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Comments
Anyone heard of any solutions/fixes? I am about to call the service dept...
If you do go the Pacifica route ( I like mine a lot), I would advise dropping the AWD idea, as you eliminate about 200 lbs of weight, who knows how many moving parts in the rear end, and these parts all need maintainence down the road. The Pacifica is plenty stable in FWD, and mine has the low speed traction control that stays on automatically, but can be defeated if you wish..........
I just want you to know that I do not know my 5 star dealer that well after 25,000 miles and 18 months. I take good care of my car, it is garaged day and night, I drive conservatively, and this is a solid car that has the potential to go 100,000 miles.........that's when I will trade mine in, so resale value is not an issue with me.
That's the way to drive the car you want, instead of being stuck in "forum land, " afraid to back your car out of the driveway each morning..... Geez, after reading some of these posts, I don't know how some of these people even get out of bed each day.............
The stupidity peak (gas consumption wise) are the old style real 4WD transmissions, who have 3 (three) differentials exposed. Like 4-Runner. At least those are very robust, meant for real offroading. Pacifica's AWD, and other crossovers AWD systems, are toy systems, not meant for real offroading. They are just to impress the neighbors, and make the car more expensive to buy, run, and maintain.
AWD is looking for trouble. It's funny you have to pay for it ! The FWD will easily pull you from 5 inches of snow. For Alaska buy a 4-Runner.
As to your dig about "to impress the neighbors," you're absolutely right -- especially after I had to go help a few out in the last snow storm with my AWD. Boy, were they impressed!
I might also add that I have NEVER had any maintenance issue with any of my AWDs.
There is no wonder your neighbors were impressed. Me too I am impressed when I get help for free ! And I would tell you that your car is the best in the world ! For instance my neighbor removed the snow from my driveway a couple of times. Nice guy. I have no damn idea what snowblower he has, but everytime I loudly comment how great his snowblower is !!!
I had also briefly checked this forum before making the decision on the HL. Boy, am I glad I did. The HL gets about 18-20 mpg around town and upto 26 mpg on the hwy (running between 70-75 mph).
Now that the hybrid HL's available and the new Energy Bill has passed, you may be better off buying a hybrid HL in '06 or '07 and get a nice tax credit (yes, credit, not a deduction) to boot.
Good luck!
The service mgr. at my dealer said he drove around with the diagnostic box hooked up to the car and he continuously drove at very slow speeds (less than 10-15 mph) and practiced pulling in and out of parking spaces to try to replicate the problem (I was getting ready to park both times it stalled in the past). He said that while the car didn't actually stall for him, the idle DID drop below the targeted level for that speed and it was likely the cause of my problem.
Keeping my fingers crossed! Otherwise, I love my new PAC. Good luck with yours. :confuse:
We all agree that the Pacifica has a little bit of a weight problem, and if you live on the Gulf Coast like I do, I can't think of a better way to lose 200lbs and gain 1K $ in the process by losing the AWD thing...........
CONFUCIOUS SAY: YOU DON'T MISS WHAT YOU DON'T HAVE AND NEVER USE.......!
The heavy snows are infrequent enough to make that good advice for HIM--not for everybody. If he lived in Toledo I might have given different advice. He's had a couple of minor fixes for his Pacifica and loves it for their two kids. Fixes have been the same as I'd expect from any reasonably new, complicated car these days with all the features. He did have a snow skid into a curb in a bank lot with the tires. He may put more aggressive tread tires on when he replaces these Michelins.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I believe I have a :lemon: and I'm just :sick: about it.
Quick question, this may sound crazy, but does the Pacifica feel 'windy' when driving? By that I mean, does it feel like air is someone entering the cabin eventhough everything is closed tightly? It's a small thing, just something I noticed on the test drive.
FYI My Pacifica is 04 AWD with a MFG date 03/04 and MDH 031212.
Keep an eye on it if you have the same...
:sick:
Speaking of the ES300, my wife's car has no window frames for that "sexier" look, but as the car has aged, that's exactly where the wind noise comes in, oh and the sunroof weatherstripping too.
Re driving a HL, perhaps you ought to try driving a HL before knocking it.
Re putting a smile on my face, every time I look at the HL sitting in the garage (or drive it, for that matter), it puts a big smile on my face, because it has exceeded all my expectations to date, esp. when it comes to reliability. It has hauled my family on several trips, w/o any issues whatsoever.
When I read about these problems w/ the PACs, esp. the sudden stalling issue, NOTHING in the world will induce me to buy a new vehicle that is known to stall w/o much warning, when my wife could be in traffic w/ our kids on board.
We owned a minivan (a Chrysler product) before the HL. That was NOT the best ownership experience. Reading all these problems tells me that Chrysler still has a looong way to go in terms of quality control.
From all that I've heard (from PAC owners) and read, the PAC doesn't deliver too well on it's fuel consumption promise.
Re looks, check out the 2007 HL on Edmunds. If the final product (which will be available in both gas and hybrid versions), looks anything like the current picture, it will definitely be one of the hottest vehicles on the market.
As you said, to each his own!
Oh, and I agree with bjbird.......the Highlander is boring , I test drove one and I liked the way it drove, but it is definitely bland outside and more than a little bit claustrophobic........I was definitely sitting close to the loser Toyota salesman on the test drive............
The carpet is wet and musty on the passenger side and I'm going to demand it be replaced. We'll see how far I get with them. I bought used from a different dealer so I don't have much leverage. My warranty expires in May 05 so I'm going to be checking closely to make sure the leak is fixed.
FYI~ The other problems are: broken liftgate switch, blown A/C panel switch, and an emission sensor causing the check engine light to signal. All these things were wrong when I bought used 1 month ago at 18,000 miles. :lemon:
Joel
Angie
Sad Pacifica with 2700 miles!
Did you figure out the problem? I have an '05 PAC FWD TOURING and it stalled on me the other night while pulling into a parking space. As of now--there have been no codes tripped and unless they find something I have to pick it up. We have 3 kids and I am scared to death to take this vehicle back unfixed. You can email me- angie@laideebags.com
I would really appreciate hearing back from anyone that has dealt with this. Also, what routes to take if dealership finds nothing wrong.
Angie
I'd worry more about keeping it from stalling!
1- (black pearl) The hood of the car has white color over spray, someone got careless at the shop and didnt cover the car properly while working on some other vehicle, dh found this problem while hand washing the car for the first time.
2-Rear speaker behind passenger side--- doesnt sound right like its blown
3- left vent driver side----or at least we think its the vent--- it started making a flapping sound when we turned the heat up high to 89 degrees and turned the fan up all the way high, now it does the same noise every time the fan is on mid to
high.
4- There is paint chip all over the car, the car is black and the chips are white!
5- When dh open the hood the oil stick up sticking out! all i know is i dont think that was suppost to be like that.
*** Now dh is been calling the dealer with NO luck! it goes directly to the answer machine an no one is returning our phone call.
The car is beautiful! its limited, loaded black pearl... however a new car isnt suppost to have all the problems right off the bat! I almost feel ishould of kept my 2004 Dodge durango (hemi) had less options but had nooooooo problems at all.
Thanks in advance for replys!
Did you ever have any luck? I need to purchase just a remote, I have the rest. I'd like to know if the remote is something special or can any universal do the trick?
Joe R.
For #2, I just purchased a used Pacifica, 29K miles, about a month ago and from the moment I started driving it, could hear static when I played certain CD's. Took it to the dealership 3 times and they finally replaced the smaller speakers on the door, the tweeters. Still happens ocassionally, but not as bad.
For #3, Yes, my steering is off, really off. Instead of pulling to the left, mine pulls to the right. Have taken it in on SEVERAL occasions and the dealer states that it is not misaligned. Just left today and the same thing happend.....when I pulled my hand from the sterring wheel, it immediately pulls to the right. And yes, I notice that the sterring wheel is a bit off center.
For #4, this has happened to me and I have the AWD model, so when I took it in, they stated that it was the Power Transfer Unit for the AWD and that it is common. Take it in and it will be covered under your warranty.
While the car was in Dh took a walk around the parking lot and noticed the other black car still for sale has the same problem
The flapping sound on the vent stoped for a couple of days--then this morning DH took the car through a touchless car wash before bringing it to the dealer so they could see the over spray and the flapping begin again so we starting to see a pattern --- The first time the flapping started was raining out--- by the time he got to the dealer the flaping had stoped hummmmmmm could it be something to do with a wet car??? Needeless to say they could fix it as there was no noise there.
SAME thing with the speaker there was no noise there today :mad:
By the time that I got it to my dealer yesterday, the sound was a loud combination of exhaust and clanking, and I felt I was losing power, although I was very hesitant to push the accelerator any more than I needed to since every time I did it made my Pacifica look really bad. The knowledge that I had the extended warrantee was of some relief.
Fortunately, the dealer thought it was the EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) valve and he was right. He had heard of a couple of other Pacificas that had the value blow out. Before 12 noon my 39,000 mile Pacifica was running as good as ever.
Ask yourself one question, If the car has this many problems right off the lot at 9 months old what will your problems be like when the car is 3 years old or 5 years old?
5 days off the lot the pwr steering pump starts HOWLING. Took it in and they have to replace the steering rack. Apparenlty a seal failed and all the fluid poured into the rack.
I told the salesman that I grew up in the '70s and remember the quality, or lack thereof, of American cars. And that it was a big leap for me to purchase my first American car.
Thank you Chrysler for reinforcing my perceptions of what the word "quality" means in Detroit. It won't happen again. I sure hope that assembly line worker made it back from his/her union-mandated break without incident...
Good thing I didn't trade in my Passat! 4 years old and NO problems.
(By the way, this is my first maintenance issue in 40,000 miles! Can't argue with that!
Thanks...---Paul in Southern NJ
It is definitely a do it yourself job, buy the bulb at an auto parts store, they are not hard to find ( H something, also in the owner's manual). They are twice as much at the dealer.............$8 vs $16 , I think.......
I have two tips to pass to you...........
1) replace Both bulbs, I know that sounds weird, but I replaced one side and then a month later I was replacing the other side...Use the old working one as a spare.....DO NOT TOUCH the halogen bulb with your bare hands, natural oils will severely shorten the life of the bulb . Use disposable latex gloves , you can find them at pharmacies or home improvement stores............
2) The headlamp assembly screws are easily removed, but getting the headlamp assembly out is a tight fit. I had the best luck using a wooden paint stirrer to gently apply pressure on the front bumper fascia while pulling the headlight assembly out. It's not hard, you just need to have something that gives you a little more wiggle room on the way out.........
It's easier than you think because the headlight assembly actually comes forward over the bumper.......the bulb just twists in, and installation is just manuvering the assembly back in and reinstalling two screws on top of the assembly.........
30 mins. max for both sides...........
If you do ... ask first how much is a new headlight. My dealer knows the price because they damaged and replaced my left headlight.
Try it, but not too hard. When time comes I will try it too, but not too hard. It could be worth paying $10 for the replacement.