2020 CHRYSLER PACIFICA PLUG-IN HYBRID Power Train Problems

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.

I received a service hybrid electric vehicle system warning. Also vehicle speed may be limited warning. When I shut the vehicle off, it was loud and remained running. My safety and the safety of others were put at risk because the warning happened while I was driving and I couldn’t get speed to park in a safe location. I had my car towed to a local Chrysler Jeep Dodge dealer and they updated software related to my car that was the source of the problem. They also told me the battery completely drained. The recall was due to a faulty PCM that the recall was for. You can see in the invoice the problem I communicated to the manufacturer before they diagnosed my vehicle. You can see clearly the vehicle was still active even after shutting off, likely causing the battery to drain completely. And due to the faulty PCM, it failed to tell the systems to shut down. Chrysler is giving me $100 for the tow. But they say the battery is out if basic warranty so will not reimburse me the $650 or so for the battery. My argument is that it doesn’t matter if the battery is out if basic warranty as the draining of it was a direct result of the recall and failed PCM. There is case law that supports the fact that If a recall-related defect (such as a faulty PCM) directly causes a secondary failure (e.g., battery damage), the manufacturer still bears responsibility, as the defect rendered the vehicle unfit for normal use.

After driving a few minutes gas engine died and received "Stop safely vehicle will shut off soon" on cluster as well as a turtle icon.

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.

Dealer said the transmission needs to be replaced. 2020 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Limited (Certified) purchased in August with 28,500 miles. Bought the 7 year/100,000 mile extended warranty. Happened on Interstate 495. Chrysler Care was a joke. Wanted info filled out ONLINE. Ask for the zip code and couldn't go past that point. Finally called and waited on hold for 40+ minutes. Hell of a time trying to tell where I was on the interstate. I was almost directly under an overpass, told them the name of the overpass street and they kept wanting to put me on THAT street. Sent coordinates from Google Earth and they put me on the other side of the interstate going in the other direction. 😡 To make a 3-hour story short tow truck finally came and we got it to my dealer. Codes did say something about the transmission but the manager couldn't tell exactly. Now waiting for the service tech to call on Monday. Oh, BTW, no loaner available (even though it's covered in the warranty). The dealer called and paid for a Lyft to take us home.

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.

The contact owned a 2020 Chrysler Pacific. The contact stated while entering the vehicle unknown warning lights illuminated, and the contact shut down the vehicle and restarted it. When the contact restarted the vehicle, the contact noticed that the engine was running rough and shut down the vehicle. When the contact exited the vehicle, it roll backward on its own and rear-ended into a fence causing damage to the fence and damage rear passenger side bumper. No one was injured. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to an unknown place. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 27,000.

Mileage: 27,000

Was driving the vehicle and all of a sudden the vehicle lost ability to accelerate. Warning of "Service Charging System" appears on the dash and the "D" indicator starts blinking. Warning of "Shift to P to Start" appears and check engine light comes on. I tried to shift to park and restart the vehicle, but it did not do anything. I was on a decline, so was fortunately able to coast into a parking lot. This is the 5th time this has happened while driving the vehicle. There is no warning that it will happen and it is extremely dangerous for the vehicle to lose all motive power without warning. I was lucky to not get rear ended. The vehicle has been serviced at a dealership two times for this same issue.

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.

I was returning home from a road trip and with five miles left the accelerator stopped working and the check engine light came on with the service electrical system message. I was able to safely coast to the side of the road. It started working again but it stopped working 5 more times and barely made it to my driveway. It’s been in the shop since 7/6 and now they say a new hybrid transmission will be in on 8/3. This is the worst situation that I have ever had with any vehicle!

Vehicle completely lost all electrical and drivability components while driving. Car could not be restarted or shifted into gear to get out of lane. Gave multiple warning lights. Vehicle was towed to dealership and was assessed a few days later.

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.

The vehicle, shortly after starting, says service charging system and loses power completely. Power steering goes out along with any brake assist and no gas pedal power. I’ve almost hit several cars while trying to regain control of the vehicle. When I finally get it to stop, the work around I’ve found is to power off the car for a few minutes, power it back on, then it’ll work. But this happens about once a week. The dealer attempted a repair once but issue persists. We’re taking it back in. But based on online forums, this is a dangerous and widespread problem with the Pacifica Hybrid. Please investigate! I have kids. Thanks!

While driving on electric only power at highway speeds, the van stalled. The dash showed "put vehicle in park to restart" and I had to pull over with no ability to accelerate, come to a complete stop, and place the vehicle in park in order to start the van again. This happened several times, the dealership was unable to recreate the stalling issue, but found two codes stored from the check engine light coming on just prior to the stalling: P0A43 - Drive Motor A Position Sensor Circuit Intermittent P0A3F - Drive Motor A Position Sensor Circuit Both Chrysler and the dealership initially refused to attempt any repairs, and wanted me to take possession of a vehicle that is randomly stalling at highway speeds, which is extremely dangerous. When I refused and pushed them to actually address the codes, they decided to replace the transmission, which houses Drive Motor A. This same issue and process has been repeated with Pacifica Hybrid models ranging from 2017-2021, and is widely reported on the website Pacificaforums.com

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.

THE VEHICLE IS AN ELECTRIC AND GAS HYBRID VEHICLE. WHILE DRIVING THE VEHICLE AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS, THE VEHICLE GOES COMPLETELY DEAD. THERE IS NO POWER TO ACCELERATE, NO POWER STEERING, REDUCED BRAKING. THIS HAPPENED IN JUNE OF 2020 AND THE VEHICLE HAD TO BE TOWED TO THE DEALERSHIP. THE DEALERSHIP HAD THE VEHICLE FOR APPROX. 3 WEEKS TO REPAIR AND A NEW ELECTRICAL INVERTER WAS INSTALLED. A SIMILAR EVENT HAPPENED ON 04-13-2021, HOWEVER THIS TIME ONCE THE VEHICLE WENT DEAD AND THE VEHICLE COASTED TO A STOP, AFTER TRYING TO TURN THE VEHICLE BACK ON IT WAS AGAIN UNDER POWER. THE VEHICLE WAS ABLE TO BE CAUTIOUSLY DRIVEN TO THE DEALERSHIP AND AT THE TIME OF WRITING THIS IT IS BEING SERVICES FOR THIS ISSUE. IN BOTH THE JUNE 2020 AND CURRENT SITUATION, THERE WAS AN ERROR CODE STATING "SERVICE CHARGING SYSTEM". IN BOTH CIRCUMSTANCES, THIS HAS OCCURRED AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS WITH SIGNIFICANT URBAN TRAFFIC. MY WIFE WAS DRIVING THE VEHICLE THIS LAST TIME WITH OUR CHILD IN THE VEHICLE. WHEN THIS HAPPENED SHE WAS ON A ONE LANE EXPRESS LANE WHERE PEOPLE TRAVEL AT THE HIGHEST HIGHWAY SPEEDS. SHE WAS SO CONCERNED ABOUT GETTING STRUCK BY ANOTHER VEHICLE SHE CONSIDERED HAVING BOTH OF THEM DEPART THE VEHICLE AND CROSS MULTIPLE LANES OF TRAFFIC TO GET TO SAFETY. IT IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE VEHICLE AND FOR CARS AROUND THE STALLED VEHICLE. THANKFULLY THEY DID NOT GET STRUCK.

Mileage: 11,000