[seo68]

That is a classic case of fault->diagnosis->repair. I think it's unfortunate and unreasonable that he wouldn't take his car back.

I can't really disagree with anything you wrote, in fact I whole-heartedly agree with most, but I also think it is unfortunate and unreasonable that Chrysler wouldn't replace as opposed to repair those items on a car with fewer than 500 miles. The corroded connector was cleaned, no doubt, but I have to imagine that its original integrity was damaged in the corrosion process. I would want to have a brand new connection myself, not, in effect, a junk-yard equivalent. I have purchased many used parts and will probably continue to do so, but when I pay for new, that is what I expect.

 

[tylerlang]

@red

There was no deal-making with me. I would have happily accepted the car back if they found out what actually caused the problem. It was only when the car was forced back to me, with zero explanation as to what happened, that I became upset. I would have also happily accepted a buyback at a reasonable cost minus usage. They never even responded to my request.

Chrysler made their choice, this could have all been avoided if they had taken the time to find out what was wrong with the few dozen cars with this problem, but they chose to tell us all to buzz off. I'm no math major, but taking a 100k or so loss to take these cars back would have quieted the peanut gallery here. Now look - their pride and joy is all over the news, the company looks like they don't care (they don't) and tens of thousands of people are going to think twice about buying this brand. That should cost them a little more than 100k. Great decision.

 

[Breezy]

I think Chrysler should offer to buy back affected cars if that's what customers want. But if the customer is willing to keep the car and let Chrysler log data to help diagnose the problem, that would probably be of the most benefit to everyone.

 

[ChryslerCares]

@ChryslerCares, I am still waiting for a call. Is there some way I can contact someone without waiting days for someone to call me?

Hi ESagle,

I apologize for the delay, I have documented your request to be contacted again in your case and sent an email as well. Please send us a PM and let me know if you don't hear from anyone by this afternoon.

Andrea
Chrysler Social Care Specialist

 

[seo68]

I think Chrysler should offer to buy back affected cars if that's what customers want. But if the customer is willing to keep the car and let Chrysler log data to help diagnose the problem, that would probably be of the most benefit to everyone.

That is a tough one. If after 6 months or so, I decide that I have changed my mind, should I just be able to go to my dealer, claim my car is an affected one, even though I don't have any "proof" (as most of the affected driver's wouldn't) that anything ever happened?

I seriously doubt that anyone here is making up stories, but if Chrysler started buying back cars, I am sure there would be unscrupulous people that would.

 

[tylerlang]

That is a tough one. If after 6 months or so, I decide that I have changed my mind, should I just be able to go to my dealer, claim my car is an affected one, even though I don't have any "proof" (as most of the affected driver's wouldn't) that anything ever happened?

I seriously doubt that anyone here is making up stories, but if Chrysler started buying back cars, I am sure there would be unscrupulous people that would.

None of this would be an issue if they could actually find what the issue is. They made the car, they have to find the issue. Check each of the cars that have the failure for the fault that causes the problem and there won't be abuse.

If they're not able to diagnose the problem, then they should recall every single car until they do. It's their job to fix this, I have zero sympathy for how difficult this is for them. They built the car.

 

[Breezy]

That is a tough one. If after 6 months or so, I decide that I have changed my mind, should I just be able to go to my dealer, claim my car is an affected one, even though I don't have any "proof" (as most of the affected driver's wouldn't) that anything ever happened?

I seriously doubt that anyone here is making up stories, but if Chrysler started buying back cars, I am sure there would be unscrupulous people that would.

Not as a default response to everyone who has a concern, but I think in those few cases when people are really insistent, it would be best for Chrysler just to buy the cars back.

 

[ESagle]

I still have not received a call. It would be great if I didn’t have to post on here every few hours and call Chrysler corporate everyday to request a call back. I guess that’s too much to ask for...

 

[Dieselgeek]

I still have not received a call. It would be great if I didn’t have to post on here every few hours and call Chrysler corporate everyday to request a call back. I guess that’s too much to ask for...

Welcome to FIAT customer service! It will be interesting to track how they handle the recent news of the Pacifica in the news for shutting off randomly!

 

[ESagle]

@ChryslerCares I still have not received a call as of this morning. I have called the case manager line and they say they have no way of getting a hold of the area manager as well and all they can do is put an alert on my case number to have someone call me. How can it be that the only Chrysler representatives that customers can contact have no way of reaching out to the area managers? I need a call today please.

 

[tylerlang]

Up to 113 complaints on the NHTSA site now, 14 in the past two days. Many are in the 10k-15k mile range, looks like whatever part of the car causing the issue is failing at around this mile marker. The proverbial you know what is hitting the fan for FCA.

 

[ESagle]

@ChryslerCares I still have not received a call as of this morning. I have called the case manager line and they say they have no way of getting a hold of the area manager as well and all they can do is put an alert on my case number to have someone call me. How can it be that the only Chrysler representatives that customers can contact have no way of reaching out to the area managers? I need a call today please.

I received a call, thank you.

 

[Breezy]

Up to 113 complaints on the NHTSA site now, 14 in the past two days.

That's the total number of complaints, not the number of complaints about stalling. The Center for Auto Safety identified "more than 50" complaints about stalling as of Monday. There is now one complaint about stalling on the 2018, though.

 

[kellyk82]

That's the total number of complaints, not the number of complaints about stalling. The Center for Auto Safety identified "more than 50" complaints about stalling as of Monday. There is now one complaint about stalling on the 2018, though.

At the time of the press release there were 99 NHTSA complaints for the 2017 Pacifica, 54 relating to the sudden loss of motive power. Today there are 113 complaints, 58 of which relate to the sudden loss of motive power.

**If you have experienced the sudden loss of motive power in your 2017 Chrysler Pacifica (or 2018, for that matter) PLEASE file a claim with the NHTSA. It's VERY easy to do on their website.**

 

[Mary]

I just had an incident that I don't know what to think of. It was clearly different from the others listed here, but part of it is similar.

I had just dropped off stuff at goodwill & was still sitting in their drivethru with the engine off. I was about to leave, thought of something, got back out, spoke to them very briefly, and got back in. I had left my purse, etc, in the van bc I was right there & no one was around. I honestly don't remember if I had actually started my vehicle before getting out (I was more aware of making a decision whether my purse was safe), but I don't think so. If I did, I left it running, but I don't think I started it. (I was parked at the bay door so was right beside my vehicle.) At this point, I was doing things automatically, as we do. My attention was only grabbed later.

I got back in, possibly started it (if I hadn't), then shifted into D. The van wouldn't move, and I received an error message: "Shift to park to choose gear" or very close to that. This is not the exact message others have gotten, but starts the same. I looked at my gear knob... the blue light was clearly illuminated above the "D." It was definitely not in neutral, as I am short & my seat is so far fwd that the light is over the D & ever so slightly right of it (toward Low). It is always like that because of the angle of my view. It is like that as I'm looking at it now with the engine running. I.e., this is how normal "Drive" gear looks to me.

I shifted into park, then back to D. As soon as I shifted, the error code disappeared and I wished I had taken a picture of the error message and the clearly-illuminated D for drive. (!!)

HERE IS THE MAJOR DIFFERENCE: It did not shut off - I was stationary throughout the error & its correction. *I had not attempted to move yet.* For me, it decided I was not in Drive when I was per the indicator, before I ever moved; for others, it decided exactly the same, but after already in motion.

I am guessing I had the same problem, but at a safer time... and perhaps not being in motion then failed to trigger something affected by the "unsensed"
gear.

Once home, I tried without success to see if I could shift into a gear incompletely, triggering such an error message justifiably ...i.e., could I shift to to a physical point where it didn't click all the way into gear. I tried repeatedly, and it was not possible -- if you to try to stop partway between gears (whether off by a little or a lot), the knob "drops" into the nearest gear. I simply could not get "almost" into Drive. It always dropped in, and the error code did not reappear.

So this may be an entirely different type of issue, but the similarities are that 1) it was clearly in gear, 2) it did not sense that it was in gear, and 3) it told me to "Shift to Park" to do something that was clearly already done--for me, choosing a gear; for others, starting the engine. Perhaps this is actually related to a transmission problem.

I don't know if it would have shut down had I been moving, or not. I had not attempted to move yet.

Perhaps this variation might shed light on narrowing down what the problem could be.

I am kicking myself for not getting a photo. I was very busy with much holiday company coming in soon, and didn't think until I saw that "Shift to Park" message and my hands were immediately in motion to respond & did what it said before my mind caught up & realized a pic would be a good idea.

For now, we will operate under the assumption that we may well have one of "those" vans, and avoid highway speeds. If it happens again, I'll try to get a picture.

I am taking the time to write this down immediately, before I forget any other details than whether I had started the engine. I'm hoping some nuance here helps.

 

[TMaclay]

@Mary. Try starting it up and quickly taking your foot off the brake and shifting into "D" before the gas gauge has completed it initialization cycle and the car says it is ready to drive. The first few times I used my hybrid, I got a "MIL" light by being in too much of a hurry and it wouldn't go anywhere in "D". With engine running, it expects you to have your foot on the brake when you shift into "D". Similarly, if you start engine w/o foot on brake it goes to "ACC" and you have push again to get to "RUN".

I suspect what you saw is the software equivalent of a raspberry which, in this case, is a somewhat more polite but otherwise a normal feature of the control software.

 

[Mary]

@TMaclay , I will try that & see if it replicates the error.

 

[jerry17]

I just had an incident that I don't know what to think of. It was clearly different from the others listed here, but part of it is similar.

I had just dropped off stuff at goodwill & was still sitting in their drivethru with the engine off. I was about to leave, thought of something, got back out, spoke to them very briefly, and got back in.

(snip)

Brings up one of my issues with Chrysler. Every other car I have driven except the T & C and now the Pacifica chime a warning if you open the door with the engine running. If the Pacificas had that, it would tell you if the engine was running when you got out. Pacificas only chime if the car is in ACCessory. So it is entirely possible that you had the engine running.

I also want to comment on seo68's and others insightful and thoughtful posts about the difficulty of tracking down highly intermittent events.

My very strong suspicion is that it is a rogue signal introduced into the network. And it is tricky, since if you attempt to shut down the engine without placing the vehicle in park, you would get a display asking you to put the car into park before stopping the engine. That message does not seem to be appearing, and I think that is a clue in and of itself. Thus the rogue signal has to get on the network beyond the warning trap, and somehow convincing the van that the engine stop was normal. As to where and how the signal could be introduced, I don't know where to start. EMI (Electro-Magnetic Interference) from outside the vehicle? Don't think so, because if it was getting in there, some of them should have triggered the "Put car in Park before shutting off engine" notice, and haven't seen that anywhere.

This is a real head scratcher. And while I don't blame those asking loudly for a solution, I don't think screaming to make it go away is useful pressure. Every post here, quiet or rant, made Chrysler ever more aware this is a growing problem. Even if Chrysler wasn't dedicating significant resources to the issue before, the publicity is probably notching up the effort. But given today's litigious society, where people grandstand about suing a sandwich chain because the bread was a few millimeters short, Chrysler would be foolish to share anything about their progress.

I would hope that Chrysler starts sending out their star mechanics/engineers to go over these cars carefully. Setting up a communicating investigative team following their best troubleshooting instincts and comparing notes can help sift out these sparse clues. Letting dealerships fumble without guidance will only slow down the process. Dealers may have very insightful mechanics, but working in isolation without encouraging communication will be counterproductive. Further, involving the dealerships service teams may expose clues -- mechanics routinely noticing some conditions and fixing them before an owner encounters a problem may already be reducing the incidence, but the information may not be correlated.

 

[fjz]

crank sensor

i had a chevy astro van, the engine started shutting off, I was able to put it in neutral and start it right up, this happened numerous times .Took in in for numerous look sees, a new computer, etc nothing. finally after about 2 years they found it, it was the crank sensor they had to run the wire on the outside of the wiring harness.no problems. My flying buddy had a caravan his started doing the samething.

 

[jerry17]

........ Further, involving the dealerships service teams may expose clues -- mechanics routinely noticing some conditions and fixing them before an owner encounters a problem may already be reducing the incidence, but the information may not be correlated.

To clarify this -- a mechanic noticing a loose or corroding connection, etc., may casually correct the item and never enter it into the service log. Encouraging the service professionals to document things they see may help zero in on something. Yes -- it will be a deluge of data. But bringing in the front line people across the network and telling them to bring anything they see to the attention of the investigators can speed a determination.