rozwell911

Our bumpers were urethane, but trims were plastic. If you know what you are doing maybe it will work, but I have seen it done around here with bad results. Could be shitty shops too. I'm just waiting on a billet accessory for it or cutting.

I tend to do all my work by hand when ever i can. I have not had any problems when i do the work. Some shops just don't want tot ake the time to prep a part.

Here in California i have seen many a custom paint jobs for many shops with no problems afterwards to trim pieces. It could be your climate, do you get a lot of humidity?

Humidity is a major problem for paint, if not done in a sealed spray both and not given extra time for the paint to dry.

I have seen many paint jobs on plastic (like the avalanche and ford escape body armor) and the paint just doesn't last. Once you get a chip it flakes easy and cracks. Could be our climate, but in the southeast that is what we get. I had a Ford Explorer and the body armor was painted, nothing but issues and looked like crap

It has to be all in the prep work....Remember most if not all bumpers are the same ABS plastic that are used in the trim peices....If the paint can stay on the bumpers made of ABS plastics, why can't it stay on the trim peices that are propperly preped, primered and painted that are made of the exact same material on the bumpers?

Now, most plastic trim pieces (not bumpers) are either textured or could have a coating protecting the plastic from weathering...Which if you do not sand lightly, clean and primer it, paint will just flake off.

I never paint anything with out using a base coat of primer...primer will stick to most any surface. Paint will only stick properly to primers (Automotive paint that is).

thank's for the info ,sound like alot of prep work,what about chrome pieces for a color?you see the chrome spray bombs, how are they to work with?

Never used the chrome sprays...if i wanted something chromed, i'd get it professionaly dipped. Most compaines that offer chrome dipping will prep the part for you and dip it so long as you take it off.

The sprays are probably similar to automotive paint, so if you went the spray route, u would have to prep the part like you would for a paint job.

It is a lot of work, which is why propper body shops (not like Maaco) take the time to prep and paint...you have a much more finished product and a happy customer that will not notice body work has been done.

The reason I have been holding off on a billet grill is those ugly fog light housings. I was hoping a company would make an "upgrade" rather it be billet or something.

You can paint them, but paint + plastic = upkeep often. Paint just doesn't stick to plastic well, but may last 2 years before needing repainted. I also thought about cutting them up and giving a little design to them, they are just big, bulky, and hideous.

Not true, propper prepping and primer, prior to painting, will yield comparable results if not possibly better (if you take your time) than most OEM paint jobs. And they will last just as long.

Painting is all in the prep work. Now if the plastic is textured and not smooth, you will get the texture showing through the paint job, unless you do multiple layers of light primer or use some kind of filler like bondo to smooth out the plastic. You would apply the bondo over the entire textured area, then sand by had to the appropriate thickness, thus smoothign out the bond, as it fills in the cracks between the textured areas. Int he end you have a smooth, even paintable surface that you can primer and paint, then clear coat.

Its all in prep and how much time to take...

Now the one problem you may have is finding your exact color premixed. Most dealer cannot get you more than a bottle of touch up paint. ANd the ones that can get up paint cans (BMW is one fo them) only offer base colors, which means you have to mix them in the appropriate color formula to get the color you need.

Also to properly apply you would need an air gun....preferable an automotive quality spray gun, but i know some people that have use hobby shop spray guns (guns for models or pinstripe) that have painted small items like trim and small plastic pieces where you do not need the coverage distance of an automotive spray gun.

Now to get the paint premixed you need your color code, and head to a body shop you trust and ask if they will premix this color and sell you a can....

ANds please, do not apply it with a brush to the part your painting, it will cause streaks and runs and will not be even.

so i just got my jurney 1 month ago and i just got to wipe it down yesterday and shine it up when i notice water spots under the clear coat,of coarse they are on the roof were on one can see them!.thier not like little water spots ,thier like water puddles,about 3"in diamiter and thiers like 5 of them.i'm just worried that in the future this could cause damage to the paint job,or is the clearcoat good enough to seal them,any suguesstion? <_<

Unless the factory screwed up, waterspots are not In the paint persay....they do get absorbed into the clear coat though. Common removal, if they are deep is with a clay bar. Chances are clay bar will remove most if not all..if they are deep in the clear coat, a wet sanding of the clear coat by a professional body shop or detail shop will be needed...after wet sanding they will have to repolish and way the car.

My tranny whines also at lower speeds but from what i have been told its a common chrysler/dodge issue and that it is normal.

I was getting the whine too. Wasnt loud with the radio on, but man was it noticeable with out....engine also winded up loud at high RPMS.

Did not like it too much..

What all issues did you have with your Journey. Every single issue please.

SXT 3.5 FWD 7 Seater

I posted it in the 13000 mile revview in the forums..But here is the short break down:

TSB: Rear Camber nut re-torqued

TSB: Power Steering Cap

TSB: Hard shifting Transmission/ Clunk in reverse (replaced CPU unit and re programed)

TSB/ Warranty: WIN Module (Alram going off while i pushed unlock button on FOB)

Warranty: Sunvisor Broke/ Passanger Side No abuse, just from passanger use...Piece of crap IMO.

Unresolved with Chrysler:

Front pads going bad at 12,000 miles becasue i was 70 miles past the MFG warranty period they would not honor. Replaced with Wager Ceramic pads. Rotors warped at same time.

AC did not seem to get cold enough right away in 90+ degree weather..took 20 minutes to a half hour of free way driving to feel cold.

Dealer could not duplicate, said ac was blowing at 49 degrees at ac box.

Non- Warranty Issues:

19 inch wheel tire size options is too few and far between. OE tires are nice in wet and dry weather but seem to be too thin and do not resist road hazards well like other SUVs of a similar size with different OE tires (I had to patch 3 tires in 4 months after i bought the car.

All the TSB's and warrant issues were resolved and fixed with the exception of the 2 named above.

....But not the community..

Let me explain what happened:

Back in last January I was being forced to trade my 03 mustang for a more family practical car due to a divorce and having a daughter....well, the real reason is that the 03 back seats are much too small to get a car seat in and out, and for me to be bending over to put my daughter in...also the door opening was not tall enough IM to be moving in and out so offten.

So i traded it on on a Journey with only 8 miles on the new dodge. They were selling it for 18, 000.00$'s litterly brand new...I asked them why so cheap? The salesman then explaines that it was a buy back from the chrysler because the original dealer sold it went bankrupt. so they got the car....i thought it was a deal and was told it would ahve lifetime warranty.

A month after i signed paperwork, i get an extened warranty notice in the mail stateing that my powertrain only has 3 yr. 36000...i was like WTF?!

So i called the dealer and they told me that it never had Lifetime, and that i was incorrect in thinking they said that...mind you i had to of my closes frineds with me when i bought the car....so it was no lie on my end.

SO i called and complained to Chrysler...which was little help at the time...they said i had to deal with the dealer....well in april the dealer closes its doors forever...so now i am like WTF...so i continue to hound Chrysler Corp...all i wanted was for them to honor the Lifetime Powertrain....well long story short, chrylser stiffed me from everything.

So i traded the journey in this weekend for the car i really wanted that i could not get at the time. an 07 ford mustang GT....originally i was trying to trade in my older stang for a new one becasue the door and back seats are bigger and fit my daughter comfortably back there.

so i found a dealer and got what i want for the same monthly payment i payed on the journey.

That being said, i am not leaving this community becasue i like it here and what to help you guys out as much as i can...

So goodby journey....i will miss it, but it was not me.

I took mine in at 3000 and they told me not to change the oil till the system told me. We made a trip to Florida and back on it and got to 5800 miles before it notified me. I asked at the plant and they indicate that the new sensors they have in place for this really work well in knowing when the changes need to happen.

First oil change was at 3200 miles.

Second was at 9000 (they changed the interval for Synthetic Oil at the dealer)

I am at 14000 miles and have yet to have the indicator come on, but that might be beacuse i changed the oil myself before a long trip i took in september.

I'm hoping I will be able to accomplish this without any dealer envolvement.

Here is the problem with your idea. The journey is useing Mercedes Technology with the key fobs. Mercedes Technology is almost identical to the BMW technology in the way it works.

That being said, you shoudl check with the dealer to see how many FOB's you can have programed to 1 car. BMW and MBZ only allow you to have 2 FOBS programed to 1 car at any given time. SO if you program another in, it will effectivly "Bump" one of your keys out of sequence and that one key will not start or lock/unlock the doors. They use this as a securty messue as to not have too many active keys out there at one time....SO if you lose a key and buy another fob, they would bump the lost fob out of the system so that a theif cannot steal the car.

the second half of your question, is no, you cannot use a used FOB from another car. It goes back to MBZ and BMW technology. All fobs are programed from factory to your vehicles VIN# when you order. The WIN has the vin# embeded in its programing. IF the vin's do not match, the FOB will not initialize and work in your car.

Again its a security issue.....or any cheap mechanic can get a fob, program it to your car, and have someone steal your car.

Here in the states we call remapping, "Tuning" as in Dyno Tuning. But it IS detectable, atleast here in the states it is. All a dealer has to do is plug into their GT1 or Motech dealer scan devises and if they are looking in the right area, they can see that peramiters have been changed.

Some tuners use superchips/diablo chips and physically put a chip in your CPU to tune...that is a little mroe noticeable cause they break the seal on the CPU.

Here in the states, there are very many reputable palces to do it, especially where i live. never heard of any shops stealing peoples cars are sellign their imobilizer files to thevies.

its up to you...Tuning, like with Ford F-250/350 trucks with desiles, will definetly in crease HP and TQ, as well as millage.

well if you have an automatic it is likely to be a foot pedal beacuse you don't have a clutch that needs to go there, it would be pretty akward to have gas, brake, clutch, and parking brake all on the floor.

what I don't like about parking brakes is that the only pressure holding it engaged is the amount that you pushed it with, when you press the brake pedal with the car running it applys hundreds of pounds of pressure to the pads verses the lets say 50 lbs you can push on that pedal

All cars, even the BMW's and Minis i deal with here are like that actually.

All cars use a special locking (atleast they should) device that effectivly doubles the force directly applied at the brakes.

BMW's all have seperate brake shoes for strictly parking brake only. The locking device is located between each shoe pad. it clicks like a racetet each with each click of the hand brake, but each time it it locks into place it travels roughly twice the distance of the parking brake handle, kinda how a pully system helps 1 person lift 500 pounds by them selves, it functions in a similar way by appling twice the force each click to lock into palce.

Mini is the same way, only the mechanism or lock is the parking brake handle itself. with 2 cables going to each side of the rear brakes (minis do not use seperate shoes, they use the caplipers on the rear of the car, so in essence, your pads will ware slighlty more than usually in the rear). This system is not quite as good as the seperate shoes IMO cause the lock loacated in the brake handle cannot exerhrt enough force IMO as the lock located inbetween the shoes directly on the BMWs. Mini does this as a cost saveing messure. They are still extreamly safe with this design, but i feel the BMWs is a better one....but if you think about it, with a 50000 car vs a 25000 car, id expect the best in the 50000 car.

Our cars should be of a similar set up or design...I have dilibratly left my car on nurtral on a 30 degree incline and just use my parking brake to hold the car....it works IMO very well.

I do not recomend anyone else try that, becasue it is dangerous, but i obviously cannot stop you if you do.

No, I have a foot pedal as well. I just took it for granted thats what was meant.

Sorry for the confusion!

Its no big deal I thought it was just another interesting quirk that these cars have, nothing more.

Journey got towed to the dealership today. Got a loaner vehicle. Will let you know tomorrow when I get in touch with them if they found the issue and what it turns out to be. The gas mileage has been worse than what others have posted here, probably due to this transmission shift issue. Been getting about 15mpg city, about 20 on the highway. Vehicle has about about 1100km, a bit over 600 miles on it.

Thanks for the update....I am trying to keep a tally of problems with these cars and crate my own database with list of dealer "fixes" and what worked and what did not.

The only problem with my data, is that it will not be representative of what % of owners have problems VS. those who dont't. SO any info i come up with will have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Well the check engine light just came on again today. The transmission appears to be stuck in 1st gear now. Will be taking it in tomorrow. Probably going to need a loaner. Hopefully they will get to the bottom of what is going on and get this fixed. Vehicle has been fine otherwise. I will post back once I find out exactly what the cause turns out to be.

Honestly, it sounds like the PCM. A lot of people have had their PCM replaced to fix hard shifting from park to reverse, as well as duing normal driving.....

For the 2009's there is a TSB out for the problem. This could possible be the same thing. they will try and reprogram, and if that fails, they will replace the pcm with the newest one.

Well, here is the deal. I said screw it and for the room giving it a try. The dealer is going to sign a contract I wrote out as well. If I have the FIRST brake issue in 20k miles they will change to aftermarket parts. I found one of the last 09's left so I will get the lifetime warranty. This one is white with 3rd row and roof. Don't car for roof, but it has it. I will let you know a VERY unbias review as time goes on. I may have them sign a contract on return after a few issues. I just don't want to be stuck with a lemon that doesn't qualify for lemon and looses value like a Geo.

So I am taking the plunge guys, I guess I will find out. What kinda MPG's are ya geting out of FWD 3.5?

MPG: I see about high 18's to 20's city. ANd 23-25 higway ...Conservative driving

I've been to the dealership twice. They said until I can get it to do it for them, there is nothing they can do. BS! They said if I want I can leave it for a few days and they will try to get it to do it. Well, when it does it twice a month, NO THANKS!

That blows...my dealership was nice enough to believe me and correct the problem first and formost.

Sorry your having a bad dealer experience. The thing i realize while working with BMW, is that the cars can have many problems, but if the dealership like mine puts customer service first and formost (like my dodge dealer too) the problems are not as bad as they can be. it actually makes dealer trips enjoyable.

Interesting that everyone here has a parking brake handel. my parking brake is located on the floor, far left side of the pedal assembly....Maybe that is a differerence from a manual and automatic trans?!?!

Any ways, i have had no problem. It uses the rear pads as the parking brake...wonderful grip on all accounts.

not true. as a chrysler tech these problems happen due to computer glitches. have the dealer erase the keys, re-program them. that should work. if not you may need a new skim or win module. ask you dealer or tech they sould now what im talking about.

I concur with your suggestion. Mine was a combinations of an new WIN and a reprogram of the FOB's (which i beleive you have to do anyways after installing a new WIN).

Corrected the Alarm issue flawlessly.

As for the valet key in the FOB, the one thing i like, they use a METAL key. Some MFG's use plastic valets which break in a few uses.

So far, BMW, MINI, MBZ, and Dodge are the only companys that use this feature with metal valet keys...that i know of atleast.

Sounds like another one of those laws enacted by someone who doesn't properly use their lights. You are supoised to NOT be running High Beams when there is on coming traffic, or vehicles in front of you. So the Fog Lights on at the same time would not be a hazard.

My 3500 Pickup I bought used has been I believe re-programmed (per reading other forums) by a dealer to let them remain on when the High Beam is on.

In reality, with the amount of traffic these days, I hardly ever get to even run any of my vehicles with the High Beams.

I never said it was a smart law, but a law none the less.

But most logical people like you or I know not to run Hibeams in non-rual areas or with oncoming traffic. Unfortuatly there really are people out there that do not know better, sad to say.

usually the law is no more than 4 lamps that are pointing forward can be on at one time

Here in CA, (and many other states here ) it is illegal to have fogs and hi beams on at the same time...not sure why either.

I beleive it has to do with the lumiosity of th high beams and how much light is directly emitted. they do not want to cause accidents with too much light. Which is why light racks are for off road use only.

Maybe it is the same way then for front fog lights. Turn ON the parking lights or the low beam headlights and pull out on the end of the multifunction lever.

They are rear fogs. Similar to waht the new Mini Coopers have as an option.

They only thing the could be. I believe they turn on with the lights.

Reverse lights should be clear, unless its different in in europe

Yup!

My Journey is white and I notice it especially between the rear bumper and the body color. It seems that the bumbper is discoloring over time and becomming more yellow.... If it gets much worse I tell the dealer.

I do not ahve that problem yet. I got the metallic black color and have not noticed any dulling of the color...it also matches verywell, the rest of the car.

Oh, and painting on a metal surface or plastic surface does not change the color or brightness of the paint. All surfaces get primered prior to painting for the paint to properly stick to the car...thus, in one sense, the paint is being applied to the same surface....dried primer.

Now what does change colors slightly are age, weathering, differnt batches used to paint one car, amount of clear or amount of paint used between cars is differenet (weather computer or human error).

But all in all, the paint should all be the same color!!!!

When I plug my iPod into the glove box connector, it shows up just fine and I can control everything through the stereo but it won't charge and won't turn off when I turn the car off. So I basically burn through the iPod's battery and then have to take it in the house to recharge it. I also have to open the glove box and turn the iPod off everytime I get out of the car or else it stays on and drains the battery.

When I connect an older iPod that I have it works perfectly, charges and turns off when I turn off the car like it should. It must be an issue with the iPod that I have. It is the last generation of iPod Nano (not the most recent one that just came out in August '09 or so).

Any ideas? Will updating the stereo software fix this? Or is there a patch for the iPod that fixes this issue?

Thanks!

Shutting off the raido/car is not going to shut off your iPod / iphone. Even the BMW's and Mini Coopers here at my dealership don't do that with the factory installed iPod adapter. they are not designed to.

Becasue people use a lot of apps, and in some cases their phone, while they are driving, they are not designed to shut it off. Imagin an iPhone customer plugging their phone in to listen to music, and then they shut off the car and it shuts their phone off...thats irratating.

Or think about a customer using a navigation software on their iphone or ipod touch, and you have to restart the device everytime you shut the car off at a pit stop.....it would get really annoying after a while.

I guess, since i deal with these types of devices every day, i can see the logic behind both arguments, but in the long run, for the majority of users, it would be a greater inconvience for the device to auto shut-off then to manually turn it off yourself.

Also, the reason it will not charge is the age of the ipod. the older ipods are only capaible with a particular voltage, so you need that voltage carble/charger. BMW and Mini make due with software updates to the Ipod system control unit, so it can manually compisate for the difference in voltage between different ipods.

Apparently Chrylser does not do that or you would not have a problem.

One thing i can say is that not evem BMW/MINI support generation 1 ipods, and some gen 2 ipods are not compatable either.

No stats here. But I would say that is normal. Now if it got into the 220-230 range I would be concerned with that.

Agreed.Anything over 220, even in traffic is unaceptable.