2018 Chrysler Pacifica Limited

dtragland said:

Hi everyone!

I’m sure this will be a pretty lengthy post (sorry about that) but I want to give as much info as possible because at this point we’re at a loss. I’ll try to make it short.

• Purchased a 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Limited in May 2020
• October/November 2020 — started having a few issues .. first issue, the “electronic stability control” light would occasionally come on but it never stayed on. Second issue, the van would randomly shut off while driving (like completely — not the auto start/stop — I would have to press the brake and start it back up). Most of the time it was when I was slowing to a stop — like a drive thru or my kids school drop off / pick up line — but I was never stopped completely nor was the car in park when it would shut off
• Took it back to the dealership that we purchased from and they said it was a computer update issue. It did correct the issue and it’s now July 2022 and I’ve not had the shut off issue since. I do still have the electronic stability control issue — keep reading.
• August 2021 - started having battery issues. Van wouldn’t start. We replaced the main battery (not the auxiliary battery) at that time. The auto shop told us that it was technically supposed to be a gel battery, but that this other one (cheaper) would work. We may still have issues with the start/stop feature because we weren’t replacing both batteries. That was fine by us since we never used that feature anyway. Replaced the main battery with a non-gel battery and everything seemed fine. The van started and worked like normal. The auto start/stop light has been on since this point but we were aware that feature would be unavailable unless we changed the auxiliary battery. The electronic stability control light would also occasionally come on for a little bit (like a few minutes) and then would turn back off. It wasn’t an every day thing, but it would occasionally happen.
• March 2022 — Auto start/stop light is still on. Electronic stability control light still comes on occasionally. At this time, I started to notice that my brakes would make a hissing sound when I pressed them. At this point, they still worked like normal, but would make a hissing sound when they were pressed down.
• March - July 2022 — brakes have continued to cause issues and it is getting increasingly worse. We took it in to get looked at but it was not showing a code to the technician. They believed it was an issue with the vacuum pump. It still had pressure but they said it was a “little low”.
• May 2022 - my husband changed the vacuum pump — no change.
• June 2022 - we took to a family friend mechanic to look at it for us. He said the new vacuum pump was showing the pressure it was supposed to (idk if that’s the right terminology but he said it was working like it should) but I was still having issues with the brakes. It did not show him a problem code either. He thinks it may be an issue with the ABS module or sensors but said there’s really no way to know until we just start changing things out.
• July 2022 - we mentioned the previous battery problem to our mechanic friend and the auto parts store — both thought that maybe the batteries could be the issue so we replaced BOTH batteries — the main battery (AGAIN and with the correct gel battery that is recommended and the other small battery) — again .. no change. The auto start/stop light is no longer on and that feature now works, but the brakes are still a major issue. I can’t say for sure about the electronic stability control light because we just changed the batteries last week. It has come on once since we changed the batteries, but at that time the auto start/stop wasn’t fixed yet (it took a day or two for that feature to be fixed but it eventually started working and the light went off).

does anyone have ANY insight on what to do next? I feel like we are throwing money away on issues that aren’t even helping with the major problem. Yes, I know we needed to get the batteries replaced for the auto start/stop thing but that wasn’t a huge concern for us at the time. The BRAKES are. It’s gotten so bad that I’m afraid my van isn’t going to stop at times and I have small kids in the car with me. It just feels like nobody knows what we should try and fix next. I really appreciate any help or insight you can give!!!

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