Rough Idle on 2004 Town & Country

I just bought a 2004 T+C, and I've noticed that it has a rough idle when
hot. The RPMs dip to about 550-600 from the normal 700-750. This is
noticeable when you've been driving, and stop at a light. Trip to the dealer
resulted in "nothing's wrong". Pushing further, I found out I'm not the only
one complaining of this, but DC's opinion is that there's not a problem, and
the vibration is within specs. They said a rep came by, and measured it (not
on my T+C) with a "G meter", and proclaimed that there's only .0xxx g's of
vibration, so - no problem. I had a 2001 Grand Caravan, same engine - 3.3 -
and it never did this. I've had one occurance of a "squish" (didn't go
immediately when I stepped on the gas) (They had some wierd fancy name for
that) I've forced them (I hope) to call D-C, and raise my complaint. Has
anyone else experienced this? How do I push this hard enough to get it
fixed? Is the failure to accellerate enough to go to NHTSA if it happens
again?

 

I have a 2003, but idle seems fine. However, if memory serves mine idles at
about 600 RPM normally - is this low?

Guy

 

It's not really the idle speed that bothers me. It's the shaking of the
vehicle, and the occasional refusal to accelerate immediately. This,
according to the dealer, is something that's started with the 2004s.

 

How many miles? My 2003 had that for the first 5000 miles and seems to have
gone away.

KS

 

Around 3000.

 

I just test drove a 2004 the other day and it did nothing of the sort.
I would have noticed because I am very sensitive to stuff like that.

Sounds like a vacuum leak to me.

Bring it back and raise hell because you've paid enough for it and
AFAIK that is not normal.

A good technique is to ask to drive the dealer demo, with the service
advisor in the car with you.
Unless there is some design problem, which I doubt, that car will
drive fine. Now demand they fix your car so it is the same.

 

Good idea about going for a ride in their demo. I've gone for a ride with
the service manager in mine, and he was well aware of the condition, and
under what conditions it occurs - he could actually predict when it would
and wouln't occur. The thought crossed my mind to ask them for assistance in
initiating arbitration procedures - whether I go thru with it is another
matter - but at least it would get someone's attention at Chrysler. FYI, for
the vibration to occur, the vehicle has to be hot - in closed loop as the
service manager said - and in drive. AC on or not doesn't matter, but when
the compressor kicks in, there's an increase in the vibration for a couple
of seconds.

 

If you can get the service manager to document this on paper then you would
have some assistance should you go to arbitration. But, my guess is that
Chrysler
has a programmer in a back room somewhere who is frantically working on
a new firmware version for the engine computer. Until that new version has
made it through an entire test cycle so they can release it, Chrysler is
going to
continue to claim there's no problem.

Ted

 

You just bought the car and it has 3000 miles on it so far. WOW... you must
drive quite a lot. Did you do a good long "test drive" before handing your
money over to the dealer?

Dan

 

Yup, sort of.... I bought it on September 11. It had 5 miles on it. We took
a weeklong vacation to Florida, and drove all over the state - hence, the
miles, and the annoyance with the vibration. Lots of red light time. Normal
miles is ~ 150 a Week.