Hi -
2003 Caravan sxt - When shutting off the vehicle upon taking the key out of the ignition and opening the door the chime rings and the daytime running lights (and taillights) are on. This same thing happens when opening the driver's door to enter the vehicle after it's been sitting for any amount of time. They both shut off (whether or not the door is open or closed) after a couple of minutes and so that seems normal because they finally figured out that there's no reason to kill a battery by having left headlights on - I assume there's some kind of timer in there that accomplishes this. The chime stops ringing when I close the door but the daytime running lights stay on for that same couple of minutes then turn off. At first, I could get this to stop happening by wiggling my headlight switch back and forth which made me think it's the headlight switch making a defective contact somewhere inside - it's a pretty simple switch, however (I took it apart to see what was up) and I didn't see it doing anything abnormal. Is it the switch deep inside the ignition switch or is it the headlight switch or is this some other electrical gremlin ? It's not dangerous (yet ?) but it sure is annoying and I've wanted to kill that door chime for a long time now but don't know where it's located. Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

Until someone pipes in - I'm not sure you really want to disable the "chime." I believe that puppy also notifies you of other problems.

 

Welcome to DF
The daytime running lights should go off when the key is off and removed from the ignition. Now the headlight maybe on a timer, I believe that is thru the BCM/FCM. You may want to have the van scan for codes in the BCM.

 

Thanks for the replies - excuse my lack of knowledge, but bcm/fcm stands for ? Some type of electronic control module, I expect. I take it that this means I'd have to get one of those code reader units and hook it up to see if the caravan is actually emitting a code that'll tell me where the dysfunction is. I was thinking about taking out the ignition key unit and pulling it apart to see if there's something sticking inside there that's causing the chime and lights to stay on. On the other hand, maybe that's not a good idea but I'm not sure where else to look (besides the codes, I guess) because it pretty much started doing this out of nowhere and like I said, I used to be able to get it to stop by wiggling my headlight switch around.

 

Good question...

• Body Control Module (BCM) - A computer component in an automobile that checks, regulates and operates electronic devices throughout the car...

• Front Control Module (FCM) - A computer component in an automobile that controls all lighting, wipers, signals and alot of interior modules...