Marius

On 4/19/2016 at 7:02 AM, dhh3 said:

We have a Used Car Dealer here that specializes in high end, low mileage vehicles. There was a Bentley Sport something or other (2 door) and was gone in a week! A while back, they did have a Commander. When I'm ready, I'll have them find me one. A month ago, there was a 2006/7 White Commander Limited on eBay with less than 500 miles on it. It was a prize for something. Asking price: $125,000! It was gone next time I looked.

125000 for a Commander?

Oh wait, that's an investment, being so low KM, it's probably going to be displayed forever and price will continuously go up.

For that money you have options, a lot of options.

I plan on keeping this one for a while. 11,000 miles in two years. I recall (ABS) and normal service. That's it. I bought it new in June, 2014, and replaced the tires in October before winter set in. No regrets. But, I do miss my 2006 Jeep Commander. If I could find a low mileage 2009 Overland (last year for the Overland), I'd snatch it up, and someone could be driving my fine DJ!.

That's one low mileage DJ indeed. It's unfortunate I got such bad experiences with my own, and had I been driving it 100% of the time, I'd blame it on myself -very lead footed over here - but this was the kids hauler, family mover and mostly driven by my dad/wife to and from school/work. Super gentle people, exceptional drivers. It just so happened that with mine a lot of bugs happened, notwithstanding the ridiculous suspension bolt unfastened that came from the factory and could have caused a catastrophic accident.

Anyway, everything's done and over with, the deal I got was totally worth it. I've moved on. Let me know when you find that Commander, I've been looking for one as well, 5.7 Hemi

You guys are hilarious, I agree, the taste can be bad if both dealerships and Chrysler CS central drop the ball on the customer. It happened to me, and the blood pressure got pretty close to "pop" pressures for sure.

Commander is awesome, I just sold my '86 CJ7 because ...well, wife and kids and I need to adult more.

As a side note, my Mercedes just got written off and instead of buying a new car I went out and found a 2005 Dodge Durango, and I swear, it's the best Dodge Journey ever

Before I get run over by beliebers, I swear this thing hauls arse. 5.7 Hemi, just purrs, like the day it left the factory floor. It has a couple cosmetic things to address, a hitch to add, some new keys to order, but this is the DJs older, bigger, badder, better brother for sure. Leather interior, 7 seater... almost as good as a Commander, not as 4x4able as one, but the road manners are beyond fantastic.

I have a feeling it's going to be my new "project", the people/family, the boat, the "JEEP", the hunting quad hauler.

You have a great minivan. I assume you had an 09 or 10 journey. Those were terrible

Nope, 2012 one, had it not been for all the brakes, mechanical issues it would have died with me. I absolutely loved the car when I bought it. The subsequent issues kind of ruined it.

Well, I guess it was a long time coming, but didn't see it coming as fast as it did. I got close to 91000km with it, with many bumps and bruises and definitely with a lot of headshakes to the dealer service levels and what's worse, corporate Chrysler CS.

To summarize the issues

Under 10k rear tires were bald

Hard shake under load brake or emergency brake on hwy were "explained" by repeated dealers as normal ABS

Sometimes around 30-40k we got a nail in the rear left tire, went to Costco for a fix, they found the suspension arm bolt 90% out of the socket. What's messed up though is until then I had a check up with "piece of mind" inspection done every 5000km with the oil changes. Sure enough, rotors were super warped - sorry buster, you're over 20k km, no go- even if aforementioned under 10k km rear tires bald, shake etc.

OK, after 3 different dealerships I found one that cared. They tried to fix

- left head

- cylinder #6

- tranny issues

- heads again

- tranny issues again...

I was all but ready to move on and into a 2015 Platinum F150 or Pathfinder when the sales and manager guy I had always been in touch with at this last dealership called me over for a special. And a special it was indeed. They paid off my Journey and some, and put me into a 0% Dodge Caravan R/T that feels, looks and drives nothing like a minivan.

Albeit the waste of time getting to this, being into a car that had 10km on board and drove like your Journey used to ...kind of makes up for the hectic last 4 years. If anyone in Vancouver is thinking of dealing with the same dealership it's Destination Chrysler/Dodge in North Vancouver. Tell them I sent you, Jason and Pablo are awesome guys to deal with.

Now ...let's build that Power Wagon

That's exactly it #4

Thank you sir!

My dad had an unfriendly building garage door close on him and it popped the cap off ...didn't notice until I got home and the cap is lost. Any idea where I can buy one? Search is futile so far.

Maybe people in Europe are shorter, they need lower cars, so theres an actual market to support them??

Too funny. I don't see the use personally, I go camping most of the summer and the way it is the DJ makes it to pretty good spots without dings and scratches or ...difficulties.

Personally I don't see the point. The RT's suspension handles my driving in hard turns upwards of 130 kmph. No matter how much I'd lower it I wouldn't try to match the Mercedes wagon speed in those turns. I can easily tackle them with the Mercedes with 160+, the DJs top is 140 with my butt cheeks tightly squeezed. It's a family car, comfortable family car. Save your money or put RT suspension on it.

Gotta love the techs that "dodge" their jobs...get it?? Dodge their jobs??? Lol. I crack myself up.

Too funny.

Ouch... Always do a quick visual check before going through all of the work to remove them. A mistake one only makes once... Are they sending the correct brakes then, or don't they have them? Others on the forum have used EBC's without issue.

I wish they carried the big ones, they don't

I don't know how many have been through this like me, I chose them because I had bought as well parts for my CJ7 for them in the past and recently. Price was good, service good. It's just the hassle of going through the return/search and purchase again.

Plus, the 13"/12.9" I think are 100-150 US more everywhere else I could find them now.

bad tire can make ti pull also my 14 crossroad had a slight pull to the right took it back once or twice they said alignment was right and so i rotated the rears to the front and front to rear and the pull was gone so i took it back told them what i had done and they acted like the problem was solved but i said i want 1 or 2 new tires for the bad ones on the rear after a little haggling they finally gave in and put 2 new ones on for me problem solved...good luck to you

Is yours a FWD only? Then two tires would solve it, otherwise for the AWD models you need all fours.

Quick update, whomever is buying EBC brakes online (I got them at autopartswarehouse.com) check your dimensions first. My 2012 DJ RT came with big brakes and they sold me the SXT model

Big brakes front 13" diameter, rear 12.9" diameter. Spoke to several people at Autohouse and that's what got sent to them for the year, the problem though is that they have them listed as the RT hardware for all subsequent years 2013/14/15 etc

They're coming through with the refund, at least they're amazing in that response. Waste of time on my part though, I had opened both fronts and took off the old hardware before realizing they are the wrong size.

Well, a couple of points, since the topic has become active again:

You can't REALLY blame the parts supplier for supplying the wrong size rotors and pads because Chrysler changed the dimensions midway through the model year - I suppose that if you are a DIY it is up to you to know this sort of thing in advance. I always include my VIN when ordering online parts, just in case. The good news is that apparently you can get the right parts from the supplier as a swap.

As to claiming rotors and brake components, Chrysler simply does not warrant these parts beyond 20,000 km - they never have.

But for the tire problem, considering that it was brought to their attention as soon as you discovered it, your claim should be valid - maybe . . . .

Usually small claims has a time limit (in Quebec it is three years) to file. However the question becomes one of 'who is liable?'

In this case you had a misdiagnosis at a dealer in an eastern province. It led to the premature wear of the tires. Chrysler, as a corporation did not deny the original service claim and their warranty does exclude consequential damage. So technically, they can hide behind that statement and claim that they did honour their warranty because they ultimately fixed the problem at no cost to you.

Certainly Chrysler COULD have replaced your tires as a goodwill measure in view of the abnormal circumstance, but it seems to me that your claim would be against the original dealer who failed to locate the undone bolt.

As to issues with the engine, I seem to recall that there was an issue with engine misfires in the early Pentastar engines and that there was some sort of unofficial goodwill repair program - here is one article on the topic:

http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/dealers-repairing-chrysler-v6-engines-some-pentastars-need-new-cylinder-heads

There's a reason I suggest to people that they consider buying OEM extended warranties - these vehicles are complex, filled with expensive electronics and the dealers are not as savvy about diagnostics as they could be.

Good luck

Hi Frank,

I agree wholeheartedly with everything that you are saying and I wouldn't feel one bit of discontent to the whole experience, HAD I NOT BROUGHT all this to their attention since 5000km on the car.

I am so, so sorry that I trusted them, lesson learned for the future though.

Yup, DIY muddle here and there. I knew previous year had smaller brakes, not this. My mistake there

I swear I am getting to the end of my patience.

Ordered all new EBC parts, and they sent the wrong stuff. Original front 13" diameter, they sent me fronts 11.9" diameter.

Seriously, some people do not deserve payday.

Awesome, thanks, will do.

Marius,

Glad to hear the issue was identified, any news from your dealer?

Hopefully things will be looking up once you get your vehicle back.

Sorry, should have also mentioned the car is done, don't have the spreadsheet in front of me with the parts that were replaced, I just know it was a cylinder #2 head issue. They tested -switched coils- and same error popped up so they replaced it.

Haven't driven yet the car, my dad says it handles better. Will have to see

Marius,

Glad to hear the issue was identified, any news from your dealer?

Hopefully things will be looking up once you get your vehicle back.

Wes, things will only be looking up once the supervisor calls me and lets me know where do I send the bill for: brand new set of tires and comprehensive inspection and alignment that were needed. I'll assume the rotors and the pads, and the install, but I refuse being a putz and a victim. You guys either set up amicably with me on this or we can take it to court. The choice is yours

Rotors, pads and brake tool are in. Weekend project is ON!

I wouldn't give up totally on Corporate... You may have just gotten someone that was a bit of a dick. As annoying as it may be, sometimes you need to be a pest. Is this the dealer you described in your other post that was being very helpful? Sounds like a dealer issue to me. I don't see why, especially when there is an MIL on, they would not troubleshoot and fix the issue the first time.

On my wife's car there was a very small amount of oil staining on top of the alternator and the dealer replaced every gasket above that point in the engine, even though they couldn't determine where the leak was originating. This is the kind of service I expect from my dealer and I would accept nothing less. Vancouver is a pretty populated area, surely there are other dealers you could try, no?

Regardless, good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Little update here, Cylinder head issue for #2 cylinder misfire error. Car's been at the dealership since Friday of last week.

Fo' shizzle, so, since you put me on the spot -riiiiight - just ordered the Astro 18+8 brake tool set

Also, since I'm putting a new staggered set of rims/tires on the Mercedes wagon I went ahead and bought me a birthday present: Eastwood fender roller, Dewalt LCD displayed heat gun, Dewalt infrared thermometer. Lucky for me, the aforementioned birthday is close enough to avoid physical harm inflicted by the "better half".

It's better than Christmas. I swear.

PS: Yes, I'll make sure to post all videos/pics of the DIYs

Fronts just press in like normal. Since I do my own brakes and I have 5 vehicles, I purchased a brake tool set off amazon for like $60. It has all adapters necessary to do brakes on just about every car out there.

Yah, I should definitely invest in the brake tool set as my cube brake tool to rotate the piston back is really not the greatest....but works. Princess Auto also has the tool set at a decent cost.

More tools, definitely! I already wanted to order some "schtuff" off Amazon as I'm trying to fit staggered rims on my '99 E320 wagon. I'll check PA as well. What brand did you guys pick up btw?

Next time you're around Vancouver let me know, drinks on me

You rock buddy, thanks for the how-to. Indeed they were not ridiculously expensive: Slotted, dimpled rotors front/rear and Yellowstuff 4000 front/rear were 600$ US

Pretty good for 3+ years of piece of mind.

Anyway, so rear calipers I need to seat the piston due to the handbrake setup? What about the front, anything special to them? I have ratchets, I don't think I have the other tool. Time to buy more tools, win-win ...wife will be so impressed.

Atta boy! Now the cost of the EBC brakes doesn't seem that expensive. Remember that the rear caliper pistons need to be rotated in DO NOT USE a c-clamp. Good luck with it!

grille2.JPG new grille on my dodge journey

Never thought I'd say this, but chrome really looks good on it

I try to keep mine as "bland" as possible and then just install a couple turbos and make it into the "what the fuck was that" sleeper.

Took the first long trip in the Journey last week. 6 passengers and a loaded trailer. At or near the towing capacity of the 2012. I was well below the total GVWR.

First thoughts are that it did quite well. Once the trailer has some weight added, it didn't jump around at all and felt smooth the entire time. I took it through the back hills of Kentucky and Tennessee. Small and curvy hills with lots of turns. It was wet as well, so I wasn't able to keep a steady speed around turns. I can definitely tell it is there when pulling. I was really impressed with stopping. I almost couldn't feel it. The Journey can get everything stopped in a hurry.

I don't know how you other members decided on a 6x12. That is a lot of trailer for this vehicle. I averaged around 14.5-16 the entire trip. Lows around 13 when it was slow. I watched the temps almost entirely and never went above 212 for oil, 204 for trans, and coolant might have touched 200. Usually the oil temp stayed around 200.

Plan on using the manual shift a lot if you are towing near your limit. The vehicle either really wants to get to and stay in 6^th or decides to downshift way too much. 4^th and 5^th are good gears when going up long hills. I think the computer changes the way it thinks every now and then depending on the driving style. I noticed this after I got home and unhooked. I was getting 16mpg when I usually get 20. I put it in manual for a bit and back into auto and voila!, normal driving came back.

All in all, it did quite well and it was nice to haul all our crap and be able to enjoy all the nice features inside the car without cargo getting in the way.

When I bought my new RT in the summer of 2012 they were still rated for more. I had no issues towing the U-haul 6x12 cube with the most essentials with me from Montreal to Vancouver. That was adults and a one year old in the car plus the 6x12 cube. Absolutely no issues in power, stability etc. Was somewhat surprised they lowered the towing rating, but I guess that has more to do with the faulty rotors, transmission issues, engine fuck ups than with what the car can really do.