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.
I was backing out of the driveway. I had all the safety features on, and I was checking my surroundings. Typically, the blind spot and front sensors would alert me to dangers. However, on this and many other occasions the warnings didn't alert me to danger on my passenger side that I couldn't see. this resulted in damage to the front quarter panel of my van as well as damage to the bumper. The body shop said it would cost at least $5000 to repair the damage. I can't afford that; in turn I am driving around with the damage.
My Pacifica completely shut down. All the warning lights came on such as crash detected, ABS light, and the windshield wipers came on. The vehicle was towed to the dealership that I bought the vehicle from. They completed a hard reset of the vehicle, and I took it home. Two days later it did the same thing all the lights came on, but it allowed me to drive it to the dealership. Still waiting to see what they think the problem is this time.
I received the "Red Wrench" warning light several times, but it would clear. One day while travelling in a 45mph zone the car suddenly stopped and I came to a skidding stop, luckily I was coming to my turn and was only going about 10mph. I did fear I was going to get rear ended, luckily it did not occur. I was stuck in the road and traffic built up. I couldn't push the car off the road because every time I put it in Neutral and opened the drivers door it would go into Park. My daughter lived nearby, so they came to assist with diverting traffic around me and to put safety cones out. I called the County Sheriff because I felt I was a safety hazard. When a Deputy arrived he and my Son In Law were able to push the car off the road while I steered. I was blocking traffic for about 30 minutes. I called a flat bed who towed the vehicle to the dealer. The issue was troubleshot to the Power Inverter Module (PIM) internally shorted causing the Main Battery Disconnect fuse to blow. The dealer replaced the PIM and the Main Battery Disconnect. This occurred on or about June 27, 2023. The dealer invoice is Aug 21, 2023. It took several weeks to get the part and repair. This issue has not re-occurred. At the time mileage was 29564, currently it is 48171.
On 12/20/2024 my wife was driving about 20mph on a road and with no warning lights or messages the vehicle completely shut down. Nothing would work on the vehicle. She could not even put my hazard lights on or put the vehicle in neutral to move out of the roadway. The vehicle blocked traffic for an hour. It was fortunate the car behind did not hit our vehicle and also that my children were not in the car with her. The police assisted in redirecting traffic around the vehicle but they also were unable to get anything working. A tow truck towed to the dealership to assess what's going on. There was absolutely no warnings or previous instances or issues which makes this extremely dangerous. At only 20mph the car still significantly jerked when it came to an abrupt halt.
My wife was driving driving the vehicle on October 21st, 2024. She was shifting from Park to Drive just after our children got out of the vehicle in the school parking lot when the whole vehicle froze up and the dashboard lite up with all error lights including the engine light. It was flashing "Service Hybrid Battery System", "Service Transmission", "Turn off parking brake" and the Vehicle began to power cycle on and off, then on with gas motor, then on with electric motor. The vehicle could not be powered off and it could not be shifted out of gear and the parking brake could not be disengaged. The tow truck had to drag our Pacifica onto the flatbed while it continued to turn on and off and cycle through the engine and hybrid system. This vehicle has 36,000 miles and just had the transmission replaced under the "Recall for hybrid transmission systems" This is the second time this has happened, it originally occurred at 7000 miles and after the dealer had it for a week we were told there was no problem. The dealer had to pull a bunch of fuses and the 12v battery to get the vehicle to stop turning off and on, the same thing happened this time when it was dragged off the flatbed at the dealer.
- Vista, CA, USA
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Two things: my auto start/stop often shuts off, and the display reads: "Auto stop/start is disabled/hood open, " though it's not. I also often get a "Service Stop/Start system" notification and the car will require a restart before it will allow me to shift it back into gear and turn off parking brake.
I was driving in the highway with both of my kids in the car. We were driving from Ohio to Alabama. While on the highway, the vehicle shut down into a disabled mode and displayed the message -??stop safely, vehicle will shut off soon-??. It did this a total of 5 times on our trip down to Alabama.
I purchased my vehicle from AutoNation Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM Spring - 21027 I-45, Spring, TX 77388 on or about April 15, 2021. I began having trouble with the electric/gas drivetrain around January 30 of 2023. The vehicle lost all power, as well as throttle and proper braking response. I brought my vehicle back to Helfman Dodge Chrysler Jeep RAM FIAT at 7720 Katy Fwy A, Houston, TX 77024 for repairs on February 6, 2023. The repairs performed seemed to have worked until [XXX]. The most recent event on [XXX] my Pacifica Hybrid lost all power on the highway. While attempting to pull the vehicle off of the highway it abruptly entered its parking gear at 5mph, almost causing a rear end collision from the semi tractor trailer following behind us. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
I am having a problem with my under-warranty (32,000 miles) 2021 Chrysler Pacifica which the service department at my dealership appears unable to help. I was driving on an interstate in stop-and-go traffic for a couple of hours. It was a very hot day, temperatures well above 90 degrees. Six times over 15 minutes the following occurred: While coasting/braking, so at low RPM the engine turned itself off I braked to stop the vehicle The vehicle put itself into Park A message on the dash said to place my foot on the brake pedal and press the button to start the engine I did so, and the engine cranked for an unusually long time, becoming longer each of the 6 times, before eventually starting By the last time we were doubtful it would start at all After the 6th time I cut my long-distance trip short, turned around, and came home in normal (not stop-and-go) highway traffic conditions, with no more engine failure. The check engine light did not turn on, and no service codes were generated which could have been related to these power failures My local dealer's service department (Pohanka in Salisbury, MD) tested the alternator, starter, and battery and found nothing wrong. They did charge the battery up a bit, saying it took only 20 minutes. They have been unable to re-create the problem, which is not surprising, due to the unique conditions under which it happened. They say there is nothing they can do about my problem under warranty because there is no code and they can't reproduce the problem, so they want to give me back a vehicle that we know behaved unsafely six times under dangerous conditions. Engines failing without warning on interstates are likely to result in being rear-ended. I see online that the hybrid model of the same model year has a recall for exactly this same issue, so it is not a new issue for Chrysler, although maybe new-ish for my non-hybrid model of the same vehicle.
Traveling down [XXX] in Escondido at approximately 73mph. In the fast lane and moving left into the car pool lane the vehicle lost all motive power and the error "Service Charging System" came up on the dash then flashing back to "SHIFT TO P TO START". We were able to make it to a very small emergency lane on the left side of the interstate. Had to power vehicle off and restart twice before be regained motive power. There was a very good chance that we would have been stranded in the middle of the interstate with wife and 2 kids in the care on an 85 degree day. We were able to make it off freeway with "Check engine light showing" but no other errors on the dash. We were able to drive home 7 miles and will tow the Pacifica to the dealer tomorrow. This is the second time this has happened and could have had a horrible outcome. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
The contact owns a 2021 Chrysler Pacifica. The contact stated that after parking the vehicle and shifting to park(P), the contact attempted to turn off the vehicle however, the engine remained running. The contact stated that the failure was intermittent however, on one occasion, the engine remained running for almost 2-hours after pressing the START/STOP button. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact had taken the vehicle to a local dealer, where it was diagnosed and determined that the wiring harness behind the dashboard needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 76,000.
Vehicle has suddenly went into low power mode while driving three times. Was towed to shop each time to find no issues besides codes. Codes were cleared and vehicle was returned. Now vehicle is in the shop at chrysler due to a service charging system code for the hybrid system, causing the vehicle to not start or shift out of park gear. Vehicle has 58,000 miles and is not covered under the battery warranty with only 2 thousand miles remaining on the factory power train warranty.
For the 3rd time after driving approximately 200 miles, the vehicle has shut down on the highway. I receive a warning instructing me to pull over safely because the vehicle is shutting down. All three of these times happened on interstate highways. Two times this occured on the NJ Turnpike. My husband is disabled and the process of getting off the highway - involving exiting our vehicle and getting into a tow truck is frightening and daunting. By this third time I figured out that we can cool the vehicle by waiting. Which we did because this last breakdown happened again on the NJ Turnpike. I had 3 dogs with me in addition to my handicapped husband. I could not imagine getting out into the lanes of traffic with the three dogs and the disabled husband. I waited 45 minutes and the car started and we were able to proceed 10 miles. At which point we were several miles from the exit off of the turnpike. We were now within 7.5 miles of a dealership. We were instru cted by the vehicle again to pull over safely because the car was shutting down. We waited another 30-45 minutes. Managed to get off the highway. Now within 1.5 miles of the dealership we were told again to pull over. We waited again and made it to the dealership. The codes were the same codes we had on the April 7 breakdown -- the February breakdown also had our car not being able to start. I bought a used Chrysler 2021 Pacifica Hybrid that has broken down for the third time with the same codes P1A9A, P1A9AE, P1A21, and P1AA2, and the low-temperature active pump is suspected to be the issue with battery cooling and heating.
On two separate occasions (on April 30 and May 1, 2024), my Chrysler Pacifica's engine suddenly lost power while driving on highways. I was served with an error "Stop Safely. Vehicle Will Shut Off Soon." After a few minutes on the side of the highway, the vehicle was able to start again and drive. After the first incident, I drove to a Chrysler dealership, who plugged in a portable computer to check for error codes. Despite the severity of the issue, the vehicle's onboard computer recorded no errors. Since then, I found that the NHTSA is aware of the problem (NHTSA Action Number RQ24004) related to a wiring harness short circuit. Chrysler's supposed "recall" only entails a feature to supposedly allow time to pull over safely. I enjoyed no such time. I lost power immediately and had to immediately traverse multiple lanes in busy traffic to pull off the road.
I had purchased the vehicle three days beforehand. It was a lemon law buyback car. I had driven around 120 miles or so that day. The high that day was at least 90 degrees or so. It was past the halfway mark of driving that day, when I tested the Level 2 EVSE I had bought. It didn't work because the plug wasn't energized, but I did notice that the time to charge was reading 3 hours instead of the expected 2 hours. Once I got back to town, I plugged in to a Chargepoint charger, which was only charging at a Level 1 rate. I contacted the dealer to report the problem, and then went to my storage locker. On the way, the AC stopped working. When I tried to leave, the vehicle would not start. Suspecting an overheating problem, I left the hood open for a half hour or so, and after that, the vehicle started up. On my way home, the vehicle suffered a complete loss of motive power, displaying a message saying "Stop Safely Vehicle Will Shut Off Soon", leaving me stranded in a parking lot. This was followed by a message saying "Service Charging System". After another hour or so of sitting with the hood up, the vehicle worked again. This has happened multiple times since then. I have traced the problem to the battery pack reaching a temperature of 55 C, at which point the vehicle invariably shuts down. One time it did this, I was on stuck on the side of a road with no shoulder, after dark. The dealers I have taken it to could not reproduce the problem, as it takes hours of driving to trigger, and they are not willing to drive it enough to reproduce the problem. A case was raised with the manufacturer, but their protocols were insufficient to reproduce the problem. I have recently learned that the problem is apparently the same problem that the original owner had, and that the vehicle was bought back for originally. I have collected extensive CSV logs documenting the defect. The vehicle is obviously still unfixed, as they will not fix it until they duplicate the problem.
I was driving home from a trip of 208 miles. I drove to Bethlehem PA 208 miles, was there for 4 hours and was returning home driving another 208 miles. I did not plug in my plug in hybrid prior to leaving Bethlehem, PA. When I was less than 10 miles away from my home, lights came on and my dashboard said "Stop Safely Vehicle Will Shut Off Soon". I have a picture of the dash. In the upper left hand corner was a picture of the Battery on the right lower corner a picture of a plug. I had 288 miles range left on my gas. My husband is disabled and the police officer who pulled behind me had to close a lane of traffic on the Interstate Highway [XXX] ) to allow him to disembark the vehicle at 8:30 pm and to reenter the tow truck that towed us off the highway. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Vehicle was having driving issues for months and dealership could not identify the issue. Van showed "check engine" light, stopped using electrical propulsion (while fully charged), and engine started making a lot of noise during driving. Vehicle was kept off the highway until it could be taken into the dealership for service. Dealership identified issue as battery pack coolant heater and replaced it.
When at a red light or while driving car throws its self into park and then powers off immediately and this isn-??t safe with my children in the car while drive it-??s also happened while driving during traffic car just throws its self into park and powers off
I was traveling at highway speed. The hybrid was utilizing mostly the battery. I needed to accelerate to the speed of those around me. The van switched from just battery to utilizing battery and gas power. About a minute after it switched, the engine completely shut off. A warning flashed up on the dash display to -??Stop safely Vehicle will shut off soon-??. The engine shut off. I could no longer use the gas, the only thing I could do was coast to a stop. This was very terrifying because I was traveling at such a high speed on the interstate. I immediately put on my hazards and coasted to a stop. This was harmful to others on the interstate because they had to slow down behind me or get around me. Eventually when I was slow enough, I managed to coast onto the shoulder and come to a complete stop. I was able to reproduce the problem upon restarting the vehicle. I have taken the van to a dealership but they have not been able to look into it yet. The engine light is now on in the vehicle. This happens consistently at high speeds
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Stoddard, WI, USA