So I have a Chrysler Pacifica and it was working fine the night before. This morning I tried starting the car but the brakes were still and super hard to press down on. I pressed on it as much as it would let me and got the car to start, at first the lights for the “P” “D” “N” and stuff wouldn’t light up but then it did when i tried again. I cant put the car into drive.
This is everything that the car is saying:
“park break temporarily unavailable”
“service electronic stability control”
“oil change needed” (i got an oil change recently so not sure about that)
“service shifter”
i don’t know what this all means so please help!
What year & trim level is your Pacifica? Are you still under warranty?
The factory-installed (or dealer-installed) Mopar batteries commonly fail prematurely and cause erroneous warning lights/messages to appear. If your van is a gas model with stop/start (aka "ESS"), it will have two batteries - a main battery and a smaller auxiliary battery. The batteries are covered under the factory 3yr/36k mile warranty, but it may be in your best interest in the long run to replace them yourself at another shop or a parts store instead of having it done at a dealership. Aftermarket [main] batteries have better power ratings and will last significantly longer as a result. Both batteries must be disconnected and tested separately because the two batteries are connected together in a parallel circuit. This configuration will cause a weak battery to drain the other one whenever the engine isn't running, and any battery testing performed without being disconnecting/separating the batteries is meaningless. All that is needed to separate them from each other is to disconnect the negative cable from the smaller aux battery.
If you don't use ESS, you can simply leave the aux battery disconnected and replace only the main battery if necessary. The ESS warning light will persist, but ESS is permanently disabled. I bring this up because it's pointless to spend $100+ to replace the aux battery if you don't use ESS when the van will operate perfectly fine without it (read my signature). There is no disadvantage to running without an aux battery aside from the ESS warning light staying on.
