Chrysler Repair: 2003 Dodge Caravan: battery/cable corrosion, highway traffic safety, traffic safety administration

Question
The positive battery terminal has created a great deal of corrosion in a very short time. The van will not start now even with a jump and brand new battery. We are being advised that to repair it we must replace the cable, that cable is also the wiring harness. This is very expensive! do you know if there has been any recalls on this

Answer
Hi Linda,
Have you checked that the original warranty might not cover this repair? You could find out about a recall by contacting the Chrysler corporate headquarters in Detroit or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington.
In any case, I have only the manual for '98 to work with but unless the wiring has changed markedly I am surprised that there is more to the corrosion than simply the fat red cables (2) that go between the + clamp and the generator, and the + clamp and the nearby power distribution center. The "harness" really begins on the output side of the power distribution center not at the battery. So I wonder how the harness has gotten into the picture.  I believe that the ends of the two cables may be the only parts that are damaged and that a competent auto electric shop can repair/replace them at a reasonable cost. Now as to the cause of the corrosion, I would suspect that the generator is over-charging the battery which results in the generation of corrosive gas (sulfuric acid). That may be due to a wire that runs between the field coil of the generator and the powertrain controller which is next to the power distribution center being grounded rather than being under the control of the PCM which regulates the voltage output of the generator. So to get to the bottom of this, if you have been only working with the dealer, I would first check for the possibility of a warranty repair or recall and failing that discuss it with an independent auto electric shop to see if they can figure out a more economical repair than some major harness purchase. It may be worthwhile to tow the van to an independent shop. I smell a ripoff.
Roland