In October 2013, Chrysler opened an investigation into reports of shifting delays in certain 2014 Fiat 500L vehicles manufactured between April 2013 to January 2014. Chrysler has determined that a safety defect exists in certain models and will be notifying owners to take their vehicle to a manufacturer approved repair facility to have the Gear Shift Module (GSM) replaced or re-flashed as necessary.

According to reports filed with the NHTSA, some Fiat 5OOL vehicles may experience interrupted communication between the GSM to the transmission during certain temperature conditions. This could result in an inability to get the vehicle out of park and/or the transmission does not receive, or is slow to receive, the intended gear selection. The problem is being blamed on a wide temperature tolerance within the Supervisor Microcontroller (SMC) internal to the Gear Shift Module. When the data transfer rate of the SMC becomes desynchronized with the Main Microcontroller (MMC), the GSM resets and signals to the transmission may be delayed.

Owners wanting more information about the problem can contact Chrysler at 1-800-853-1403. Chrysler’s recall number is P06 and the NHTSA campaign number is 14v-103. Approximately 18,092 vehicles could be affected by this transmission problem.