2021 Chrysler Pacifica

Chrysler have used a recall for my vehicle stating that there may be “An unexpected engine shut down resulting in a loss of motive power can cause a vehicle crash without prior warning.” I had the recall done by the dealer, but I understand that it does not remedy the root cause of the issue; all the recall does is change the message of the dashboard display to the driver when the failure occurs. I do not feel safe driving in this car on the freeway with my children in it. What good does a dashboard message do when my car has stalled on the freeway traveling at high speed? Or on a remote road where I’m stranded with my children on the car. Please require Chrysler to issue a repair that will resolve the root cause of this problem, instead of simply updating the error message that is shown when it does.

The car has stalled MULTIPLE times starting on 2/17/23. It's happened on highways and local roads and as soon as it happens the car loses all power and the ability to accelerate. In the case where there is no shoulder, you are stuck on the road until you can get it to start again. In order to start it, you have to hit the ignition button a few times, open the door, close it and wait about a minute before starting it again. It has caused a LOT of danger to my family and has been at the shop multiple times. We are now being told it needs a new transmission with no timeline as to when we'll get the car back. We were denied a loaner and are now stuck with 4 kids and no car.

The 03A recall has now been performed on our vehicle, and we are not sure if we will pick it up to drive again or not. We are not sure if we trust it. Hybrid system faults have happened three times, this is the best of my memory. April 2022 I had noticed the battery wasn't really being used driving regular routes & made a service appointment. Before the appt we saw a Hybrid System Fault. The dealership in (Town Y) could see the fault, but thought it was a false alarm. They did the prescribed fix for the false alarm, but the fault was still there so they did a repair of some kind. Sept 2022, pulling out from home &at the bottom of the driveway it gave a hybrid system failure or alert, put itself in turtle mode. I pulled back into the garage and parked. Next day I drove 9-10 miles from home to dealership in turtle mode. As I was pulling up to the (state highway) & Main St intersection (was on an incline), the car went from turtle mode to park, lights and alerts were flashing, and it was quite scary. I couldn't get the out of park into neutral to move to the side of the road. I couldn't turn it in or off, it was in a weird kind of limbo or perpetual computer restarting kind of mode. After 15-30 minutes, the wipers started to go on their own volition. The car seemed to have a mind of its own. Had to get towed, 12V battery replacement, radio replacement. Jan 2023, I was driving to school for pickup, <8 miles, neighborhood & highway. Hybrid system fault happened while I was driving on the highway, 4-4.5 miles from home. The alerts were popping up and warning me to pull over now, I did that as fast and safely as I could. The car then seemed stuck in park, I hit the button and opened the door to really turn it off. After a few minutes tried turning it on again. It did turn on. There were still some warnings on the screen I think, but I drove to the dealership.

On 3/27/2023, while driving 75mph down the PA turnpike, our 2021 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid lost power unexpectedly. Fortunately, my wife and kids were not in the car, as it was frightening to have the engine shutoff while driving in the left lane of a narrow highway that had a small shoulder. I was in the left lane of a 2 lane highway, I placed my turn signal on to try and coast into the right lane and then over to the right shoulder. I still had power steering, but the engine had entirely shut off. When I got onto the small shoulder, I placed my 4-way flashers on. I read the digital read-out on my gauge cluster, it said "Service Charging System" and the check engine light came on. I wasn't sure what this meant so I Googled it. It turned out that a lot of Pacifica Hybrid owners had been having this exact problem. I was able to start the van and slowly drive it the 60 miles back to my house. I called the Chrysler dealership to setup an appointment to have the van inspected. It took them a week to diagnose that it was the van's hybrid heater that was locking prematurely. The part order was a 3-4 week wait. After a month went by and no word from the dealer, I called and was told it would be another week before the part came in. April 19th was when the dealership was able to replace the hybrid heater on my Pacifica. I went out of town for work on April 21st, and returned today, the 24th. The Pacifica hadn't been used since leaving the dealership. The dealership technician also told me the problem I had was due to a software update. Today, the 24th, I took the van out and was driving to pick my kids up when the van digital display said "Stop Safely, Vehicle Will Shut Off Soon". The check engine light came back on along with many other display cautions. I pulled off the side of the busy highway, turned the car off and again, Google'd this new problem. After attempting to restart the van numerous times, I was eventually able to start it and again, limp it back home.

My vehicle unpredictably loses power and the engine cuts out. This requires me to pull over immediately, turn the car fully off, and back on. After several attempts, the error will clear to allow me to restart my engine and continue on. This has happened multiple times while I am on the freeway and has forced me to pull over very quickly in busy traffic. The vehicle is unsafe to drive. This is in relation to Recall 03A for which there is currently no fix. The fix that Chrysler is offering is to provide an alert on the dash that loss of power is imminent. I have brought my vehicle in multiple times for service and there does not appear to be any solution in sight.

There is currently a recall on my vehicle. They offer a sensor to let you know that your vehicle is going to shut off so you can pull off of the road. There currently is no fix. I have contacted Chrysler and the dealer for a buyback and neither will take responsibility to buy back this car. This is a travesty. I do not feel safe in a vehicle under these circumstances and ask that Chrysler be made accountable.

While driving the check engine light and red turtle illuminated with the message "Stop Safely car will shut off soon". Vehicle lost all acceleration and I had to coast to the shoulder. Vehicle would not go faster than 10 mph and I was stranded on the highway until being towed to the dealer. This was after the vehicle had done this two other times before. The other two times it was a different error message, but vehicle lost power. Once was before the loss of power recall and twice has been after. Vehicle is currently getting a new transmission.

While driving above referenced vehicle, I was driving southbound on Hwy 515 when i noticed a vehicle driving northbound began to lose control, so i slowed down and then began to watch the vehicle cross the median and headed straight for me. I pushed the pedal to the floor to accelerate to get out of his way but the vehicle did not respond, i pushed the pedal again on several occasions and the vehicle just bucked and did not accelerate. Unfortunately the vehicle hit me right in the door at a high rate of speed. Unbeknownst to me this vehicle had been in the shop on several occasions for this exact problem: This can all be verified due to the fact i had a Chrysler service manager on the phone as this horrific experience unfolded

Several times over the last 2 weeks, our 2021 Chrysler Pacifica has been subject to the engine shutdown for which there is a recall. As Chrysler is aware of, when using the gas engine, the engine shut down on us while driving. Having already applied the software update that is the current "solution" to this problem, we did receive a warning that an engine shutdown was about to occur and that we should pull over. However, this didn't give us much peace of mind and all situations have still been very scary, especially with kids onboard. Our engine shutdown has occurred both on highways and on local roads, each time putting us at risk of an accident. One time, it occurred while beginning to roll as a traffic light turned green. Without any coasting speed to use, we were forced to stop in the middle of traffic and scramble to get the engine to work again. This is an unacceptable issue that Chrysler needs to truly fix by addressing the root issue with faulty wiring in the transmission. My family and I do not feel safe driving our vehicle.

Between March 1, 2023 and April 6, 2023, the engine experienced unexpected shutdown on 4 different days. On April 7, 2023, a dealer in Madison, WI serviced the car under recall notice 03A. On April 17, 2023, the car's dash presented a warning message "Stop Safely: Vehicle will shut off soon." On all occasions I have waited 30 seconds and restarted the car successfully. This behavior of the car is unacceptable. It is likely that I will be driving in a situation where it will not be safe to shut down the car, come to a stop, and restart it while driving in traffic.