OK, here goes. But it will be here in this thread first, as my personal experience with PM and ChryslerCares has been unhelpful. Others can benefit here from my experience.
Update to post 265:
3/27/2023 Noon, I sent a text back to my service advisor asking him to keep me informed of their progress on the recalls and to please let me know before they pull apart anything else that is unrelated to the recalls.
3/28/2023 no word from dealer. When I dropped the car off on 3/27/2023, my service advisor had said they expected that it would be ready this day.
3/29/2023 12:53 pm, I called Chrysler Cares (800-992-1997), waded thru the menus, and asked for Chelsea, my specialist. I asked to have her call me but there was no response to this request. She was again not available so I explained my situation again in detail during this 50 minute call to a specialist named Emanuel. I concluded by saying that if the dealership did not respond by late this afternoon, that I would pay them a visit to see what the progress was on our PacHy. I would call ChryslerCares (800-992-1997) back if I found the status to be unsatisfactory. I would also be updating/filing an NHTSA complaint describing my failed attempts to get the Z11 recall performed in a timely manner.
3/29/2023 ~ 4:35 pm, I left Big Star Ford in Manvel Tx to travel to Big Star CJDR Webster Tx to talk to Brandon my service advisor.
3/29/2023 4:47 pm, while en route to Big Star CJDR Webster Tx, I received a call (832-379-7132) from an alternate service advisor at Big Star CJDR Webster Tx (Brandon was apparently not available to do this) to let me know that our PacHy would likely be done tomorrow, 3/30/2023, because it still had to do the ~6 hour charge and monitor procedure. I said that’s great. So I went home instead of visiting Big Star CJDR Webster.
3/30/2023 4:40 pm, There was no communication from Big Star CJDR Webster so I visited the dealership to see what the status was. Brandon, my service advisor, was there and explained that the tech skipped a step and they had to start the process over at step 1 tomorrow. I asked to see the car and he drove it around. All looked well with the exception of the flashing Hybrid Electric Vehicle System Service lamp (which was not illuminated when I brought the vehicle in for the recall). Brandon explained that the tech realized that he did not follow the procedure and let too much time pass before plugging in the wiTECH micro pod II. Brandon said this caused the vehicle to fail the test.
I checked the procedure and there are two places where the tech must plug in the wiTECH micro pod II within 1 minute of an action. The first time is after charging the HV battery and waiting until “Directed” to return to the vehicle. The note prior to and concerning step 44 and 45 requires that those steps be performed within 1 minute of opening the driver door. The second time is in the note after step 54 when the vehicle must “rest an additional 3 hours (or longer) after completing charge” and instructs the tech to perform steps 55 and 56 within 1 minute of opening the driver door. This may be confusing to the tech since instructions for closing the door prior to this is not in the printed procedure and (hopefully) must be contained somewhere in the “screen prompts” given by the wiTECH 2.0 web site.
I took a closer look at the Z11 procedure that the techs are expected to follow. It’s no wonder that there are so many failed attempts to do the recall.
First, the procedure is actually in at least two places and the tech has to jump back and forth between the printed Z11 instructions and the instructions that are apparently given at the wiTECH web site. This is just asking for discontinuities and confusion as the two procedures likely do not always mesh up nicely.
Second, the procedure writers place unrealistic expectations on the techs by including statements like “Very few vehicles are expected to require Hight Voltage Battery replacement.” Why even say this other than to brow beat the techs expecting them to somehow find the battery good when it is not their job to do so? It is their job to find if the battery is bad. Not to be expected to find it good.
Third, why in step 7 of Section A are you requiring the tech to generate and save a Vehicle Scan Report and an ECU details report for later use if the battery needs replacement. This should be automatically generated and saved by wiTECH if it is so important. It should NOT be a reason to withhold or delay a new battery from a deserving customer, nor a stick to beat dealers with if they do not do what should be Stellantis’ job.
Fourth, basic procedure writing skills are not apparent in the Z11 recall procedure. There should not be two sets of Section B steps. There are three parts to the Z11 recall procedure. Section A (starting on page 4) contains the first two parts that are performed to 1) Update the software (Section A, steps 1-24) , and 2) Perform the Z11 BPCM Integrity Procedure (Section A, steps 25-66). The third part (Section B), is only performed if the HV battery pack replacement is required by step A-53 or step A-66. Section B is confusing as it contains two parts, both labeled Section B and numbered 1-35 and 1-30, respectively. It is clear that the first part B is to remove the faulty HV battery, and the second part is to install the new HV battery. However, there should not be two sets of numbered steps in a single section. This can cause confusion when someone refers to a step number in section B. Which step is it? This is basic procedure writing 101. Solve this by labeling the High Voltage Battery Pack Installation Procedure as Section C. Remember, if you want techs to understand the procedure and be able to communicate with the supposedly smart Engineers who wrote it, don’t make it confusing or ambiguous. It’s unnecessarily confusing and easily fixed. So why not do so?
Fifth, I asked every dealer if they had hybrid certified techs that were experienced at performing this Z11 recall. All said they had a couple of Hybrid certified techs and most said they had performed the procedure before. They were evasive on whether they had performed the Z11 successfully before. After 4 days into the attempt to successfully perform the Z11 recall on our PacHy, my service advisor now tells me that most of their techs are hybrid certified. It seems obvious that if they had clear instructions and any experience working on the hybrid or experience with the Z11 recall, that they would not have made the mistakes, taken this long or had to start over again. When I suggested that they get help by creating a Star case or some how ask Stellantis for help, my advisor scoffed at the idea. How in the world does Stellantis expect a dealer’s service techs to learn and become proficient if they are afraid of asking for help. The term “hybrid certified” should not mean “does not need help” or “afraid to ask for help”!!!
It seems like a failing business model if Stellantis’ procedures and training are such that the dealer gets paid for 2 days of recall work if it typically takes 5+ days to get it done. It’s no wonder that dealers hate working recalls, especially on hybrids. Somebody obviously dropped the ball at Stellantis.
I will continue to update my Z11 progress here. I just wish I would have waited another couple of months before taking it in. As it stands, our dear PacHy that we had wonderful use of and that was performing near perfectly now has a flashing Hybrid Electric Vehicle System Service lamp and is MIA.
@ChryslerCares, if you wish to PM me, I will try to help you out in any way I can. You can find the names of the dealership where my car is being serviced and the service advisor who I am working with in the text above. Hannah at ChryslerCares already has all my personal information and my vehicle particulars.
