2020 CHRYSLER PACIFICA PLUG-IN HYBRID Fuel/propulsion System Problems

We were traveling 70 mph down a steep incline and suddenly the vehicle, a Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, displayed the warning "Pull Over - Vehicle Will Shut Off Soon" and immediately the vehicle lost all motive power. I was able to pull over to the side of the road safely. This is the second time this has occurred. The first time a Chrysler dealership did not fix the problem. The code pulled was P0A43 related to the 03A recall.

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.

Invertor coolant pump failure, giving a Check Engine Light P0E7C (coolant bypass valve B control circuit having low voltage). Part from Chrysler seems to be on national back order. replacement part offered by dealership keeps failing.

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.

Driving on the road and vehicle lost all propulsion. Warning comes up on the dash saying Service Charging System and Shift to P. At that point, one has to coast to a stop on the side of the road. Vehicle would not restart. After waiting and completely shutting down the vehicle, it did restart. This is the second time this has happened over the past two months. The dealer updated software as a "fix" the first time, which has not fixed the issue. It also happened a third time when pulling into the dealer for service today. Dealer was able to see the issue. It is extremely dangerous, as there is no warning before losing all propulsion and it can happen at any speed and at any time. Please note that this appears to be the exact same issue addressed with NHTSA recall 22V-865, and both vehicles are manufactured by FCA and likely use the same hybrid electric powertrain. By addressing this loss of propulsion issue in the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid now, there is a chance to save lives (there was a death caused by the Jeep 4xE recall issue) by mandating this same recall for the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid.

All of a sudden while driving 40 miles per hour, “service charging system” warning showed up on dash, asked to put car in park and unable to accelerate. Car stopped working in the middle of a busy road, unable to be restarted for 10 min.

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.

On two instances when traveling on the expressway, the car lost acceleration entirely and the dashboard provided an error message "service charging system". The car slowly decelerated and had to be pulled over to the side of the road, across several lanes of traffic, creating an extremely dangerous situation. Once the car was turned off and turned back on, it appeared to work normally. This happened once on March 1 and once on March 6.

Vehicle shut off engine and directed driver to shift to park while driving at full speed on interstate highway. After coasting to emergency lane and shifting to park the vehicle restarted. The vehicle is currently at the dealership.

On my Pacifica Hybrid the vehicle drivetrain loses all power and requires the driver put the vehicle in PARK and TURN OFF the ignition and START the vehicle again. Typically this happens when BOTH of the following conditions are met: 1) battery for the hybrid drivetrain, not the 12v accessory battery, runs to 0% or less than 1% state of charge 2) hard braking or sudden braking or braking when going down a hill. The hard braking seems to overwhelm the recharging system when the battery is at 0% causing a powertrain shutdown and all kinds of error lights flashing. It eventually ends with a "SERVICE CHARGING SYSTEM" message. Once the vehicle is in this condition it is very easy to replicate as I was able to do in this video that I recorded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6NF-kKPx5w This is quite dangerous and has left me barely able to get to the shoulder of major highways several times.