Grand Voyager shite - camel country, clan-carrying Chrysler

[RichardMoss]

I've just agreed to buy some Chrysler shite - a 2001 Grand Voyager 3.3L, 4 speed auto with column shift.  High spec with leather seats, front and rear (triple zone) climate control, electric door opening/closing, CD player, cruise control,  DVD player with roof mounted screen,  etc. You know the kind of thing - if they can attach an electric motor to it, they did (including the rear quarterlights which can be opened from the driver's seat) It has done about 250,000km and all but the first 25,000 in the hands of one owner. A lot of car for under £1700 - although it would probably be cheaper in the UK  because cars here hold their value more.

 

It needs a bit of work - new brakes, fluids service, fix an oil leak on the transmission, replace a few bushes and deal with some serious dash lift (I'm an ex-Rover 800 owner so know a bit about THAT).  I hope to collect it in the next few days and will upload more details when I do.  I just love these big old buses - I used to have a second generation one (1994) with only one breakdown, a failed rear wheel bearing.  They are so comfortable that I once drove 1800 miles in 3 days without even a hint of backache or leg cramp.

 

[sutty2006]

a lot of car for the spec, which is common for american shite.

 

I nearly put my Winchmax 13000lbs winch through the back door of one of these the other night... would have made a terrible mess after smashing its back door in...

[RichardMoss]

I had to change the transmission solenoid pack on this as the first job, along with replacing the cracked/blocked radiator and new front discs & pads but everything is going well so far.  A few other things have been done such as rear hatch struts, new wipers, a couple of minor electrical jobs, new serpentine belt, oil and filter change, new air filter etc plus spark plugs (a fiddly job on the rear bank). 

 

Most of the rest has been cleaning etc:

 

 

Wheels before and after using "Wonder Wheels":

 

Headlights before, during and after sanding off the faded/pitted yellowness and polishing up wet and dry paper followed by G27 cutting compound and some "Plastic Headlight Restorer" :

 

But the most remarkable job was cleaning the leather seats.  It didn't look like they had ever been cleaned so I attacked them with a nail brush and "Vanish" soap (or the local equivalent), followed by wiping down with a sponge.  I scrub the soap mixture in to the leather with the nailbrush, leave it to "act" for a while and repeat the application.  Then a wipe down and dry off gives the result shown below.  It works equally well with plastics, especially the textured stuff on door cards.

 

PS:  Note the cup of PG Tips providing appropriate, British-style sustenance during these arduous tasks.

 

This weekend's plans include a look at the passenger's electric window to see why that doesn't work (electrical or mechanical?) and maybe a look at the non-functioning door handle on one of the sliding doors.

[DSdriver]

How do the neighbours react to you doing all this fettling, are you considered to be an English eccentric or do they all polish their headlamps (ooh matron) at the weekend?

[Guest Breadvan72]

You wait ages for a Chrysler Grand Voyager Thread, and then two arrive at once.

[RichardMoss]

How do the neighbours react to you doing all this fettling, are you considered to be an English eccentric or do they all polish their headlamps (ooh matron) at the weekend?

I get funny looks all round.  The area where we live is predominately populated by Filipinos and south Asians (India/Pakistan/Bangladesh) so just being a "white" man in this area is cause for a few stares.  That said, everyone is friendly enough - much more so than in the largely "local" area where we lived until 6 months back.  The locals don't tend to socialise with expats (except, perhaps, other arabs) but the rest of the expats of all types are more likely to (although my Muslim mates aren't too keep on going out for a few beers!)

 

Most people in my professional "class" will pay someone else to do the work but the cars are my hobby - both fixing and using.  Surprisingly few western expats seem to know which end of a screwdriver does what!  That said, I do sometimes get stuff done by a friendly garage when time is tight. 

[RichardMoss]

You wait ages for a Chrysler Grand Voyager Thread, and then two arrive at once.

I'd have swapped my Cherokee for Tetleysmooth's Voayger if he could have delivered it.

[RichL]

This looks like a 'Limited' spec as sold In the UK. Does it have the electric sliding doors and 'Power Lift Gate' (bootlid) ?

 

The 3.3 is pretty much unbreakable; the autobox less so; they like fresh oil and filters I think.

[oman5]

This looks like a 'Limited' spec as sold In the UK. Does it have the electric sliding doors and 'Power Lift Gate' (bootlid) ?

 

The 3.3 is pretty much unbreakable; the autobox less so; they like fresh oil and filters I think.

Yes definitely. the autobox IS the weak point on these, but they are wonderful things to travel in.

[RichardMoss]

It has the "electric" everything option and most of it works.  The autobox has fresh oil, filter and solenoids and will be getting a huge auxiliary cooler in the next few days.  I fitted a big cooler to my old one and it did 80,000 miles in 3 years in the hottest parts of Spain (almost as hot as here!) without missing a beat.

[RichardMoss]

OK, confession time. 

 

I spent an hour or so dismantling the right hand sliding door to see if I could work out why it wouldn't open from inside (the remote control and outside handle were fine).  I pulled off all the interior trim, dismantled the handle etc and still couldn't get it to work.......................

.

.

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................... until I realised that the child lock was selected "ON".  1/2 second later, the handle was "fixed" - proving that the child lock was doing EXACTLY what it was supposed to do.  DOH!

 

I also had a go at the passenger side electric window and found that the motor was partly seized and the power feed to it had been unplugged.  I dismantled the motor, cleaned up the armature, lubricated it all and it now works well enough to run all the way up or all the way down but then overheats and sticks until it cools down.  So, a new motor will be required but they're only about $40-45 (£25-30).