Hello all,

First post here. So I bought my wife a 17 Pacifica about 2 months ago and I am regretting ever setting foot in the dealership. So we traded my wife's 16 wrangler in because we have a second child on the way and she is 5'2" and can't pick up the car seat into the back of a tall vehicle. About a week after driving the newly purchased 17 Pacifica with 60k miles on it, we noticed a rough idle pop up sometimes with a check engine light and sometimes without. I have worked in the automotive industry for years so of course I do some digging and find it has a cylinder 3 misfire, so I replaced the plug and coil and think it's done. Wrong. While looking through the glovebox I see where the previous owner had a service station replace all 6 plugs, I noted when I pulled number 3 that it had a Mopar plug in it (I bought it from a Mopar dealer) and didn't think much of it. We drove it more and then realized we were losing coolant, a pretty substantial amount. We add some coolant and went on, then the misfire come back and I do more digging and see that the oil filter housing is leaking coolant, so I pulled the intake and replaced the oil filter housing, intake gaskets, coolant overflow jug, and all 6 plugs. I noticed that the 5 plugs were ngk, that's when I realized that cylinder 3 had been an ongoing issue. So I get it all back together and let the wife loose on it, coolant is still getting low 🙄 so I did a combustion leak test on it and sure enough blown head gasket. Now I'm not usually one to take the cheap way out, but labor time on the engine job is 17-19 and 1/2 hours so I don't want to drop a junk yard engine in it, and if I had the head gasket replaced I am afraid that the head or deck of the block could be warped. So I waited and tried to decide what to do and decided to put some head gasket sealer in the system, after we waited and tried to decide what to do the battery is dead, or so I thought. I charged the battery and the auxiliary battery and it won't do anything, no lights come on when I open the door, nothing when hitting buttons on either of our fobs, nothing happens at all. I am at a total loss here. Sorry for the information/word vomit but I am trying to get anything that may be helpful out there.

It's possible that the engine is hydrolocked and blew the large 500A fuse in the red fuse bus (the one that's attached to the main battery's positive terminal) while attempting to start the engine. You can test that fuse (and the others) with an ohmmeter. This happened to another owner a few months ago. They replaced the fuse bus only to have the same thing happen again before discovering that the engine was hydrolocked. However, the 500A fuse only cuts power to the starter (and alternator) when it blows, so everything else should still have power if the batteries are good and none of the other fuses in the bus are blown.

The engine might still be covered by the powertrain warranty depending on the in-service date and exact mileage. The powertrain warranty is 5 years/60K miles. If you bought it as Certified Pre-Owned from a Chrysler dealership, the powertrain warranty is extended to 7 years/100K miles.

 

Thank you for the response and help, I will definitely be sure to check all the fuses. It's the oddest thing tho, nothing works at all. I can push the start button and none of the lights in the dash come on, open the door and no lights, the power doors will not work. I may get a new battery for it and try that as well. I have had a motor out of a car, years ago, for a month and the battery was basically dormant and wouldn't do anything and the battery charger brought it back but maybe this one is just gone, I don't know.

 

Most likely not a head gasket but a cracked block or cylinder wall. The previous owner knew it had problems and got rid of it.

At 70,000 miles Dealer says new engine | 2017+ Chrysler Pacifica Minivan Forums (pacificaforums.com)

I was told that camshafts and lifters are "maintenance items" every 70,000 miles | 2017+ Chrysler Pacifica Minivan Forums (pacificaforums.com)

 

Yea that is a good possibility! Yea they definitely knew it had a problem, I would venture a guess that the dealer did too.

 

Condolences TheMinivanDad91. Did you buy it from a Chrysler dealer? Was there anything on CarFax? Just looking to see if you might have any recourse here. Please keep us informed. All the best.

 

Recently another owner of a previously owned 2018 Pacifica Touring was informed that a NON-FACTORY APPROVED COOLANT must have been added to his vehicle PRIOR TO it's purchase. Shortly after their purchase it started to leak coolant from the head gasket and was informed by the Chrysler dealer's service department that adding of or changing the engine coolant with any other brands of coolant will cause the head gasket to eventuly leak.

 

I've heard that before, and it may be the line the dealers are sticking to, but frankly that doesn't seem to pass the sniff test. I can imagine all sorts of negative consequences from mixing incompatible coolant, but head gasket failure isn't one of them. Nonetheless, you would be powerless to fight that assertion, so I having nothing but the Mopar coolant in mine.

 

Maybe I was too quick in my statement that head gasket failure can't be the result of wrong coolant. After a little more research, I probably have to back off of that. I still retain some skepticism because it probably isn't a common cause of head gasket failure, but I guess it is conceivable that there could be a chemical interaction between the coolant and head gasket material. I could cerainly see that mixing coolant could be an indirect cause of head gasket failure if the coolants themselves interacted poorly and ultimately caused overheating which lead to head gasket failure. Again the point is probably moot, because the dealer will almost certainly claim that it is the cause regardless of whether or not it actually was, and it would be a practically insurmountable task to prove otherwise - which is why I don't have anything but the MS-12106 in my car.

 

Good evening,

I have a 2020 Chrysler Voyager that was having the same issues as you. Misfiring, using coolant...etc. Since it seemed to be a small leak, I went for the cheaper option of using Blue Devil Head Gasket Sealer. I put it in early this morning and then shut it down after the recommended 50 minutes of idling. Not more than 3 hours later, my battery was dead (9.67 volts). After I recharged it, nothing electrically in the van worked at all. It's like something fried. Did you ever find out what the problem was on yours, and what the solution was? I'd be so grateful to find out. Thanks!