[luked1234]

This morning my 2018 Hybrid Limited was dead. It had been plugged in overnight using the 110 charger that came with the van. It would not start, and briefly flashed some kind of service needed warning on the screen. Then the screen turned off and the vehicle repeatedly made a clicking sound. The screen would not come back on, and the van was completely unresponsive.

We exited the van and went back inside the house to call the dealership. When I looked back out the window, I noticed the windshield wipers were ever so slowly in motion back and forth. I checked the switch but the wiper was set to the “off” position. None of the wiper controls would change the setting. The dealership set me up with a number for Chrysler tow.

I exited the vehicle to make the call, and was standing about 20 feet away from the van. Suddenly the van started rolling backward down the driveway and into the street! Fortunately it came to a stop in the middle of the street without hitting anyone or anything! I ran over and checked it and still everything was unresponsive, the wipers no longer moving however the parking brake button, and shifter buttons, and overhead lights were flashing.

Fortunately no one was behind the van or they could have been seriously hurt or killed! We had the van towed to the dealership. The tow company the Chrysler contracts with lifted the front tires and towed it on its rear wheels (hopefully that didnt damage anything).

This is the third electrical issue with this van. The day I purchased it, the salesman went to pull it around and found the van to be dead. He said someone left a light on. It sounded like they were going to replace the battery, but ended up just jump starting it.

Then on 1/7 I brought the van in for service again because of a speaker static noise when brakes were applied while the blu ray was playing a movie over the speakers. They checked and found no issue. They said they charged the battery.

Now just two days later the van is not only completely dead in my driveway, but it is a MAJOR safety issue, that for any reason it would disengage from park and roll backward! I just don’t feel safe in this vehicle anymore and it has not even been 3 weeks, and less than 650miles on it.

I let my dealership know, and as a member here suggested, I reached out to @ChryslerCares. I expect the dealer to work with Chrysler to get me a vehicle I can feel safe putting my family in. Does anyone have any ideas here on what could cause the van to release all brakes and roll backward?? The hood was raised at the time this happened as well.

https://youtu.be/6_LY7blNJns

https://youtu.be/JFcp0IDbfqI

 

[PacDave]

This morning my 2018 Hybrid Limited was dead. It had been plugged in overnight using the 110 charger that came with the van. It would not start, and briefly flashed some kind of service needed warning on the screen. Then the screen turned off and the vehicle repeatedly made a clicking sound. The screen would not come back on, and the van was completely unresponsive.

We exited the van and went back inside the house to call the dealership. When I looked back out the window, I noticed the windshield wipers were ever so slowly in motion back and forth. I checked the switch but the wiper was set to the “off” position. None of the wiper controls would change the setting. The dealership set me up with a number for Chrysler tow.

I exited the vehicle to make the call, and was standing about 20 feet away from the van. Suddenly the van started rolling backward down the driveway and into the street! Fortunately it came to a stop in the middle of the street without hitting anyone or anything! I ran over and checked it and still everything was unresponsive, the wipers no longer moving however the parking brake button, and shifter buttons, and overhead lights were flashing.

Fortunately no one was behind the van or they could have been seriously hurt or killed! We had the van towed to the dealership. The tow company the Chrysler contracts with lifted the front tires and towed it on its rear wheels (hopefully that didnt damage anything).

This is the third electrical issue with this van. The day I purchased it, the salesman went to pull it around and found the van to be dead. He said someone left a light on. It sounded like they were going to replace the battery, but ended up just jump starting it.

Then on 1/7 I brought the van in for service again because of a speaker static noise when brakes were applied while the blu ray was playing a movie over the speakers. They checked and found no issue. They said they charged the battery.

Now just two days later the van is not only completely dead in my driveway, but it is a MAJOR safety issue, that for any reason it would disengage from park and roll backward! I just don’t feel safe in this vehicle anymore and it has not even been 3 weeks, and less than 650miles on it.

I let my dealership know, and as a member here suggested, I reached out to @ChryslerCares. I expect the dealer to work with Chrysler to get me a vehicle I can feel safe putting my family in. Does anyone have any ideas here on what could cause the van to release all brakes and roll backward?? The hood was raised at the time this happened as well.

I am going to try to upload the video I have to YouTube to show what happened.

Hmmm. That is very interesting. When you parked the van did you engage the parking brake?

It seems to me like the parking brake activation is some sort of motorized system that would continue to hold the brake on even if the battery died. But perhaps when your battery died it had some strange side effects.

 

[luked1234]

Hmmm. That is very interesting. When you parked the van did you engage the parking brake?

It seems to me like the parking brake activation is some sort of motorized system that would continue to hold the brake on even if the battery died. But perhaps when your battery died it had some strange side effects.

That’s what I was thinking too. My wife can’t say 100% that she had the parking brake engaged, but it is her habit to engage the parking brake. The explanation I got from the service manager however was that while he could not explain the brake failure (or disengagement) he was not surprised about the wiper issue. He said that the 12v battery was drained, (possibly interior lights left on he thought) and he believes the various accessories and systems all fight for voltage and strange things happen when they don’t get enough.

So even IF the interior lights were left on, would it still drain the 12v and not draw any power from the drive battery which was plugged in? That was the explanation as to why the van was dead when I bought it... but is a vehicle with two batteries so susceptible to what I assume are like 10 LED lights on for a few hours? Maybe some here are familiar with how that works.

But even for the sake of argument if that’s what killed the battery, it’s still a huge danger for any electrical issue to disengage the brake system. Possibly with the power cycling (I also have a video of the flashing parking and shifter knob lights in the cabin) it somehow cycled to disengage mode. That’s my best guess at the moment. Somehow the wipers can be on, even when set to “off”, so I could see how the brake system could similarly do something opposite of the mode it was left in.

 

[Bond007]

First rule. Don’t take delivery of a vehicle which has been dead on arrival from the dealership. There is a reason it had that failure. Simply walk away and get another car. Will save you a lot of trouble later on.
One of the most often cited reasons for strange electric problems is failure of regular 12v battery. Get it replaced. If issues still persist, then ask for a replacement vehicle or refund. You just bought a brand new car. This shouldn’t be happening. Write a letter to Chrysler and send by registered post.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PacDave]

First rule. Don’t take delivery of a vehicle which has been dead on arrival from the dealership. There is a reason it had that failure. Simply walk away and get another car. Will save you a lot of trouble later on.
One of the most often cited reasons for strange electric problems is failure of regular 12v battery. Get it replaced. If issues still persist, then ask for a replacement vehicle or refund. You just bought a brand new car. This shouldn’t be happening. Write a letter to Chrysler and send by registered post.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m still not 100% convinced yet that the failure is caused by the battery. There may be some firmware issues that under the right conditions allow something to drain the battery quickly. Just my 2 cents...

 

[drocketman]

THIS NEEDS TO BE ELEVATED TO THE NHTSA AS A SAFETY ISSUE THAT DEMANDS A RECALL FIX.

Please read the Dead Battery adventures thread and consider filing a report/complaint with the NHTSA.

Your experience is described in my post 60 of that thread.
Some believe the 12V battery is to blame and some believe that the vehicle 12V charging and battery maintenance system is to blame.
Either way. this is now clearly a safety issue of import to the general public due to many occurences of "bad behavior" by a PacHy when the 12V battery dies.
Unless something is done by FCA, I am convinced that it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt or killed.

 

[MLambert]

It sounds like your 12v battery has completely drained multiple times now. (I believe the car will start even if the high voltage battery is drained based on other threads, but it won't if the 12v is dead.) Jump starting might have been all right, but I've always heard that you want to replace a lead acid battery if it fully discharges, and especially so if it happens more than once.

 

[ChryslerCares]

This morning my 2018 Hybrid Limited was dead. It had been plugged in overnight using the 110 charger that came with the van. It would not start, and briefly flashed some kind of service needed warning on the screen. Then the screen turned off and the vehicle repeatedly made a clicking sound. The screen would not come back on, and the van was completely unresponsive.

We exited the van and went back inside the house to call the dealership. When I looked back out the window, I noticed the windshield wipers were ever so slowly in motion back and forth. I checked the switch but the wiper was set to the “off” position. None of the wiper controls would change the setting. The dealership set me up with a number for Chrysler tow.

I exited the vehicle to make the call, and was standing about 20 feet away from the van. Suddenly the van started rolling backward down the driveway and into the street! Fortunately it came to a stop in the middle of the street without hitting anyone or anything! I ran over and checked it and still everything was unresponsive, the wipers no longer moving however the parking brake button, and shifter buttons, and overhead lights were flashing.

Fortunately no one was behind the van or they could have been seriously hurt or killed! We had the van towed to the dealership. The tow company the Chrysler contracts with lifted the front tires and towed it on its rear wheels (hopefully that didnt damage anything).

This is the third electrical issue with this van. The day I purchased it, the salesman went to pull it around and found the van to be dead. He said someone left a light on. It sounded like they were going to replace the battery, but ended up just jump starting it.

Then on 1/7 I brought the van in for service again because of a speaker static noise when brakes were applied while the blu ray was playing a movie over the speakers. They checked and found no issue. They said they charged the battery.

Now just two days later the van is not only completely dead in my driveway, but it is a MAJOR safety issue, that for any reason it would disengage from park and roll backward! I just don’t feel safe in this vehicle anymore and it has not even been 3 weeks, and less than 650miles on it.

I let my dealership know, and as a member here suggested, I reached out to @ChryslerCares. I expect the dealer to work with Chrysler to get me a vehicle I can feel safe putting my family in. Does anyone have any ideas here on what could cause the van to release all brakes and roll backward?? The hood was raised at the time this happened as well.

I am going to try to upload the video I have to YouTube to show what happened.

We have received your message, and have opened/escalated a case for you to have this looked into as soon as possible. Please continue to follow up with us via PM if there is anything else you need!

Jennifer
Chrysler Social Care Specialist

 

[ScorpyMjolnir]

I don't think leaving the interior lights on in this van can drain the battery. My 2017 has a time that appears to shut them off after a certain period of time. I once left the side door completely open in my garage all night, and the interior lighs had tutrned off. I hit the button the close the door and the lights came on, the door closed, and everything was fine. What I'm gettig at is the salesman lied.

 

[tbier]

We leave one or both doors open on our 2018 Hybrid almost every night in the garage for up to 3 days without driving or charging it and have never had a problem.

In my 18 months reading this forum it really seems that folks either have all kinds of problems or everything works as designed. I feel bad for those who got the bad draw but encourage you to pursue your state's lemon law. Its a pain but if you can get one that works as designed you'll be much happier. And the 2nd $7,500 credit really helps on your TCO.

 

[Frig]

We leave one or both doors open on our 2018 Hybrid almost every night in the garage for up to 3 days without driving or charging it and have never had a problem.

In my 18 months reading this forum it really seems that folks either have all kinds of problems or everything works as designed. I feel bad for those who got the bad draw but encourage you to pursue your state's lemon law. Its a pain but if you can get one that works as designed you'll be much happier. And the 2nd $7,500 credit really helps on your TCO.

I wonder if a good chunk of the issues boil down to a bad group of batteries. I know first-hand that Subarus do crazy non-sensical things when running on weakened batteries, even if the alternator works perfectly. Speaking of alternators, I wonder since the hybrids don't have one, does that exacerbate any problems?

 

[Bitslizer]

As long as the VAN is "actively" charging, the 12v battery is being top up (the cig lighter socket would read 14.5v+) when the 12v is not charging it would read below 12.7v. On a healthy 12v system, leaving 1 interior light on manually (i.e. the front driver side dome light) overnight should not drain the battery, and I "think" unless manually turned on, the rest of the interior lights that are on auto/door mode would time out (as in if you left the door open overnight).

Once the battery drain reach about 12.0v things start acting up, in my experience at 12.0v the van would still start (as in show ready to drive, not necessarily turning over the gas engine), but if you try to use the power tailgate without starting the VAN (which would charge the 12v system/14.5v+), the tailgate would not lift fully.

For reference, I have 2x distinct front and rear dashcams that are configured to shut off at 12.2v and continually record even when parked, they and the VAN works fine overnight.

For reference the high voltage system wake up every 21 days to check the 12v system and top it up, but if the VAN has been sitting on the lot for a long time, both system can get drained if the dealer does not keep the HV charged up, beyond a certain point the Van will prioritize protecting the HV battery over the 12v battery. a 12v battery drained beyond certain point would be permanently damaged which then cannot be fully charge or keep degrading quickly. What's the build date of the VAN? that may potentially tell you how long it has been sitting on the dealer lot without being charged up (ie long time on the lot = greater chance of damaged 12v battery) if its your 12v system but the VAN is recently build, it may not be the 12v battery but something else.

Another recently popped up cause for random electrical issue is corroded or badly grounded 12v system grounding. Good luck to the OP!

 

[luked1234]

https://youtu.be/JFcp0IDbfqI

https://youtu.be/6_LY7blNJns

Here is the two videos I took immediately after it rolled. I appreciate everyone’s comments here.

The service manager put a new battery in it and is testing it out. He says he contacted Chrysler and according to them, the way the system is designed, there is no way a power failure would disengage the brakes.

My response to him, was that while yes that may be true about power loss, he already admitted, when accessories start getting lower voltage than what it is designed to get, screwy things start happening. Check out the interior video. The parking light as well as shifter lights are flicking on and off constantly. Could that low voltage trigger disengagement?

 

[1tg1]

Is there any way it was in neutral and the parking brake left off?

 

[Frig]

https://youtu.be/JFcp0IDbfqI

https://youtu.be/6_LY7blNJns

Here is the two videos I took immediately after it rolled. I appreciate everyone’s comments here.

Dang lucky nobody got hurt and nothing was damaged. I'm on a steep hill, it would have been majorly ungood to say the least.

Also don't know if it's a factor or not, but interesting to note that it was raining out.

 

[luked1234]

Is there any way it was in neutral and the parking brake left off?

There is no way, because the car had been parked for over 12 hours on a slight slope. It would have rolled back long before.

 

[ctuna]

Seems like I read another thread here where a car was in for some problem at dealership
the same thing happened and it drifted into another car. They had it on Camera.


If it looses power and the brake goes off it's kind of a bad design.

 

[luked1234]

Ctuna you are right! After some searching I found the thread here. See post #3


https://www.pacificaforums.com/foru...n/40261-brand-new-hybrid-completely-died.html

Edit: Link fixed... for some reason the mobile link was working while desktop was not

 

[drocketman]

I don't think leaving the interior lights on in this van can drain the battery. My 2017 has a time that appears to shut them off after a certain period of time. I once left the side door completely open in my garage all night, and the interior lighs had tutrned off. I hit the button the close the door and the lights came on, the door closed, and everything was fine. What I'm gettig at is the salesman lied.

You are correct. Leaving the door open or the interior lights on is probably not an issue. I am now tracking the energy (W-hr) in and out of the PacHy 12V battery during routine use of the car.
The H6 AGM battery that comes in and is specified for the PacHy has somewhere around 840 W-hr of energy total in it when fully charged. If your car uses it all without charging, the capacity of the battery will probably be damaged. So I consider the maximum "useful" energy to be somewhere between 400 and 600 W-hr of energy.

Though not what I was looking for at the time, so far I have observed the energy for one operation, and that is cycling the hatch open and then later, cycling the hatch closed. The energy required to cycle the motor is small in comparison to the total energy used by the car during the power up/down cycle that is prompted by doing something like opening a door. It also powers interior lights and who knows what else. The important thing to do is restore the used energy into the 12V battery by either turning the car to "Run" or by charging the motive battery (which also charges the 12v battery) before the car has used a potentially damaging amount of energy. The extreme case is a dead 12V battery. And knowing the amount of energy you are using will go a long way toward intelligently preventing a dead battery.

The energy used during the hatch opening event, (which lasts for minutes before the energy consumption stops and everything is off again) was around 6 W-hr. The hatch closing event was also around 6 W-hr. I have a PacHy limited with power doors and lots of other things that can be run to drain the 12V battery. When I have time, I will be recording the energy consumption of many operations. Also each morning I will be checking the overnight energy consumption to see if any unexpected drains occurred on the battery.

Obviously, a damaged, reduced capacity 12V battery will go dead quicker. What damages it is a separate, but related issue. First is understanding how much it is being drained, when it is being drained, and what is draining it.

For example, I preemptively replaced my 12V battery with a new, fully charged battery. During the next 9 hours of "normal" operations (non-running, non-charging), the 12V battery was drained by 51 W-hr.

 

[Danmcg]

I already left the hatch open all night in sub-zero temps and had no issue in the morning pressing the keyboard to close it from inside and it started right up when I left.