Just recently picked up a 2019 Chrysler Pacifica Touring L with just under 119K miles on it.
I've gone through the forums here looking for common issues that I might need to keep an eye out for. There are a few things I've stumbled on, but was wondering if anybody could share some thoughts on what I might want to look out for, things I might want to do to prevent future problems, etc.
The vehicle has 2 issues currently, one that was already known, and one that I discovered on accident that the original owner wasn't aware of. I know the original owner very well, so I have some background to go on with the vehicle thankfully. All recalls have been performed on the vehicle already.
For starters (no pun intended!), it has the infamous Start/Stop Unavailable, Service it message. This message has been on since about 1 year after the vehicle was purchased by the original owner. He never bothered to take it in and get it looked at as he saw it as blessing; he hates the "feature" just as much as I do, so I don't blame him. Anyway, after reading through the forum postings here and doing Google research, it would appear that the most likely culprit of that is the auxiliary battery. Since I don't care if the Start/Stop ever works, my intention is to not bother with replacing the auxiliary battery, which leads me to me next issue.
I have read, and it would seem, that when the auxiliary battery is down on it's luck it creates a draw / drains the main battery. The original owner was unaware of this as they used the vehicle as their daily driver, so it never sat long enough to be noticed as an issue. I found out as I had to have it sit for 5 days after bringing it home in order to get the title and registration taken care of. The day I got everything squared away, I was going to take it to fill up the tank and it wouldn't start. After various troubleshooting steps, I ended up having to jump the van with my jumper pack. It started fine with the jumper pack and has started fine every day since as I am making it a habit to run it at least once every day.
Question: Has anybody ever just disconnected the auxiliary battery and went on their merry way? I experimented with that tonight. I disconnected the negative battery terminal from the auxiliary battery and started the van. It has the typical Start/Stop message, but other than that appears to function and operate as normal. Is there any reason that I would NOT want to operate the vehicle like this? I haven't yet been able to confirm if the main battery draw will now cease or not. I traced the positive post of the auxiliary battery to some sort of module just behind the main battery, which I assume has something to do with either the Start/Stop functionality or perhaps a charging regulator of some sort to charge the auxiliary battery. Since I don't know for sure what it is, I don't know if removing the connection to the auxiliary battery will have a detrimental affect on this device or the charging system in general.
I will be leaving on a week long trip in the morning, and as of right now I have the negative cable removed from the auxiliary battery and isolated from making contact with anything in the engine compartment or the battery itself. I will be leaving it this way, unless someone indicates that this would be a bad idea for some reason or another.
And one last thing. Our 2014 Grand Caravan has the power lift gate, but it will also open manually. This 2019 Pacifica also has a power lift gate, but it seems as if it is power only for open, with no manual option? I can manually close it, but when opening it from the outside the second you press that "lever" to open it the motor takes over. Is there a manual open option? I don't like to constantly rely on the power functions if I don't specifically need them at the time. Things wear out, and I'd prefer not to wear them out prematurely.
Thanks for any and all insight into this new to me vehicle!
I've gone through the forums here looking for common issues that I might need to keep an eye out for. There are a few things I've stumbled on, but was wondering if anybody could share some thoughts on what I might want to look out for, things I might want to do to prevent future problems, etc.
The vehicle has 2 issues currently, one that was already known, and one that I discovered on accident that the original owner wasn't aware of. I know the original owner very well, so I have some background to go on with the vehicle thankfully. All recalls have been performed on the vehicle already.
For starters (no pun intended!), it has the infamous Start/Stop Unavailable, Service it message. This message has been on since about 1 year after the vehicle was purchased by the original owner. He never bothered to take it in and get it looked at as he saw it as blessing; he hates the "feature" just as much as I do, so I don't blame him. Anyway, after reading through the forum postings here and doing Google research, it would appear that the most likely culprit of that is the auxiliary battery. Since I don't care if the Start/Stop ever works, my intention is to not bother with replacing the auxiliary battery, which leads me to me next issue.
I have read, and it would seem, that when the auxiliary battery is down on it's luck it creates a draw / drains the main battery. The original owner was unaware of this as they used the vehicle as their daily driver, so it never sat long enough to be noticed as an issue. I found out as I had to have it sit for 5 days after bringing it home in order to get the title and registration taken care of. The day I got everything squared away, I was going to take it to fill up the tank and it wouldn't start. After various troubleshooting steps, I ended up having to jump the van with my jumper pack. It started fine with the jumper pack and has started fine every day since as I am making it a habit to run it at least once every day.
Question: Has anybody ever just disconnected the auxiliary battery and went on their merry way? I experimented with that tonight. I disconnected the negative battery terminal from the auxiliary battery and started the van. It has the typical Start/Stop message, but other than that appears to function and operate as normal. Is there any reason that I would NOT want to operate the vehicle like this? I haven't yet been able to confirm if the main battery draw will now cease or not. I traced the positive post of the auxiliary battery to some sort of module just behind the main battery, which I assume has something to do with either the Start/Stop functionality or perhaps a charging regulator of some sort to charge the auxiliary battery. Since I don't know for sure what it is, I don't know if removing the connection to the auxiliary battery will have a detrimental affect on this device or the charging system in general.
I will be leaving on a week long trip in the morning, and as of right now I have the negative cable removed from the auxiliary battery and isolated from making contact with anything in the engine compartment or the battery itself. I will be leaving it this way, unless someone indicates that this would be a bad idea for some reason or another.
And one last thing. Our 2014 Grand Caravan has the power lift gate, but it will also open manually. This 2019 Pacifica also has a power lift gate, but it seems as if it is power only for open, with no manual option? I can manually close it, but when opening it from the outside the second you press that "lever" to open it the motor takes over. Is there a manual open option? I don't like to constantly rely on the power functions if I don't specifically need them at the time. Things wear out, and I'd prefer not to wear them out prematurely.
Thanks for any and all insight into this new to me vehicle!
