Chrysler Pacifica Plug-In Hybrid won't start problems

Filed Oct 9, 2024 · Engine · NV

I bought a 2024 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Pinnacle [XXX]. On [XXX] I was driving. I was on a busy six lane road when the engine stopped working. The dash display showed a message to the effect of "Stop safely, vehicle engine will shut off soon" [the engine had already shut off when I saw the display]. The battery and engine lights displayed. The vehicle would not start and was towed to my dealership. They could find nothing wrong with the vehicle. They replaced the battery thinking it was dead from the desert heat sitting on the dealer lot prior to sale. The car worked until [XXX]. My daughter was driving, again, on a six lane road, when the engine died. The dash again showed the "Stop safely, vehicle...." [again the engine had already shut off when she saw the display}. The engine and battery light were again illuminated. Email notifications were sent to me showing alerts: Powertrain Malfunction, Charging system, Brakes & Suspension Antilock Brake System. I had the car towed to my dealership. Again, the dealership replaced the battery but could find no cause. The car currently works. I have owned twenty autos in my life. I have NEVER had a vehicle stop working as I am driving it. This is an extremely dangerous situation; the risk of being rear ended by another driver at a high rate of speed is great. I have seen other posts from Pacifica drivers with the same issue. Putting any driver in an unsafe situation such as this needs correction; it is even more disturbing when it is a minivan designed for families with children. My dealership is as stumped as I am. Chrysler needs to address this immediately. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed Aug 10, 2024 · Electrical, Engine · WA

I was driving in a remote region of Washington in high heat (101 F) outside of Pasco, when my car alerted me that it was going to turn off and I needed to pull the car over and stop before it shut off. I had to rapidly decelerate and dodge other vehicles to make it to the shoulder of the highway. When I pulled over and shut it off, it reported that the charging system was broken and needed to be repaired. Once off, the car would not start back up. I called for a tow through my State Farm insurance but had trouble getting a vehicle to my location. After an hour of being stranded on the highway in high heat with small children, the car finally turned back on, with the check engine light on. I took it to the Chrysler service station in Walla Walla. They said that the car showed no errors and that it was safe to drive. The check engine light turned back off. I researched this and it’s related to recall 03A, which I am now having performed. The problem is that the fix they are doing for 03A does not fix the underlying problem — it just changed the text of the error message and adds potentially a few more seconds before the car turns off and I lose control of the vehicle. I don’t understand why this “fix” was accepted if the car is still unsafe to drive. I would expect Chrysler to have to replace the faulty components in the transmission. I often have to drive in remote, unpopulated areas in bad weather, icy conditions, etc. Even with the “fix”, the car will not be safe to drive in such conditions. What if my car turns off when I’m on a mountain pass on an icy road? If I survive the crash, I’ll still be stuck on the side of the road in freezing conditions. I am extremely disappointed that the federal safety agency approved this “recall fix” that leaves these vehicles unsafe to drive. Because of the problems with this car, I can’t get very much for it in trade-in, and honestly it would be unethical to sell it to an unsuspecting family. Now I’m stuck with an expensive, unsafe vehicle.

Filed Jun 21, 2024 · Electrical, Engine · WA

This is a new 2023 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, it's only 1k miles and 1 month after the purchase, I experienced a sudden loss of power while driving in the afternoon on 6/20, there was a warning light that beeps and tells me I'm about to loss power. Fortunately I am still half mile away from freeway entrance, and I just stopped at a red light blocking vehicles behind me.... the car wouldn't start for a few minutes, and I finally get it to start after I open and close the door. The engine light has been on since the incident, and eventually went away the next day morning on 6/21, right before I dropped it off at dealership to get it checked. They read the code and confirmed it was transmission. The dealer told me they will know what to do by mid next week, and if a new transmission is needed it will be a few more weeks before it can be fixed. There was no loaner car, and Chrysler only gave me $40/day allowance for rental car which is not nearly enough to get any small car, let along a minivan.

Filed Aug 3, 2023 · Electrical, Transmission · MD

What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? - The dealer / manufacturer is unable to determine the root cause. The car shut down while I was driving on the highway. It does not start, meaning no engine turnover to operate / drive the vehicle. The only known issue was the recall for the electrical component failure. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? - Yes, both myself and others on the highway were at great risk. As my car shut down, I lost control of the vehicle - no power steering or ability to use the accelerator. My vehicle slowed to 40mph in the right lane, while other vehicles including trucks were still traveling at high speeds and quickly approached my vehicle. They did not see the hazard lights until they were only 20 feet away. This was very close to a fatal accident. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? - No. There is no solve to the issue. They claim, however, that they are replacing the *entire* transmission and think that this will fix the car. Yet, this seems to be an entirely separate, unrelated issue. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? - No Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? - Yes, I received an error message 1 day prior. See attachment photo of dashboard. I was instructed by the dealer to drive it into the dealership the very next day - the day the car shut down on the highway.

Filed Mar 13, 2023 · Engine, Transmission · WA

Vehicle had a sudden loss of engine power while at speed traveling on the highway. We were able to safely pull over, and after a few minutes restart the vehicle. After additional driving we encountered the issue again, at speed on the hoghway, however the vehicle did not shut down properly and would not start after repeated attempts. The vehicle would show the ignition was on 'run' however would either not allow shifting into gear, or upon shifting into gear immediately throw an error message on the dash stating to shift into park and restart the vehicle. I believe that this issue will not be fixed by a recall where the solution is advanced warning of an engine shutdown. We are fortunate to ha e had this happen when we were in a position to pull over safely as the speed of the vehicle plummeted unsafely after loss of engine power. This happened on Saturday March 11, the previous night the vehicle had been charged overnight. The loss of power was not experienced untill the hybrid battery charge had been depleted and the vehicle was running on the combustion engine

Filed Feb 25, 2023 · Electrical, Engine · MD

While driving down the road at approximately 45 mph, the car suddenly shut down with no power. The display said there was a charging error and to put the vehicle in park. I parked the vehicle on the shoulder, turned it off, and restarted. The engine started and I drove off, but 5 minutes later it suddenly shut off once again. I repeated this process 2 times until the final time, the vehicle would not restart, and we were stranded on the shoulder of a busy road in icy conditions. A mechanic ran a diagnostic on the vehicle and there are no error codes, but it will not start and says there is a charging error, even though it is not plugged in. The sudden stops are very dangerous, especially in snowy/icy conditions. We are 600 miles away from home and do not feel safe operating this vehicle on a long road trip on busy highways.

Filed Jan 25, 2023 · Electrical, Transmission · TX · crash

Pacifica Hybrid Limited found completely dead in our driveway and unresponsive to the remote. I manually unlocked the driver door, no usual dash indications, opened the hood and found the 12v battery system at 2.9v. It would not start & no responses or indications. There had been no warnings or indications of any problems prior to this. The car prevented my 6 A charger from charging the battery while it was connected to the car. I jump started the car with a known good battery, removed the jump, and allowed the engine to charge the car battery some. I decided to take no chances and replace the 12v battery. I turned the car to the OFF state via the dash push button. The car was never moved out of P park. I left it to go purchase a new 12v battery. I returned 2 hours later with a new battery to find the car in the street and having knocked over my neighbors 700-800 lb brick mail box. A police report was filed, pictures taken, and I jump started the car with the new battery. It started normally and I backed it up under its own power into my driveway where I replaced the 12v battery without incident. The car has operated normally with no warnings or indications of a problem before and since the incident. The car on its own and while OFF, unlocked the transmission park pawl allowing the car to roll 80 feet down a very mild slope and across the street to crash into my neighbor’s mail box when the 12v battery failed. There was no occupant, and no key fob was present. My quick search has found at least 3 other incidents with this same model, where the 12v battery failed and the car, on its own, unlocked the transmission allowing it to roll away. Of the 4 incidents I am aware of, 3 resulted in collisions and property damage. the federal safety agency 11173732 Pacifica Forum post: 597914, member: 76986 Pacifica Forum post: 543399, member: 66469 It’s only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed by this defect. Chrysler is aware. The car and battery are available for inspect

Filed Jan 4, 2023 · Electrical, Engine · IL

On 11/19/22, while driving to a family member's for Thanksgiving week, we stopped to get gas and turned the vehicle off. When attempting to start, we received a "Service Charging System" error on the dash and the vehicle would not start. Fortunately after waiting several minutes we were able to get it started and made it to our destination. The next morning it did not start and we had it towed to the nearest dealer. The issue was reproduced at the dealer and they did some things to clear error codes, recalls, etc. and the vehicle started one day but then the issue reoccurred the next day. After three weeks they were able to upgrade the hybrid system software which seemed to do the trick. We picked up the vehicle and drove it home. Two weeks later on Christmas day when we were leaving a family party the issue came back and we were not able to get it started. The next day 12/26/22, we had it towed to the nearest dealer where it is currently at as of this writing. When it was delivered to the dealer the issue was still present however they did not bring it in to service for a week and when they did the issue was not there. They are working to recreate the issue to try and diagnose. There were no warnings or error messages in advance of this issue occurring. Luckily this issue did not happen while driving as that would have put myself and family in a dangerous system. The fact that this issue has not been resolved and seems to occur randomly is a major concern. I do not feel safe driving this vehicle knowing that this can happen and leave us stranded or in an unsafe situation. We are currently working with the dealer with hopes of a solution but this is a serious issue.

Filed Nov 22, 2022 · Electrical, Engine · OH

We were driving our Chrysler Pacifica hybrid on the highway and it stalled and said put into park and completely turned off. When we pulled over to the side of the road, the car would not start and had to be towed to the dealership. It was very unsafe and not the first time that our car has turned off.

Filed Sep 19, 2022 · Transmission · MI

On July 30th 2022 the van suffered total loss of motive power while driving on a rural highway at 65mph. The incident put my family as risk as I was required to coast the car off of the side or the road to keep from becoming an obstruction to traffic. If the incident had occurred on a 3 lane highway or in heavier congestion I may have been unable to pull off the road before losing my momentum. The van showed no prior indication of malfunction until it shuttered as the engine stalled. Following the shutter and loss of all forward power the car dash produced a check engine light followed by a warning to Pull over and place car in Park. I pulled over to the side of the road and was able to place the car into park and shut it off. After that the car would not start or shift out of park and only displayed "Service Charging System" on the dashboard. The car was then towed to the nearest Chrysler dealer (Watson Benzie, LLC 1514 Benzie Hwy Benzonia,MI49616-9650) where it was determined that "Power Inverter Module" had failed and needed to be replaced. As of September 19th 2022 the car is still at the dealer awaiting a replacement part. The damaged part should be available for inspection.