vozaday

55 minutes ago, John/Horace said:

Great thanks for the update. Being proactive and cautious like you are will save you money in the long run.

 

My son is only interested in car repairs now that he is married and has moved away . Good to get them involved at an early age.

 

 

It’s definitely not easy and requires a lot of patience. He just wants to use the tools. He’s getting there though. He helped me tear the front diff out of the sxs this winter and he did one side himself. Then we tore down an engine I got for a case of beer. The biggest hurdle is allowing him to help me with my 71 Mustang. It’s in restored condition and kids can be careless, so it’s on me that he doesn’t help much there. 

On 2020-03-16 at 8:53 AM, John/Horace said:

Spectra is an ok brand I’ve used them. Should be some kind of warranty on it. Fins can be brushed back a bit in a few spots without any issues, just looks bad. There are thin tubes atttatched to fins that carry the glycol, look for a kink in one of these. The older full copper rads were more durable than new plastic tank aluminum units .

 

Smelling glycol after working on rad/water pump not surprising ; so many small recesses where glycol pools and sits. It can take 50 miles and several heat cycles to just burn off residual glycol from engine bay, fender skirts etc.

 

I would borrow another pressure tester before taking anything apart. If hose rubber flattened out at connection point, shorten hose slightly so there is new sealing surface for spring clamp. Or switch to gear clamp if you suspect a drip from a weak spring clamp.

You were correct. Smell is all but gone at this point. Must have been residual. 

Hopefully the final update on this issue. Coolant level appears to be staying fairly consistent for the past 1,500km. I did end up sending an oil sample to blackstone for analysis. No coolant found in the oil and for the most part everything came back normal other than silicon (I did use a tube to pull the sample out of the dipstick when it was hot) and a couple compounds used as additives. They also noticed the pinkish colour to the oil but they commented that it didn’t seem to be indicating of anything. 
 

So my plan is to start running conventional changed every 5k km rather than pushing synthetic to 8-10k km. 

Ok, so I found out my drastic pressure drop is due to a faulty pressure tester. BUT, I still do have an extremely minor leak. I can smell it and I did manage to catch a couple drops on a paper towel under the rad. So I’m guessing I must have damaged it or had a defect from factory. Looks like I will be starting over again. Ironically it is on the same side as the original rad leak, but must be the backside this time. 

Looks like I need to dig further. I think I may have damaged a hose upon teardown or installation. When I installed the radiator I pressure tested the system and it held. I added coolant and ran the engine up to temp. Pressure checked it and it did drop very slowly, about .5 psi in 10 min. Chalked it up to it cooling down. Drove around and let it sit overnight. Pressure checked it this morning and it dropped 1 psi per minute. 

Spectra

Got the radiator changed out. Will keep a close eye on coolant levels over the next couple days. 

In the picture you can see the stain on the radiator, so that’s the leak. It’s a picture of the front side of the rad. 

Has a pulley so looks external

I hadn’t looked into that. I hate the internal designs. Thanks. 

Ok, so game plan is we will assume head gaskets are fine. Since no temp issues. Replace radiator, and since I’m draining the system anyways I’m going to replace water pump, thermostat and oil cooler. I had read that one thread about the tstat causing the radiator to pop or something like that. Ended up having warped heads. So that was the bulk of my concern with the radiator. 

Thank you for the responses. Only reason I’m concerned about oil is that at 100k km I changed the  oil myself after warranty was up. I was also taking the opportunity to teach my son. The oil seemed to have a dark purple tinge to it as it drained. Enough my son even mentioned it. The  engine was warm from being just run and no milkyness whatsoever. And no milkyness right now. It was always changed at the dealership before so I don’t know what type of oil they used or if it was always like that. And now the radiator does this. 
 

I just did a pressure test, pressure is dropping. But likely from the rad leak. 
 

The coolant level is down 1/4” from where I last checked it, but the engine was warm and is now cold. Still half way on the tank level range. 

Greetings, I appear to have a coolant leak on my 15 Journey 3.6. I noticed a whiff of steam coming from the front grille pulling into the garage yesterday. I could smell coolant. So I popped the hood and found a little coolant on the radiator. Also checking the oil it looks slightly orange. Could be just paranoid me but I thought that at the last oil change too. I’m out of warranty. Any advise? Just replace the radiator or is there something else I should be looking at too. Never noticed any overheating or loss of coolant in the reservoir. 

Thanks for the responses. We had a minivan previous to the Dodge Journey. I’m actually quite impressed with how well every one fits now that the 4th is here. We currently have the 2 older kids in the very back. We used to do all 3 in the middle row, so they are absolutely loving the extra room. 

Yes a stroller in and out of the cargo box may become a pain, time will tell. But for shopping trips or sport trips we can just take the Super Duty. I’m still hesitating in taking out the console to put in the folding seat in the truck. Lol

I am hoping to get 2 years out of the Journey before we go to something bigger for the family. 

I managed to get all mine replaced under warranty, they started groaning again.  Guess its just something common for these vehicles.  Their first attempted fix was lubricant and it worked for a couple weeks.

That lifted Journey actually looks pretty cool.  Thanks for the info on the tire size, I was wondering what the widest I could go would be.  Since we bought a cottage last fall the Journey sees a ton of gravel roads in the summer.  I'll be looking at a slightly larger and wider tire for summer.

Been a while since I’ve been on here. We found out we are having our 4th kid here in October so decided to see if we could still make things work with the Journey. It’s treated us well so far. So I went and bought the cross bars and a Thule carrier in order to fit a stroller in and other odds and ends since the back row will need to be used. Went with gloss black to match the headlights I had painted gloss black when I did the retrofit. 

Watch this video and you will see why LEDS do not perform properly in a projector.  HIDs in a lot of halogen projectors do indeed work well, it is hit or miss though.  Some have horrible glare, but some contain it very well.  

Welcome

I find mine slams into gear when you go from park to drive.  If you didnt have the brakes fully engaged it would probably jerk forward when doing so.  Thats both when the trans is warm and cold.  Other than that it shifts normally.

I have always installed backup lights on my trucks due to living on an acreage and no street lights.  Nice to see some on a Journey.

NoXiouS, do you have a harness with a relay for the HIDs?

Some halogen projectors do stand up to it and have a decent cutoff.  Not always perfect but 100 times better than HID's in a reflected housing.  Another major factor is the quality of hids, low quality ones tend to build excess heat and can melt components, good quality ones are substantially cooler.  Plus bulb alignment is a lot better with quality HID's.  This I know you know as you do retrofits with morimoto stuff.  It is amazing the difference say between DDM HID's and Morimito. 

That being said, wow the glare off of the images 2 posts up is insane.  I haven't even seen that much glare out of any lights I have ever put in.  Be really brutal for other drivers.

Finally, someone doing some performance mods.  Yes please keep us informed.  Wouldn't mind getting a bit more power out of the Journey.

The CUV is looking awesome! Good job.