#16012 - 09/30/09 01:00 PM
96 Plymouth Voyager with multiple issues/codes
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WaywardVoyager
Junior Member
Registered: 09/29/09
Posts: 2
Loc: Nashville, TN
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96 Voyager, 3.3L Auto, 160K miles
Issue 1 - Door Locks: I am new to this van I'm having problems with so my knowledge of its mechanical layout are limited, so please bear with me. Also, I am not a mechanic, just a "do-it-yourselfer" when I can. I bought it 5 months ago for $1,000 and it's done well for several months except for having problems with the power door locks. Even though all doors are closed and the door pins are firmly depressed the van still intermittently indicates "Door Ajar", slowly or rapidly locks the doors and "dings" each time it does it. A few times it has been so rapid that you couldn't distinguish the separate locking attempts and I had to open the driver door enough to make it stop with a continuous "Door Ajar" status. I can't get it to do this while the van is sitting still usually, but once the van is moving it will either go haywire or barely do it at all. One trip recently it didn't "ding" one time. I have checked all doors to make sure the door pins work properly and they seem to. I suspected the back door latch was the culprit because when I got the van the back door didn't want to open easily. I noticed that it was slightly indented apparently from a previous wreck. So I took the back door apart and removed the lock assembly to investigate it's functionality. Everything seemed to be in order except that it seemed to need some lubrication. After hitting the lock with lubricant it started to open and close just fine. However, the "door ajar" issue still remains.
Issue 2 - ODB II codes from my Actron scanner: In trying to resolve the door locks issue I thought I would hook up my scanner and see if I got any codes, even though the check engine light wasn't on. Sure enough, when I plugged in the scanner I got two codes - P0731 "Gear 1 Ratio Incorrect" and P1698 "Severity Unknown". I discussed the codes with my brother (who is a highly skilled mechanic but lives 200 miles away) and he immediately suggested replacing the computer (I assume since it wasn't saying "Check Engine" even though there were problems being reported). So later that week he brought me a used console and we swapped it out. Immediately the "Check Engine" light came on when I restarted the vehicle. I hadn't cleared the codes it was reporting previously so this was a good sign something was working better in this computer. So I check the codes and now came back with 4 codes! The two previous codes were expected - P0731 and P1698, however it also came back with P0600 "Comm Link Malfunction" and P1784 "Transmission Mechanical Failure - First and Reverse".
After checking this forum for the P1698 code I found this discussion http://www.obdii.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/002928.html which gave me a few ideas. I am unsure as to whether or not I actually have a failing transmission or a communications problem to the TCM. The transmission in the past month has only acted odd a couple of times, simply making a "hard" shift into 2nd gear. But this week things got much worse. My wife called me two days ago saying that the van wouldn't shift into drive and she had to go into park then return to drive several times before it actually engaged. Then yesterday she was leaving work and the van actually "fell" out of drive and into neutral. She was able to shift to park and back to drive and get it into gear again, but it's obviously malfunctioning to a severe point now.
I now have the van in the garage with the hood open ready to investigate the electrical connections, but am I wasting my time? Between the 4 codes it's throwing at me: P0731, P0600, P1784 and P1698, do any of you feel this is ONLY a comm link problem, or actually transmission failure in progress? One thing to note is that I took apart my old console computer and checked all the connections as suggested in the linked forum above, however I couldn't find a single connection with any issue. All the soldered points looked to be in perfect order. Also, when I tried to clear the codes with my Actron scanner I got a "Serial Link Failure/Error" message and I cannot clear the codes. My small scanner only allows me to clear all the codes at once, and I can't select them individually. I know this is a lot of info, but it's everything I know about these issues I'm having.
Please help! My sincerest thanks in advance - Aaron
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These are my continuous projects...
'96 Plymouth Voyager 3.3L Auto
'96 Pontiac Grand Am SE 4cyl Manual
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#16050 - 10/29/09 06:42 PM
Re: 96 Plymouth Voyager with multiple issues/codes
[Re: WaywardVoyager]
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irishTony
Junior Member
Registered: 10/29/09
Posts: 5
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Wayward. From dealing with chryslers some years ago i seem to recall something about door lock issues on voyagers . It was down to the interior light switches . the rear door was multiplexd with all rear electrical systems. If door ajar switch got wet . All hell broke loose. However that was on vehicles built in austria so may not be relevant . Also without gears im guessing doors aint an issue
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