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Hi, just got a used 2011

731 views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  Sienile 
#1 ·
Hi,

I'm new to the forum and new to owning a mini van. I bought a 2011 Grand Caravan as a second vehicle for hauling stuff, and for use as a weekend camper. So far, I like the vehicle. It has 167,000 km and the body, motor, transmission and front end seem solid. I haven't driven a Dodge since my 1986 Aries that I owned while a university student in the early 90s. I loved that car. I learned so much about car repair from it.

I've driven Mazdas, Toyotas and Subarus in the intervening time, so there was some weird adjustments like the wiper switch being on the wrong side and the just some adjustment moving from a compact car to a van. I've flailed a bit looking for the gear shift and got some sticker shock filling the gas tank. It also took a while to figure out the stow and go, despite the labelling of the straps in order of yanking.

At this point, I just want to understand the vehicle better. It doesn't seem to be that well equipped. I'm fine with that. There are less things to go wrong. Is there any way by looking up the VIN to tell me what trim level it is?

I do want to make some minor changes. The first one is to add a hitch. It doesn't seem like an expensive or difficult job and the other is adding an aftermarket stereo. The aftermarket stereo worries me a little. In my previous cars, the CANBUS did not touch the stereo so an aftermarket head unit change was a dash kit and wiring harnesses for the stereo and steering wheel controls. My research on the Chrysler stereos have me confused. Wiring seems to range from asimplw haness to complex kits. I want to make sure that I get things right initially so installation is a few screws and popping in some connectors. I have a single-DIN dash kit and was thinking of getting a cheap Chinese Android head unit for bluetooth, maps, media apps and a reverse camera. I'm just confused on what wiring harnesses I need. I have the base radio with Sirius, but Uconnect is not installed. I'd prefer a double-DIN Stereo, but I don't want to hack my dash and ruin it, so the single with a sliding screen will have to do.

A spring job is also going to be making a removable bed frame. Camping season here in western Quebec is not until May, so I have loads of time to figure that out, There's plenty of advice on that and proper ventilation on YouTube, so I'll figure that out as needed.

Here's a pre-carwash photo of the new-to-me van:
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#3 ·
Biggest thing with it being a 2011 - Did it have the head replacement done? There was a defect that ran through mid-2012 where the head had a defective casting that would fail and cause misfires on bank 2.

Pop your VIN at the end of this link to get your factory equipment listing. https://www.chrysler.com/webselfservice/BuildSheetServlet?vin=

Aside from a handful of things, these vans don't give a whole lot of problems. Major things to keep an eye out for are rocker tick and oil cooler leaks, which will kill the engine quickly if they fail. Just replaced a cam in mine from a previous rocker failure. Noticed loose oil galley plugs, which may have been the cause of the failure a couple years back.
 
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#4 ·
Biggest thing with it being a 2011 - Did it have the head replacement done? There was a defect that ran through mid-2012 where the head had a defective casting that would fail and cause misfires on bank 2.

Pop your VIN at the end of this link to get your factory equipment listing. https://www.chrysler.com/webselfservice/BuildSheetServlet?vin=

Aside from a handful of things, these vans don't give a whole lot of problems. Major things to keep an eye out for are rocker tick and oil cooler leaks, which will kill the engine quickly if they fail. Just replaced a cam in mine from a previous rocker failure. Noticed loose oil galley plugs, which may have been the cause of the failure a couple years back.
Nothing to worry about.

If it was already replaced, fine. If not, don't worry, if that vehicle had the defective head, it should've failed by now. Some had tgat problematic head but not all.
 
#5 ·
The majority that would have failed have already, but there are some bad ones still out there. Just did a head on a 2014 that had an engine swapped into it by another shop. That shop put in a used motor from a 2012 and wouldn't fix the issue, so they came to us. Exhaust valve seats had dropped because it had the defective head.

What really sucks is that the oil cooler tower shot out during the oil drain portion of the job, so we had to do that for him too. And to top it all off, we had expected to have him back with his car before Christmas, but I came down with Covid after mounting the cams, so we still have all the timing to go. Poor guy just can't catch a break over this car. :p
 
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