I logged into my Canadian MOPAR account and it shows the recall for my 2021 PacHy already. You will be hearing more soon.What happens to the ones that were sold in Canada during this time frame? Just for kicks I went on the USA Chrysler notification of the recall and found that my serial number is one of those in the recall. Nothing from Chrysler Canada as yet. Confused and what to make of this for those north of the border. I thought that the 2022 crop would be free of problems like. If I would have been aware of this I would have hung on to my 2018 ice model.
I'm guessing there's a definition of "defect" somewhere that would be good to find. It also appears that not all the wiring harnesses are bad, otherwise a lot more vans would have had the problem. And there's no way for FCA to figure out which ones are bad, otherwise they probably would have done that as well. This remedy fixes the safety issue of a sudden shutdown, which then allows FCA to replace these transaxles like any other part that breaks.I don't understand, based on Title 49 of US Code, Subchapter II, section 30120 (49 U.S. Code § 30120 - Remedies for defects and noncompliance and section (a) listed below for convenience), how the remedy of updating software on the PIM / IPC is considered a repair, or allowed to be considered a repair, by the NHTSA. It does not fix the problem.
There is a provision in this section (section (e)) that appears to allow for individuals to petition the Secretary of Transportation to conduct a hearing to decide on if the manufacturer's remedy has met requirements.
(a)Ways To Remedy.—
(1)Subject to subsections (f) and (g) of this section, when notification of a defect or noncompliance is required under section 30118(b) or (c) of this title, the manufacturer of the defective or noncomplying motor vehicle or replacement equipment shall remedy the defect or noncompliance without charge when the vehicle or equipment is presented for remedy. Subject to subsections (b) and (c) of this section, the manufacturer shall remedy the defect or noncompliance in any of the following ways the manufacturer chooses:
(A)if a vehicle—
(i) by repairing the vehicle;
(ii) by replacing the vehicle with an identical or reasonably equivalent vehicle; or
(iii) by refunding the purchase price, less a reasonable allowance for depreciation.
(B)
if replacement equipment, by repairing the equipment, replacing the equipment with identical or reasonably equivalent equipment, or by refunding the purchase price.
----
(e)Hearings About Meeting Remedy Requirements.—
On the motion of the Secretary or on application by any interested person, the Secretary may conduct a hearing to decide whether the manufacturer has reasonably met the remedy requirements under this section. Any interested person may make written and oral presentations of information, views, and arguments on whether the manufacturer has reasonably met the remedy requirements. If the Secretary decides a manufacturer has not reasonably met the remedy requirements, the Secretary shall order the manufacturer to take specified action to meet those requirements and may take any other action authorized under this chapter.
Unlikely they are just going to replace every transaxle. The remedy fixes the sudden shutdown and that’s it. If you have this problem the transaxle will need to be replaced.I don't like it.
" internal transmission wiring connector which could short "
Does it mean that the entire transmission will have to be replaced? AFAIK Chrysler doesn't consider it field repairable.
Right. The failure of the wiring harness is obviously not traceable by looking at build tracking data. It wasn’t just a “bad batch” of harnesses. The failure must not be predictable either. It could be a problem with the harness itself or something that happens to the harness during operation of the vehicle. So FCA is voluntarily planning this recall to fix the immediate safety problem of an unexpected loss of power. And then will just replace any transaxle that have this fault. The fact that it’s currently voluntary doesn’t preclude the regulators ordering more down the road. But the regulators must think that the fault will be rare enough to not warrant a complete recall of all the transaxles.So there is a connector inside the transmission that fails sometimes and causes the vehicle to shutdown. And the fix is to not really fix the problem by replacing a connector that has been known to short out. The fix is for the software to ignore the problem for long enough that you can safely pull the vehicle over. That translates to, the problem is rare enough and difficult enough to fix that we don’t want to do the right thing and fix it properly so we’ll just take away some of the danger involved with the failure and only fix the ones that actually fail.
If you get this fault your transaxle will be replaced. You won’t just be stuck with the software fix. If your transaxle never gets this fault then there is no problem. I wouldn’t be surprised to see either an official or unofficial extended warranty program on this transaxle for this fault.@PacDave
After reading the available details.......apparently the true and permanent fix is to replace 67,000 PacHy transaxles, since the defective connector is not field repairable. I somehow doubt Chrysler will ever do this, and we'll be permanently stuck with the software "fix".
We don’t currently know what it allows. It could allow a more extended run time. Hopefully we will know more when the software update is released.Thank you for the great information in this thread! Knowing what's happening makes me feel better. I see how Chrysler might argue that the software change prevents the sudden stall at speed, and mitigates the accident risk. But for ourselves and our families on the road, having a cellphone, flares/lights, and other breakdown safety gear in our PacHy's seems a wise precaution.
Since the software change allows the van to keep running for a short time, I wonder why it can't be programmed to allow a "limp home" mode for a longer time? I've heard some transmissions in other cars provide that. It's not a question of preventing further damage to the transmission, since it's going to get pulled out anyway.
That is definitely the big question. It appears the transaxle may be covered under the Hybrid system warranty in the USA. I'm not sure about how it works in Canada. But now that they know there's a potential flaw in the internal connectors of the transaxle I would hope there would be a warranty extension on this fault. I guess you could take them to court if they tried to say it wasn't covered.So the worst scenario for us is that the software fix will move the problem from a "safety critical issue" to a "regular failure" and we'll be on our own once the warranty runs out.
It could also have just not been a contingency that they had planned for when writing the PIM software. It encounters a fault and the default action is to shutdown if there isn't another preprogrammed contingency. It doesn't seem to me like a resolver short is very common. The consequences of continuing to drive could be bad if the short condition persists because the PIM won't know where one of the motors is in its rotation. I guess we don't know if the short is momentary but currently long enough for the PIM to do a shutdown, or if it persists. Most people that have this fault seem to be able to continue driving after turning the van off and on, which would tell me the short is generally a momentary thing. The software fix could be to just have the PIM wait for the signal to recover while telling the driver to pull over when safe. I could also be to switch over to Hybrid mode to keep power available. I guess we will see.If the software is changed to not shutdown the vehicle what are the consequences if the car is still driven? I assume they originally thought best option was to shut down the vehicle
The best think to do is to look at the warranty book or card that came with your vehicle.Can I get clarification here on whether the SI-EVT transmission is covered under the 10 year 150K hybrid component warranty? Or is it just the 5 year/ 60K powertrain?
The PacHy is firmly a compliance vehicle to keep California happy. And I bet in many cases their margin on the PacHy is very low, or maybe even a loss. I have seen PacHy's selling at $5,000 to $10,000 less than the same GasPac trim in order to maintain the PacHy's government incentive here in Canada.I was thinking that too. They have never shared sales numbers for the hybrid (not that I've been able to find anyway). It's a tiny number. If Chrysler had a better reputation, this should be one of the best selling 3-row vehicles anywhere, including SUVs.
If this problem is only point-2 percent of vehicles, I'll eat my hat.
Please follow up with NHTSA about having a shutdown after the recall software update.Update: had the “recall” service performed today on my 2022 with 7.2k miles. They updated the software on the PIM. I drove it up and down the highway afterwards for a few hours and had a shutdown again. I got about 30 seconds warning as it turned into turtle mode and limped to the shoulder.
Was going at 70 mph with adaptive cruise set and less than 1% battery (same as first time I had the shutdown).
Dealership wouldn’t do anything other than the recall service the first time because it didn’t throw any codes. Now we will see, I’m back at the dealership. I couldn’t restart the car for about 10 minutes and I was on a NOT safe section of highway, so glad I did this test drive before putting the 3 car seats back in!
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