John/Horace

Water pump covers large part of front of engine not internal. So motor mount etc has to come off, surpentine tensioner etc. Time consuming job, took me about 3 hrs and I’ve changed pumps on quite a few different vehicles. I wouldn’t change anything until leak isolated. That’s over a thousand in parts alone, approx. for the stuff you mentioned. How fast is pressure dropping in rad, just temp cooling off will drop pressure by itself.

There are thermowelding kits available for plastic. Walls kinda thin on heat exchanger housing for threading IMO.

Just temperature can cause 1/4” glycol drop so can’t really go by that. Any time I have seen glycol in an engine its a real mess. Try putting a few ounces of oil and mixed Chrysler glycol in a container and stir, would confirm it. Even bad cap on pressure reservoir could drop pressure. If rad pinhole leak, it will gradually increase. Glycol around front pulleys points to water pump. Need to not beef too much on oil filter cap, follow torque spec stamped on cap. Some people are blaming over tightening for heat exchanger failure; usually oil leak, but could be glycol to. I think design is not great. Dealers use a bulk oil from drums, probably not synthetic unless you are paying for upgrade.. Good quality but not the best. I would use 5w20 synthetic from now on, great for extreme cold starts and high summer heat. Transmission is not tied into radiator tanks on 3.6 engine. There is a separate finned heat exchanger in front of a/c condenser. Probably the only cooling/heating.

Need to watch glycol and oil levels closely, one of them needs to be going down. When glycol gets into the oil you can really tell; water based and oil based fluids mixing is messy, foamy brownish. Engine oil heat exchanger mounted on top of engine has glycol going through to cool/heat. It’s made of plastic and there have been failures, mainly of oil leaking out on drivers side where oil pressure sending unit is mounted. The way engine casting is built the oil I think will always leak on this side. Glycol could also leak from unit, only one case on this forum so far. Changing oil disturbs heat exchanger a little, oil filter housing is part of assembly so leak could be triggered by oil change when oil cap removed/torqued to 27 NM. Cooling system could be pressure tested to see if it’s losing pressure. But location could be tricky, rad or heat exchanger, water pump etc. Put clean cardboard under car over night and try to find exact location if possible. Bright orange liquid, no oil smell as you know. Glycol could even come from various hoses. Rad/heat exchanger could be fine.

Navallacrosse needed to include a few mates in the Canuckistan translation; he was originally from New Zealand. But the Royal hiway was a nice touch. I have family who live in the prairies close to kiwiinsask’s location. My favourite Canadian joke is about how flat the prairie landscape is. You may have heard it. Only part of Canada you can watch your dog runaway.....for half an hour. Cheers welcome to the forum. I still have my gas pig pickup.

There is only one intermediate shaft on the vehicle. There is a bearing in the bracket that has probably worn out. Shudder and or noise at certain speeds I guess. i am not affiliated with rockauto, I just like their good quality jpeg pictures and extensive selection. For your vehicle it’s showing out of stock, must be a moving item. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/dodge,2014,journey,3.6l+v6,3300354,drivetrain,cv+intermediate+shaft,14499 Intermediate shaft is attatched to the c/v shaft. I changed one on a hyundai van few years ago, not super difficult. C/v shaft came off first then the second shaft . Need to be careful when sliding shaft back into tranny to not damage $10 lip seal. Fluid will leak out as shaft removed so have a bucket, often 1-2 litres. Nice to have torque wrench for c/v axel nut when putting back together. Shop should charge approx. 2 hrs to change out part, if brakes worn good time to evaluate since that side removed during job.

Actually rockauto sells lots of oem stuff from Mopar, Ford , AC Delco etc. The return hose with the oil cooler fin section is on their site. Mopar part shows two different numbers listed for part they are selling. Not sure if it’s new part or not. Several other after market vendors like Gates on there as well. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/dodge,2014,journey,3.6l+v6,3300354,steering,power+steering+return+hose,7324 My 2014 hose was changed in 2018 at 123kms by dealer no charge. I would approach them about changing it under recall again, worth a try. Go to Transport Canada government site and report second failure if they don’t replace it. Princess Auto does custom hydraulic work I believe. If you bring them old one they might be able to come up with something.

AGM batteries are sealed so no off gassing. They are also supposedly very vibration resistant which is why they are used in ATV’ s and jet skies. They need to be charged differently than regular lead acid, but if it came with its own charger should be fine. Maybe cardboard over the glass front in case stuff going on top of it. New flex panels are pretty cool, neighbor has one for camping, very convenient.

I had a 1993 Grand Cherokee for quite a few years, drivers door window stopped working at 200k. Drivers door gets more cycles so it often fails first. If I gently flexed door harness with door open, sometimes it started working again. This also confirmed where failure was. Eventually $5 of solder, multi strand wire and heat shrink fixed problem. You could activate window switch with plug removed from motor and see what voltage you are getting. The buzzing could be low voltage from frayed door harness. Switch will need to be removed from door cover to plug back into harness.

That sucks . I believe they are stripping motor mount and stuff off front of engine to do cover seal. Draining glycol. Maybe Consider changing water pump if you are keeping vehicle and milage is over 100k. Very easy to do if in that deep. My water pump started to drip at 148K kms. I thought it was weep hole on bearing and waited few months to do it (very tiny leak). It turned out the weird $20 aluminum/plastic pump gasket had a bad spot on it; when I took out pump. The pump bearing perfectly quiet and pump could have been reused. But after taking 1.5 hrs to remove pump, decided to put in the $100 new pump anyway.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/dodge,2014,journey,3.6l+v6,3300354,electrical-connector,power+window+motor+connector,2607

Almost looks like frost pushed out thermowelded cap. But glycol and south location nixs that possibility. Glad you got home safely, scary failure. Mine failured last Jan on the oil side; I think orings against block, not really positive. Topped up twice 1 liter in 24 hrs, then found leak( car at 80k miles or 120kms). Date stamp on my part shows Nov 2013 manufacture. 2014 was first year of redesigned part, lots of 3.2 jeeps had issues as well. Plastic holds up on oil pans and valve covers, heat exchanger should not be a problem IMO. Design or manufacture flaw, hard to know. Save your oil filter cap off old heat exchanger; one person had issue with fitting inside cap breaking.

You need a mechanic with good electrical trouble shooting skills. Hard to find sometimes. As someone stated several posts back electrical technician better option than regular mechanic for this type of problem. Lots of journeys on the road will increase postings of problems. I’ve replaced the transmission neutral switch on an old jeep I had, it disabled starter. Usually more of a high milage older car problem. The details of the no start are critical to the trouble shooting process. Turning over and not starting up is completely different to pushing button and starter not even trying to engage. The details really matter.

If you are running ob11 scanner then there is probably quite a bit of load on battery still. I assume you have ignition in run position to retrieve data. The scanner itself is minimal, but when ignition is on for obd11 to function, fuel pump pressurizes system, often some on front lights, dash lights, big 8.4 screen etc will all draw battery voltage down. The load of starting car dips battery voltage quite a bit on all cars which is normal. Not all multi meters are perfectly accurate; I have an old radio shack meter that in dc reads about 0.5 volts low, so not very useful for automotive trouble shooting. Meter is probably 25 yrs old and banged around a lot. Try measuring with another meter if posssible. Ignition off and nothing functioning you should be over 12 at the terminals with a decent charged battery. In my experience. Never tried Vaseline on battery posts. Anything that is di-electric that doesn’t degrade plastic should be fine. Engine compartment batteries I think stay a little dryer and cleaner than our wheel well location. Maybe part of increased battery issues.

I found this link.

Is that a quote from Mitchel repair guide site. Independent Mechanic shops use that site mainly for costing labor. Have owned over 25 cars over the years and worked on dozens more. My uncle was a licensed car mechanic. Have personally never seen a failed ecm. I bought a used unit from wreckers once as a last resort fix on a Toyota. Ended up being a weird wire harness issue. I admit I’m much better at fixing pure mechanical issues. Free advice is worth everything you pay for it. Have been a member of several car forums as well. About a half dozen times people have replaced ecm for driveability issues; it was never the problem. Car electrical specialist on Hyundai Forums says they are rarely a problem on most cars. Auto spark. Are there actual postings on this site for ecm change(by itself) fixing problems like listed above on a journey?

ECM main computer almost never fail on any cars. Very robust design, doesn’t even run directly on 12 volts so it can’t get zapped etc. If mechanic is so sure that is problem, get in writing that he guarantees it or he refunds the money if he is wrong. Random no starts or car cutting out while driving with no code stored, is often cps, crank position sensor( or signal from it losing continuity to ecm). Fairly cheap and easily replaced part on most cars. Heat and vibration cause it to fail. On the older hyundai the wires would get visibly frayed and start to ground out. If you are lucky you will sometimes get a cps code pointing you in right direction, like daughter in laws 2012 journey 4 months ago, but not always in my experience. Especially on Hyundai, which are generally good cars.

Costco chart called it group 86 and it was identical dimensions and post orientation. Fit perfect. Usually I try to fit the biggest battery I can because they often charge the same for more cranking amp heavier battery. A larger stronger battery gives longer reserve if lights on etc, sometimes lasts a little longer. Because of awkward location on this vehicle I didn’t bother. Didn’t appear much room to spare. Try to cleaning off the remote jump start terminals with wire brush/sand paper. Or scrape multi meter probes for better contact, you should be getting over 12 volts if battery is still starting car. The agm glass mat batteries like Optimum are supposedly quite good; better vibration resistance, lighter physical weight. Very pricy for cars; I’ve used them on my ATV with good results. Small charging magneto and running a winch for plowing makes it a tough application. I use a special terminal spray to help prevent corrosion; seems to help. Sprayed on connections after install, lightly. There are other options.

I’ve never seen a car start with a battery that measures 11.5volts. You must be boosting it or your meter is inaccurate. Battery after 4 years pretty common. Not a lot of extra room on fender pedestal, get the right group number to fit.

Welcome to the forum, sounds like a frustrating problem. What codes are showing up with a scan? Which engine and how many miles? If no codes stored; then my WAG would be cps, crank position sensor. It can shut off car fast enough that code not always stored. Fairly cheap part, around $40 approx.

Look at the the two half shafts on the front wheels, make sure the boots are fine and not twisted. If a c/v shaft comes apart internally the wheels won’t move the car, but part of the shaft will still spin. Very rare type of failure to happen. If rpms are climbing and no movement, friction disc on clutch or pressure place probably worn out. Could raise front of car with both wheels up, engage in gear with car running and see if one wheel spins with no weight on it. This would confirm clutch slipping, or if grinding noise differential side gears in tranny bad.

Cause I am .....cheap haa haa. I’ve had great results with Costco (Johnson Control) batteries in the past. $120 price minus $10 recore and a 2 percent executive discount. Dealer last I checked would be almost double the price, and although slightly better, probably wouldn’t last twice as long. Good question.

If your journey started at -40 without a block heater, your battery is probably still fine. My 2014 r/t battery is still original and vehicle has 175k kilometers on it. Synthetic oil really helps with extreme cold starting IMO. On an old school analog load tester is still showing over 400 cranking amps at approx 50 F. The digital units at the parts stores are definetly more accurate. Just changed daughter in laws 2012 original journey battery on a 2.4 (little easier to crank) at Xmas with Costco unit. It was still functioning but she works shifts at a hospital, wanted to avoid problems. Old battery gets recycled to my lawn tractor now. I have to say I’m fairly impressed with the factory batteries; lots of power options on these cars as well. Pick a warm day if you do change battery, lots of plastic clips to wrestle with. Not my favourite place to work on a battery in a slushy wheel well. The 2.4 had tons of room under hood without having to use wheel well. Soak the 9/16 nuts on the battery hold down bracket with PB Blaster spray half hour before starting job. They get pretty corroded from the road salt. Old school battery tester picture.

Really good point made by 2late4u about warranty on repair done last year. If it is heat exchanger replacement again. Consider changing out the rear spark plugs that are accessible in minutes with the big plastic intake manifold out of the way. Saves approx.1.5 hrs of labour doing that at the same time. I think approx.100k mikes or 150 Kms for plugs is recommended replacement interval. The three ignition coils I would probably reuse unless really high milage vehicle.

It hit -23C around -5F early this morning here, not trouble shooting weather. Its a real chore cleaning up the mess between the cyclinder head valleys during the heat exchanger replacement. It’s possible there is lingering oil from last years repair and the snow/slush has washed down some of the old oil. Single oring seals holding up to 700 kpa or approx 100 psi of pressure during cold start ups and warm up. I wonder if it should have been double oring design. I always use 5w20 synthetic hoping to keep oil pressure a little lower. Dealer charged me $380 IIRCC for complete assembly with all sensors; fairly cheap for something this complex, maybe corporately discounted to reduce customer backlash. Volume moving items would be cheaper how ever. Passenger side leak could also be crankshaft pulley front seal; cheap $10 part fairly easy fix. Leak would be directly below pulley on front of engine. Usually a high milage engine failure item. Good luck....keep warm.