Top 5 Problems Dodge Caliber Hatchback 1st Generation 2007-12

Hey friends, it's Len here from 1A Auto. So today in the studio we have a first generation Dodge Caliber. I wanna go over some of the top problems that we've come to find. So let's get started. Now for our first problem, we're gonna talk about sunroof drain tube issues. Now leaky sunroofs on these are gonna be very common and it's gonna be common for a reason. There's supposed to be some drain tubes that are located up inside here so, essentially, every time it rains, the water isn't gonna make its way inside of the passenger compartment. Unfortunately, with these drain tubes, they tend to go bad or even clogged up at some points. If that's the case, you're gonna end up finding that you're taking a nice little shower inside your car every time it's raining. Now if your drain tube areas are clogged, obviously water is gonna be able to build up inside this and once it gets past this ridge right along this area, it's gonna make its way into your head liner. You might even find puddles inside of your dome light here or even puddles down located across the floorboard of your car. So now if we were gonna talk about fixes for this, obviously, you're gonna wanna check this out ASAP because any water making its way inside the passenger compartment could potentially damage any electronic components inside of the vehicle.

What I would do, of course, would be to locate those drain tubes and then I'm gonna try to force a little bit of compressed air up inside of them, see if they're clogged up in any way. If they are clogged, you're probably gonna see a little [vocalization] of stuff come flying out of there. If for some reason you try this and it doesn't fix the leak, well then you're gonna have to go ahead and replace those drain tubes. After you go ahead and do that, you're gonna wanna make sure that you get all the moisture out of your passenger compartment. Anything that you leave inside here, like I said before, could potentially damage your electronic components. Now for our second problem, we're gonna talk about prematurely worn front struts. Now your front struts are gonna be a very important part of your car's suspension. If these are in poor condition or worn in any way, you're probably gonna notice some drivability issues. Looking at your front strut, you're gonna notice that it's gonna have a coilover spring. This isn't the one for this particular car but it is one that you can see visually. A couple different things that could potentially go wrong with your struts could be the oil that's inside this area tends to seep out of there and that's due to the fact that the seal that's located along this piston arm right here wears out.

When this happens, if you see oil, well then, of course, that also means that the gases that are located on the inside are probably all out of there as well. Other things that could potentially happen with this is your little jounce bumper right here. This is gonna be something that's very important. If you were to hit a nice big bump and this was to compress fully, this jounce bumper is essentially supposed to make sure that this doesn't come all the way down and potentially damage anything. Also up along the top, you're gonna have your strut cap. This is also gonna be very important. If for some reason it's worn, torn or damaged in any way, you're gonna find that you hear clunking or bumping over every bump. Other than that, you might notice that you have an issue with your coil spring itself but that's a little less common. Usually it just comes down to leaking like this. Okay. So now that we talked about some of the symptoms that you might happen to find if you have a poor or damaged front strut, something that I wanna talk about is the fixes for this. When you replace a strut, if you happen to find that it's just one that's leaking or damaged in any way, you replace the other at the same time. So if I'm doing the left front, I'm gonna do the right front at the same time. Reasons for this could include a couple different things.

Sometimes from the manufacturer, they might come in a little bit of a different length, not usually very much but a little bit does make a big difference in the front end of your car. Other than that, the spring itself could come with a different tension. So, of course, if the new spring had great tension and the old spring was worn and weak, you're gonna have one side of your car that's a little saggy and one that's not. Lastly, of course, if you just replace one, more than likely the second one is not too far behind. So go ahead and replace them both as a pair if you find that you have an issue. After you've done that, make sure that you get yourself a four wheel alignment. Now for our third problem, we're gonna talk about issues with your wireless control module. The wireless control module on most modern cars is gonna be a very important aspect of the automobile. The reason why that is is, of course, theft. Well, how did they go about setting up this wireless control module? Well, one of the integral things is gonna be your key. Inside this key, you're gonna find that there's a microchip and there's also a battery. If, of course, the battery is low, then the microchip isn't gonna be able to function the way that it needs to.

The importance of the microchip inside the key is so that when I go ahead and put it inside my ignition and try to start the car, the key is gonna talk to the wireless control module which is located inside your dash, part of your computer system, and it's gonna say, "Hey, I recognize you. We can start up." Or if the battery's dead or there's an issue with the wireless control module, maybe you go ahead and you put your key in the ignition, you go to start it up and nothing happens. Obviously, that's gonna be an issue. This can tend to happen after your vehicle has been parked for a little while or even sometimes when you're driving down the road, it actually loses communication. If it was to lose communication while you're driving down the road, more than likely the engine's gonna end up stalling out. If it stalls out while you're driving, well, you can imagine what's gonna happen. Otherwise, like I said, maybe you have your car parked, you hop in it, you go to start it up and the key is just not recognized by the car. It thinks you're stealing it so it's not gonna start. Now if we're gonna talk about fixes, we should probably start by talking about the age of the car itself. This is a 2007 so it's already 13 years old. Batteries don't usually last that long. So, of course, inside the key, like I said, you're gonna have a battery.

If the battery is worn, low or even just not charged to the proper amount, it's not gonna be able to communicate properly and you're gonna have this issue. One of the first things that I would like to do is go ahead and pop this key apart and replace the battery. After that, give it a try. If it works, great. If it doesn't work, there's a couple other things that I would try. One of those things that you could try would be, of course, to try to hit this little panic button right here. Go ahead and push on that and let the car go into panic mode. Honk, honk, honk, honk. What's going on? Right? As soon as you do that, go ahead and turn it off and then try to start the car. That could potentially reset the module. Or if you wanted to, you can grab your ignition fuse. Go ahead and pull out that ignition fuse. Leave it out for approximately 10 minutes, maybe 15. Go inside, have a coffee, whatever you wanna do. Come back out, put in that fuse and then try it again. Typically, this will, kinda, jounce the system a little bit and it might potentially work for you. Either of these could potentially be temporary fixes though. You have to think about that. If the battery didn't work when you went ahead and fixed this and you had to try these other things, like I said, it could be a temporary fix. So maybe the next time you hop in your car, you might find that you have the same issue.

If that's the case, get yourself down to the dealer and get your wireless control module either reprogrammed or replaced. Now for our fourth problem, we're gonna talk about powertrain control module issues. Symptoms that you're probably gonna find if you're having an issue like this would probably be a check engine light on your dash. You might also happen to notice that your engine just doesn't seem to have the same power that normally it would. Other than that, maybe your transmission seems like it's slipping, maybe your engine's RPM start going up, up, up, up, up but the car itself just doesn't really seem to. The reason for that is because the transmission isn't shifting the way that it's supposed to so it's staying in too low of a gear instead of going up and up and up and then of course, increasing speed of the vehicle. Issues with the powertrain control modules are gonna be a very common thing on these particular types of cars. It could either be, like I said, the transmission module or even the engine control module. It really depends on what's going on with your particular application but overall, both of them could use a good reprogramming. Once you go ahead and do that, you're more than likely gonna notice that your drivability issues go away and that's great because what needed to happen was that the programming that was going on inside those control modules just wasn't up to par so they went ahead, reprogrammed it for you.

Now everything knows what it's supposed to do and you can go driving down the road safely. And I probably don't really have to say but before you go ahead and take your car to go get reprogrammed, why don't you just go ahead and check the fluids. If that's an issue, maybe you should just try servicing them. Now for our fifth problem, we're gonna talk about internal radio issues. Now for symptoms for this, what you're probably gonna notice is that your radio seems like it functions properly, meaning you can go ahead and listen to the music as you're driving down the road but what you're probably gonna notice is that for some reason, maybe your battery seems to tend to like to die on your car seemingly fairly often. Well, why would your battery die? Obviously, there's something putting a draw on that battery. The reason why that might be is because inside of these stereos there's a circuitry issue that tends to go bad and so once that happens, it's gonna make it so it's still connecting to try to receive power and essentially that's gonna be drawing power from your battery. So if I was to park this when I get home, go inside, go to bed, come back out the next morning and try to start up the car, great, the battery's dead again or even just the battery is weak. Typically, these cars aren't necessarily gonna wanna start if they don't find that they're at least getting 11.5 volts.

So if you're looking at a little under 12, 11, 10, 9, even lower, your car is not gonna wanna start. That's obviously gonna be an issue. Another symptom that you might happen to find is after you turn off your car, you can hear the stereo inside here making a clicking and a thumping noise, almost sounding like something's going on with the CD that's going on inside there. So now we're gonna talk about fixes for this because, of course, while you're driving in your car, you probably wanna be listening to your favorite station. With that said, the fix for this is to actually replace the stereo. You can go ahead and try to take it apart and fiddle with things and all that other stuff but who really gets inside their stereo and knows exactly what they're looking for in the first place. Overall, you can find yourself a nice aftermarket stereo or even go with an OE stereo. It really depends on what you wanna do. For me, personally, I would replace the stereo with something that's a little bit more appealing to me and maybe has other functions like, maybe, Bluetooth or something like that. So I would just go ahead and replace the stereo and then this problem is gonna be fixed. Okay friends.

So that's pretty much what I've got for you for top problems that we've come to find on a first generation Dodge Caliber. Every car has its problems. You probably have a car of your own with problems of its own. If you do and you wanna talk about it, leave it in the comments section below because I always love to hear from you. Of course, if you liked the video or you learned a little something, go ahead and smash on that like button for me. It'll mean the world. While you're at it, go ahead and subscribe, ring the bell and of course, share this message to your friends. That way there everybody can be kept up with all of our latest content. Thanks.