2019 Chrysler Pacifica Steering Problems

We bought our van new in 2019. It has always made a grinding noise when making hard turns. The dealer said it was normal. Flash forward to a few weeks ago when we hit 105k miles. We started noticing more grinding noises and sensations when turning the wheel. Additionally, we noticed a tugging sensation on the wheel when going over 60 mph. It felt like the lane assist was turned on, but it wasn’t. We took our van to our trusted auto repair garage. They did a series of tests which included isolating the sound of clicking and grinding to the electronic steering gear. We were told that this part would cost $5400 to replace. We believe that this part is going bad too early in the life of our van and would like the NHTSA to investigate.

While driving the car is unable to switch gears from D to L gear and has no power to accerlerate up hill.

Electrical power steering assistance system. The steering wheel starts becoming difficult to smoothly turn in corners over 30-miles per hour. Steering wheel required excessive force to overcome the resistance caused by the steering system (almost like having a non-power system steering system in turns). No issues on straight roadways. No warning lamps light. Getting worse (only used for local travel). It requires a physical effort to turn the steering to remain on track within a curve. It has yet to be confirmed by a dealer: Williamsburg Chrysler sold me this vehicle 3-months ago as perfect (but as-is). If YOU suggest a dealership trustworthy enough to evaluate the system I will go there, otherwise I know of no dealership in my area who knows (or cares) to troubleshoot issues that are not so obvious parts are not falling off. NOTE: I noticed a Safety Recall V53/NHTSA 19V-348 Power Steering Assist exists but not specified for my 2019 Pacifica. The description is exactly what I'm referring to.

It malfunctioned on October 25th, it started working briefly the same day, but ultimately quite again until we reset it in the early evening. Reset being disconnecting the battery for an hour then reconnecting. After that, it worked fine the next day, throughout the drive home, and all week until it quit yesterday, Nov 2, 2025. It hasn’t worked since, even after a reset since yesterday Mov. 2, 2025. When making a hard left turn, the steering wheel system stopped completely!!! This caused it to be EXTREMELY HARD to steer the car and it steered the van towards traffic!!! If my wife had been driving, we would have been involved in a MAJOR TRAFFIC ACCIDENT! No steering at all, who designs a steering system that has the possibility of, when failing, puts the vehicle & passengers at risk of serious injury or death!!!

Steering wheel sticks when attempting to return to straight position after a curve. Usually occurs when turning right but sometimes left. Only occurs at highway speeds, not on city streets. Chrysler dealer inspected vehicle, said no problem was found, recommended having tire alignment checked. Front tires did not need alignment but rear tires did and were aligned. Unfortunately, this did not correct the problem. This appears to be the same steering problem reported to affect 2017 and 2018 Pacifica per NHTSA investigation. Note: incident date, below, is date problem was first noticed. Problem is ongoing.

The steering on this vehicle has a catching sensation, especially when changing lanes at high speeds, or travelling down a curvy mountain highway. The steering seems to require extra effort to get back to a center position. The problem is most noticeable when making slight turns (such as changing lanes) at higher speeds.

While driving down the 70 mph interstate my steering went out and I had 5 people in my van. There was no warning or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure. My sister [XXX] and my mother who is [XXX] was stranded on the interstate with traffic speeding by at a high rate of speed. We had the vehicle towed to the dealership and they reported the power steering rack failed and it will cost over $5,000 to repair. I purchased this vehicle brand new in 2019. The mechanic I have repairing this vehicle reports this is a manufacturing issue. This is a dangerous issues and this vehicle should be recalled. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

When driving in longer, gradual curves - the steering wheel "sticks". You can feel it isnt responsive, and you have to apply more pressure than you should to get it out of the "stuck" spot. Which makes the car over correct at times. It has happened dozens of times by now - so wasnt a one time thing. Most recent was a last night.

Loss of power steering, power cut out while driving. Batteries have to be replaced in less than a years time.

The steering wheel gets sticky when making turns and sometimes seems to be stuck when turning the wheel from a turn.

when driving into a left curve the chrysler pacifica minivan at roughly 10:00 on the steering wheel, the steering wheel locks and is very hard to get out of the locked state. in order to clear the locked state I have to jerk the wheel hard back to the right to get it free. I feel that it will eventually either stay locked in that position and cause a head on collision or if overcorrected will cause the vehicle to swerve to the right and cause a crash. I feel this is a very unsafe situation and have talked to many people with this problem and they have also said the same thing. Also i have read several forums on the internet about others across the country having the same issue. secondly the backup camera has started to not work recently. it started around the same time that the locked steering situation occurred. also some of the buttons on the steering wheel are not functioning properly. volume up when pressed causes the volume to go down and vice versa. i believe that there is an electrical issue in this vehicle and it is affecting the steering along with other items. please initiate the recall for the steering because i do not feel safe with this happening and especially if it is raining. thank you

when you are pushing the brakes the brakes want to push against you and go forward. It also wants to not steer the direction that you are steering sometimes making it very dangerous.

The contact owns a 2019 Chrysler Pacifica. The contact stated that while driving at higher speeds, the steering wheel failed to return to center after making a turn to the left or the right. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local independent mechanic for a diagnostic test; however, the cause of the failure was not determined. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 52,000.

While driving the car down a busy 4 lane road at 55mph on [XXX] around [XXX] in Irvine, CA, the car began to shake as the steering locked up and alerts came up on the dash that the power steering had failed. After turning the car off and on it did not fix it. Leaving it off for 15 mins seemed to make the error go away. We had it towed to Tustin Tuttle Chrysler dealership for service. The dealership found the fault code in the log, it was a power steering control failure. They could not replicate the circumstance and insist on releasing the car as safe to drive; putting my family and the public at great risk. The dealership refuse to even run diagnostics on the faulty identified part. They said if they cannot recreate the problem they won’t fix it, even though they see the error code on their scanner. They shouldn’t be telling me the car is safe when it is clearly not. They only drove it 30 miles and did not check wiring or even pop the hood. They have done no work to deem it safe and this is fraud. Rochelle, the service manager, has told us over the phone that she will not work on the car, because she believes she will not be reimbursed for the work. She has said she has had the car for too long and wants it picked up. Her service advisor Erik, has read us the codes found over the phone and also told us that no one has worked on it and only has test driven it. Our greatest concern is the dealership is not servicing or repairing vehicles and putting very dangerous cars on the road. This is a public safety issue for all of Southern California. Additionally, this car was purchased with a full manufacturer’s bumper-to-bumper warranty, of which it is still in its covered in the next 3 years or 40,000 miles. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Power steering failure October 11, 2024. Car battery malfunction. Thankfully I was in the slow lane and was able to drift to the shoulder of the highway. My safety of my entire family was put at risk. This includes me, my wife and 2 kids. The problem was confirmed by a dealership and I was able to replace the battery. The problem has not been reproduced, and no there were no warning lamps.

Power steering is sticking. This requires me to use additional force and thereby resulting in over correction. This has caused unintentional swerving into the adjacent lane nearly hitting other vehicles. Seems to be intermittent, but this has happened on numerous occasions. I see there is a currently an investigation into this matter and want you to be aware this is happening on 2019 vehicles as well.

There is a slight scrubbing noise when I turn the steering wheel in either direction. When I turn the wheel to the right there is a 'catch' of some sort and I have to put a little force in getting it centered again. I am scared honestly is gonna stay right and I am gonna run into something. I went to the auto parts store to see about power steering fluid only to find out my vehicle doesn't have that and its all electrical. I checked for recalls to see if this is an issue happening with my vehicle and saw none but did see that I am apparently not the only person to have reported such an issue. I am very, very concerned. This has been happening now for about a month.

While @ highway speed this vehicle lost ipower steering, power braking and the engine stalled out…this latest event prompted my complaint and was the third time I have experienced this situation. In all three incidents I was simply able to coast to the side of the road and stop. Thankfully after a few attempts to restart the vehicle started and ran. It was very frightening given it lost total power on all three occasions without notice or warning it like it just turns itself off. I contacted RollX vans the folks from whom we purchased this handicap transport vehicle and they informed me of a safety recall V53 for 2017-2019 Pacificas. The recall details the exact symptoms of what I experienced. I took the recall information and the vehicle to a local dealership Larry H Miller Chrysler, Tucson AZ and they mostly dismissed my account and said there is NO recall on my VIN despite the V53 recall. They said the tech couldn’t get it to duplicate and situation. They said they checked the grounds and it’s all OK. I am not convinced considering the timeline of their alleged repair and the answers I rec’d from the service writer when I asked specifics about the repair. I suspect they simply test drove it when it did not duplicate the situation they said it’s OK.

The contact owns a 2019 Chrysler Pacifica. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, after making a slight adjustment of the steering wheel to the right, while returning to center, the steering wheel was sticking and required extra force to return the steering wheel to center. The contact stated that the failure was intermittent. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer; however, the dealer was unable to duplicate the failure. The contact stated that the failure reoccurred, and the vehicle was taken to another dealer, but was not yet diagnosed or repaired. The contact researched online and related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 19V348000 (Electrical System); however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The manufacturer was informed of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 200,000.

Steering will stick at the 11 o’clock or 1 o’clock position while going around curves at highway speed and takes considerable force to get it back .