Back at 51k miles, for $166, my dealer replaced the clockspring to get the airbag light off. No recalls listed then. Recently, at 75k miles, the same thing happened, first the airbag light flickered on, then the horn and cruise functions eventually died. Dealer looked again, still no recalls for an 01 Caravan clockspring. Must be a routine replacement item.
I decided to replace the $40 clockspring myself this time. There is a detailed procedure at allpar.com that looked pretty easy. Only "special" tools is a 21 mm socket and $15 wheel puller. It was easy, an hour's job at most. I disconnected the battery and waited 30 minutes to be sure the airbag circuit de-energized. Went together easy and all is well again.
But the wierd thing was the defective clockspring. I disassembled it and found that the ribbon cable somehow folded back on itself and that fold cracked the conductors with time. I showed it to my 5 star Dodge service mgr, suggesting that it might be either originally defective or was installed wrong by them, and would they at least give me a new one. I had their original shop repair invoice in hand.
He, of course, gave me an argument and said for me to call Chrysler to get them to pay for the part instead of the dealer returning it for credit. For a lousy $40, I laughed at his passing an opportunity to cultivate customer relations, and walked out after paying them for a new one. I'm sure if I call them, Chrysler will point to the dealer's repair job, and the dealer will point at Chrysler.