5rebel9

6:00 am..... it snowed thru the night and measured 9". Light powder....just what skiers love (I suppose). YES the plows have been out, and just a thin coating on the road as viewed from my front windows. Still snowing, but NOT a "storm"!

LOL and YES they can have all they want as long s my normal driving patterns are not deeply impacted. I've got nothing against the "ski people" 8:30 pm and we have MAYBE 4" of the white stuff....but definitely NOT a heavy lake effect STORM

Thanksgiving Day morning and so far SOME light snowfall, but so far a big "nothing burger". Buffalo news stations still calling for 1-2 feet by Sat. morning for my area.

AWW, you beat me to the posting! Thank you and the same to you and yours!

I hear you! My snowblower is ready, but IF we were to lose power my back up is the 110 outlet in the wifes RT. That should be enough to tun the blower on my wood stove and have some heat for most of the house as I don't have a generator.

I'm beginning to debate whether to try driving it or not....latest predictions by Friday 6:oopm are for a total of 1-2 FEET of snow ! We are also having much rain today and tomorrow with high gusting winds Thursday!

It looks like my next chance for real winter driving will be on thurs. and Friday. Buffalo,NY not expected to get more than 2" of snow, but in the Southern tier below Buffalo(where I'm at) is forecast to get up to 6" of the white stuff. Today I lowered tires to 34 psi and loaded 6 (44lb.each) bags across the rear cargo area. It surely squatted down the rear end, but made the front look like it was climbing for the sky. So I then placed 3 bags on each side of the middle floor, now it is sitting level and I can tell there is weight distributed to the front as the steering wheel has a bit more firmness when turning lock to lock when sitting still (engine running of course). The only downside is that the bags come level with the seat bottom, so other than my granddaughter in her car seat would be most uncomfortable riding in back. But the bags can easily be moved to the rear should passengers need to be in the rear(middle) seat. Stay tuned for report on how this works out or not!

Good luck with it being the sensor. When mine went, the symptoms were not going into 6th gear or "overdrive" , but ran and shifted fine thur the rest of the gears(of course having the CEL all the time). I can't say though that it was ever in "limp mode", just R thru 1-5 and operating as normal. At least yours being a FWD, there is a bit less demanding work to pull the trans IF needed than mine all having been AWD.

I can not find the info needed for your '09. Is it the 3.5 with 6 speed trans or the 2.4 with the 4 speed?....LOL, I just saw a 3.5 that should have the 62te My now gone '14 showed the code for that (3.6/62te) and it turned out to be the torque converter itself. Which in my many postings is a story all in itself, the new aftermarket converter was bad and had to be replaced again along with the flex plate which cracked from the bad torque converter. My friend made things right with minimal labor charge the second time.

Switched them around and NO MORE WIND NOISE. I guess work should be done when there's light to see what you are doing!

OK, so last night IN THE DARK I transferred the crossbars from our '13 RT to my '13 SXT. so I could transport a ladder today. Right away I noticed wind noise with the cross bars(no ladder yet), so I stopped to check them and noticed IN DAYLIGHT that the bars are shaped like an airfoil(wing) with thick edge and tapered edge. I don't have owners manual for placement, but surmise that the thick edge should face forward, of course I have them on with the tapered edge forward. I have to go out again in a while and will swap positioning of them and see if wind noise goes away or lessens/ gets worse. Yes this 4 banger drives so quietly that it was quite annoying to hear the wind noise, and yes with the 20' extension ladder secured on top it REALLY "sang"!

Glad to hear that you are getting things "sorted out"! YES, ordering the correct RF frequency to the year and model are critical to have things work.

Thank you both for your input, yes weight and proper preparation are crucial along with prudent speed in winter conditions. But I feel 40 mph should be reasonable on plowed but some snow pack/slight mealy roads, which right now this car is NOT able. I'm no "newbie" to winter driving, as I've been driving for 50 years now and in a multitude of vehicles. The point is that I have been spoiled by starting out with the awd versions(3 of them) and NOW have this FWD. I feel the placement of weight is just as important as to having weight in the car, especially after what I experienced yesterday. My sister(the previous owner) said that they needed weight in the rear, but not too much so that the front drive wheels still had "bite" to get up hills around their home area. And partly why they "gave up" on keeping this car, they bought a newer( I think a '22 model) RAV4 AWD. This will be the 2nd winter with it for them and we will see how well they still like that ride, it has been at the dealer 3 times already for repairs to systems not usually encountered in normal driving. Stay tuned for more postings when western NY get more significant snows.

LIGHT BULB MOMENT.... Our home has a water softener that uses 40lb bags of salt. I am going to place 2 bags in each middle footwell area and cover with a runner rug to prevent any punctures. This would put the weight more to center and "balance" things out, as the front end seemed "light " also. We rarely have passengers back there anyway, and come Spring I can then use the salt for it's intended purpose in the house! When we get more snows that would cause concerns, I'll post about how this works for me.

IF someone can "rap" the starter with a hammer and it starts "every time" as you said, the problem IS the starter or wire connections to it.

So in my "observations" according to my last posting on the topic thread of "what did you do to your Journey today", here comes my story and plans for this 4 banger FWD DJ. Main roads were all cleared this morning and car drove fine, I was alone in the vehicle. So I took a different route back home on a hilly curvy road that I knew would be plowed but have numerous stretches where drifting(although plowed) would have a few inches of snow pack with slush. I know this road well and have learned the hard way NOT to drive it in the winter when it has snowed out. As expected at 40mph and hitting those areas, the car seemed to want to "float" on the front end and the rear started swaying. I got things under control with easing off the gas and NOT hitting the brakes, traction control or stability control did NOT activate. Now for those unaware of the work I've done with this car, suspension is good and fresh 4 wheel alignment done and all 4 corners have very aggressive tread snow tires My first thing I'm going to try is to lower the tire pressures down to 30 psi. I know the warning lights will probably activate, but so be it. Doing this is an "old school" trick for winter driving here. Next step is to add some weight in the rear. I want to "experiment with "placement", whether very rear or forward rear in the lower storage area (this is a 5 pass. model) and then try in the middle floorboard area. I believe the weight difference of having AWD (not that it has engaged) is the factor between the two types for "handling. As my son's '11 AWD(full snows) AND THE WIFE'S '13 awd(newer all seasons) feel much more "planted" to the road under similar conditions. Also the relatively shorter wheelbase of the Journeys does make them a bit more "skittish" anyways when compared to other vehicles. PLEASE NOTE that these are my observations and ideas to try, and NOT that I'm saying these are "bad cars". just trying to make the winter driving experience a bit less stressful. STAY TUNED for progress updates, they will be slow in coming as snow conditions need to be happening to make any judgments of what I try.

WELL.... The "change of season "hoodwinked" all of us yesterday(our first SNOW)! It rained most of Monday, changing to freezing(ice) and then snow overnight to wet snow of 4 -6 inches by 8:00am ! Roads were horrible, but wife in her RT awd and I in the 4 banger made the trek to my friends shop to leave the 4 banger to get the work done. 15 miles at no more than 40mph !!! He had said that it MAY NOT get done for Tues., but as it turned out the bad weather was in my favor. Other customers had canceled, and other jobs were delayed for late arrival of parts. Since I was supplying the parts needed, he took my ride in and got the work done. NOW the car is driving the way it should and for 184k miles feels like(and sounds like) a new car! I will see, once I get my winter driving skills more woken up, on how well the fwd compares to the awd and will make a topic on MY observations....stay tuned!

WELL... I've been enjoying driving my 4 banger and checking it out for any further things to address on it. Going to get both front wheel bearings replaced and the new sway bar end links(all Moog parts thru rockauto) by my friend. The weather has changed for the season, so unless an EMERGENCY repair no more work out in my driveway! Parts arrive today. So far, I'm liking the car even though not as much power or "upper end" acceleration....but that's fine with me!

A bit more info of your 2012 would be most helpful to receive responses. V6 or 4 cylinder? Trim level small 4.3 screen or the big 8.4 Does it have the phone button/voice recognition on the left steering wheel spoke Have you attempted any charging system repairs besides just "parking it". Do you have any idea of how old the battery is? There are a number of things that can cause a battery drain, there is NO ONE PINPOIUNT cause, but a number of things to check out that can cause such.

Keeping full coverage really depends on your driving area risks in your area. flooding URBAN and risk of other drivers causing any accident to you. IF you cause your own "OOPS" damage . Etcetera I carried COMP/glass on my Buick due to weather, animal, glass damage from a myriad of causes. But I left off the collision due to the rarity of being in heavy traffic that I would cause an accident(which collision is for). All my DJ's have just needed liability with raised limits to pay out other "victims"if I was the cause of an accident. My DJ's are '11- '13's and more miles with the traditional NY rust and small dents and scratches. I don't have a "ton" of money into any of them like having bought new and maintained, so no great loss. Mine usually have the body/undersides go out and need for "junking" rather than accidents. AND I have ready access to good used body parts (if needed) thru my friend. I guess you could say I'm a bit different in my "circumstances" than most members here. YES just what coverages and ins. company is a real "crap shoot" in today's world !!!! GOOD LUCK !

I must say that you seem to have a very ODD and perplexing situation there. On the '13, what trim level is your ride ( big brakes or the older small brakes) and what brand parts (for your calipers, M.C. ABS module) did you use? I've heard a lot about poor quality M.C.'s out there But at a loss for suggestions about your untouched '18 DJ. My brake pedal travel on all 3 of our DJ's is only an inch of travel before stopping power and stays firm unless overheating the brakes, THEN I notice "pedal drop" or more aptly known as brake fade. WHICH I DO MY BEST TO AVOID DOING.

I realize that it's only been 2 days since member @luzmina posted his "query", but I wonder if he was looking for opposite replies from what he posted.

YES, I now also have a 2013 2,4 motor DJ with 183k miles and I have just replaced the rotors and pads(yes turned and pressed the rear pistons back) and the brakes are FRIM AND STEADY on the pedal. NO PROBLEM HERE.

WELL... the rains ended for now and the winds died down with temps around 45*f. Pulled the interior fuse panel back down and all was good for wires there, so put it all back together and tried the washers. The fronts worked properly but still no go on the rears(no pump sound or flow). BUT it did not kick out the front washers. I tried the rears a few more times while alternating with the fronts, all of a sudden the rear started working! the spray pattern was kind of "funky" but it works! All I can think of is that the line had developed a blockage that finally worked free. Whatever the matter, I'm NOT GOING TO LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH over this matter. CASE CLOSED!

SORRY for the wrong person being sent "KUDOS". It was the autofill/autocorrect feature of the forum that made the mistake(but I didn't catch it) Still have to wait for rains/wind to stop and temps to warm back up a bit before further work on the problem......LOL