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Chrysler investigating complaints of vehicles with faulty power modules

Chrysler owners are hopping mad after experiencing a series of electrical gremlins in some of the company's vehicles. Issues range from mere annoyances - windows rolling down and radios turning off of their own accord - to serious safety issues, with headlights that randomly shut off at night and cars that stall and refuse to start.
The issues are being blamed on the total integrated power module, which can cost up to $1,000 for customers to replace. This, of course, has led to a hefty batch of complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with 240 owners expressing their displeasure so far. Another site, CarComplaints.com, has registered over 300 complaints relating to the 2010 to 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango, alone, according to The New York Times.
Chrysler has acknowledged that it's investigating the complaints and is analyzing the faulty TIPMs, but that isn't quite enough for customers of the affected vehicles. The newspaper has snagged a few of the more harrowing tales with the electrically challenged Chrysler products, culled from the NHTSA complaints.

Takata airbag recall claims 209k Chrysler, Dodge vehicles

Chrysler is expanding the scope of its front passenger side Takata airbag inflator recall yet again to include 139,115 additional vehicles for a total of 208,783 units now needing these parts replaced. The latest campaign affects the passenger side inflators of the 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 1500, 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 2500, 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 3500, 2004-2005 Durango; 2005 Dakota pickup; 2005 Dodge Magnum and 2005 Chrysler 300 (pictured above), 300C and SRT8. It's limited to vehicles purchased or ever registered in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan and the US Virgin Islands. The company expects owners to be notified by February 8. The automaker just expanded the replacement campaign last week to include passenger side inflators in 149,150 pickups from the 2003 model year. However, the parts are not the same. Chrysler says this recall is for the PSPI family of components versus SPI for the last one. The company is also not aware of any injuries or accidents in its vehicles from these potentially faulty inflators, and lab testing of 600 of them finds no issues. Despite this, Chrysler is repairing these models at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Scroll down to read the company's full announcement of the initiative. Statement: Air-bag Inflator (Regional Field Action Expansion) December 12, 2014 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - Chrysler Group is expanding an ongoing regional field action with a recall to replace front passenger-side air-bag inflators in an estimated 208,783 older-model vehicles originally purchased or ever registered in seven U.S. states and five territories. The vehicles are equipped with front passenger-side air-bag inflators from a product family code-named "PSPI." Chrysler Group is unaware of any injuries or accidents involving PSPI inflators of the type covered by this campaign, nor has a Chrysler Group investigation identified a defect in these components. Further, laboratory tests on nearly 600 such inflators did not result in any failures. The inflators affected by this campaign differ in design and construction from PSPI inflators used by other auto makers. They also benefited from a more robust manufacturing process. However, at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Chrysler Group is expanding its replacement action beyond its original scope of Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S.

Stellantis expects to hit emissions target without Tesla's help

Franco-Italian carmaker Stellantis expects to achieve its European carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions targets this year without environmental credits bought from Tesla, its CEO said in an interview published on Tuesday. Stellantis was formed through the merger of France's PSA and Italy's FCA, which spent about 2 billion euros ($2.40 billion) to buy European and U.S. CO2 credits from electric vehicle maker Tesla over the 2019-2021 period. "With the electrical technology that PSA brought to Stellantis, we will autonomously meet carbon dioxide emission regulations as early as this year," Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares said in the interview with French weekly Le Point. "Thus, we will not need to call on European CO2 credits and FCA will no longer have to pool with Tesla or anyone." California-based Tesla earns credits for exceeding emissions and fuel economy standards and sells them to other automakers that fall short. European regulations require all car manufacturers to reduce CO2 emissions for private vehicles to an average of 95 grams per kilometer this year. A Stellantis spokesman said the company is in discussions with Tesla about the financial implications of the decision to stop the pooling agreement. "As a result of the combination of Groupe PSA and FCA, Stellantis will be in a position to achieve CO2 targets in Europe for 2021 without open passenger car pooling arrangements with other automakers," he added. Tesla's sales of environmental credits to rival automakers helped it to announce slightly better than expected first-quarter revenue this week. The next tightening of European regulations will soon be the subject of proposals from the European Commission. The 2030 target could be lowered to less than 43 grams/km. Related Video: Government/Legal Green Alfa Romeo Chrysler Dodge Fiat Jeep Maserati RAM Tesla Citroen Peugeot Emissions Stellantis