2020 Chrysler Pacifica Plug-In Hybrid: sudden loss of power

Filed Mar 25, 2025 · Transmission · IA

We were driving down the freeway at 70 mph and the vehicle displayed "Vehicle will shut off soon, pull over safely" and IMMEDIATELY lost power and the gas pedal would do nothing.

Filed Jul 8, 2024 · Electrical, Fuel system · TN

While driving, the vehicle spontaneously goes into limp mode and warns the driver to pull over immediately because it is about to shut down. This has happened at least 10 times in my ownership of this vehicle since 10/04/2023 and the first time on 10/09/2024 and most recently occurred 07/06/2024. The first time it occurred on a narrow mountain road at night but I was safely able to drive slowly for about a mile before finding a parking lot to pull over. Several times were significantly more dangerous and occurred while traveling 70mph on a busy interstate and forcing us to navigate across several lanes of traffic into the emergency lane in a vehicle that is no longer able to keep up with traffic due to significant power loss when limp mode. Once pulled over, the vehicle must be turned off for several seconds before restarting and driven again. Occupants are at significant risk of being involved in a collision during the entire process from unexpected power loss, navigating traffic with said power loss, parking and restarting the vehicle on the side of a busy road, and attempting to safely merge back into traffic which is often traveling 70+mph. This entire issue is due to a faulty wiring harness in the transmission of 2017-2023 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid that can short circuit and requires immediate shutdown of the vehicle when it occurs. Thus far the only remedy from Chrysler is a software update which installs a driver warning to pull over and restart the vehicle before it shuts down instead of immediately shutting off. This is marginally better than complete power loss but still poses significant increased safety risk for passengers and surrounding vehicles and a remedy that stops the failure from occurring in the first place needs to be implemented immediately. This has been known to effect 70,000 vehicles from 2017-2023 year models and the fact that a remedy to the actual problem has not yet been made is appalling and dangerous.

Filed Sep 20, 2023 · Acceleration, Electrical · FL

Driving at approx 45 MPH the car suddenly lost propulsion and experienced a complete electrical failure. The power steering was lost, braking was stiff, gas pedal was unresponsive. I struggled to get the vehicle out of the lane of traffic. The police arrived and helped route traffic until the tow truck arrived. The vehicle is still covered under factory warranty and is currently at the dealer with no estimated return date. As a matter of fact, the Chrysler dealer that has my car hasn't returned my phone calls or voice mails in a week now to inform me how long I might be without my vehicle. A day before the incident a message appeared: ?service Hybrid electrical system It happened fast but prior to the failure the display flashed red and sounded an alarm Shift to P to start for a few seconds, then the gear shifter was flashing....then I lost all power.

Filed Aug 27, 2023 · Fuel system, Transmission · MI

Twice now the A/C has quit, and a short time later the Hybrid battery severely overheats and the van shuts down. This happens at highway speeds, and the vehicle loses power and shuts down. This is dangerous to have a sudden shutdown at 75 MPH. When driving in hot weather for a couple hours, the electric A/C compressor quits. On this van, the Hybrid battery is cooled by the passenger HVAC system. When the A/C quits first you feel the air from the ducts getting warm. Then you get a message on the dash for "Battery Conditioning" and a Check Engine light. If you keep driving, it stalls and will not restart until the battery cools off. It takes about 3-4 hours to get the van to move again at reduced power. If you let it cool overnight, the van drives normally until the next incident. There are trouble codes set for battery overheating, P0A7E, P1AA6, P1A9A, P1A21, P1AA2, P1A9E. There have been multiple unsuccessful attempts to diagnose the van by Chrysler dealers. Dealers can't/won't replicate this due to having to drive for approximately 2 hours in high ambient temps. The vehicle is fine in moderate or cold temps due to not needing the A/C to cool the battery, it is cooled and heated by secondary systems in those conditions. This issue is very dangerous because lithium batteries do not like extreme high temperatures, this issue could cause a thermal runaway event of the battery. Many of the codes that were set are for the battery temperature exceeding 131F (55C), which is severely hot for Li-Ion. This is much hotter than safe high temp recommendation for Li-Ion. Recall 03A for not giving warning before stalling was performed, however this issue is not the same symptom, nor the same cause as that recall. That recall involves a transmission short, not battery overheating. My van has had multiple reflashes and is up to date on all software. My vehicle was a "lemon law" buyback for the same stall issue, and was purported to have been fixed before I purchased the van.

Filed Aug 1, 2023 · Electrical, Engine · TX

The car has lost power while driving multiple times. It was in the shop for many months more than once regarding the issue. An error came on the screen saying “vehicle speed may be reduced” then it stopped. The most recent time. After the recall fix. I got a second warning telling me to pull over because the car was going to stop. I barely made it off the highway into a parking lot. The time before that I was off the side of the road on a frontage road because the car could not make it to a parking lot.

Filed Jul 5, 2022 · Engine, Fuel system · SC

While driving down the highway at about 65MPH on battery, the car suddenly lost power when the battery reached <1% instead of immediately switching to gasoline powered mode. The car continued to slow down until it was stopped and gave an error saying to service the charging system. I was then able to turn the car off and restart it, from that point it continues in gasoline mode. This was a dangerous situation to loose power unexpectedly on a busy highway. The vehicle has not yet been inspected by the manufacturer.