2020 Chrysler Pacifica Electrical System

My 12v battery failed and damaged other system components. This is a description of the flaw from a mechanic that had the same problem: There is a major flaw in the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. The BPCM (high-voltage battery control unit) has no protection against high-voltage pulses on the 12-volt network. Moreover, the connection diagram of the high-voltage contactors does not contain any elements that could extinguish the counter-induction EMF pulses when the contactors are turned off. That is, when turned off, the contactors in the 12-volt network create high-voltage surges that can burn anything, any block that is connected to the 12-volt network. In my case, the power supply module of the high-voltage battery control unit BPCM was burned. The LG chem battery modules themselves were in perfect order during this malfunction. The circuit of this module is quite complex, the board is multilayered and it was difficult for me to repair it. I have a sloped driveway, and the failure led to my car starting to roll uncontrollably forward into my house. I was luckily able to stop it by throwing blocks under the tires while my wife held down the breaks. When I (or my wife) let go of the powerless vehicle's breaks, it would continue to roll as the power failure prevented the vehicle from either entering park or engaging the emergency break. We barely avoided significant property damage.

On multiple occasions, from 2023-2025 our vehicle has had issues where all the gauges and warning lights go off and vehicle stops and turns off regardless of driving conditions. Recently happened yesterday. The culprit is the can c bus connectors that Chrysler is using. They short out causing the issue and because so many systems codes get tripped after nearly a year of back and forth with dealerships unable to diagnose issue I went to a pacifica forum where there are 1000s same reported issue. The issue is caused by the cancam bus connectors - specifically under the dashboard in our case, due to Chrysler using zinc based soldering that cannot handle the heatand elements. These solders use to be made out of lead that can handle the elements. We are replacing them for the 2nd time in less than a year after,as mentioned before, my wife and daughter had van completely stop and shutoff in the middle of traffic. This has happened recently every couple days for the last 3 weeks - previous time happened off and on while waiting for answers from dealership for over a year, they cannot recreate issue because it's random and therefore will not chae the issues or listen when I asked to specifically check item. (Files uploaded are from video my wife captured)

Vehicle was plugged into an outlet inside the resident's garage when smoke began to come from the battery located in the center floor board. Fire crews responded and unplugged the vehicle and pushed it out of the garage and cooled the battery that registered 350 degrees using a thermal imaging camera. No flames were present. National Fire Reporting Incident Number: 25-2040031

The batteries died and we didn't know that there was an IBS(internal battery sensor). The van started to take over its own system. It would put itself in park, open the hood, self holding temporarily unavailable, start/stop unavailable, emergency break engaged, and turned it self off while driving!

The contact owns a 2020 Chrysler Pacifica. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle lost motive power with the stop service message displayed. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where it was diagnosed and determined that the battery had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure recurred, and the vehicle was taken back to the dealer. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact was informed that the failure could not be duplicated. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 108,800.

The Backup Camera is intermittent. One time it works and I can see what’s behind Me. The next time I go to backup, I get a blue screen. The next time I get fuzzy squiggly line. Once in a while I’ll see behind Me but it doesn’t move with Me, like the screen is stuck. There are several complaints of this on Reddit as well. I went to the dealership and they did a software update which did not change this issue. The dealership wants to charge a massive charge to ‘look at it and see if they can fix it’. They’re not even sure if they’ll be able to fix it.

While driving our van last Saturday afternoon, an error notification made a ding sound and the error message "STOP SAFELY. VEHICLE WILL SHUT OFF SOON" appeared on our dashboard. Thankfully we were driving through a small town at the time and were able to safely pull into a parking lot, turn the vehicle off and wait a few minutes, and start it up to find the error message gone, and we could resume driving. Upon researching this issue, I learned that there is an Open Investigation, NHTSA Action #RQ24004, as of 2-27-24, that correlates exactly with our issue and explains my exact concern - should this error message come on again at a time when I cannot pull into a safe area, or at night time in the dark, with my children along, this could be extremely unsafe. I now worry to take our vehicle on longer trips, as I fear that this will happen and leave us in need of help. This leaves drivers with an extremely uneasy feeling to drive with their family, unsure of if or when this will happen again and if the vehicle will start up again after stopping or if it would need to be towed. I feel this safety issue needs to be resolved before it leaves Chrysler's vehicle occupants in what could be a very unsafe situation.

While driving my kids to school I experienced my first loss of power on my vehicle, where an error message appeared in the instrument cluster stating "shift to P to start" with the P indicator on the shifter flashing. No check engine light was produced. I was on surface streets driving at 20mph, this could have been worse of I was on the freeway, especially with my kids in the vehicle.

While driving the vehicle, we received a message on the dash stating, "Stop Safely, Vehicle will shut off soon". Then a few minutes later, it lost all power and turned off. We were not traveling at high speeds at this time but if we were and needed to exit the highway this could have caused an accident. There was no prior warning that this would happen and I drove it yesterday evening. We have not taken it to be serviced because it just happened an hour ago and now we are afraid to drive it to the dealership because we have to get on the interstate to do so.

While driving down the road the vehicle will surge and drop power continuously. It will eventually just cut power to all electric and steering and the van will stop moving causing a safety issue as it is often in traffic. This has happened several time. We have replaced the auxiliary battery, the main battery and nothing is fixing the issue. The van did stop during a turn and resulted us being stopped in the middle of traffic in both directions during the most recent event.

Our Chrysler Pacifica caught fire in the passenger cabin, appearing to start near the 2nd row drivers side passenger seat. The fire department said it was an electrical fire.

The contact owns a 2020 Chrysler Pacifica. The contact stated that on several occasions while driving at various speeds, the STOP/START system warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that unknown parts needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact believed that the failure was associated with NHTSA Campaign Number: 19V348000 (Electrical System). The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 33,000.

The stop start system on my 2020 Chrysler. Pacifica has been malfunctioning since 2021, I’ve taken this car into the dealer multiple times, and replaced the batteries that should’ve been covered by Warranty but weren’t and my car recently died completely, and had to be jumped only have to replace the battery changed again. I have complained about noises in the dashboard that sounds like ticking, and dealer says that’s not covered by warranty even though my car only has 50,000 miles on it, and at 13,000 miles, when I told them about it, they didn’t do anything about it. The electrical system will completely shut off, lights and warnings will turn on, and after pulling fuses, the system will start The vintage seats on the driver side have not worked for three years, I have informed the dealer about that and was at 15,000 miles and they still did not fix it after complaining every time I went in they finally said “it wasn’t covered under warranty anymore” even though I had complained about it and all the above when we were covered by the warranty. We even purchased an extended warranty when purchasing the car and it’s like jumping through hoops for them to actually look up what is actually covered and every a fight every time for them to not charge me what we already paid for!

On 11.04.2023 @ approximately 12:45 hrs while driving in Austin Texas, congress & 5th, the Auto Start:/stop warning light came on my dash. I was driving downtown. I will continue to file complaints until this matter is taken seriously. If my family is injured/killed please know that NHTSA & Chrysler will be collectively grouped & liable. I urge you to take this matter seriously before it’s too late.

On 11.03.2023 @ approximately 17:30 hrs I was stopped at a red light with my 9 year old in the car. A warning indicating the “hood popped”” appeared on my dash. It indicated the auto start/stop would not work. The van shifted into park mode on IT’S Own. I DIDN’T engage park mode. The PACIFICA did it on its own. Let me repeat this so you understand the severity of this matter. The 2020 Chrysler Pacifica made its own mind up and took action without a direct order from me or my hands. It engaged into park mode. It then told me I would have to restart the car in order for AUTO START/STOP to work. I live in Austin Texas. 5 o’clock traffic is a reality and in order to be efficient the commuter is only as good as there car. I must advise that this is not a game to me or my family. I understand the car industry in America cannot afford to fail which is why corners are cut. They are overlooked by government and the industry. NHTSA. You are aware this is a major problem. You are just as liable as the company who fails to accept responsibility due to the bottom line. This is not the first time nor will it be the last. Tell me what side of this issue do you want to be on. Does someone need to die or get hurt before you take this matter seriously. It seems to me that we’d rather watch folks suffer. What’s your price?

While loading my van from the sliding door entrance on the passenger side, the door started closing. Instead of stopping when it hit me, it kept on closing, very hard and forecful. I had to put my full weight into it to stop it and it finally opened back up. Never had this happen before and it was quite concerning.

The contact owns a 2020 Chrysler Pacifica. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle lost motive power. No warning lights were illuminated. After multiple attempts, the vehicle was able to be restarted. The contact stated that the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer, where unknown components were repaired. The vehicle was repaired, and the contact referenced the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 19V348000 (Electrical System) however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.

The Start/Stop battery on the Pacifica is a problem. I owned a 2017 model that failed 3 times. I traded that can in for the 2020 model and in less than 2 years it failed. I had it repaired under warranty on 09/27/2022 and it has failed again less than one month after the repair. This is an issue that many Pacifica owners have dealt with. This is something that Chrysler needs to correct so that the consumer is not replacing the batteries every year or so.

Complete failure of electrical system. When it happened the display screen said the vehicle will shut down soon. Suddenly everything started turning on and off, the transmission disengaged. The motor started racing with all electrical components turning on and off and suddenly everything shut off. All vehicle components were rendered useless. Chrysler dealership tried jump starting the vehicle and nothing happened, no power at all. They then tested both batteries with a GR8 and found that the auxiliary battery had failed. After testing the charging system they found that the Power Control Unit was the issue. They corrected by replacing the Relay, and the PCM Powertrain Control Module. They replaced the auxiliary battery and cleared all codes. Started and found that the vehicle was not charging. They then replaced the POWER CONTROL UNIT. The vehicle is charging the auxiliary battery correctly. This happened on a vehicle that was less than a year old and had 9,338 miles on it