2023 CHRYSLER PACIFICA Power Train Problems

While driving at approximately 65 mph on I-35 in moderate traffic, my vehicle experienced a sudden and complete loss of motive power. I was positioned in the far-left passing lane at the time of the incident. A vague notification message appeared on the dashboard screen; however, there was no accompanying audible warning tone to alert me to the severity of the issue before power was lost. The failure was identified as a malfunction in the hybrid drive motor system, specifically triggering Diagnostic Trouble Code P0A43 (Drive Motor "A" Position Sensor Circuit Intermittent). This sensor circuit failure caused the high-voltage system to shut down unexpectedly. This created a severe safety hazard, as the vehicle was rendered unable to accelerate. I was forced to navigate from the far-left lane across multiple lanes of traffic to reach the exit while the vehicle was effectively crippled, moving at speeds under 10 mph amidst highway-speed traffic. The problem has been confirmed via the retrieval of the P0A43 code. There were no warning lamps, messages, or drivability symptoms prior to the immediate failure; the visual notification appeared simultaneously with the loss of power.

Car turns off suddenly while driving on the freeway at freeway speeds.

The vehicle experienced multiple incidents of sudden power loss while driving.

While driving in the carpool lane on the freeway, the vehicle displayed “Stop Safely. Vehicle Will Shut Off Soon” and lost all power. I am pregnant and had four children (ages [XXX] , [XXX] , [XXX] , and [XXX] ) in the vehicle. The outside temperature was over 100°F, and we were two hours from home. The car was completely disabled in heavy traffic, creating an extreme safety risk for my family. After waiting about 15–20 minutes, the vehicle restarted and we were able to continue. A code scan showed P0A78 – Drive Motor “A” Inverter Performance. This is a serious safety concern, and I am requesting immediate inspection and repair under warranty. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The vehicle has been at the dealership multiple times for transmission issues, and the most recent time slammed into park while driving slowly on a side road. It is a known hybrid transmission issue and the dealership just let me know that the manufacturer will not replace the transmission, only rebuild per TSB 21-025-25. I am concerned based on research of others with this issue that the rebuild will not fix the issue and the transmission will shift to park on the highway with my wife driving.

My vehicle suddenly experienced a loss of power while driving, starting at 62000 miles per hour. Sometimes the same problem occurs again after driving for several hundred miles per hour, and sometimes even after driving for tens of miles per hour. When this problem occurs, the vehicle cannot continue to drive and can only rely on inertia to slide. It must be parked on the side of the road, the engine must be turned off for one minute, and the vehicle can start again to drive normally. My car has now driven at 89000 miles per hour, and this problem has occurred countless times. At first, it occurred about once every 2-3 days, but now it occurs twice a day.

[XXX] First “Red Turtle” Breakdown on Freeway After about an hour of freeway driving, car went into “red turtle mode” (“limp mode”) on the freeway, alerting us that the engine would shut down shortly and that we needed to get to a safe place to stop. The car wouldn’t accelerate fully, putting us in danger on the freeway, where cars were speeding all around us. June 2025: Dealership’s First Attempt to Fix The dealership showed stored error codes P0A43 Drive Mode Code A Position Sensor Intermittent. But, the tech said they were unable to replicate the error. They kept it in the shop for a couple days, then sent the car home with us with no fix. They told us to restart the car a few times and it should go away. [XXX]: Second Breakdown on Freeway On [XXX], with all three kids in the car, we drove the car from Sacramento to San Rafael. On the way there–the first long car trip with the van since the [XXX] incident, the Red Turtle Alert appeared again. We were going uphill and unable to fully accelerate on the freeway, again putting our entire family in danger. We were luckily able to pull off of the freeway, restart the car several times, and continue driving–wondering the entire time whether the vehicle would again lose power, and sure enough it did. [XXX]: Third breakdown on freeway Later that same day, on our way home, the Red Turtle alert appeared again, the vehicle was unable to fully accelerate, and the message warned us that the car was about to shut itself down. This time, we were on the freeway with no exit available to us. We had to pull over onto an unprotected shoulder, with cars speeding by us on both sides. It would have been unsafe for any of us–but especially my toddlers–to exit the vehicle. We sat on the side of the freeway, restarting the car repeatedly, waiting to see if the Alert would clear and the vehicle would become drivable again. Eventually, it did. We brought the car to the dealership again. Spent over a week there INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA)

While driving on interstate, red turtle indicator came on and engine shut down.

On June 3, 2025, my 2023 Chrysler Pacific Hybrid gave me a warning message that it was about to shut down. This included a "red turtle" icon that I later learned is called "limp home mode." I was traveling on the interstate at highway speed at the time. I was able to pull over to the shoulder and turn the vehicle off. The risk of a car shutting down on the highway is a huge a safety risk to myself and other vehicles. Stopping on the shoulder of a highway, particularly given that it was early morning and not yet fully light out also felt very risky with other cars passing by. After turning the car back on, the limp home mode turned off, but the engine warning light was still on. I was able to re-enter traffic, which was also a safety issue having to deal with. When the dealership opened, I contacted them. They were familiar with the problem and were able to state over the phone that it was likely a transmission issue. After inspecting it that afternoon, they determined it would need a transmission rebuild. As of June 27, 2025, they still have the vehicle and have not yet made the repairs.

The van did not transition from electric to gas engine when driving and battery for the electrical engine was depleted. The dash board displayed a red turtle and said slow on dashboard. But it would not drive forward. I was on a hill and the van backed down the hill in reverse. I did this multiple times - turn off van, restart van and try to go up hill, reverse it down hill again. At some point, there was enough electricity for the electrical engine to kick in and I was able to drive home. After the van set for a while, it restarted and I was able to drive it to my ultimate destination 147 miles away. I researched online and found there is a recall for this very thing, but it does not include my car. Why is my life so hard? Its a new van to me.

I have pulled out to go across road and it was like the car wouldn't go. It would be like it was coasting. And then it would kick in hardand fast. Very very dangerous. Have you had any other people say that.? It's done it about 5 times.. where I almost got hit and or ran off road when it did go.

Vehicle displayed "stop safely, vehicle will shut off soon" followed by a complete lack of power. We managed to get to the side of the highway safely. Vehicle would not turn back on until about 45 minutes later. Before we turned off the vehicle it said service charge port. Check engine light is on, even after we managed to get it started. Currently at the shop, waiting for information on why.

Driving at highway speed (70 mph) the vehicle repeatedly has flashed a warning : Stop Safely Vehicle Will Shut Off Soon The engine cuts power and the vehicle must be pulled over and turned off and cannot keep driving. It leads to very unsafe conditions at highway speed. The vehicle was repaired once for the defect by Chrysler but it still continues to occur and is now being repaired again.

While exiting an interstate, the van felt like it had popped out of gear and lost power, and the instrument cluster had the message "Stop safely, vehicle will shut off soon." I was in the middle of three lanes on the ramp, and due to traffic and no shoulder I was unable to stop off the side of the road. The van died at the top of the ramp at the traffic light, causing a risk of being rear-ended by approaching traffic. I had my two children in the van at the time. After attempting to cycle the ignition several times and stepping out to wave traffic around as the traffic light cycled several times (causing a traffic backup), the van started and drove normally albeit with the Check Engine Light on. I have not had the time to take the van to a dealership for diagnoses, but looking online this is not an unknown problem and is related to the Pacifica Hybrid's transmission. Just wanting to make NHTSA aware of another event of this fault occurring.

After driving 15miles home from work, stopped at a traffic light to turn left. When attempting to proceed forward van stopped with an error code that indicated "Stop Safely Vehicle Will Shut Off Soon". The van shut down, and could not move even though it was blocking the intersection. Law enforcement had to be called as it was a safety hazard, and a tow truck had to be dispatched to remove the van from the intersection and tow to dealership for warranty service. The dealer provided warranty service as per Chrysler direction, which was a software update and reseating electrical connections. However, as per the notes from the dealer, "possible a loose connection was issue but still could be internal to power inverter module." As the repair was not a definite resolution for the issue, I contact Chrysler corporate to request a more definite repair. Their stance was that they considered the car repaired under warranty, and that they would not authorize any further work. Chrysler stated that they will not do anymore work until the issue happens again. The issue is that the condition that results is that the van shuts down - and it can happen anywhere, the middle of an intersection or on the freeway at highway speeds. Basically Chrysler has told me that even though they are not sure that the fix applied may not have remedied the issue that caused the van to shut off, they will not do what is required to ensure that it does not happen again. Chrysler has put the safety of my family second to their bottom line - by refusing to authorize the expensive work that it would take to remedy the problem, and ensure that my faily does not face a dangerous situation when driving our van.

A clicking sound was heard and the dealer determined that the front axle nuts that hold the wheel hubs to the axle loosened. Dealer re-torqued to 120 ft. Lbs. and added Locktite, however problem reoccurs. Chrysler issued a Technical Service Bulletin (03-008-24) to torque the axle nuts to 228 ft. lbs. After this was done at the dealer, clicking sound was heard again in just 3 weeks. Several attempts by the dealer to correct the problem at the 120 ft. lbs. spec. and once at the 228 ft. lbs. spec. have not worked following Chrysler's instructions. Risk of hub and wheel coming loose while driving. Dealer has attempted repair/correction six (6) times.

The vehicle randomly went into limp mode. The check engine light came on with error code P0A3F. The vehicle was restarted and drove normally with the check engine light (CEL) still on. We immediately made an appointment with the dealership to get it looked at. As we were driving into the dealership parking lot the CEL cleared itself. There is an existing TSB for this exact scenario and symptoms. The dealership and Chrysler corporate (Stellantis) are refusing to fix this issue because there isn’t an “active code.” The code is in the history. Since then the CEL has come on multiple times but cleared itself too quickly to get it to the dealer in time. We took it a second dealership this time with an active code, but the code cleared itself upon restarting the car after leaving it there. This vehicle is not safe to drive since it randomly goes into limp mode with no power. This poses a very dangerous and unsafe situation that can endanger me, my family, and other drivers around me.

While driving at highway speed the vehicle flashed a vehicle and I’ll shut down sign. A red turtle flashed and the vehicle began to decelerate. Had to pull over to a less than safe sand shoulder. Had highway speed traffic directly behind me. Dealership pulled codes related to the transmission. No previous issues or sign thereof. 25k miles.

On our daily commute the car came to a stop at a light and then the car then turned off and would not start again. We tried everything but the engine would turnover. After 3 hours, the car then started and we drove it to dealership and they detected no faults or codes.

Vehicle lost power on three occasions while on the highway. STOP SAFELY VEHICLE WILL SHUT OFF SOON showed in cluster and began to lose all power. I had to pull over and turn off vehicle for about 10 minutes to get it to move again. Vehicle was taken to dealer and they reported the transmission needed replacement and was covered under warranty.

This is the second time this happened in one week. Incident happened immediately after being sent home without repair by the dealership. Driving down the interstate, our car displayed the "Stop Safely. Vehicle will shut off soon." Red turtle light came on, and car lost all acceleration. We managed to pull over without being hit. Turned the car off and then back on. Check engine light was now on, but the car would drive. Hybrid battery was charged at 66%. In both shutdown instances, dealership says it is unable to replicate the problem, and therefore will not look further into the problem.

We were driving on the interstate at approximately 70 mph when our car gave the warning, "Stop Soon. Vehicle will shut off." A turtle warning light also lit up. We pulled over to the side of the road and turned the car off. After a few minutes, we were able to turn the car back on and drive home, though the check engine light was then on. We took it to the dealer the next day, with the check engine light still on, and the dealer was unable to reproduce or diagnose the problem. They said there were so many warning codes that they could not determine what was the problem and that if they followed what the codes were telling them, they'd have to replace the entire wiring system of the car. They also said that one or more of the codes was related to the transmission. They drove the car extensively and couldn't reproduce the shutdown. They are currently still trying to diagnose the problem with the car at the dealership. There were no warning signs from the vehicle prior to the incident. The incident occurred right around the time when we would have depleted the all-electric charge and switched over to using gas.

I was driving in Virginia in a rental and the check engine light came on then the following message came on "get to a safe place the car is going to stop". A few seconds later the vehicle shut off and stop in the middle of traffic. I did not have time to pull over. I turned everything off and restarted the vehicle it was fine for about a mile then it happened again. I waited about 10 minutes before starting the vehicle to take it back to the rental company.

The contact rented a 2023 Chrysler Pacifica. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed and stopped in traffic, the accelerator pedal was depressed; however, the vehicle failed to accelerate. The contact shifted the transmission into park(P) and attempted to shift back into drive(D); however, the transmission failed to respond. The contact restarted the vehicle and the vehicle responded. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 48,000. The VIN was not available.

Mileage: 48,000

2023 Pacifica puts itself in P while stuck in traffic then won't let us put in D. We had to shut off car and back on again to move the knob to D The knob was stuck in park it woukdnt let us do anything in middle of freeway traffic