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Our 2018 died roadside with a clunk and a buck.

5K views 18 replies 8 participants last post by  deekster_caddy 
#1 ·
Friday night my wife was driving through some bad weather (hard rain) on the highway. Maintaining speed was okay, but trying to speed up or slow down gave a clunking and some hesitation. She mentioned feeling physical clunking like something banging underneath. Eventually came to an offramp where she needed to stop at the end and there were a few more clunks, then a whole bunch of lights on the dash. It wouldn't shift into Park right away, and eventually said "Hold brake to prevent vehicle rolling" (or something like that). The E-brake would hold the van still but without it it would just roll. I looked underneath from the side but it was dark, wet and in a pretty dangerous spot, so I couldn't see anything of value.

The dealer rolled it into their shop on Saturday and pulled codes but their hybrid mechanic won't be in until Monday to look at it officially. I looked at the list of codes the dealer had and they were errors about vehicle speed and traction control, but the list was long and I didn't have a chance to write them down. I'm hoping this is as 'easy' as a broken CV joint/CV shaft, hopefully not something internal, but I also hoped the basic tech who pulled codes might have been able to recognize a broken CV shaft (although maybe he wasn't allowed to do anything to it except reading codes). I did some searching for Pacifica Hybrid, differential and CV shaft and could only found one other poster here who mentioned a broken CV joint, https://www.pacificaforums.com/foru...im-dumping-my-pacifica-hybrid.html#post528633

On a slightly comical note, my Chevy Volt was also in the shop on Friday for a high voltage system error, so the I had to pull out our next newest vehicle, my '73 Buick to go rescue the passengers (see attached image). Not a good day for our high tech vehicles! A state trooper pulled up behind us to add some safety lights for a while and when he got out he said "what's wrong with the Buick?" He laughed when I told him that was my rescue car, it was the new van that was broken down...
 

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#3 ·
Thanks! It certainly wasn't amusing when it started out, having a stranded van filled with generations of family members late on a stormy night... Fortunately they made it from being almost an hour away to being just 5 minutes away before they got stuck. I would probably have less humor about it if they were further from home when it happened, and it could have been much worse had they stopped on the highway somewhere. I'm not letting Chrysler feel any of my lightness about the situation either.
 
#5 ·
Can't beat old technology. Nice Buick.
Thanks! I can't quite leave old tech alone though... this old Buick has a 455 with EFI along with a number of other modifications. My brother and I built the fuel injection system almost 20 years ago, before it was understood. Today's tech has come a long, long way though.

Still no useful update from the dealer on our van. The CV shafts appear fine, the techs have been going back and forth with Chrysler engineers trying to figure it out. I have a feeling somebody will be taking our transaxle apart soon. They told us to expect a week without it at least.
 
#8 ·
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My brother and I built the fuel injection system almost 20 years ago, before it was understood. Today's tech has come a long, long way though.
Not sure what you mean, but my 74 Volvo had fuel injection.

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#10 ·
My brother and I built the fuel injection system almost 20 years ago, before it was understood. Today's tech has come a long, long way though.

Not sure what you mean, but my 74 Volvo had fuel injection.

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I get what you are saying. Mechanical injection has been around quite a while. But building your own EFI system with an aftermarket computer wasn't very common at the time, and we were left on our own to create the air/fuel and timing maps, which took a long time to get right. Outside of manufacturer engineers which we didn't have access to there weren't a lot of people to talk to about it. We had to start with A/F and timing maps for a generic 350 V8 (what came with the ECU) and modify them to what our old Buick 455 needed, which was quite different. There wasn't a lot of support to reach out for, it was mostly educated guesses and trial and error until we got it right.
 
#9 ·
I had something similar happen with our 2018. Had 4300 miles on the car, was driving on electric and heard a thunk. Car kept driving for awhile then eventually made a louder and louder whining clunking noise. Had to get it towed to the dealer from the highway.

Ended up being a bad transmission. They replaced the entire trans. Was 21 days from start to finish. 9k on the van now and so far so good.
 
#11 ·
Thanks for your reply. I spoke with the dealership last night, it sounds like that's what they are going to end up doing, but engineering hasn't approved it yet. I expect it to take at least a few days, not sure what the availability on a full "transmission". (I know it's more than a transmission, not sure what to call it. Electric drive unit?)
 
#13 ·
Had the transmission replaced

Hi, I've had my 2018 Pachy Limited die on the road 4 times since new, I now have about 8000 miles on the car. Owned since May 2018, built in January 2018. The first time it happened in November, it was flatbedded to the dealership and they replaced the PIM. In the shop for over 2 weeks. The next time, in January, I was able to restart and they cleaned the terminals. In the shop 7 days. The next time, 10 days later, it died and restarted and died again. They flatbedded it in and replaced the transmission. In the shop 29 days. Since then it's been fine (knock on wood!). Anyway, if misery loves company, you've got it!
 
#14 ·
Hi, I've had my 2018 Pachy Limited die on the road 4 times since new, I now have about 8000 miles on the car. Owned since May 2018, built in January 2018. The first time it happened in November, it was flatbedded to the dealership and they replaced the PIM. In the shop for over 2 weeks. The next time, in January, I was able to restart and they cleaned the terminals. In the shop 7 days. The next time, 10 days later, it died and restarted and died again. They flatbedded it in and replaced the transmission. In the shop 29 days. Since then it's been fine (knock on wood!). Anyway, if misery loves company, you've got it!
What is PIM
 
#18 ·
So a brief update on our repair - a transmission wasn't available and has been on backorder this entire time. I filed a lemon law final repair notice last week, it's now past the 7 days required and the transmission is still on backorder. Waiting for a Chrysler 'dispute' specialist to get in touch with me.

Anyone have experience with the lemon law and how long it takes to see progress? Based on our state law (Massachusetts) it should be a straightforward case. All requirements have been met - at dealer for more than 15 business days on a single repair, and 7 days past the final opportunity to repair notice was received by Chrysler... now what?

Mass. lemon law page for reference: https://www.mass.gov/guides/guide-to-new-car-lemon-law
 
#19 ·
I'm happy to report they finally found a transmission for our van and we got it back on Friday. The issue requiring a full replacement was that the pin came out of the diff and cracked the case. We are very happy to have it back. Still mulling over our lemon filing, we have a little time to drive it and see if we are satisfied and have returned faith in our van before deciding what to do with that...
 
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