John/Horace

My wife is also a big awd fan, and heated steering wheel/seats. And lady lead foot, so the 3.6 engine power...but avoids tickets so I can't say much. You have the skills to diagnose and the mechanic connections for really big jobs needing a hoist. Southern vehicles are so much better to work in as well. Get it on a set of ramps when it warms up a bit; fastest way to quickly evaluate I think. Could compromise and add on to winter driveability; remote start is simplest upgrade. Other items are just to much work/$'s. Problem with Durango is the 3.6 engine is the one to own used, maybe high milage. Between hemi tic cams from mds design and exhaust manifold studs breaking; and very tight engine compartment, 5.7 Durango is not something I would want to own. But the 3.6 would struggle with the bigger body to drag around. Adding to the journey fleet makes more sense imo. Cars have become crazy expensive, so I get closely analyzing this kind of decision. Fuel seems to be dropping rapidly so upgrading to 3.6 won't add up to much, vehicle probability even has the aluminum oil cooler by now.

My wife's iPhone 16e is working well with a 2014 journey RT right now, if that info is of any help. Lower model phone..probably same IOS. So 2013 shouldn't be a uconnect compatibility issue imo. Free advice worth everything you pay for it.

If you drop down the glove box door and pull the HVAC filter out, you can actually see what the actuator is doing. If it's stuck poking it will sometimes free it up again for a few more months. The plastic internal gears get worn and sticky, replacement is only long term fix, like you know. Super awkward to change, one of the journey design flaws. They wear out because it's used to vent car when parked, constantly cycles every drive cycle. I think subframe bushings are more likely your constant clunk 2lage4u; will be interesting to see what it is.

Have to agree with 5rebel9 fob battery critical. Once they drop to even 3.0 from 3.3 volts new, affects how they work. Cheapo dollar store brand are not a great idea, extreme hot/cold crushes battery life as well. Also clip from Google below... Yes, certain types of window tint film, particularly metallic tints, can interfere with key fob signals by blocking radio frequencies (RF), requiring you to be closer to your car for it to work. Non-metallic tints like ceramic or carbon are designed to minimize this interference, making them a better choice for maintaining keyless entry and remote start functionality.

Clear silicone won't stain fabric. Better for rubber, plastic, synthetic fibre than regular petroleum products or windex amonia. I think there are rollers you cant see that arent spinning right anymore, as well. This is an expensive silicone used on bikes and other outdoor equipment. No gravite content to stain clothes etc. Around double price of regular silicone, ebike store stock item. Auto recycler would sell belt assembly cheap, but the mounting bolts often crazy T55+ torx fastner; and really torqued down.

Yes 2.4 has dipstick, use funnel to add through that, ATF+4 only. My dealer sells by the quart, reasonable price. Shaft pops out from transmission with a pry bar fairly easily. Count on losing about one quart (0.95 of a litre) or less. Always put a film of tranny oil on shaft surface that slides through seal into transmission. If dry it can rip the seal. If it already has a drip, knocking in a new seal is a good idea. Around $20 for a new oem seal. Torque wrench for the cv axle nut is a good idea; it is considered a one time use nut. New shaft will probably have new nut. Three of my four cv shafts have reused nuts on them. Retorqued them a few times afterwards to check, but no issues. New nut is also around $20, your call...technically safer option if shaft reused.

Great news, hard to trouble shoot. My brothers kia van had the same item fail, took a while to figure it out. Until it’s really bad when it becomes more obvious. Dealer kept saying motor mounts. More of a high milage thing, although not always. Not crazy expensive part or labor really. Mechanics may want to change passenger cv shaft because it’s removed to do this repair. Factory shafts are very good quality and going back to change wheel bearing hub; might make more sense at that time. Unless boot damage and 300k on original c/v.

Milage ? Start with fluid and filter and reset codes, especially if never done. Solenoid pack can be done in place normally.

Lots of wear items changed, which is good. A good mechanic should be able to identify noise source. Can’t really trouble shoot remotely on internet. Control arm or subframe bushings or maybe strut. Struts are a wear item. Sway bar bushings can rattle, even if end links are new. Nice utube clip by the way.

The upper strut mount bearing is more of a rattle. That's a heavier clunking noise. Is the tire starting to wear funny ? Lots of stuff like lower ball joint, tierods, suspension bushings can make noise too. And they will excellerate tire wear noticeably. Is steering shaking or pulling when driving down the road? Still original struts on our two journeys, 209 and 275k kms in them. Lots of ball joints and tierods have been changed. Up on a hoist it's sometimes easier to diagnose clunks. Paying for a diagnosis can be better than guessing.

Valve covers, one of the few journey repairs I haven't done...yet. On lots of other cars though, plastic and metal, torque wrench important. . Good gaskets mentioned, yeah absolutely, labor is time/money. 5rebel9 you are getting both barrels this winter. Snow and the cold both. Some how only a few small dumps on this side of the lake, or my exact spot really, 24F so temp not nice. Lots of heavy storms really close by, power outages as well. Now that I have a costco generator, only a few flickers brown outs. Did a jenny run for 30 mins just to make sure it still works at year 3. Running on propane only so far, can store in basement without smell that way. Propane is a little harder to start in the cold, I have learned.

Wow, not a fun start to the new year. We keep a aaa/caa membership for our older vehicles, less scrambling when things go sideways. Decent reliable tow truck drivers are a bonus as well. Clutch was only on euro models, so it seems like it has an ecm issue and default firmware has booted up car. We had a site member few years ago with a similar problem, but I couldn't find the post searching. So maybe start with a can bus bi directional scanner first. Your extensive ..,but very cool mods with create a lot of non sense codes. But individual probe of ecm, bcm and tipm might give some clues. As you know, even a bad ground can do some pretty weird stuff. Can low frequency base vibrations crack random solder joints...we are about to find out. (I know you have a sense of humor !) And you have more wiring skills than most of us on the site, keep us in the loop.

He hasn't mentioned driver powered seat function. Probably a mouth full of turkey right now. If it's power to power seat swap, that harness may already have the heated seat wires in it. Would make it simpler. Active head restraints are on some US models, but I believe not north of border models. One less thing to worry about I guess.

Whick engine is it, any recent work done on car. Miles on car? Check for codes, even if no mil on. The ecm is what regulates alternator charging circuit through the TIPM module. Your year I believe had problems with tipm acting up, causing horn random honks, no starts etc. Trouble starting means slow turning over, only clicking ? CPS sensor can cause random no starts, a wear item really.

Clock spring in steering column for air bags\horn are different in heated steering wheel optioned cars. Keep it in mind if heated steering doesn't work when enabled by alpha obd programmer. May have to add a wire or get heated steering wheel vehicle clock spring to install from wrecker. Our 2014 journey has the heated steering wheel, only turns on in the 8.4" main screen. Very nice in the winter.