b1pig

Jay, I have to ask this..... I see you have a Challenger as your profile pic... and your screen name supports it. Did you keep it or did you have to trade it for the Journey? We had a 2010 SE that we loved dearly, but had to trade due to ANOTHER baby coming. As with other posts you've made... we both agree. The Pentastar is phenomenal in its performance. The package with the Journey is very respectable, too. Glad you're liking it. We've got about 7000 miles on our 2011 Mainstreet now. No major complaints. Very happy. i do plan, however... in aquiring another Challenger. one day. maybe

ours idles rough when the engine is cold. once warm, its gone. granted, in the first couple thousand miles, it ran rough alot. maybe that was what you experienced as well. as a side note, i'm one of those who isnt really nit-picky. i look at a car as a mechanical device. its a machine and its going to make some noise or shakes or something. as long as its not "alarming", i dont worry about it.

just a note. the car hasn't done it again since i posted this.

hahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

mercedes, nissan, ford, chevrolet (aka: GM) are all using transponder keys... and have for quite some time. and they all cost a large amount of money. guess you should start searching for used subarus on craigslist if you dont want to have a transponder keyed vehicle.

i think Doug has the "ECO" thing right. the 2010 Challenger SE we had before the Journey was a basic car. In the simple EVIC in that car, "ECO" would be displayed when driving within a predetermined range (speed/throttle position) which would produce a reasonable fuel economy. i haven't noticed if my Journey has it or not.

if you want to know for sure that your vehicle came with it... go to dodge website. at bottom under Support, click "contact us". on that page, select "customer assistance". in purpose for email, put "build sheet" i always include the full VIN in the body and ask for the build sheet. they usually respond fairly quick. The build sheet has every sales code that was sold with your vehicle... everything but nuts and bolts. as irony would have it... i dont see anything in my build sheet about a compass... and i have one.

dont have it right now... but if i think of it at some point, i'll do it. update.... just went out and fired it up. didn't do it. like i said... on mine, its completely unpredictable, but the car has been sitting for two days.

most all replacement bumpers come unpainted... if the damage isnt that bad, a good shop can plastic-weld the cracks/tears in the plastic, as well.

ray city, Georgia, United States.

i listen to a great deal of music. Chevelle and Breaking Benjamin are my favorite for rock.... but i dabble a bit in country, rap and r&b... all the way to Techmaster PEB hahahaha...

hey guys. recently, i've noticed that the Journey will have "valve clatter" for a second (or less) at startup after sitting a while. i had also recently had a problem with my Jeep (JK 3.8) doing the same, except it was for 3-4 seconds. turns out... Fram filters have a series of issues... one being crappy (or nonexistent) anti-dranback valves in the filters. swapping to a K&N in my Jeep fixed it. however.... i had some questions since the tech stuff i have read on the 3.6 a while back stated that the engine was designed to defeat any chance of oil drainback problems. made me wonder. so, i called a friend of mine who is a dealer tech. he looked up some info and found a dealer service note. apparently there is a noted problem with some 3.6 engines related to the VVT system. the word he used escaped me, but essentially the solenoid(s) for the VVT are the cause of the clatter. nothing will usually be done until it trips the CEL and one of the VVT solenoid codes are displayed. based on what he has read, its more an annoyance than anything serious, however, if the codes are in the system, they will definitely fix it. thought i'd put that up here for anyone else who may run into this.

Diablo Sport is who i'd REALLY like to see jump into the game. their programmers would allow us to see more than a modest gain with mods.... and really maximize the investments.

i put mine in a week or so ago. we hardly drive, so we haven't noted anything of note. i just prefer the K&N so i can clean/service it when i change the oil. almost everything i own has one.

the source... lets just say its a "chrysler maintenance tech".... i dont have the problem at all. mine is fine. i just know that there are a few on here that have had the problem.

just read this.... " Before changing out a fuel pump module or fuel tank on any 2011 or 2012 JC (Journey) vehicle, please refer to the following: There has been an issue identified on Front Wheel Drive JC vehicles which prohibits the fuel gauge from reading “Full” after refueling. The gauges will read anywhere between ¾ and just under “F”. If you encounter this customer concern, be advised that a fix is in process and is estimated to be released by 7/1/2012, but no part replacements will resolve this issue. There are, however; other causes that can also prohibit a fuel gauge from reading full, and technicians are advised to ensure the vehicle is actually taking enough fuel on refueling (20.5 gallons) before releasing the vehicle. This issue has also been shown to affect 2010 and prior 2.7L JC vehicles."

Actually, I ordered the K&N panel filter and installed it. When I did... I noticed a felt-looking oval extention in the bottom of the intake from the snorkel. It looked pointless, so I removed it. :D (counts as first mod... hahahaa) That said, there definitely is a little more of a throaty growl from under the hood at a certain rpm range. Just took a short drive. I'm taking the wife to a doctors appointment "today", so I might try to actually pay attention this time. If there is any change in the routine 24.x mpg we have been seeing, i'll let y'all know.

you can certainly disable/enable the DRL in the US Spec Journey with the 8.4

if its truly that bad, then you should consult your state's lemon law and see if it applies. of the last several vehicles i've owned.... 98 Grand Cherokee 07 Wrangler Rubicon 10 Challenger SE 11 Journey I had a ton of issues with my Wrangler, as it was an early release on the first year. (anyone will tell you not to buy the first year) I think i had 9 dealer visits in the first year. all were resolved without issue. since the first year, i've had one dealer visit barely under warranty and again, no issue. i never had one single problem from the grand cherokee that wasn't directly related to something stupid that i did myself. the challenger had one trim piece replaced due to a crack. traded it at 18,000 miles for the Journey... out of necessity. The Challenger was by far my favorite car I have ever owned in my life so far, and I can only hope to own another in the future. I've seen no hint of trouble from our Journey thus far, and my experience with Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge has been pleasant overall. everyone should be aware that cars these days tend to wear the rear pads more than the front. i think partly due to the esp stuff. i replaced the rear pads on my JK with about 27,000 miles on them. fronts looked like they weren't even half-worn. Looked recently and still in excellent shape. with tire size, you do NOT have to purchase the exact same tire size. many good tire shops can assist you with what fits and will be near enough to the original that it doesn't matter anyway.

damage from either a curb or an object in road.... maybe a pothole. could be anything. i had a similar cut on the sidewall of my jeep's tire. it was a BFG M/T on my Rubicon, and they aren't cheap. i swapped it for my spare and kept the cut tire. never had to run it. never lost air, either. the cut will look bad. usually there are two sidewall plies. if it didnt cut the first ply, it would likely be ok for a short period. if it cut one of the plies, i'd immediately swap the spare and get it replaced.

i tried to contact Shell directly through the "contact us" on their website. ofcourse, i got no response in reference to what (if any) of their fuels contained no ethanol. So far as I can tell from their site, ALL fuels contain ethanol. someone posted up the website pure-gas.org and i checked it. there are a couple of places in town which are supposed to have ethanol-free fuel. i'll have to test it. the aviation scene has a "test kit" for ethanol. its a marked fuel cup. you fill it to a line with fuel. add water to a specific line. as always, there will be a separation between the water and fuel. water "grows" then you have fuel containing ethanol. at some point, i'm gonna get one of the cups and test a couple of these stations... and this "myth" that Shell Premium contains no ethanol. I think it does. I run premium in mine and my wife's motorcycles. The last time, hers sat, the fuel separated. also. the "value"... from my recent test of ethanol in our Journey: oh. performance. i have to say, that once the computer had compensated for the change in fuel, there was a distinct improvement by seat-of-the-pants. the car moved with a great deal of authority....

squeal can be for several reasons. many times from heat glazing. the crown vics we drive at work do that ALOT. especially the '98-'02 crown vics. in many cases it can be attributed to the materials used in the pads, too. the other possibility is the wear tabs rubbing. about the transmission plug. part of that answer is the fluid type... but the other common reason you will hear is that the auto transmissions are mostly considered "service free" with a 100,000 mile life. the theory is that you dont need to check anything that doesnt need checking. also be aware, that many CVT transmissions also dont have one. ..... and remaining on-topic..... 5,000 miles and still VERY happy with our 2011 Mainstreet.

i've done the same thing a couple of times. i was trying to buy a used 98 or 99 Jeep Cherokee from a ford dealer several years ago. I wanted a Cherokee to flat-tow a CJ5 we had. I kept getting crap from the sales rep which equated to a $500+ payment with our trade. I had gotten a trade quote from a Dodge Dealer for a new Durango for the same amount! I wanted that Cherokee pretty bad, but that was way out of my affordable range, so I reluctantly turned away from it. Two days later and after a different dealer bullied my wife for two days on some vehicles I did NOT want, I looked at a '98 Grand Cherokee that was a couple thousand outside my price range. I had a very good sales person and they wanted to make the deal. I drove it and fell in love with it. "somehow" they took my trade and still got my payment more than $150 less than what the other dealer was willing to sell a less-valuable vehicle for. i also drove to the two sorry dealerships and pointed out their failings. i also made a complaint against the bullying sales rep with the sales manager..... they tried some really low crap to try and force a "deal" with them. I also encourage anyone to avoid a dealer that wont let you do a test drive. i did the same thing. i bought my wrangler from a valdosta dealer. when the challenger came out, they would not let you test drive it for fear of 'joyriders'. while i understand the approach, as a potential buyer, it turned me off. you had to pre-qualify for the purchase before a test drive was done... and you conducted your test from the passenger seat! the dealer that won my sale treated me like any other. tossed me the keys and said we'll see you in a few minutes. ...and when the salesman called trying to see if i was still interested in their challenger, i informed him that i bought one already from another dealer. just plain silly.

We're right around 5,000 miles on the Journey now. I've commented many times how I liked the field of view the headlights provide at night.... and now I know why. The low beams stay on when the high beams come on. This prevents loss of illumination close to the Journey and helps give VERY good coverage. I also ran a tank of E85 through it. According to the computer, average economy was 17mpg. Prior, our mileage was 24mpg on unleaded. The cost difference at the time was 15 cents a gallon.... and by my basic math.... it would cost me $18 more to travel the same distance with E85 than with regular unleaded gasoline. I wonder how much we've lost with 10% ethanol fuels.... wow. got a long way to go on that one. In any case, the Journey performed very well on the E85. It was actually pretty responsive and the transition to and from the E85 was imperceptible.

we're about to have the same "issue". Perrin is now in a forward facing seat and we have a little girl coming in March. Our 16 year old will have to tough it out.