AJ Hamler

Hi gang... As I noted before, I hate when people get solutions to problems on forums and then are never heard from again. Anyway, thought you'd all like to know that I just sent in my last payment for my Dodge Journey. I now officially own the thing! This has been one of the best cars I've ever had, and even though six years old I've had no issues with it other than the one I originally talked about three years ago. Regular wear-and-tear, sure, but no major problems at all. Although nearing 100K miles, it still looks good, and rides good. Take care, A.J.

Hi, all... I hate when someone shows up in a forum just to ask one question, gets their problem solved, and then disappears forever. I sure don't want to be that guy. With that in mind, I thought I'd offer a one-year update on the audio/climate issues with my Journey. As noted in my last post a year ago, the dealership did indeed replace the radio and whatever innards of the Uconnect that were causing the issues. It's been nearly problem-free ever since. I've not had a single issue with the climate control going wonky in a year. Likewise, the audio issue was resolved about 99%. Audio plays fine from almost every digital source -- CD or USB thumbdrive. Every once in a while (once every few months) I'll get an audiobook that exhibits the same issues as before, but I'm convinced that those are extremely rare bad audios and the fault of those particular audios themselves, and not the Dodge as everything else plays fine. Thanks again for your help a year ago. A.J.

I probably should have waited to get the car back before my original post, but my usual pessimism expected the car to come home "all fixed" once again, but have nothing different, so I wanted to get some insight from you folks. As it turned out, the outcome was more positive and I'm guardedly optimistic. First, they didn't fix it and they said so. However, based on their examination, plus the fact that this is the fourth time they've had it in the last two years for the same issue, as dhh3 said above the dealer realizes it's a problem. They said that the two issues -- the audio problem plus the weird things the climate control is doing -- are apparently interrelated in some way. The spent most of the day attempting to get an authorization from Dodge to replace what's needed under warranty. They didn't get the authorization (although if I understand correctly, it's more a case of the right person not being available and returning the calls), but they ordered the parts anyway and are going to fix it under warranty. The issue is the computer board that controls the climate, which I guess is somewhere inside the Uconnect unit, so they've ordered a new one of those, as well as a whole new radio, and will install both when they come in. As a plus, they didn't close the work order or ask for a signature on today's service call. This means that the work order is still open and my mileage is more or less frozen at 33,000 miles just in case the parts take longer to arrive than expected -- in other words, I don't have to worry how much I drive in the meantime. They said the parts should be here in a couple days, but keeping the work order open was for "just in case." Pretty considerate of them in my book. Thanks to you all. I'll keep you updated. A.J.

Hi. Hope you folks can help. I apologize in advance for the length, but I wanted to include as many details as possible. My car: 2012 Journey SXT, Uconnect 4.3 Main problem: When I'm listening to recorded audio, whenever I "go away" from that audio -- by either turning the car off or switching over to the radio -- when I go back to the audio it will not resume at the point it was. This happens when listening to a music CD or to audio on a USB thumb drive. It's not a big issue with music CDs, as there are only a dozen or so tracks and each is only the length of a single song, maybe a few minutes at most, so finding your spot isn't difficult. However, I listen mostly to audiobooks, and some of the tracks on audiobooks are 30 minutes (or more) long. Trying to find where you left of is sometimes excruciatingly difficult. The issue occurs no matter what you're listening to on either CD or the USB port. Description of problem: o The problem began shortly after getting the car, which I've owned 2-1/2 years. o When the audio resumes, it can be anywhere from a few seconds off to five or 10 minutes off from where it was. o When the audio has made this "jump," the counter does not change. That is, if the current audiobook track is at, say, 12:45 when the car is turned off, the counter will still be at 12:45 when it comes back on, even though it may have jumped five minutes or more. o When fast-forwarding or reversing to try to locate your place, the counter doesn't correspond accurately with the movement. That is, the counter may indicate that you've fast-forwarded, say, 45 seconds. However, the actual length of time you've fast-forwarded can be anything at all, literally -- if could be only two seconds of audio or it could be 15 minutes of audio. It's different every time. The length of time you're pressing the fast-forward button doesn't seem to matter. o The problem occurs about 95% percent of the time -- every once in a while it works fine and the audio picks up right where it left off, but most of the time it won't. o It doesn't seem to matter the source of the audio -- CD or USB thumb drive -- the problem occurs equally on either source. o It also doesn't seem to matter if the audio is from a store-bought source or one that I've recorded myself to CD or thumbdrive o Finally, some CDs and some audiobooks don't seem to be affected by the problem and play fine (although these are extremely rare birds indeed). What I've tried: o Using different USB thumb drives. No difference. o If the audio was something I recorded, I've completely redone the audio file and reloaded it to CD/thumb drive, as well as to a different CD/thumb drive. No difference. o Replaced the original audio with new audio files. No difference. o Paused the audio playback before turning car off. No difference. o Stopped the audio playback before turning car off. No difference. o Changed audio source before turning car off. No difference. And here's the biggie--- o I've taken the car to my Dodge dealer three times in the past, and for the fourth time just this morning. (As I'm typing this I'm waiting for a call from the dealership to come get my car.) Each time I've taken the car in the problem seems to have been somewhat improved, but it has never gone away. That is, it seems to be a bit better when I bring it home, but only to a degree -- it's always still there. After a short time, the problem always goes back to as bad as it was. I have no idea what the issue will be like when I get my car back this afternoon or if it will address the issue, but with 36,000 miles approaching I don't know what to do. I'm currently at just over 33,000 miles on the car and am desperate to get this fixed before the odometer rolls over to 36,000. Now, I noted at the beginning that there were a couple other issues. These also go through the Uconnect screen so I'll mention them on the off chance that they could be related. After shutting the car off, when starting it up again later (amount of time later doesn't matter) the climate sometimes changes radically. I can have the AC on when shutting the car off, but the heat will be on when starting back up. The fans can be blowing from, say, the dash on shut off, but on the floor when starting up again. The sync can be engaged so both sides of the car are the same when shutting it off, but upon restart the left can be on high heat, while the right can be turned all the way down. Etc. My previous trips to the dealer have always corrected this... but they always come back. This is an extremely intermitten problem -- it may occur six times in one day, but then not happen again for weeks. Thanks everyone for your indulgence at my long-windedness. A.J.