't noticed yet most of the overheating complaints are from people with Chryslers in the early 2000 and Pontiac in the early 2000 s coincidence? I think not

2 people found this helpful.
10

I have a 2005 Chrysler town and country and last year it was hit head on while it was parked. It was the right side. Insurance covered it but soon after we got it back my headlights flicker all the time my dash lights have been flickering right along with them and my radio will kick off and turn back on while I'm driving. All my tacks on the dash are trippin out like going up and down super fast. I couldn't even tell how fast I was going. I've heard its the ecm or pcm then I heard it was a ground wire. When my fan kicks on it when it goes crazy the most. Plz help me out I have young children and I don't want to cause a accident if something stops working especially my lights.

1 people found this helpful.
10

Once you change the relay out then you will want to erase engine codes and the fans should come on. We have been using this forum all day to figure out how to get fans to work. As soon as we erased the codes and fans started.

1 people found this helpful.
250

i had to bypass fan relay with a toggle switch over heat problem fixed

5 people found this helpful.
10

I have the EXACT same problem in my 2006 Chyrsler Town and Country the ONLY difference in mine is that sometimes only randomly in the morning when i wake up and come outside to my vehicle I find radiator flued coming from underneath my van.. But as the original issue in this vehicle I have also changed EVERYTHING in the cooling system... I am a 23 year old female and i dont know l much about this Can you guy's please HELP ME Do you think it's the same issue and if so EXACTLY how can i fix that

1 people found this helpful.
10

have the EXACT same problem in my 2006 Chyrsler Town and Country the ONLY difference in mine is that sometimes only randomly in the morning when i wake up and come outside to my vehicle I find radiator flued coming from underneath my van.. But as the original issue in this vehicle I have also changed EVERYTHING in the cooling system... I am a 23 year old female and i dont know l much about this Can you guy's please HELP ME Do you think it's the same issue and if so EXACTLY how can i fix that

1 people found this helpful.
10

@Karenlynn23. You might have a faulty water pump or air on your system. Most the time is air but if you have someone that could check any possible leakage on your system..

1 people found this helpful.
10

The smallest of radiator hose leak...don't forget to check for small leaks. I had a new radiator installed about a month ago and it took all this time to create a heat problem. I thought it may have been the thermostat because it wasn't changed at the time of radiator replacement and I thought it was sticking and heating up and causing the anti-freeze through the overflow. Not the case. I will tighten the hose up tomorrow...hopefully end of over heating problem.

1 people found this helpful.
50

I have a 2009 t&c. We have replaced the radiator, water pump, fan relay and ECT sensor. Have checked the negative terminal and the ground. Have refilled the freon. My car will be fine for a week and then begin to overheat. The AC will work and then it stops pumping cold air and will starts to get engine air. that is when the car starts to overheat. Fine on the highway and fine on the streets until it's not. It only overheats while driving around town under 30 mph. If I gun it the AC will get cold the temperature gauge will start to go down until I slow down and then the AC goes engine air again and starts to overheat again. What now?!?

5 people found this helpful.
10

My 2000 town and country ran hot cracked radiator and oil light comes on and off but Guage never ran hot replaced radiator but still run hot and oil light comes on more so when idling fans don't seem to be running either any help appreciated

1 people found this helpful.
30

I have a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country 3.3l. I had a over heating prob for the longest time I ran it with out a thermostat. everything worked well but had to put water in it about every 3 to 4 days. Changed the water pump, radiator, had a leak at frezz plug changed it, changed radiator, thermostat. even put Block sealer in it. I still have the overheating but it is crazy. it will not go all the way up but about 3 quarters of the way then go down to normal. I don't know what wls to do can any one help. maybe there is something I'm missing. even the radiator cap is cold to touch. have good flow when I take cap off and give it gas can see it circulate. I'm really stumped on this any Ideas

3 people found this helpful.
30

Thermostat temperature unit disconnect the thermostat temperature plug .start and look and your fan Ours was thermostat temperature .sensor check that same fuse good luck

3 people found this helpful.
10

Folks, go to youtube and search for p0480 fan code. You should find an excellent video by South Main Auto that covers diagnosing the fan control relay. I just used it to fix my 06 T&C. FYI, the PCM actually grounds the relay to turn on the fans. So if you expect to see power on that terminal at the relay, you wont. It actually varies the ground signal to control the fan speed. So normally (key off) you will have one heavy wire with battery power, a second heavy wire that feeds the fans, and a smaller wire that should be ground. The other small wire should have neither power or ground. That is the signal wire from the PCM. With the engine running and the A/C on (assuming your A/C is working), connect your test light ground clip to battery positive and probe the PCM signal terminal. The light should come on within a a few seconds, and it may get brighter and dimmer as the PCM varies the ground signal. If the light never comes on, you could have a wiring issue between the PCM and the relay terminal, a bad PCM, or simply a bad temp sensor. Another test you can do is to jump across the two terminals with the heavy wires (battery power and fan). Fans should turn on which will tell you the fan circuit and fans are good. HTH

1 people found this helpful.

Your Answer:

Town & Country

Looking for a Used Town & Country in your area?

CarGurus has 100 nationwide Town & Country listings starting at $3,990.

Postal Code:

CarGurus Experts

  • #1
    Lisa Klancher
    Reputation
    3,690
  • #2
    dandyoun
    Reputation
    3,280
  • #3
    thejeepdoctor
    Reputation
    3,180
View All

Find great deals from top-rated dealers

Search

Related Models For Sale

Used Dodge Grand Caravan
111 Great Deals out of 1,889 listings starting at $2,000
Used Honda Odyssey
27 Great Deals out of 935 listings starting at $2,133
Used Toyota Sienna
38 Great Deals out of 716 listings starting at $3,900
Used Ford F-150
299 Great Deals out of 15,725 listings starting at $1,712
Used Chevrolet Tahoe
18 Great Deals out of 745 listings starting at $5,995
Used Dodge Caravan
5 listings
Used Ford Expedition
30 Great Deals out of 812 listings starting at $7,888
Used Chevrolet Suburban
8 Great Deals out of 416 listings starting at $12,000
Used Ford Explorer
81 Great Deals out of 2,024 listings starting at $2,999

Content submitted by Users is not endorsed by CarGurus, does not express the opinions of CarGurus, and should not be considered reviewed, screened, or approved by CarGurus. Please refer to CarGurus Terms of Use. Content will be removed if CarGurus becomes aware that it violates our policies.