bfurth

Your alignment is seriously out of whack if you could see the camber was out just by looking at it.  I'd recommend you get the entire rear suspension thoroughly inspected for worn/failed components.

Making a few assumptions here (keys kept in right pants pocket, pocket not truly deep enough, didn't notice it fall out):

Check under the driver's seat between the guide rail and the center console.  It's easy to lose stuff in there.

On ‎11‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 11:42 PM, 2late4u said:

I found the near identical brass "T" connector at Home Depot- Sharkbite PEX P/N UC370LFA, SKU 697285919914. Don't forget to pick up 3 - 4 adjustable hose clamps, 1/2" to 1-1/4". You will probably also need 1' of 5/8" radiator heater hose for the connection to the engine tube. I found no reason to drain down any coolant- simply replaced any small amount following a test- just topped off what antifreeze that was needed.   i checked several videos on you tube a lot of them using a brass t connector .dont know if that would be better than the aluminum one sold by dorman company, would use it befor using a copper tee ,one person said he bought the aluminum one and it split after one yr....

Brass is still a copper/zinc alloy.  While it is closer on the galvanic chart to aluminum than straight copper, it is only closer by one spot (go figure - copper alloys are all right next to each other...)

The aluminum Y splitting would have to be due to a bad weld.  If you really want it done perfectly, it should be forged and machined (no seams = no obvious weak points).

While YouTube has a lot of good information, don't take everything literally.  All of those videos of brass T's for the Town and Country are... less than properly educated on galvanic corrosion.  Again - anti-freeze has corrosion inhibitors, but do you really want to artificially increase the risk of destroying your cooling system?  Without a brass/copper fitting having been tested with the factory-fill coolant, I wouldn't put it anywhere near that system.

19 hours ago, OhareFred said:

Well, I had mine done  ( an 09 R/T) at the dealer under my extended warranty, so cant tell you how to get it off. You may have enough rubber hose to just cut it out, but I really dont know.  As far as I know all the three zone systems have that part.  They didn’t figure anything out in 09, was the first model year for the car (although they were available the second half of 08.  Got mine in July of 08).

 

I do recall this being talked about and I recall someone used a copper plumbing Y pipe from the hardware store ( Im pretty sure).  Try searching the forum for heater Y pipe, or maybe some else knows more.

 

Let us know!

 

Don't use copper!  Galvanic corrosion of aluminum is highly likely when it is in contact with copper.  Yes, there is some level of protection against this with the anti-freeze, but I wouldn't take that risk.  The radiator, engine block, and head are all aluminum.  I wouldn't put copper anywhere near that if I could avoid it.

That being said - is yours a 3.5L?  There were a lot of similar issues with the 2008-2010 Grand Caravan/Town & Country heater return hoses.  The plastic tends to crack given it's proximity to the exhaust pipe - it's not shielded well enough.  A few people have had aluminum Ys made and cut the existing hoses to fit with the new Y (you may need some adapters, heater hose, and worm-drive clamps to hack this fix together).  Once they made the fix, they've never had an issue again.

I had a similar issue withy my Uconnect and EVIC buttons.  It's the switch itself.  Get a new one.

It's either a bad fuel cap, or a bad fill port (most likely).  Next time you fill up, check underneath the rear driver side to see if you find any signs of a leak in the filler tube.  If not, replace the gas cap (only a few dollars) - that will almost certainly fix the issue.  If that doesn't fix it, then you'll need to do a few more drastic things, including a more thorough inspection of the filler tube and/or dropping the fuel tank and inspecting for obvious signs of damage.

The service writers tend to get in the way.  Yeah, at the dealership, they exist to serve as a buffer between you and the person working on your vehicle.  In reality, that adds to frustrations because you give details to them (who may or may not have a background in repairs) and the details get lost along the way.  That's not usually as much of an issue with the independent shops I've been to, where most of the time, I'm talking to a shop owner or other mechanic who happens to be at the desk and they can filter out the irrelevant information I may have given them.  But they have the experience to function as that filter, the service writer at a dealership might not.

In the case of "I have X, Y, and Z codes - fix them," a competent shop will verify that the codes still exist, and then provide a correct solution for the combination of such codes existing, not just fix each symptom (unless they really are three completely independent failures that just happened to come up on their own).  Being a jerk about it is unprofessional and is part of what gives shops a (deserved, in those cases) bad name.

On ‎10‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 12:12 PM, 2late4u said:

I agree most dealership cannot keep up with electronic age that has involved with our vehicles that said you will find ones that are better than the other that go by the old adage that we know more then you do. i have two dealerships that are closer to my house that aren't worth a sh-t and that is why i drive about 20 miles farther down the road to the one i deal with. now there is one service writer there that i dont deal with as she has a bad attitude that i dont get along with, but there are others that will bend over backwards to help you. also i use to work in a factory running my machine and when it would have a problem i would call our skilled trades to fix it, of course most of them had the attitude that they knew more about that machine that i did ( which they did) BUT i ran it more than they did and would have a good guess at what was wrong with it but i wouldn't come out and tell them what i thought was wrong as then it would take twice as long to get it fixed as they didnt like to be told what to do ,so i would slowly tell them how it was acting and let them come to the same conclusion what i thought it was ,kind of had to spoon feed the info to them  lol but hey it worked ... same with the dealership if you go in demanding to them what you think is wrong they will take a defensive attitude towards to the problem... 

As an IT support manager, I take issue with that attitude.  We need people to tell us what is wrong.  If they can't tell us what's wrong, it takes dramatically longer to fix it.  We want as much information as you can provide.  We'll throw out the information we don't need.

If a customer comes to me and says that they hear clicking and their computer is slow, I'm not dismissing that information and checking the on-board speakers out of spite.  I'm going straight to hard drive diagnostics.

If I go to a mechanic and tell them I've got X, Y, and Z trouble codes, I don't expect them to work on other items.  The only exception is if the specific combination of codes is a common result of a separate condition - and I'd have come across that before I took it to them.  Then again, most of us on here are not the typical customer.

My Blue Streak with chrome package doesn't show up very often.  I think I've seen 3 of them in the wild since I bought mine.

And yeah, dealerships are hit or miss.  You'd think they'd be more "hit" given that they tend to charge 20% more per hour than independent shops.  That cost needs to be justified.  In many cases, it isn't.

The Journey is an affordable, reasonably fuel efficient people hauler with a sporty-ish appearance.  What's not to like?  It fits its market (the "I don't want a(nother) van, I can't afford/don't want a gigantic Urban Assault Vehicle" group) well.

Misfire only on cylinder one even with moving known good parts around?

Did your mechanic perform a compression test?  It doesn't sound like an electrical problem, otherwise it would happen at idle.  I don't have enough of a background in engine repair to suggest anything more than that.

It's a vehicle with an aftermarket solution for a tablet mount - it's going to wobble.  The seat will move slightly just by you getting in.  As long as the tablet doesn't fall out of the mount, it's sufficient.

A cursory Google search led to this:

https://www.amazon.com/Headrest-Tablet-Holder-Samsung-Galaxy/dp/B00585CLTU

You supply the tablet.  I'm sure you can find less expensive if you try.

14 hours ago, WytChoclitJ said:

@2late4u I did think about that and was going to research further.  Thanks for that input @bfurth.  Where exactly is that gasket?  In the portion I left, removed, or closer to the throttle body?

It's more like the kind of gasket you see on a door frame.  It's on the hood, directly in line with the opening for the intake.

10 minutes ago, 2late4u said:

just wondering do you think the way it was made taking air in at the top them going downward then into the air box might have been designed to keep water from being sucked into the filter. if it comes straight into the filter causing problems ?

There's also a gasket in front of the factory intake inlet that keeps the largest bits of debris out.  The front edge of the hood will keep most water out as well.  After that, suction takes over.  A little bit of water won't cause any problems (these engines work fine in the 90% humidity of Baltimore!).  Just don't open a garden hose into the intake...

1 minute ago, WytChoclitJ said:

Are you talking about the piece that starts at the edge of the hood and drops about 18 inches and used to flow into the bottom of the air cleaner box?  If so, that thought crossed my mind, I just haven't come up with an idea to get the flow straight from the edge of the hood to filter itself.  Then my thought process went to just trying to keep the air cooler.  Which is why I ended up leaving that piece in for now and could build up around it to try and keep out heat.  I'm open to suggestions though.  If one idea doesn't do it, a combination of ideas could.

One would think that removing the original intake and replacing it with a conical filter surrounded by a metal box would lead to a slightly increased temperature compared to the original intake because metal is a better conductor of heat than plastic.  Surrounding your conical filter with a metal box that is still tied to the same front facing intake leaves you with the same air flow, if not even worse depending on how you build it.  If you insulated it (on the outside of said box - you don't want that insulation to fail and clog your filter) with non-flammable materials, you might have a minor performance gain over OEM.  It needs to be sealed up tight all the way around or it's going to draw in hot air from the engine bay.

Fabricating something that eliminates the foot or so drop and bend would possibly be beneficial.  But the point remains - the OEM intake is a true cold air intake in that it draws in air that has not passed over the radiator nor has it gotten anywhere near the engine before passing through the air filter and intake manifold.

http://www.obdii.com/articles/Diagnosing_Misfires.html

Compression/leak down test should have been done before you started changing computers.  How about checking for the condition of the spark plug in cylinder 1?  Changing it without knowing why it is misfiring does you no good.  Was it worn with typical wear characteristics, or did it have other failure signs?  Did it appear similar to the other 3 plugs?  How about oil mixing with coolant or vice versa?

Changing the coils shouldn't be a troubleshooting step on this engine unless you have moved them to another cylinder first.  The beauty of how these are designed is such that you can swap the coil packs from one cylinder to another and see if you can trace the problem.  Given that it's not an interference engine (the valves do not take up space where the pistons will soon be) and you're not having a timing issue, moving this around to isolate the problem won't likely cause any additional substantial problems.  Just don't drive across town with it like that.

Did anyone bother to check the electrical continuity of the wiring harness for your #1 cylinder?  If it's a bad cable, none of what you have done will matter.  If the coil pack fails on cylinder 1, but works on cylinder 2, and cylinder 2 coil pack works on 2, but fails on 1, then it's most likely a wiring problem.

Hopefully you followed the proper re-learn procedure for the PCM.  This basically means have a mechanic perform the task - I doubt you have access to the correct tools yourself.

17 hours ago, lmoore1436 said:

 

I agree, the 3.6 takes up a lot more space, making everything harder to reach. My first car was a 93 mustang with a 4 banger and I had about 10 inches to work with which made working on it a breeze. Nowadays they cover everything up and make it impossible to reach. 

Not to mention the requirement that you remove the upper intake.  MY T&C with the old 3.8L isn't too bad, but I still have to change the rear bank blind.

I like 4 cylinder engines for plug changes - it's a 45 minute job if I'm taking my time.

3 hours ago, WytChoclitJ said:

About that....lol.  I left the piece that flowed the outside air into the stock air cleaner box.  My plan moving forward is to have a heat shield built, similar to others sent with aftermarket intakes or filters.  I have a guy that is good at working with metal materials.  I'd like to have a hole with rubber around it for the piece with air flowing in from the front and the same rubber to meet the hood as well.  We'll see how it turns out.  

 If you took the time to do that, yes, that might make a minor difference for the intake.  If nothing else, you've removed a bend in the airflow from the leading edge of the hood to the filter.  To accomplish the full removal of that bend, you need to completely remove the rest of the original intake (that now disconnected black plastic box) and mold something to fit in it's place.

20 hours ago, bramfrank said:

 

In most jurisdictions you are subject to a ticket if you even touch your phone, but not for using the in-dash navigator, which also can provide traffic info, and does not need nor does it use cellular data.

"Ok Google..."

"Hey Siri..."

S-Voice/Bixby

No need to touch the phone.

16 hours ago, 2late4u said:

this brings up the question of how tight to tighten the oil cap? i always hand tighten to start with then i use a socket that matches the nut and tighten it up till it's tight and then i bump it a little bit.as i have no torque wrench that would work on this low of torque. havent had no problems yet doing it this way. since it uses an o ring, it shouldn't need to be over tightened....

My only experience with the drop-in filters was with GM EcoTec engines (my DJ is a 2.4).  I always threaded it and tightened with a 3/8" wrench and stopped at "tight enough."  No cranking on it ever.

For those of you who have a torque wrench, the proper spec is 18 Ft.Lbs.  So, really, don't crank on it.  That level is only ever so slightly beyond finger tight.

Shot in the dark here (no promises it will work or not cause additional problems, and as my signature line states - if you break it, it's your fault):

Get an air duster can (the kind used for cleaning electronics).  Also get a new oil filter cap - the original is already shot, and it might get worse as a result of this.  Get the engine up to operating temperature (oil should be at 190+).  Wear a pair of decent gloves.  Flip the air duster over and spray the freezing cold liquid ONLY on the filter cap.  Attempt to remove the cap.  If it works, GREAT!

If it doesn't work, well, you were out $600 anyway!

Pennzoil Platinum can be obtained for $23/5 quarts (WalMart current price, Amazon is usually right there with them).  Ultra Platinum (when it isn't made of Unobtanium) is only $2-$3 more.

Throw in a good filter (for my 2.4L, I'm using a Purolator Boss at $12 - don't judge me, I only do this once a year!) and you're under $35 for the best recommended oil for the engine you can get.  Get a floor jack and some stands (about $100) and a torque wrench ($40-$as much as you want) and you can do a properly spec'd tire rotation.  Sure, the first one will cost you a little more than a dealer ($140), but your highest cost oil change for as long as you want is about $30-$40.

It also eliminates the time needed to drive your vehicle to a dealer or oil change shop (20 minutes), wait a half hour, then drive back (total time wasted is more than one hour).  Versus get your vehicle warm, drain hot oil until it stops dripping (while you rotate tires, and/or have a beer - not recommended for the first DIY oil change...), then pour in better than what they'll use for less cost.  Maybe you lose 20 minutes when you dispose of the old oil (or you can store it until you have your next dump run - I'm sure most municipality waste acceptance facilities take used oil).  And now you know it was done right and your drain bolt isn't going to be stripped out from having it installed with an impact wrench.

Wait, what?!?  2008-2012 Mopar large passenger vehicles have inadequate brakes?  Who knew?

Welcome to the board!

The good thing is that there is not much catch-up maintenance to do with the Pentastar.  Change the oil and filter (I don't care what the dealer sheet says - change it anyway).  Get a transmission drain & fill at 60,000 miles - don't wait for 120,000 since this was a fleet vehicle.  Inspect (and replace if any signs of dirt) your engine and cabin air filters.  Make sure that you've got good tire tread depth.  Look over your hoses, brake fluid level, pad thickness, and rotor wear.

That should be pretty much it.  There's not a whole lot of maintenance on the V6 models until 100,000 miles beyond the standard oil change/tire rotation/filter replacements.

The letter is only a holdover from people who don't use the internet (and a legal requirement that you must be positively notified through an official means that there is a defect that must be remedied).  You can run your VIN against the NHTSA database and determine if you have any open recalls.  Usually, you can even find more information here than dealers will tell you about. 

Also, every car owner should register their vehicle with the manufacturer's website for no other reason than recall notifications (and quick access to owner's manuals, not like anyone reads them... )

Got mine done today.  Also had them order a new steering wheel control panel (phone/EVIC buttons intermittently don't respond) and new beltline trim for both rear doors (warranty repairs because they're falling apart/weren't installed properly), but those won't be delivered until later in the week.