John/Horace

I’m not a huge snake oil believer. But I have seen it unstick a lifter and fix a few other minor things before. I like Casteol oil, they have good products. Are you the original owner and was it Castrol syn from new ?

Welcome to the site! I’m not an expert either, free advice is worth everything you pay for it. There are passages called oil galleys in all engines. Sometimes when they are designed too narrow they can start to sludge up and partly restrict adequate oil flow. The galleys being narrow as a design flaw has occurred on a few engine like the Chrysler 2.7 v6 (actually a mitsubishi design IIRCC) and the older Toyota v6 from a decade ago. People who used synthetic oil or over changed Dino oil never had issues. Others not so lucky. Mt brothers Chrysler 300 with a 3.5 was driven to wreckers with over 200k miles and no engines issues. Lots of body rust and assorted : other suspension issues exceeded car repair value. He is a person who barely does his maint, so I think the 3.5 is a tough engine. There are engine flush products on the market that you could try to see if they help oil flow inside the engine. Follow instructions closely, you damage engine if you don’t. Testing oil pressure if it’s not showing on your gauge cluster might be helpful. Oil pump pickup in pan has a screen that can start to get gummed up.

Multiple random misfire can be a split in the plastic intake manifold tubing after air filter. I’ve seen it on hyundai v6 engines although they are maf sensor engines, not map.

Glad you got it done. I figured on a rack subframe could be shifted. But rack tied up not making money during whole procedure so not a cheap job. Money well spent with your low milage. You will need reliable vehicle when dust settles from covid.

Single piece on car, like a transmission side cover that he wants to change because it is leaking.

What was battery voltage after sitting over night. Around 12.4-12.6 and your battery is probably ok. Maybe unbolt fastners on the remote battery connections and sand until shiny. Add smear of dielectric on surfaces during assembly. My 2014 were pretty dirty when I cleaned them up after alternator replacement. Was it a new or reman alternator put in.

I don’t have a 2.4. I would guess Purge vent valve is close by, it’s for emissions. Will creat code if not hooked up. Size of a D cell battery. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/dodge,2012,journey,2.4l+l4,1502335,exhaust+&+emission,vapor+canister+purge+valve+/+solenoid,4936

He is not planning on removing transaxle from vehicle, want to try and change cover with it in place.

Scan for stored codes in ecm. Bad cell stays bad and drops battery voltage. What does multi meter show for volts dc. Load test on battery can be simulated with multi meter and turning on most accessories with car running. Need to scratch probes on the remote jumper posts to get a good reading. The remote contacts drops about 0.3 from main battery posts voltage of 12.7-12.8 for full charged newish battery. Did you add any LED bulbs to the wire harness?

Pic would be useful. Start car and listen for the vacuum leak, plug hose back in. Egr often has vac hose. Clear the codes that might be generated by running with vac leak for a minute.

A pic of where this bad connection is would also be helpful for other owners. Heat shrink and solder are the best electrical fixes.

Haa ha great question. The one to have back was the one I owned for the shortest time. It was a 1969 rag top I bought for $100 with almost that many parking tickets on it. Fortunately no decent computer systems to track down subsequent owners. Owned it for only one month. Replaced battery and I think starter relay. It needed a new top which was crazy expensive. Someone offered me $900 which was a $600 profit...needed the money so I took it thinking I would get another one eventually. Four decades later and eventually never came. Not practical to own a collector car, don’t have the space. The simplicity and diy capability of the VW bug taught a lot of people to fix their own car. Something that is rapidly disappearing unfortunately.

Welcome to site, nice color combo. Tranny fluid and diff and ptu fluid changes all good idea. With tranny you could easily siphon out about 4 litres a few days after the first change so you end up with around 70% new fluid approx. I believe Chrysler uses NTK O2 sensors as OEM which are one of the best on market so 117k kms a little early IMO. Rear sensors like your dad will tell you just monitor what’s coming out of cat for emissions so aren’t that critical until you have a code. Front does fuel control so very important, but I would wait until you either have stuff apart under hood that makes access super easy or your closer to 150k at least. Staying in longer does not affect how they come out, stainless threads don’t rust in usually. The spark irredium plugs are rated for 160k so I would wait until then.

And the other important detail, they often sell OEM parts cheaper. So no comprise on proper fit. Heavy stuff like rotors usually not worth buying because of shipping costs. People close to border can even buy items with recore and drop it in USPS mail next time they cross border to get their credit.

None of mine did and I had no misfire codes. Normally a small dab dielectric grease is put on both contact end to prevent arcing. The coil boots are only few bucks from Rockauto, https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/dodge,2014,journey,3.6l+v6,3300354,ignition,spark+plug+/+coil-on-plug+boot,10150

I changed plugs 2 years when doing oil cooler leak, which is a fair amount of work. Had lower intake etc removed. Plugs by themselves isn’t terrible I agree. How were the coil boots? You can buy them separately, one of mine split apart during removal. If you are getting more misfires after new plugs, maybe some of them got damaged. Coil assembly has new boot automatically included. Misfire moving around cyclinders is sometimes pointing to intake manifold air leaks. The lower intake has O rings that can be changed. Coils don’t usually work and then suddenly not work properly. Plastic intake could be affected by temperature and air flow. Misfires can mess up catalytic converters, not something to let slide IMO.

Yeah the glycol on the pulleys can chirp. Brake cleaner on pulleys to degrease sometimes helps. Alternators on V6 engines are never easy, starters in the same category. Glad you got it done.

Great you got it done. Wish we had Journey diesels over here. I think the pricing issue is the double mark up. VW sells part and marks it up, then Dodge resells it and marks it up again. We have car companies here that put their names on Korean cars that have the same parts pricing problem. Ford has used Yamaha engines on a few occasions, engine parts are almost double if you own one of these vehicles. Good engines, very pricy parts.

Crack could be mig welded if necessary. May only be scale, surface rust.

Looks like it, with an ex centric adjustment that locks against sheet metal lip. Mark where hole is, might need to go back in same spot. Spray penetrating lube into the holes, should run in behind and help free up. Try a cold chisel and tap it behind washer so it starts to separate from bolt.

I wouldn’t worry about reusing axle nut, it’s often done. Use a few drops of blue loctite if you are concerned. Size of bolt influences torque spec, if it’s a 12 mm I think 35 pds is fine. Sometimes I measure torque when removing bolt to estimate the torque, but rusted in bolts throw that off and aren’t accurate enough. I have used sliding hammer and had ball bearings flying across room sometimes. Strut is tuff and designed for load bearing. Sometimes using a coal chisel and hammering into flange shoulder between bearing and hub will break the rust free and avoid sliding hammer.

The vvt screen is possibly plugged so the solenoids may not get enough pressure to operate properly. Some kind of snake oil engine flush additive might be able to clear it out. I wouldn’t pull head off of it for cleaning, head gasket change etc pretty finicky and $. Main bearings etc may already have extra wear. Its the oil pump pickup in the oil pan I worry about the most. Could drop pan and clean it out, paying attention to screen on pick up. There are products on the market for sludge motors, as they call them. Life span may be limited. Do a compression check if you can.

Decent impact gun, vibration helps a lot. If no oxyacetylene, I like yellow MPS gas with regular torch.Wont get cherry red but often will do the job. Looks rusted in. Or break it loose with a big Johnson bar after soaking with penetrating oil. Watch those threads if hitting with a hammer.

I’m thinking traps, Lee valley has good stuff usually. Stay away from paint like you said. https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/home/pest-control/insects/44955-spider-traps?item=AT225&utm_source=free_google_shopping&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=shopping_feed&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6eS258uA7AIVUsDICh0I5AEUEAQYASABEgIHe_D_BwE

Underneath head gasket location, yeah looks like it. Nice pic however. Makes flushing undoable , crap. Two sensors breaking at once seems suspicious. I guess put in a new sensor where broken one is, use engine cleaner on the used intake vvt sensor. With sensor plugged into wire harness and key on but not installed, the solenoid might cycle. Could allow better cleaning if you can cycle it a few times and spray cleaner into sensor openings. Fingers crossed.