Additional Info:

The "Battery Conditioning" did come on another time when they were test driving the vehicle.

The car was fully charged before leaving. We have a Level 2 Charger - the charger tells us the voltage, temperature, and time it's been charging. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The outside temperatures have been in the 100's but this morning when the problem started was 86-95 degrees.

The last two days, I've noticed that the engine has come on even when we have 80-90% battery life showing. The car sounds like a fan may be on in the front at certain stops and the engine doesn't show as running.

 

I don't have a hybrid, but you can private message @ChryslerCares by clicking on the red letters. They will need the VIN and info about the problem and where the van is being serviced. You may not get an immediate response, but you may want to start the process. What state or area is the van being worked on in case someone has a recommended place if this dealer needs assistance?

@Frig or @AZBean any suggestions?

 

I've never experienced it, but attached is the user manual section on battery reconditioning, talks about it dealing with extreme hot weather and even mentions not using the A/C while the reconditioning is going on.

What does the entire message say?

Have they tried the level 1 charger to recondition the battery?

Regarding the summer, waymo's been running a bunch of Pacificas in Phoenix so I'm sure they can handle the desert heat.... or they may have been modified to handle it better, who knows.

 

Take a look at the attached heating and cooling diagram. Sorry for the fuzziness, it is the best I have got. Notice that there are three evaporators in the cooling refrigerant system (the blue lines), one for the front A/C, one for the rear A/C and one for the battery. The front one and the battery one have shutoff valves, the rear A/C does not. It is my best guess that the refrigerant shutoff valve for the battery was stuck closed which caused the battery to get hot. The control system noticed the battery was hot, put up the "battery conditioning" message and shut off the front evaporator in an attempt to direct more cooling to the battery. But that didn't get anywhere since the battery's shutoff valve was still stuck closed.

 

Thank you for the info everyone. The dealership hasn't given me much to go on but it did sound like a coolant problem so my thinking was pump.

I'm hoping that it's not going to need a battery replacement.

I'm also hoping that Chrysler covers the cost of the rental. Her being two hours away and needing to get another 18 hours for the commitment has really put a crimp in things.

 

Addl' Info: My wife got a notification on her phone that the car had a charge fault. The dealership tried to charge it. That worries me that the batteries may have been fried when they had the suspected coolant issue.

RANT: I'm upset at how so little has been done in 5 business days. The car has basically sat at the dealership since Thursday. The dealership keep saying that Chrysler hasn't gotten back to them on the STAR case and when I finally got to talk to a case manager (that I had to call to finally talk to) he said that he's had a couple conversations with them but he couldn't say that the Chrysler Technician Team has had any conversation. So basically, 5 business days without anything really being done.

It doesn't instill confidence that I'm going to see the car soon or that they'll properly take care of the rental costs that we've currently incurred. I'm sorry, but 35/day doesn't cover a vehicle to carry four children and an adult around in. You cannot get a loaner from the local dealership unless they have your car and the out of town dealership won't because they don't allow their cars out of town. So far a bad experience... especially for a good car.

 

Update: 6 Business Days... Car has been sitting at the out-of-town dealership with no work done to it, and Case got in the hands of the Chrysler Customer Care yesterday from what I was told today. I was told that they couldn't provide us a rental expense to get an equivalent vehicle...that set me off a bit. What was even more frustrating is our case manager WOULD NOT give me any time frame on when the car may be transferred to a local dealership, or if it would be worked on.

So - no work, no service, no customer care, no proper reimbursement for our out of pocket expenses, no idea what the problem is, and no idea when we may know anything.

IMPORTANT: My wife is in the middle of the desert, with our four kids, driving back from the major appointment that the car broke down from. She gets on the phone with the dealership and the car is being towed to our local dealership - it required a discussion with the General Manager and she got it done. That's more than Chrysler was able to do.

We still have to rent a car as our local dealership doesn't have any available loaners that work, but I found something that may keep the wife happy till then.

TLR - Chrysler 0 - Wife 1 (Me... probably a 0 too.)

Hopefully we'll have some proper repairs done and maybe the correct amount of attention to the issue. I'm really hoping that I can give out some KUDO's to the local dealership here shortly. Credit should be given where credit is due.

 

@NoSuchSol
Hey we just bought a 2019 Pacifica Hybrid yesterday. Driving home we had the exact same issue you describe here.
Did you ever get resolution? What was the issue? I'm worried I've got a lemon here.
Thanks

 

Hi - I'm sorry about the delay in getting back you. I was going to give an update and I figure it might give you an idea of what could be a worst case scenario for you.

We're six weeks in now. The car is being purchased back and replacing with the same car. We felt that this was more of an exception than the rule. (I hope that's the case).

The car was towed back to our dealership and this dealership started a new STAR Case with Chrysler. The problem presented itself two times during the second week (first week with them) and then it sat around for a while while the dealership waited to hear back from the engineers. From what we can tell, there was never any additional information provided about the codes the car was throwing. I do feel that we have a dealership that isn't proactive in repairing the issue, and a STAR Case worker that wasn't on top of it.

We ended up getting escalated a few times through the system. If you can, I would do what I could to get to someone higher than the first level in Chrysler Cares. The gentleman that we had first, Tyrone, couldn't do anything for us. We couldn't get a loaner and they wouldn't approve more than 45/day for a rental. We have a Van because we have a ton of children so getting an equivalent rental is expensive. I got upset at Tyrone for the lack of awareness or ability... that was strike one. Secondly, after going back and forth, Tyrone wasn't able to give me any idea of when STAR would get back to the dealership, when the car may be done, what may be wrong with the car, etc. They're supposed to be an advocate but you can't get info at all. Next day, he calls back and escalates it up one step.

The next step was Stephanie, IIRC, and that lasted about two days. We couldn't get a hold of her after the first discussion. If she wasn't available, there wasn't another person to talk to. They can't just give you to a manager or anther available case manager. Being two weeks without a vehicle, without any idea of what's wrong, and really no help REALLY makes you feel isolated. So basically, we were given the same run around. And think - we're talking about two weeks where we've had to get a rental out of our own pocket and to get reimbursed (if we would get reimbursed for all of it) we'd have to fill out a form and wait another 60 days. We're blessed that we could absorb those costs for a while, but that's not going to be the case for everyone and then you're in a position where you can't live normally.

Ok - we ended up being escalated up to the exec level and he cared. He worked directly with us, called the dealership, STAR, and got us a check for the full amount of the two rentals. While he worked with STAR and the dealership, he came to the conclusion that we could do a repurchase or a replacement. We went for the replacement as we really do like the car and there are no options within the same realm as the Limited.

All we know of the problem is it's some type of coolant problem and after a while the problem couldn't be replicated. The dealership said we should drive it around since it was acting normally until the problem happened again. We said no since no work had been done to the car AND no STAR engineer had given recommendations to the dealership. That was unacceptable to us since we don't want our car to break down with 4 kids. Even being in town does make for a good situation in 110 degree weather.

I would recommend that you become the squeaky wheel. The first couple levels of Chrysler Cares won't be able to do much IF you have the same problem that we did. I hope that they give your dealership the information it needs OR that the dealership is pro-active. The car is throwing codes so you would think that Chrysler keeps store of those and can provide answers to the dealership on how to repair. Go read the Car and Driver and I think we can deduce that the coolant system can be problematic... not on every car but a certain percentage.

Call and Email EVERYONE! I contacted Chrysler Cares through this website, via Facebook, through phone calls, and we kept it up. Once we noticed that the dealership wasn't helping then we put pressure on them. We spoke with the case manager, the service manager, the parts manager and the sales manager. The parts manager ended up being the best help to us. The finance manager has been great with the replacement too.

And for those looking at optional three row vehicles - here's the list of rentals and loaners we've had:

1. Toyota Sienna - horrible! It drives like a truck and is less intuitive. Got my family home so can't be too unhappy.
2. Buick Enclave - SUV. Did fit within their reimbursement plan but it is severely limited in space. You can fit the entire family but good luck with groceries if you make a Sams Club run. Nice interior.
3. Dodge Journey - This will not work if you have four kids and want to do anything. After the rear seats are up then you cannot get much more than three to four Kleenex boxes back there. This was the worst car on our loaner/rental list.
4. Dodge Grand Caravan - I cannot believe they are based on the same car. If you can afford the additional couple grand between the Grand Caravan and Voyager then go Voyager.
5. Chrysler Pacifica - amazing how quiet it is between this and the Grand Caravan. Pretty wild.

Hope that helps...... keep the pressure on and I really do hope that they have an easy fix for you like low coolant or something like that.

 

Thanks much for the update. No easy answer. They tried replacing a controller (relay) up in the engine. Didn’t fix it. Then they said it needed a new battery package, but it was back ordered. No time frame.
So a few days later we find out that they haven’t even ordered the battery. They are still troubleshooting with Chrysler engineers. We’ve been without the van for 24 days now!
We are pushing for a refund at this point. If this is the kind of service we’re going to get when it’s new, how will it be any better 5 years from now.
Frustrating.

 

Hi CO2reduction,
We understand that your experience has been frustrating. Has a case been escalated for you on the Customer Care side to add assistance while working with your dealer? If not, please send our team a private message and we would be happy to get this started for you.
Alex
Chrysler Social Care Specialist