2020 Chrysler Pacifica Steering
Owner-reported problems and safety issues filed with NHTSA. Review common failures, severity levels, and complaint trends over time.
Complaint Timeline
Chronological view of owner reports
WHILE DRIVING DOWN MAJOR HIGHWAY, THE POWER STEERING LIGHT WENT ON. IMMIDIATELY MY POWER STEERING SHUT OFF AND I COULD NOT TURN WHEEL AT ALL. HIGHWAY WAS 55 SPEED LIMIT AND I COULD NOT EVEN PULL OVER. HAD VAN TOWED TO DAYTON ANDREWS CHRYSLER DEALERSHIP FOR DIAGNOSIS AND THEY TOLD ME THAT THE POWER STEERING MECHANISM NEEDED TO BE REPLACED AND IT WAS GOING TO BE $4,500.00. THIS VAN HAS 14,400 MILES ON IT. AFTER LOOKING ON LINE IF OTHER PACIFICA OWNERS HAD THE SAME PROBLEM, IT SEEMED THIS IS A GLOBAL PROBLEM. I OBVIOUSLY CANNOT AFFORD TO FIX THIS ALMOST BRAND NEW VEHICLE AND THE SALESPERSON INDICATED THAT EVEN IF I DID WANT TO FIX THE PART IS ON BACKORDER AND THEY DON'T KNOW WHEN THEY COULD GET THEIR HANDS ON THE PART. THE FACT THAT THIS PART IS ON SUCH AN EXTREME BACKORDER TELLS ME THIS PART IS IN DEMAND BECAUSE MANY PEOPLE ARE HAVING THIS SAME ISSUE. PLEASE HELP ! i AM GOING TO CONTACT MY ATTORNEY TO SEE MY OPTIONS. THIS VEHICLE IS BASICALLY NEW AND FOR SAFETY REASONS, BEYOND ANY FAULT OF MY OWN, IS UNOPERABLE.
The steering wheel sticks in a slight right turn around the 1 o'clock position. I have not felt it on left turns. There is no noise, scraping, or grinding. There is one slight right bend in the road on my way home and it consistently does the stick thing as I straighten out the wheel. I've searched and found many references to the same problem. I know NHTSA has started an investigation on this for Pacificas made in other yrs.
The contact owns a 2020 Chrysler Pacifica. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds and attempting to make a left or right turn, the steering wheel was sticking and failed to return to center. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer, where it was diagnosed, and the contact was informed that the failure was not duplicated, and there was no fault found with the vehicle. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 50,000.
Power steering light came on immediately lost the ability to steer vehicle had to be towed in was told it was a battery issue and that was replaced picked the vehicle up the next day. It left me stranded yet again, took it back to the shop and now being told that the five year-old vehicle Needs an entire power steering rack not safe to drive.
During gradual turns, steering will experience a sticking sensation requiring extra effort when trying to return to straight line center while exiting the turn.
At low speeds while turning the wheel there is a severe shudder originating from the steering system resulting in a feeling of loss of control. Possible it’s happening at higher speeds and not as easily detectable. Countless users in online forums report the same exact problem with the solution from the dealer being that the rack and pinion system must be replaced. The volume of complaints seems like this is a defective part. This began when the car had under 30k miles but dealer would not fix under warranty as they “could not reproduce the problem”.
The start/stop warning light came on randomly. Then shortly after when driving the van the power steering randomly goes out and then comes back on.
Power steering failure with a code. This will disabled the car.
The contact owns a 2020 Chrysler Pacifica. The contact stated that on several occasions while driving at various speeds, the vehicle lost power steering functionality intermittently. The power steering warning light and the power steering malfunction message was displayed. The vehicle was taken to the residence. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 47,690.
while driving at 55mph to lunch on the highway, my steering dash alarm reflected RED saying " SERVICE: POWER STEERING IMMEDIATELY, then almost without any warning the car died, power steering didn't work and I could not steer my car to a safe stop . IT DIED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!!! I took a picture of the dash with my phone and would love to send it to you. I turned the car off, and after 30 seconds back on, no SERVICE WARNING initially, but then two minutes later the SERVICE POWER STEERING light came back on, but the car kept running and didn't die. Drove home, service warning went away, then as pulling into our driveway SERVICE WARNING came on again. Turned the car off, went and GOOGLED this issue and found out there was a RECALL NOTICE for all Pacifica Touring L models 2017 to 2019, for this EXACT ISSUE, but my car is a Chrysler Pacifica Touring L 2020!!!!!!!!!! This issue could have gotten me and my wife KILLED due to the dangerous nature of this defect in the steering for the STOP / START battery system that controls the steering. THIS PACIFICA 2020 MODEL NEEDS TO BE ADDED RIGHT THIS MINUTE TO THE EXISTING 2017-2019 RECALL THAT NTSHA PUT OUT.
While my wife was driving the vehicle - the power steering catastrophically quit!!! The idiot light came on to get it serviced. Thankfully, it happened in a place that didn't cause an accident but this could have been deadly!!! The car is impossible to drive safely. I brought it to Maguire Chrysler in Watkins Glen, NY and they noticed that 2 of the bolts on the bell housing were not threaded in and things "didn't look right" (they provided a picture for me). The transmission had been replaced by Ferrario Chrysler in Elmira, NY at the end of January as a result of the recall on the loose transmission wires that could cause a loss of control. Apparently, they failed to do things right during that major operation. Maguire then refused to work on the vehicle since they didn't know what Ferrario did but that bolts actually sticking out from the bell housing were a bad sign! The car resides now with Ferrario and they don't know when they are going to get to it since there are other customers ahead of me. This failure of power steering can only be 3rd to loss of brakes or fire when it comes to safety. In all my years I never have experienced a less safe condition that this. I've included a picture of the bolts on bell housing that were never even threaded in all the way by Ferrario - Maguire felt that they probably pinched a wire or something that caused the power steering problem. All I know is that the car is unsafe.
Possible control arm failure, been reading online that this has been a known issue with these and nothing has been done about it. My wife was driving with our 3 small children when the vehicle went left on its own with no steering causing her to lose control jumping the west bound lanes of traffic. Luckily no traffic was coming or this would have ended badly. My wife has minor injury’s and my children were unharmed
While driving, received "service power steering" warning, followed by intermittent outage of the power steering. The power steering cuts in and out at uncertain times, so I will be taking a corner using a lot of force on the steering wheel because the power steering isn't working, when it will suddenly start working again, and cause me to oversteer. So far this hasn't caused an accident, but it most definitely could.
My 2000 Chrysler Pacifica has only 65,000 miles on it I heard a popping noise when I turned the steering wheel took to Chrysler dealer to have it checked they said my steering box and stabler bars are worn out to fix it $4,100. No way should they be worn out with only 65,000 miles
Power steering will go out, therefore I have no power steering and have to pull over. The power steering light will come on the dash, and the power steering goes out. I did take the van to a Chrysler dealer in Warnes Robins, GA. Got on where with them, they made a list of things they suggested to be done. When ask will that fix the issue with the power steering, they stated could not guarantee that. Felt they were trying to take advantage of the situation. My van is a 2020 Chrysler Pacifica and 3 years old with 41,000. miles on it. The power steering should be the last thing that goes out, the light comes on and the power steering goes out making it hard the drive and steer. On top of all this the van isn't even paid for, still making monthly payments, can't afford 4,500.00 car repaid on top of car payment. Something is wrong with the power steering in 2020 Chrysler Pacifica power steering, like in the prior years.
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Quick Summary
The 2020 Chrysler Pacifica has 15 Steering complaints on file. 1 crashes have been reported. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.