1997 Chrysler Town and Country Acceleration Problems

Which parts fail

• Cruise control
  1

Components named in complaints (accelerator pedal, throttle, sudden acceleration, cruise control).

Mileage when the problem started

Owner reports

Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 1997 Chrysler Town and Country owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).

This morning when I put the car in drive, I heard a loud constant squealing noise. I attempt to turn the steering wheel to the left, but the van took off striaght ahead and would not turn and crashed into a parked car, which was totalled afterwards. Although my foot was on the brakes at all times, my van continued to propel forward. It then knocked over a tree approx. 12 ft. Tall and finally stopped when it ran into a neighbors shrubs. Fortunately, no one was injured or walking in front of the van at the time or perhaps someone May have been killed. Upon investigation, there was visible skid marks from where my van was parked to where it finally stopped, which was over 60 feet away. Ironicallly, my van was still drivable after all the damaged it had done. I had it towed to a local Chrysler dealership, they conducted a test drive and found nothing out of the ordinary. …

Consumer put vehicle in drive and vehicle experienced surged, crashing into a church, consumers foot was not on the accelerator at any time, the air bags failed to deploy. Consumer recently experienced a bad fuel smell and difficulty starting vehicle, a dealer stated that they could not find any problems and that the consumer needed to take the vehicle back to the dealer where it was purchased, consumer had the fuel pump replaced.

While driving at 65 MPH vehicle jumped out of gear, and the engine revved very high. Consumer stopped the vehicle, and killed the engine. After a minute consumer restarted the vehicle and pulled out. Currently, vehicle would not go out of second gear. Vehicle was taken to a dealer, who determined that a new transmission was needed.

Van unexpectedtly surged forward at high speed from a parked position to cause a crash of incredible destruction to the church, without foot on accelerator. The air bags did not deploy. Consumer is smelling gas, consumer can not find any problems. Consumer states vehicle is hard to start.

My 'air bag' light flickered for a month and then finally stayed on. I discovered my horn did not work, or the cruise control. I replaced the fuses, and the problem continued. I contacted my repair shop and was told other minivans had the same proble. He referred me to the dealer. The dealer was well aware of the problem and told me it was the "clockswitch". It would cost approximately $250 to repair. He informed me that my air bag does not work, in addition to the cruise control and horn. I researched the web and found many others have the same problem. I contacted Chrysler, they claim it is not a defect and not a reall. This should be a recall since over 124,511 of these parts have been replaced, at the owner's expense, and who knows how many vehicles are out there where the operators are unaware their air bag will not deploy. This is a sfety issue!!!!!! Please investigate!!!

The airbag warning light came on in June. I contacted the dealer and was told that it was the clockspring without them even looking at it. They also told me that my cruise control and horn would fail next. Sure enough, about a week later the cruise control and horn ceased to function. I have a friend with a 1997 caravan with the same problem. If the dealer knew what was wrong with it sight unseen, that indicates that this is a common problem. I see that there is an open investigation (NHTSA action#ea01007) into this very problem, and I hope that it results in a recall soon. The dealer wants almost $300.00 to fix it.

I first notice just my airbag light came on, then my noticed my horn wasn't working, and checked my cruise control also out. When we contacted the dealer (chris in service) he knew exactly what it was and rattled off what needed to be replaced on the spot (sight unseen). We find this to be highly unusual as we have dealt with this dealership for years and years. We read that you were investigating this same problem today via wallstreet journal and decided to let you all know we had the same problem you were investigating. Contact us if needed... Feel free. We appreciate the job you do!!

The failure of the air bag clock spring has resulted in the air bag warning light staying continualy on and the loss of the cruise control. I have talked with several other people who indicate this is a problem on similar Chrysler products. There is some concern that the air bag(s) could deploy without having an event that would signal deployment. There is also concern that the air bag(s) would fail deploy in the event of a front force collision.

While driving with cruise control activated could not disengage that system by the steering column, and had to apply brakes to stop vehicle. Also, horn has failed to function. Dealership has examined vehicle, and determined that clock spring was the component that needed to be replaced. Please provide any additional information/attachments.

Horn/cruise control worked intermittently, then failed. I now understand the air bags were on that circuit as well, but I had no way of checking that at the time, and the garage did not give me any indication that this failure was dangerous. Please force them to fix these things on other Chrysler Mini-vans beofre someone gets seriously hurt.

NHTSA investigations

Acceleration complaints in other Town and Country years