Windancer

Just wanted to let people know Chrysler finally has a part number for several requested items. On Friday I had some Chrysler Step Bars made especilly for the Journey installed. Also the front valance as shown in the photo is now available, I saw it last Friday and never picked it up, I was more interested in getting my Chrysler step bars installed.
Terry

Very true, I'm certainly not saying it's wrong, just confusing to us northerners......LOL
 
Terry
 

i cant believe i just lost 2 minutes of my life reading this post,

IDK, when the gauge reads between 1/4 & 1/3 I go fill it up, then it reads full.  I then drive till it gets back to 1/4 & 1/3 and fill up again.  I never run out of  gas that way.  I really don’t care how much I put in.  Just me.....

Same here. Lol. When it gets low, I fill it up. I don’t care how much. It is what it is. 

You were being treated in a truly condescending manner and/or the CSR you dealt with is a complete idiot.  And I'm amazed to still be hearing about this after 6 years.  By now you'd think they'd have figured it out because it is NOT rocket science.

Let's start with: 
 
1. There is no place 'in the engine' for any volume of gas - fuel flows from the tank through the pump and to the injectors.
2. The specification is for what's known as the 'dry capacity' of the gas tank - if there was indeed 'place in the engine' for gas it would be in addition to the tank capacity because the fuel is pressurised by the fuel pump IN the tank - the engine couldn't use any fuel 'in the engine' because once the tank was empty there would be no pressure to drive the fuel through the injectors. 
3. Note that the capacity specification presumes that there is no fuel at all in the tank, which can never happen, unless there's a hole, the tank has been removed and drained or it's a brand, spanking new tank.  So unless the pump is inaccurate you can never pump in the entire 20.5 or however many gallons are specified for your vehicle (AWD vehicle tanks are slightly different from FWD, by the way).
4. If you slowly top up the tank to the point where the fuel level remains at filler's neck, then the tank is full.

Now, it is NOT a good thing to run the tank down to the point where the vehicle stalls too often for a couple of good reasons:
 
1. The fuel in the tank is used to cool the fuel pump.
2. Once the fuel level gets down near the bottom of the tank, the pump may well start to suck in any crud that has settled. 
 
There is a strainer in the pump, but you don't want it to get blocked up if you can avoid it and you don't want the pump to overheat either - those are a relatively expensive repairs, but for the purpose of characterising the issue it shouldn't hurt anything to run the diagnostics.
 
There is no way to completely drain the tank in any case, since the inlet is slightly above the tank floor, this in part to minimise the likelihood of the fuel pump ingesting any crud - but also because the pickup would need to be outside of the tank to do this - so there's likely to be (and I have not done any scientific measurements, so this is just a WAG) a gallon or so that is left in the tank when the vehicle stalls out from fuel starvation . . . .
 
Note that even with a normally operating fuel gauge you have up to 75 miles or even more of range (depending on driving conditions) before it stalls out, so when you fill normally there is likely to be a couple or so gallons of fuel in there above the fuel pump's inlet.
 
Now, there are only two possible explanations for why you can't pump in more than the 14 gallons or so of fuel your report once the gauge reads empty:
 
1. The fuel gauge is not reporting the level properly - and note that for the vast majority of us the gauge DOES work reasonably accurately.
2. The fuel tank is deformed and simply does not have the capacity to hold as much fuel as specified.

There's a third one, though it doesn't affect capacity, just how fast you can fill the tank - and that is:

3. Because the filler pipe might be kinked.

It could always be a combination of these three, of course.

The way to figure out which it likely is requires experimentation and a tiny bit of logic :

1. Fill a gas canister with a known amount of fuel - one or two accurately pumped gallons of fuel should suffice - and put that in the vehicle.
2. Note the mileage and fuel gauge position when the 'low fuel' light comes on.
3. Continue to drive the vehicle until the engine starts to sputter, pull over and switch off the engine - try not to be too far from a quality gas station that has reasonably accurate pumps.
4. Note the gauge position, mileage and reset the fuel economy gauge.
5. Pour all the fuel in the gas canister into the tank, drive to the gas station and fill the tank TO THE BRIM, topping it up until you see fuel in the neck that does not flow down the tube when you stop filling.
6. Note the amount of fuel you pumped in, add the amount of fuel that was in the a canister to the total and subtract the amount of fuel that was used to get to the station based on the economy gauge readout and the distance travelled from the 'sputter point'.
 
By doing this you will have characterised the amount of 'reserve range and the relative positions of the fuel gauge when it goes into reserve and when the vehicle is out of usable fuel.
 
- If the gauge position at the 'sputter point' is too high then it is a perception issue.
- If you get a number like 14 gallons the problem is the tank itself.
- If you pumped in 18-20 gallons of gas then it is going to be the fuel level sender and/or the device (known as an A to D converter) that converts the sender's data to a value that the vehicle's BCM uses - the part may actually be IN the BCM, but that's just a detail.

- If you can't fill the tank at the pump's normal speed, then likely the filler is crimped or kinked . . . . . but you should still be able to fill the tank, albeit slowly.  If the pipe is bent or crimped it may also be a sign that the tank is deformed.

And with the information gleaned from this test you should have the information necessary to get the problem resolved.  Of course it could be that you aren't running the tank down to the bottom  1/8 of a 20 gallon tank being about 2.5 gallons - add that to the 'unusable' gallon or two and pumping 14 or so gallons in because you used none of the reserve might well be normal.
 
I don't know why FCA hasn't done this (or perhaps they have and determined that the cost to repair is high enough that they simply don't want to admit it).

Please let us know what you determine.

I have both the front hood air deflector and the sunroof air deflector in a smoked colour and I put "chrome" edging around it, a forum member (wish I could remember his name) mentioned he got a chrome one which I would imagine looks very good.
Terry

No problem Mr. Fix It,  I too am of the age where I grew up on the Imperial system. It was very strange to "relearn" the metric system. It was 1977 and I was in University studying to be an Architect. That was a real learning experience, was it a 2x4 or a 38x89 wood stud as an example. It's strange I have embraced the metric system yet I still say I'm 5' 10 and weigh 200 pounds, some things just don't change....... ;-)
 

No problem Mr. Fix It,  I too am of the age where I grew up on the Imperial system. It was very strange to "relearn" the metric system. It was 1977 and I was in University studying to be an Architect. That was a real learning experience, was it a 2x4 or a 38x89 wood stud as an example. It's strange I have embraced the metric system yet I still say I'm 5' 10 and weigh 200 pounds, some things just don't change....... ;-)
 

As Bramfrank mentioned because you live in Ontario and have a Canadian Journey I'm not really sure why you would want the American system. Remember there is 2 non metric systems, Imperial and U.S. measurements. Your Journey, like mine has the American equivalents, so when your car reads 20 mpg US , it's actually 25 mpg (Imperial) in something you're more accustomed to. Remember the US system is different than the English Imperial System.
 
Terry

As Bramfrank mentioned because you live in Ontario and have a Canadian Journey I'm not really sure why you would want the American system. Remember there is 2 non metric systems, Imperial and U.S. measurements. Your Journey, like mine has the American equivalents, so when your car reads 20 mpg US , it's actually 25 mpg (Imperial) in something you're more accustomed to. Remember the US system is different than the English Imperial System.
 
Terry

Just a quick observation here, this is the case with my car and may not be indicitive of other cars. My EVIC on my dashboard shows no where near real world gas consumption. You might need to do it the old fashioned way, paper and pencil I have use fuelly.com from day one and my culmulitive total over 46,000 kilometers is shown below.
Terry

I must admit I do have the leather package in my car and for me the biggest advantage of this is probably my dog, if he gets the seats muddy I just wipe them off.
Terry

Up here we have a small company (Fibernew) that does awesome repairs on anything leather, whether it be lather car interiors, couches , jackets etc. I had him repair my leather seat in my Journey and after 2 years the repair is doing very well. I also had him repair a dime sized hole in my Saturn Sky drivers seat and it can't be found now. If any one is interested and if I can find the photos I could put them up. There probably someone in you area that could do the same.
Terry

Same here, the mileage difference between city and highway is huge.
Terry

Same here, the mileage difference between city and highway is huge.
Terry

Same here, the mileage difference between city and highway is huge.
Terry

I got my dealer to install both front and rear mudguards when I picked up the car. It is a 2010 but I am sure they are all the same.
Terry

Unfortunately I would rather do the math because my EVIC is consistently wrong........ While I am on the subject, do others feel their EVIC is way out, just curious.
Terry

Remember our gallon is 25% larger.......
Terry

Unfortunately I would rather do the math because my EVIC is consistently wrong........ While I am on the subject, do others feel their EVIC is way out, just curious.
Terry

Remember our gallon is 25% larger.......
Terry

Personally Defender007 I would have your dealer or what you consider a honest dealer look at your car because you definately should get better mileage than what yo are getting. My 2010 gets poor mileage in the city and winter but take it for a trip on the highway and I am very happy (see my earlier post).
Terry

I have maintained that for several years. IMO the unit we have in our vehicles seems to be a cash grab for Navteq or Garmin.
I have a 2010 Journey which uses a Navteq system which I believe is the parent company of Garmin (somebody corrected me on this before) I also have a lifetime warranty on my portable Garmin Nuvi and IMO it is just as good or better than what I have in my car. It offers probably what amounts to 4 upgrades per year although they are very time consuming to download (I do it at night) they are much newer than what I have in my car.At the moment I feel I can trust my portable Nuvi more than I can the expensive GPS unit in my vehicle.
Last week I upgraded my system by visiting the website Dodgecacares mentioned for $149 for a one time upgrade. When I upgraded in May 2011 the Navteq rep confided in me that really all that was needed is to upgrade every 2nd one and they were sure it would be fine. Another thing it said on my invoice 2011 Maps, today is December 12th 2012 soon to be 2013. Is this the newest map they have? I have an email into them but as of yet have not received a reply, I am interested to hear their response.
Terry

In Canada a feat would be 0.3048000 metres.