rumblestripe

p.s. it also says that it's completely plug n play which is a major positive. Plus no dealer involvement necessary though it does mean sending the fob(s) back and forth once (with provided shipping labels) to complete the programming by 12volt.

I'm looking to buy something like this. The 12volt web site still has this for sale. Has anyone tried this product on their DJ? We have a 2015 DJ SXT with push button start. Should work according to their site.

Well, first of all, thank god we've never had battery issues; How do you get to that?! In all the oil changes I've done on our Journey, I never noticed the battery's buried location. Anyway, to the topic at hand, I didn't notice any leads on the upper post or lower battery (as best I could tell with a flashlight). The shop guy did take out the old harness in back so maybe he took out the battery wire also? If so, I'm sure he checked it for a inline fuse in the process. Well, the next harness will be a Curt (now on order) and hopefully I won't have the same issue again. Thanks

Okay thanks, I'll go have a look later today after my wife gets back with the car.

Are you referring to the fuse box on the passenger side under the instrument panel? There is a 20 amp fuse (F127) that is listed for "Trailer Tow, if originally equipped" in the owner's manual. I'll have a look at that tomorrow and see what's there, if anything. Thanks

Just thought I'd update on what the problem actually was. Finally took it in to a trustworthy shop and he said that the trailer light converter inside the inside rear side panel had gone bad. Once he unplugged the converter then the LED brake light worked again. So that also explains what that thin wiring outside the thick rubber grommet was. I did have a hitch installed about two years ago. It never occured to me that this could be the issue. Live & Learn. I'm also relieved that the thin wiring outside the grommet that I mistook for careless factory work was unrelated to the Journey's design or assembly. (my apology to Dodge for that ;-) Whatever faults and shortcomings the Journey does have, our 2015 SXT has now gone for 5 years with no repairs needed. Not even small stuff other than a few recalls. It's hard to be unhappy about that. (finger's crossed for the good fortune to continue) Thanks again to everyone who chimed in with ideas to consider.

Nevermind about the turn signal issue. In my haste to wrap up putting the assembly back onto the car I connected the wrong connector inside the driver outer tail light. So that's why a message came on the dash about the turn signal. Once corrected, no more message. Still the brake light out but no more than that now.

Wife reports that a light came on the dashboard today indicating that a turn signal was not working. Sure enough, it's driver outer rear. Time to open it up again but this time in broad daylight to see what I can find with the wiring. Gonna have to have a professional look at it soon to fix it.

Okay, so I got curious and went out tonight in the dark and cold with a flashlight to look at that wiring atop the hatch. I see what you mean about how it bends a lot when opening and closing the hatch. However, that wiring does not service the outer tail lights so that can't be the issue I'm having. Thanks for the idea though; it's something to be aware of in case I get inner tail light problems in the future.

Thanks for the tip on that problem area to check out Roger and sorry to hear about your oil soaked $800 engine issue. Ugh. I haven't had either inner tail light assembly go bad on me yet but I will check the harness you describe at the top of the hatch to see if there is an issue there which might be causing my issue too. Sounds very possible. Good Info (bad design). I did see one thing that bothered me when checking out the wiring in the outer tail light assemblies. Both sides had a well-wrapped main wiring body pushed through the thick weatherproof rubber grommet that acts as a barrier to the inside of the car. So far so good. But both sides also had thin wiring (much more of it on the driver side) pushed to the outside of that grommet where they are pressed against the sharp metal edge of the opening. Of course all of those thin wires showed moderate to severe crimping with some silver wire visible on a couple of them as I 'un-crimped' them. Seems pretty lazy or poorly conceived on the assembly line to not have ALL wiring going through the middle of those grommets where it's protected from such damage. We haven't experienced any of the other issues you mention. In fact, this is the first problem we've had with our Journey in five years(!) though I fully recognize that the car isn't exactly state-of-the-art, nor was it so when new. We bought it to save money, just wanting dependable transportation (and decent oomph with the V6). It's done well in that role but I keep telling my wife that maybe we should trade up for something better while it's still running well b/c I am aware that a lot of Journey owners haven't been as lucky. So far no dice since it's her car and she's comfortable with it/in it. Fingers' crossed for a few more good years.... However, keeping on track with the brake light issue, does anyone else have an idea for what might be causing the brake light outage? I will check out the wiring harness on top of the hatch tomorrow and report back on what i see there. Thanks for your replies.

Okay, so I finally got a chance to do this today and the answer is... The light assembly I bought on ebay is GOOD. I wired my good outer LED light from the passenger side to the driver side and wired the ebay assembly into the passenger side: The ebay brake light then glowed red on the pass. side and the original good brake light now wired onto the driver side was dead. Exc. idea for how to test it Fred, thanks again. Time to leave good feedback for the seller. But of course I'm still stuck with the original problem. I'll reply to the next idea after posting this.

That's a really good idea OhareFred, thanks! The assembly is not hard to take off so I will definitely give that a try tomorrow! I will report back what I find out by doing this.

Okay, so here's a head scratcher. Noticed last week that the driver outer rear brake light was out. Didn't want to rush it over to the dealer and get charged $400 for something simple so I looked into a bit on my own and found out that the whole LED brake light assembly needs to be replaced when faulty or broken, not just a bulb as with incandescents. But before I went any further I tested to see what else did or didn't work in that unit. Turn signal still worked and the back up light still worked, but without the LED brake light I figured I'd have to replace the whole thing. So I went onto ebay and got a used assembly in nice condition at a nice price. It arrived today and I went to replace it. Easy as pie. Done. But when I tested it, still no LED brake light! Arrrrggghhhh. Huh? I suppose I could've gotten a broken replacement assembly but now it seems like something else. A blown fuse? But looking up fuses in the owner's manual, nothing looks especially promising: "Exterior Lights 1," "Exterior Lights 2," "Brake Module (ESC)," but I'm thinking that any fuse would be for the whole assembly and not just the brake part of it. That's why I didn't think fuse in the first place. So now I'm just frustrated and confused. Any Ideas? I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance. I will check back often.

thanks for all your replies; much appreciated.

Thanks for the input guys. I'm going to invest in a good floor jack and jack stands. Is a 1.5 ton model the right size for the Journey? And sturdy enough for our Honda Odyssey too?