maxcaddy

As some of you may know my V'ger's gearbox went funny last month, and I've held out for a few weeks with the view that I might have a go at fixing it etc, but have come to the conclusion that I would be fighting a losing battle. Time had come the Walrus said, and consequently off it went this afternoon to the scrappers . After 8 years and 70,000 miles I was sorry to see it go, but it had served its purpose and that was that. Not sure what I'll replace it with, but i'm thinking maybe a large 4x4 plus a trailer for what won't fit inside. I've had an interesting time on here, and wish you all well in keeping your V'gers on the road. Adios.

Gone up you say !!!. I bought a tin of matching spray paint for my Cub Cadet from a dealer here, and was charged $29.22 . On the GV front, got to say I'm of the mind that repairing it even if its only the Solenoid Pack, is just a few weeks grace from the next thing going wrong, and it's looking like it's more trouble than it's worth to want to invest any more .

Seemed a good idea, but they're not exactly giving them away. I could have saved $10 on a cheaper one, but the $40 surcharge until I took my old one back could have been expensive .

Having booked a holiday which started last Sunday, it all went wrong at the wrong time. When I get back I may have a little go at it, but it's been warned that any serious misbehaving would be the end, and that's what its doing . Sad really as I'm in the US and there's still a shed load of them running around even quite old ones. Probably cos they've got the V6, and not an old oil burner .

Cheers Nev, There's a gentle buzzing when you listen carefully under the bonnet, but without stripping lots out its very difficult to be exact as to where its coming from. Unfortunately without the full diagnostic its going to be difficult to confirm what's wrong, there are no local places that want to touch it (neighbour had a similar problem with his Chrysler PT and couldn't find anyone to help, ended up scrapping it), and I'm very wary of pursuing a lost cause. After 9 years ownership (it's a 2007) and 133,000 (70,000 by me), with a few dents and scratches its value is at best £500, hence diminishing returns. A further test this morning gives drive after a few revs, so I might keep it for a while for emergency as living on an island (IOW) there's only 20 miles max and then your in the sea . I did swap the Autobox relay, but that didn't do anything. Only hope is for someone on here who has had exactly the same issue, to confirm what was needed to cure it (i.e. Solenoid pack). Otherwise, time has come, the Walrus said................

I think mine's now going to join Gingers down the scrappy . After this year's motoring whereby for the cost of 4 tyres and an Alternator, I've managed to do about 5,000 and 7 months use, including a 2 month/ 2,000 mile holiday in France, the Autobox is now throwing a wobbly. It started yesterday whereby after a jaunt up to London the return trip to Southsea resulted in 2 or 3 times when there was no drive when pulling away from a junction. The usual little thump when engaging drive isn't there anymore, and it needed a bootfull of revs to get it to engage a gear. Today it struggled to do anything in 'D' but did move after revving it a few times, but then struggled to do anything in 'R' to get it back onto the drive. Checked the Autobox oil which was fine, and other than some mysterious easily curable gearbox fault, it's now unfortunately finished its useful life. Any meaningful suggestions to fix the Autobox and give it a few miles would be welcomed, otherwise any call for parts that would leave it still towable will be considered. Thoughts ?

Presumably none of these would fit https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=set+of+grandvoyager+parking+brake+cables&_blrs=spell_check In the past a garage would make cables to suit, not sure if that goes on any more.

The question remains it only fails to start when hot. Fuel supply problems would surely be the same hot or cold ? Back onto sensors etc, what if the key/ignition switch got hot and failed to function until it cooled down ?

Seem to remember that Isopropyl Alcohol for cleaning, Araldite, and something to hold it in place while it was setting fixed mine many moons ago.

Well done, any pointers you would like to share on here such as what was exactly done to silence it ?

The traditional problem with starting after leaving it for some time was to do with the fuel system loosing pressure and needing repressuring. This isn't your case which you say is only when its hot, and once it's cold it's okay, consequently the question is what can affect the engine not to start when its hot ?. That then gives you at least 2 likely routes, the first route is that there is a mechanical issue whereby for instance something gets hot like the cylinder head, and it fails to maintain compression. However if that were the case, I would expect a number of other symptoms like loss of water, overheating, lack of power, to show up long before it wouldn't start again. Most of any kind of that problem can be seen, smelt or heard, so it doesn't seem at all likely that route 1 is applicable. Route 2 is that a sensor or electrical gismo is overheating and not working once it's been turned off. I.e something like a fuel pump relay that overheats and won't re-initialise again until the engine bay has cooled down. If possible, if you could track the location of such gismos i.e. crank sensor, injection cpu, some odd fuel related sensor, etc, it could be possible to identify a part that is very hot, and which could be the source of your problems. Noting that some electronic devices generate more than enough heat on their own, which a hot engine simply exacerbates. All that said, what if after stopping when hot and failing to start, you poured/hosed cold water over the engine to see if by quickly reducing the temperate it provided an instant solution, and if so, then do it in a pattern of areas to pinpoint where the issue was ???

The simple answer is to disable the Alarm which (I think) is hidden underneath the battery tray area. Disable it by opening it up and making sure it doesn't make any noise, cos if you try something simple like just cutting the wires or pulling the fuse/relay, you could have all manner of weird peripheral issues happen. If anyone says that it will invalidate your insurance if it were stolen, then the answer is A, you didn't know it didn't work, and B no self respecting or infact self loathing toerag, is going to steal a 17 year old V'ger. If mine were to start playing up then that would be the first thing I would try.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1311&_nkw=chrysler+grand+voyager+steering+rack&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=chrysler+voyager+rack

See who's breaking what on eBay if you're after a pump or rack. Any local hydraulic hose company should be able to repair hose failures by swaging a new section in. I used to use a company called Pirtex many moons ago, not cheap but excellent quality.

Well done . I suspect many on here are at the stage (like me) whereby if you can keep it rolling you're winning, and if the repair is too much or too difficult its scrap yard time. Obviously faults that can be fixed should be, and that's what you've done. However I think that we're all coming to the end of the line, and things that are difficult (like my instrument panel) will be a death knell come MoT time .

Well, discovered another little foible, the door mirrors won't fold in unless the engine is running . There's probably some other oddities as well, but that was the last thing of note. Of course having to start the engine again on a busy Ferry with a tradition belch of smoke, wasn't what everyone else wanted . Now the good news, it's made it to the Pyrenees (again), but I did treat her very gently on the Motorways .

Fairly sure the radio isn't the main failure as it stopped working about 4 years ago, the same time as the GPS, and long before my recent woes started. To conclude the weird instrument cycling I can live with, the lack of central locking is inconvenient but liveable, and the uncertainty whether it all might suddenly stop has been mitigated by the fact its still running 2 weeks later. So unless it gets significantly worse I'll keep it running until something else goes wrong

Which beggars the question as to why ?, what's so special about the CD/DVD that it has to come on before other things ? In my case with my dodgy radio that switches itself off after 10 mins, there's some fault in there and I suspect its powering something or creating a draw which flattens the battery after awhile. Hence, then why is it 'unswitched' ?, and is there a fuse protecting it that can come out ? Okay, I could fire it up and take the fuses in and out to see if any of them stopped powering the unit, but as the old girl is on borrowed time, and that I don't want anything further to go wrong with it, I'm wary of touching too much. At the moment it's liveable, and the faff of manually locking the doors, and have to have the engine running to open the tailgate is an inconvenience I can bare.

Well I've poked and probed inside and out, and whatever oddity is going on is lost on me. That said apart from the 'weirdness' of it, it's actually running fine, it's just the 'what's going to happen next' is unnerving. One thing that is curious is that whenever the Battery is reconnected, the CD player does a cycle through the CDs with the CD lights flashing even though the ignition is off. Obviously then there's some connection to make it happen, and logically some fuse to protect it, which could be where the problems are ?

. Wow, a bit like comparing scars and bullet wounds . The biggest problem for me is that A, they don't make them any more, and B that there isn't anything similar on the market to replace it. In this day and age I struggle to understand why if you have something which was successfully marketed around the world, then why did they (FIAT Chrysler) stop making it ?, seems totally dumb to me. But hey in the words of many, what do I know .

Well many thanks chaps, however....... It's not the IOD fuse cos I took that out many moons ago. It's not rebooting the system cos that happens every morning when I reconnect the Battery. It's not Fuses Nos 5 and 20, cos they're now both out, and its not better. It's not (as someone else said to me) a dicky battery, as I changed that, and it's exactly the same. What I have discovered is :- that to lock it (noting the key fob now doesn't do anything) you have to sit in it with all doors closed and Ignition on. Then Lock it by pushing the switch on the door panel down, and it all locks. Turn ignition off, use the inside door handle to unlock the drivers door, and then get out. then lock the drivers door manually outside, and it's all then locked. A right pain...... Anyway, all the time it's running it's useable, even though this latest scene of events is somewhat annoying. I did read the riot act to it a couple of years ago after when I replaced the Thermostat and Radiator, with the threat that it would be going to meet the great recycler in the sky if it went wrong again, and in fairness it has behaved itself until very recently. I'm just optimistic that there's something silly that has failed, and that I can easily/cheaply sort it out, otherwise I can see my patience wearing thin if it continues to mess about.

In the past whenever I've gone to start it and the battery was too low, the gauges (water/fuel/revs/speed) all did a full sweep and back to stop. At that point I knew it wasn't going to turn over, but always tried just in case. Sometimes after disconnecting and charging the battery, it did a 'full sweep' when it was back on, but then always started. As I've had a 'battery drain' for the last 3 years I always disconnect the earth when its to be left overnight. Now, after fitting the replacement Alternator and charging the battery, the first thing is that the remote locking doesn't work. Key on to Ignition, and the gauges do a full sweep each time its turned on and off (battery always connected). None of the internal door switches now work without the key onto ignition setting. The central locking tries to unlock the already unlocked doors when flicking the switch on the door card, but it won't lock them. Internal top of windscreen switches open/close rear doors and lift tailgate only when the Ignition is on, whereas before they would work without even having the key in. Back to the dashboard its also doing a wobbly whereby turning it on gives no dash warning lights at all, but turning it off makes the oil warning light come on even with the key out. So, some fault associated with odd dashboard sequencing and door locking - does that mean anything to anyone ? Lastly, worn batteries in the remote could be causing the remote locking to fail, but shouldn't affect the car controls for it ?. Have to say that I really don't want to play about too much with the alarm bits, as doing it wrong and having the alarm go off and bringing the neighborhood out to see what's going on (done that too many times) is somewhat embarrassing.

Many thanks indeed for the answers, which cures my curiosity. Unfortunately in fitting the alternator and poking the fuse box, another interesting anomaly has started, which I'll check again this morning, and suspect I'll be seeking advice later on .

While poking around in the fuse box in the faint hope it was something other than the Alternator, I spotted a curiosity. No6 Fuse can be inserted either of two ways middle to IGN or middle to Bat, on mine its towards the IGN side. Without delving into the history of whys and wherefores, could some kind soul tell me what this fuse covers, why its on mid/IGN, and what would happen if I changed it to mid/BAT. Okay, it's been like that for over 8 years but now I've spotted it, I'm curious. Cheers

Well, I found a £115 Alternator on fleabay, fitted it, and it works fine. Which is what I hoped for other than some silly wiring/electrical fault. So, the old girl soldiers on .