Reverse/Backup Lights not working on '03 Chrysler Town & Country
What is your question?
I have an '03 Chrysler Town & Country LX. Both of my reverse/backup lights have not been working for about 9 months now. When I first realized it my husband changed the bulbs and they still didn't work, so he checked the fuse and that was good as well. Money is tight so we pretty much just ignored the issue until now as my van is due for our state safety inspection.
Van has an automatic transmission and 147K miles on it. We bought it used in May 2014 so I don't know what has or hasn't been replaced or repaired other than the new breaks we put on it Oct. 2014 and the oil changes we have done.
Did some reading online about the issue and it seems that it might be a switch or sensor on the transmission that has gone bad. Does anyone know the name of the exact switch or sensor that would need to be replaced? I have seen it called multiple things i.e. Transmission Range Sensor, Transmission Range Switch, Backup Light Switch, Park and Neutral Safety Switch. We can't pin down which is the correct name for it for my year and model.
Any help someone can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kristen
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I have a a 2003 Chrysler T&C also. Safety inspection and emissions are due by the end of this month and I just ran into the same problem that you have - backup lights won't come on.
Also, the PRNDL on the dash board has the green box around each gear simultaneously. It's supposed to have green box around the letter indicating to gear that you are in at that given time. It is been like this for around six months and I was not worried about it because the vehicle shifted correctly and ran fine. But now that the safety inspection and emissions are due, this is causing me a headache.
The check engine light is also one and it's been on for about six months as well.
The technician cleared the codes out and the check engine light went off for a couple of hours and then came on again.
He tells me that the state emissions check computer cannot communicate with the car computer.
I assume that all of these issues are connected to one root cause.
Money is tight and the shop wants $105 / hour to trouble shoot it.
Have you figured out your backup light problem?
Any advice is appreciated.
Please always tell us what engine and transmission you have in your vehicle. I will assume you have either a 3.3 or 3.8L engine with a 4-speed trans.
Hopefully you traced all of your suspect wiring and found them to be good.
The 2 most common problems will be either:
1. The transmission range sensor, which is located inside the transmission on top of the valve body solenoid.
2. The body control module, which actually controls the illumination of the back-up lights for these vans.
Neither one is a picnic.
GL
DNO
