YOu can try a wiggle test under the dash and through connectors at the firewall. With the key on have someone watch the dash and see if it shows.

Clean connectors with contact cleaner spray, especially where they go under the dash through the firewall.

Power steering is a 1000 dollar repair on the road, trans is 4000 dollars. Keep a credit card with big limits handy.

My mom lost her tranny at 25k, AC at 38K, and power steering at 40K. The last one was a 1000 dollar repair for the pump and rack since when the fluid ran out of the bad rack it destroyed the pump.

These vehicles are not highly rated for longevity.

since the power steering is failing as well i would eliminate battery terminal crack, power steering hoses, or alternator mafunction unless the alt is jamming and holding the belt up in some way.

i still think as Frank said it would be a belt tensioner or the main drive pulley on the crank slipping or something… it sounds logical and worth a check

I had the same exact thing happen to me on the freeway while driving a rental GC a few years ago, so I’m guessing we’re not the only ones. I’d check Dodge message boards to see if it ever got figured out.

On the other hand, I think this is the kind of thing that owners of middle-aged Detroit iron just kind of get used too. This from the not-so-proud owner of a 99 Grand Caravan ith 116K on the odometer.

These are good cars for the money but a 2002 is going to start to cost money at that age and mileage. I used to tell people to trade them at 130,000 km or approximately 80,000 miles. At this point it will be one thing after another, especially transmissions.

The electrical issue was caused by a wire behind and above the LF inner fender. The insulation was cracked, allowing the wire to short-cicuit.

If it was the alternator, your car would run off of the battery until it discharged to much, than the car wouldn’t run at all.

On a side note, the issue with the rebuilt alternators is that they don’t change the voltage regulators if they pass their test. I had one go about 30 seconds after putting it in and staring the car. Just pay attention to the battery light. If it comes on don’t turn of your car if you don’t have to, use the minimum amount of accessories.

My father had a Lincoln Continental that I borrowed a couple years ago. I was sitting in a McDonalds parking lot listening to the radio. I started the car, pulled out onto the road, and about 50ft later it died from a bad alternator. Luckily their was an Autozone across the street. I didn’t have the time to change out the alternator though because I had to go to a college final. I bought a battery and jumper cables. I placed the battery in the foot well, ran the cables out to the hood through the window, and was able to get to class, and home like this. Obviously, radio, lights, everything off.

John

rpol35’s answer is almost certainly the right track: a power block or some other major electrical junction/distribution point is having an intermittent failure. The power steering issue is is a separate problem. Good luck; you’re going to need it.

If you’re serious about finding out what it could be before you take it somehwere for service, check the forums at Allpar.com. Those boards are frequented by technicians and Moparites of many years experience. They will point you in the right direction. You have to register to use the forums, but it’s free and they won’t give away your email address so you suddenly start getting SPAM for male enhancement products.

To register:
http://www.allpar.com/forums/

Then go to:
“General Technical Support & Help”
http://www.allpar.com/forums/index.php?showforum=33

Or go to:
“Minivans – Pacifica”
http://www.allpar.com/forums/index.php?showforum=16

If that’s not the case, I’d certainly check for codes and have a charging system test (since they are easy and free and sometimes point you in the right direction), but I’ve had a bad ground before that behaved similarly (but never affected power steering…that’s the curious part), so I’d also second the commentator who mentioned that…

Intermittent problems are a bitch, though. Sometimes you just replace things as best practices dictates (and budget will allow) and see if it goes away.

Just curious, but if power steering hoses and pump aren’t replaced what will be the resulting failure mode of the rack & pinion?

This advice is poor, because it is misleading by dint of vagueness. “Factory remanufactured” parts widely available from parts stores are usually poor-quality, unreliable trash, but the “100% NEW!” rotating electrics (starters, alternators, etc.) available from many parts stores are counterfeit/copycat garbage from China with awful durability and reliability, no better—regardless of whose name is on the box—than the “remanufactured” junk. Both the “100% NEW!” and the “reman” items are often promoted with a lifetime warranty. This means nothing more than that you’re dooming yourself to spending your lifetime swapping repeatedly-failed parts under warranty.

The good options are a new original-equipment item from the dealer ($$$), a tested-good original-equipment item from the wrecking yard, or one—the car’s original or another—that has been rebuilt on a workbench by a skilled technician. The latter two options are much more cost-effective than the first. Warranty? Yeah, maybe 30 days or a year. In over two decades of preferring carefully-selected used or bench-rebuilt components to factory-”remanufactured” ones, I have never once needed to make use of the warranty, during or after its effective period.

You have to use your brain, though; there’s a great deal of slop and overlap in usage of the terms “remanufactured” and “rebuilt”.

Other potential causes of the subject vehicle’s symptoms include internally-corroded or -broken battery cables that lose continuity when they flex a certain way, a dirty or loose main disconnect located on Chrysler products in the positive battery cable about 6″ away from the battery, faulty power or ground to the ECM and/or BCM, or (occasionally) a faulty ECM or BCM.

Since the engine is running when these problems happen, there’s a good chance no OBD codes will pop up. Which has been my experience too.

On ours the dealer replaced the “body control computer”, instrument panel and other stuff and never found whatever was intermittent.

If you are getting a failure just backing out of the garage or in similar circumstances i would not say that this is a load problem, sounds more like a vibration/flexing problem. If every system in the car goes dead, it’s going to be something very basic. Since most cars have the “whole world grounded to one bolt” system, that would be a place to look. Also as Sajeeve mentioned could be cracked battery terminal. Bad positive connection at either end or bad cables. We many times replaced cables that looked good from the outside but were completely corroded inside.

Part of figuring this out is to determine if the whole car is dead or if just the primary systems go dead. Difficult with an intermittent problem, I know. If just the primary systems go out, it could be a bad connection to the fuse box, a common problem on 90’s Saturns for instance that would kill almost everything but some things like the radio still worked.

Good luck with this.

I believe there is a “power distribution block” (not the official name) under the hood that routes all things electronic and contains circuit breakers; the problem is probably there, either coming in, going out or internally.

A fully electronic test may help but being that it is an intermittent problem, it may be tough to diagnose. Sounds like a momentary “dead-short” if it is taking out everything at once.

MOPAR mini-vans have some specific “recurring” issues but I have never heard of one like this.

i never actually thought about it because it hasn’t occurred for a couple of years, but now that i do think about it, and hear someone else had a slightly similar problem it’s concerning.

other than that, i never had a problem before, and i always thought it might have been a slip from the belt that runs the hydraulic steering pump when at or close to full lock.

might Derek’s issue happen if the Belt slips on the alternator. plus having a dying alternator might induce an electrical balckout. but why would the power steering die, the Dodge caravan runs on a belt driven hydraulic power steering pump not electrical. so it might be the belt (pulley) that lays on the main shaft and drives the belts…

I’m not a mechanic, I’m just guessing…. hope it helps…