This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Was driving the vehicle when it completely died. The -??service hybrid electric vehicle system-?? warning came on the dash and could not get it to go into drive again. Completely dead in the water and could not move. I can-??t imagine if I was going down the freeway and this happened. Very lucky to have it on a quiet road. This is a known issue and there are many cases of this happening to others if you check YouTube out or google it. It-??s very scary and someone is gonna end up hurt or killed.
While driving, the car would loose power then check engine light comes on and "service charging system" would pop up. The gas peddle is rendered useless as it doesn't do anything and would have to coast to safety. Dealer would just reset the computer and vehicle is realease. unfortunately, it had happen many times. Safety is a concern, more so on the highway.
The Pacifica has 4 times in the past 9 months has lost power while driving at a high speed on the Interstate. I am still able to steer and guide the car to the shoulder, then wait 2 minutes and the car starts back up and I am able to drive again. I then have the check engine light on, and the code I get is P0A3F. It has been to Chrysler Service 3 times, and they can't repeat the issue, and claim they don't have the man power or expertise to figure it out. Once the car loses power, the messages I get say to "return car to park", "Service Charge System", and the Chrysler Uconnect App says I have a "service fault". This has happened on 11/13/21, 5/8/22, 5/27/22, and this last time... 8/28/22.
Driving on the interstate, the vehicle simply shut down and gave the following error message: "Service Charging System." I was able to pull to the shoulder and get the vehicle started again. There had been no prior warning messages or symptoms of the problem. I took the vehicle in for service, and the dealership ran a diagnostic check and found no issues. A couple weeks later, the same thing happened. I was again able to get to the shoulder without incident. Took the vehicle to a different dealership where they identified the issue as a bad Power Inverter Module. The vehicle is still at the dealership (it has been a full week). While I was able to navigate the situation without injury. This could have been a very dangerous situation in the instance where a shoulder was not available or traffic was significantly heavier. It appears this is a fairly common problem for some of the new Chrysler Pacifica Hybrids, which brings to question why there has not been a recall issues.
- Worthington, OH, USA
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My wife and I were driving on HWY 101 at 11pm at night while camping, were headed to the ER as I had just cut my hand with a hachet. While driving, all of a sudden an error light on the dash appeared reading "Service Charging System, " the accelerator no longer delivered power, and the car began quickly slowing down. Luckily, I was able to move to the shoulder and stop the van. The Pacifica remained on with all systems working (radio, lights, etc), but the car accelerator would not deliver power. The car would not fully turn off after pressing the ingintion button. Opening and closing the driver side door allowed for the van to be turned off and then back on, it started again and was driveable. We were able to drive the car to the ER and back to the campsite. The problem has not yet re-occurred. It has not been seen by the dealer center yet, but has an appointment scheduled. Driving at night in the mountains with a vehicle that loses all power while traveling at highway speeds is extremely dangerous and disturbing.
While driving at 70mph on the interstate, the vehicle completely lost power. The check engine light turned on, the message "Service Charging System" came up, and the gear knob blinked. We had to pull over on the side of the interstate. When we pushed the "off/on/acc" button, it would appear that it turned off, but it would go back into on status, but still wouldn't allow you to shift into drive. (You could turn the knob, but it wouldn't do anything). Finally, we had to remove the keys from the car to turn it off. Once we were able to do that, it did turn back on and allowed us to go back into gear as normal. We were able to drive a few miles, and then it did it again. We had the vehicle towed. Chrysler had to put a whole new transmission due to a hybrid part within the transmission that failed. Concerned that this happened with the transmission that only had 17k miles on it. Chrysler still cannot answer if they have fixed the issue with the transmissions they are currently building. When you are driving in construction season on the interstate and your vehicle completely powers off, it could make for a deathly accident. This isn't something you should have to worry about with a car only a year old. I found a US Department of transportation investigation where 40 others have reported the same issue. ODI Investigation : PE 22-008
Driving as usual and without warning, no check engine light, the van stalled. It lost all power in the middle of the road and would not start back up. Pushed out of the road & waited on a tow truck. 2021 with 14,000 miles. Dealership pulled the code poa43.
I was driving about 45mph and my Pacifica hit 0 miles on the electric miles on the hybrid system (I had over half a tank of gas). At that same time as I was pushing on the gas pedal to accelerate the van and nothing was happening, the acceleration wasn't working. I put the pedal all the way to the ground and nothing happened and I drifted to a stop. I was luckily not on a freeway, however was on the side of a very busy road in the dark with cars flying closely by with 1 of my kids in the car freaking out. It was so dangerous and scary. After the van sat idle for about 10 minutes and got a little hybrid charge I was able to accelerate a little to get my car around the corner and pulled to a safer spot off the road before it coasted to a stop again. Roadside assistance towed the van to my dealership. The dealership had my van for 11 days this time. When they turned it on the next morning it wasn't working still. They got it into a service bay and the next time they went to move it it started working on it's own. No service lights ever turned on and they couldn't figure out what caused the issue. They had Chrysler Engineers involved in the process and after 11 days gave me the vehicle back stating that all they did was 6 software updates and they couldn't find anything else to fix since it started working again on it's own. The van has never accelerated the same since. Now 2 months later I have a service light on for my Powerterrain and am so worried about losing acceleration again while driving my kids or something. It's so dangerous and they don't know what's causing the issue and I feel like the van is just a ticking timebomb for an accident with as many service issues as I've had with it. So many issues to name, but the loss of motive power was so dangerous. My van wasn't even a year old yet when that happened and it had 14,000 miles on it.
The vehicle is a PHEV. The system that malfunctioned is related to the vehicle charging system. The vehicle seems to think it is plugged into the wall when it is actually not plugged in. It is a safety issue because the vehicle will not move -- my family could have been stranded. Planning to tow the vehicle to a dealership to have diagnosed within one week or so. The vehicle has not been inspected by anyone yet. There were no warnings prior to the failure. Currently there is a check engine light on as well as an image of a plug/cable indicating that the vehicle thinks it is plugged into an electrical outlet (which it is not).
Driving around 40 MPH when car alert came on to Shift into P and lost all forward drive. Needed to pull onto a side street since car would not accelerate. Car said service charging system and would not recover. Could not turn car off but A/C system stopped working. The transmission light were flashing from P to R to D but would not engage. Had to be towed to dealer to await troubleshooting.
The vehicle loses power while driving. I have to pull over shut it off and turn it back on. Most of the time it happens when I'm driving 75 mph. The service charging indicator pops up while also telling me to shift the car to park. Dealership diagnosed it to being a transmission issue. Drive motor A is failing in the transmission and is causing it to over heat. Which causes it to shut down. A quick restart and the van is going again.
car stalled at high speed in HOV fast track in rush hour traffic - terrifying! was running on electric mode. Heart stopping emergency tow. First Chrysler dealer where car was purchased said they could not trouble shoot for 2 months. Found another dealer, had it towed there. Waiting to learn what the problem is. Only 14,000 miles and under warranty.
While driving on highway at approx. 75 mph using adaptive cruise control, the red power cord shaped warning indication appeared on the instrument panel. At the time the warning appeared, the vehicle was in battery powered mode. At the same time the warning showed, the electric motor stopped providing power. The vehicle did not transition to hybrid mode (gas powered), and depressing the accelerator did nothing. The vehicle began to slow from highway speeds, while other cars were in the vicinity. While all this was happening, the "D" on the gear selector was flashing. There was also a message saying to put the vehicle in park to restart, however, i did not want to attempt that at highway speeds. Other systems seemed to operate as normal, brakes worked, the electrical system seemed to be functional other than the described fault. I pulled over to the shoulder and stopped the vehicle completely. I turned the vehicle off, then on again, and was able to put the vehicle in drive without any faults occuring. Normal operation resumed after that.
Driving on the interstate at 70-75 mph and lost all forward drive. Car said service charging system and would not recover. Got towed to dealer and troubleshot and replaced the transmission
I was driving on the interstate in the middle of morning rush hour traffic at approx. 65 mph and approximately 1/4 mile before a tunnel my van completely shut off and I was not able to accelerate or maintain speed. I was in the far left lane when this happened and immediately crossed the 3 lanes of traffic to get to the shoulder on the right side. I then tried to turn off and restart the van 3 or 4 times after periods ranging from 5-20 minutes apart and the van would only allow me to go a foot and shut off again. After waiting for over an hour in the 30 degree weather with no heat, I was finally towed back to the dealership. Due to many fortunate circumstances (i.e. none of my 3 children [ages 4, 2, and 9 months] were in the van, I was not yet in the tunnel, no cars were immediately behind me, and I was able to get across all 3 lanes before I lost speed) nobody was injured. However if any of these variables were different, the situation could have been devastating. My van has now been in the shop for over 3 months waiting for a part (engine coolant heater pump) and I still do not have a working vehicle. The issue with the engine coolant heater pump is a known issue to Chrylser, resulting in vans shutting down in the middle of driving, yet Chrysler has not issued a recall or notified owners of these dangers. After waiting on the part for 2 months, I called Chrysler Customer Support and was assigned a case manager, however they have to this point, one month later, still not helped at all and within the last 10 days not returned any of my voicemails or emails. My car is available for inspection and this issue was inspected/documented at the service department of my dealership. The problem has been confirmed by the dealership as well as the tow truck driver. About 10 days prior to the incident, my check engine light went on. I immediately scheduled the next available service appointment at my dealership, but the problem occurred 2 days before my appointment.
Car stalled out while driving at 35 mph. Lost all propulsive power. Indicated -??service hybrid system-?? and -??shift to park-?? error on multi function display. Was able to safely coast to side shoulder and stop. Car would not move again after this reading the same errors even after shifting to part and attempting to restart car. If this had occurred on a multi lane highway it would have been extremely dangerous.
Driving on the freeway at speed (approximately 65 MPH), the vehicle suddenly lost power and displayed "Service Charging System" message on dashboard. Accelerator pedal was non-responsive. We had remaining battery charge and fuel in the vehicle (it is a PHEV). Pulled over to side of freeway as vehicle was decelerating and came to a stop in the safest place our momentum could carry us to. We were eventually able to get the vehicle restarted by putting the vehicle in Park and pressing the start button 3 times in a row without touching the brake. This issue has happened four (4) times in the last several months, and has occurred on the freeway each time, and each time with remaining battery charge and fuel in the vehicle. The vehicle has not yet been inspected by the manufacturer for this specific problem.
While driving, the vehicle flashes a warning that a charging fault has occurred and instructs the driver to stop and put the vehicle into park. Once stopped and in park, the vehicle will not shift or drive. This has happened at least 6 times and the dealer has not been able to fix it.
The vehical shutdown on the Interstate at highway speeds for the second time in 4 days. The deal has scheduled time to review the problem but shutting down is a safely issue.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Snohomish, WA, USA