My 2017 Pacifica Touring L has never stalled in the almost four years that I've owned it. It has now shut down/stalled twice while driving in the last 8 days. There was even a trip to the dealer after the first shut down, and they said that they fixed it, but I'm getting ahead of myself. First, some background:
2017 Pacifica Touring L
57,000 miles
no ESS
Build date 6/16
New battery 1/21
All recalls listed for my van in My Mopar app are completed, including "Reprogram Powertrain Control Module", FCA Recall# U01 NHTSA Recall# 18V-049, which covers "an engine stall without prior warning".
Last Saturday, while driving on the interstate at about 75-78 MPH on a slight uphill, the car shut down without any warning with my wife and kids in the van. All the screens and dash lights went out, the stereo went out, the speed and RPM needles froze in place, no power steering or power brakes. I was able to get it stopped in the break down lane. As I came to a stop, there was a slight grinding sound from what I assume was the transmission stuck in gear. Once stopped, I couldn't get it to restart. The hazard lights wouldn't even turn on. Had to use that emergency park release strap in the dashboard to allow for the tow truck driver to winch it onto the flatbed.
The service report from the dealer says, "Tech found stored codes pertaining to the transmission control module." The service manager said that the code had to do with the van thinking it was put into park while in motion and shut down to protect itself. He couldn't explain why I couldn't restart it after stopping. The report goes on to say, "Tech performed transmission control module reconfiguration...drove vehicle no stalling or hesitation...ran through the ignition cycle multiple times and the vehicle turned on everytime, codes no longer present."
So I take it out on three short drives after this totaling around 15 miles, no issues. Today, again with the whole family in the van, it shut down again. This time it was going only about 10-15 MPH on a flat street, and instead of the van going dead as a brick like last time, the dash lights and gauges cycled through the start-up displays a few times while I was again coasting to an unpowered stop. Again, the grinding noise as it came to a stop. I was able to put it in park and this time it restarted right away. The check engine light came on after restarting from the shut down stall. I was able to drive the van the mile back to home and park it.
What is going on here? Has anyone had this shut down stall issue, even
after having the recall done that was supposed to fix this??? @ChryslerCares , any ideas?