General reliability questions.

Sky120 · **Posted:** Sun Sep 02, 2012 3:21 pm

Hi Everyone!
I may be a new owner of a Liberty crd...
Little backround, I currently have a 02 grand caravan sport that I bought in 06 when I was married, now in the land of the free again. I have been looking around for something newer and a friend has a Liberty (gas version) and I really like it size wise but not real thrilled with the gas mileage he gets with it. Then I discovered the CRD I have been lurking on here for a couple weeks and have read about most of the issues. I just want a second opinion from thoes that have CRD's before I go ahead with buying one I am looking at a 2006. This will probably have to be reliable for me for quite a few years.
The CRD I am looking at has samco hoses already insalled as well as a GDE eco tune and the new style fuel filter. My concern is right now its at 96,000 miles and from what I can tell the current owner knows how care for the CRD from what has been done to it. I know it will need a timing belt and I have a friend that is a diesel head with his Cummings Ram with a ploe barn with two lifts and all the tools I would need to do the swap except for the special tools needed. I should have no trouble working on it thanks to the noob guide on here plus a litle help from my friend. I realize its a car and things go wrong especialy on older vehicles but in general how does the CRD hold up over the long haul?

Thanks for any help you guys can offer!

Darren

dirtmover · **Posted:** Sun Sep 02, 2012 9:17 pm

Snap, I've got a '99 Grand Caravan which I've owned since new and an '06 CRD since new. The Caravan has been a dream to maintain, very little non routine stuff has gone wrong an what has needed replaced is cheap, EGR = $35, thermostat = $3.50 :-)r

, accessory belt $6 etc.

The CRD, OTOH, has been a PITA, expensive and I only expect it to get worse :cry:

.

Sky120 · **Posted:** Sun Sep 02, 2012 10:58 pm

My Caravan has a few electrical gremlins going on with it, Fans dont like to turn on, Temp guage on the dash works when the key is in the on posistion but start it and it drops to the pin. Had it looked at, replaced the computer... still not right. Thought it might be the fan relay but ruled that out, turn on the ac and the fans come on just fine. I dont mind working on cars but chashing electrical gremlins is not fun by any strech! That and it just time to move on to something else...the Caravan is NOT great for picking up women.. lol

msilbernagel · **Posted:** Mon Sep 03, 2012 3:43 am

Check all your fuses.. when mine had those gremlins, it turned out that a blown fuse was causing other systems to ground through common wiring. Talk about strange... happened to a friend of mine with who also had a Caravan.

He took five minutes to describe all his diagnostics. I sat and listened, and then said "sounds like a fuse". You should have seen his face! He thought I was a genius, and I may have neglected to to explain how long I tracked the gremlins. ; ' )

So - there is precedence; you might double check with a voltmeter. You can't always tell by looking.

Mark

dirtmover · **Posted:** Mon Sep 03, 2012 4:41 pm

Sky120 wrote:

the Caravan is NOT great for picking up women.. lol

Yeah, for this reason they make a great starter vehicle. Nothing calms a testosterone enraged teenage lad like a 13 year old minivan :ROTFL:

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