doubleO7

Today I took the Journey in to have the Navigation looked at because of what happened a couple of days ago. Before leaving the driveway, I decided to turn on the Nav screen to see if I was going to get a accurate showing of where I was (see previous post for problem), and guess what. BLANK SCREEN. No maps, all other data present. At least this time was able to pull onto a side street and take a photo with my phone. Result is, they are now going to order a third unit as engineering is stumped, so that will be four units in less then a year. Despite the problems, I haven't come to dislike my Journey, just disappointed that so much of my time is being taken up with a problem that just won't seem to go away. Redtomatoman, I reiterated what you said in your post, about other potential areas that could be the cause of the problems I've encountered. It just doesn't make sense to me that every unit they have put in has been defective. If that was the case, I'm sure they would have had more cases like mine. At this point I am hoping that its a co-incidence that I got defective units, and the next one works properly.

Today I took my Journey in to have a problem fixed with my third radio/nav unit, concerning an issue with requesting a song be played on the IPOD using voice recognition. I had the same problem with the original unit, where when I asked for a certain song to be played, it would highlight the song but immediately go to the next song. When they said my vehicle was ready, I was told they ordered a new microphone for it. I wasn't having a problem with voice recognition, commands were understood, but not being "executed" properly. I think the technician was having trouble with the VR software recognizing his voice when testing the unit and discovered a problem I didn't know I had, since Mrs DoubleO7 doesn't drive, she doesn't use the voice commands. You might want to talk to a service rep where you have your vehicle serviced, and see if they think its a microphone problem.

Those were my thoughts also. In the heading "Dodge Journey Owners Welcomes You", shouldn't the word be Welcome and not Welcomes. Looks like someone has messed up twice.

Thanks Redtomatoman for your input. Greatly appreciated. And yes, it will be fixed to my satisfaction. Stopping to reset something is not a fix, just a bandage solution to a problem. My compass settings were fine for 10 days after installation of the new unit, it just went haywire out of the blue. But even when the compass setting was indicating the proper direction, the on screen display was 1/2 mile behind where I actually was. That's very disconcerning. I have called DodgeCaCares this morning and have left a message. When I talk to him personally, I will mention your ideas.

Even with the re-designs of the Rav4, Honda CR-V and Ford Escape, I would still buy the Journey as I prefer the exterior and interior styling of the Journey as well as its Pentastar engine. The only vehicle that comes close to the Journey for me would be the Subaru Forester (a bit biased on this is our other vehicle is a Subaru (but not a Forester).

Well, the navigation problems continue. On the 21st of this month, Chrysler, with help from DodgeCaCares (Chris) and my service rep at the dealer where I bought my vehicle, replaced the second unit that was installed at the beginning of March. The navigation unit did not work properly from day one of installation. I was told that a fix was on its way and when it dragged on into the beginning of May, I told them there is no fix on the way, put in a new unit. Well the supplier finally admitted, no fix was available. So now, a third unit has been installed. I didn't want to come on to the forum right away and say everything was OK, I wanted to give it some time to see if any problems arose. Everything appeared fine with the navigation, when I would turn a corner, the screen had a nice smooth transition as the unit was keeping up with the vehicle. When I would put in a destination, when a turn was required, the voice would tell me BEFORE I got to the intersection, beautiful, the second unit that was installed, would tell me to turn AFTER I passed the intersection. An old problem surfaced with the new unit in regards to the IPOD. When requesting a song, it would go to that song but immediately go to the next song. Great, had the problem fixed on original unit, so I go in on Friday to get the flash update that fixed the problem in the original unit. Now lets come to this evening. For those who live in the Greater Vancouver area, will understand my problem, better then others on the forum, as one would have to be familiar with the area to really see my problem and frustration. I leave the golf course on # 6 Road and travel south towards the George Massey Tunnel. Thought it was a good time to check the navigation and the auto on headlight feature and the auto dimming of the screen. Since it wasn't dusk yet, the auto on headlights would come in the tunnel and then turn off when I exit the tunnel. My original problem had to do with losing map detail when lights would turn off. Well, I didn't even make it to the tunnel, when I stopped at the end of # 6 Rd. at Steveston Hwy to turn right, the arrow is no where close to Steveston Hwy. When I turned right the arrow was about 1 inch over to the right on the screen, no where close to the road I am travelling on. I turn left to go through the tunnel, and the arrow is now to the left of the freeway about an inch to the left. Well the auto on auto off feature didn't effect the map display all map data was still there. Now this is where it really gets interesting. As I exit the tunnel, I am driving in a south east direction on Hwy 99. The nav screen shows the arrow off to the left of the freeway, I'm driving across the farmers fields, direction indicates I'm driving east when in fact I am driving southeast. Eventually, the freeway disappears from the screen as the arrow is moving east and not southeast. When I get to the highway 91 interchange, the message at the top of the screen is saying I am driving on Colebrook Rd which is about 1 KM north (.6 mile). At the 32nd Ave exit, all of a sudden the screen is showing me on the exit. OK, looks, like its fixed itself. Not quite. Arrow is still not on road I'm travelling (32nd Ave). I pass 160th street and all of a sudden, the massage at the top of the screen says I'm travelling on north on 160th St, when in fact I am travelling East on 32nd Ave. The screen itself is stuck with the arrow pointing north on 160th St, but south of 32nd Ave and its not moving. When I get to 192nd St and 32nd Ave, the arrow is now on 32nd Ave, but is way behind where I am. As get to 196th St, the arrow shows me crossing 192nd St and when I get to 192nd St the arrow shows me crossing 196th St. Well at least the arrow has me driving on 32nd Ave. When I get to my turn at 200th St, I turn left, and the nav screen is still way off in its positioning. When I cross 36th Ave its still showing me crossing 33a Ave. When I get home and I am sitting in my driveway, the arrow is about a block behind. So, now I in the driveway, and make the mistake of turning the vehicle off. I was going to have Mrs DoubleO7, come along for a ride and take some screen shots of the nav screen, so I have visual proof that there is still a problem. Of course now the screen works fine again. Turning the system off to reset is not always an option when travelling on a freeway, and is not a solution to a problem. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, but I may be driving to Toronto later this year and not having a system that isn't reliable is not acceptable. For those members who may be getting a new Journey in the future and are thinking of getting the nav, don't let my experience stop you from ordering, with the way things are going, I should have all the defective units out of circulation soon. B) Only one three weeks until one year review. Stay tuned.

Thanks Brett, for you assistance. Enjoyed our telephone discussions. I think I can speak for others on the forum in wishing you luck in your new position (job). And yes, welcome to Wes.

I would suggest before thinking about a clay bar kit, take it back to the dealer and have the "rust" looked at. Could be just rail dust that has adhered to the vehicle. Sounds like the dealer didn't do a very good pre delivery prep job. Rolly, also makes a good suggestion about getting a clay bar kit. I'm a bit of fanatic about keeping my vehicles looking good. When I sold my 11 year old Grand Caravan, it still looked like it had just came off the showroom floor. Since you live in Canada, I would suggest looking at eshine.ca, as they have excellent products for keeping you vehicle looking good. By the way, what colour is your Journey. I really like it.

I have ordered a lot of stuff from them. Great company. I have a local company that I can order from, but some of their products are not as good as Eshine, especially when it comes to the drying clothes, and wash mitts. With the right products, its a lot easier to keep the vehicle looking good.

Rolly, I have used this product as well. Just in winter, when I can't wash the vehicle using a hose. Great for getting the salt of the vehicle. Did you get this from Eshine.ca. I have bought many car care products from them on the advice of a professional detailer that I know. I had to clay bar my vehicle last week, as some sticky substance (not tree sap as I don't park near/under trees), was all over the vehicle. I believe it was from some the Cherry blossoms that blew our way during an extremely windy day, and of course they settled on the vehicle. After clay barring, I then used a product called Menzerna Power Lock Polymer Sealant. After putting it on, let it cure for 24 hrs and then you can apply some wax if you want to. The sealant will last about 6 months, unlike waxes, I do it once in the spring and once in the fall. I should have used it around beginning of April, I probably could have avoided having to clay bar the vehicle. Very time consuming process.

When I had the TGM module replaced in March, I said that everything was working fine. Well, I spoke to soon, about two weeks later, other problems arose. Sorry for not posting about these earlier. 1. Navigation image on screen is jerky and does to keep up to the vehicle. I will be passed an intersection physically, but the screen shows I haven't even arrived at the intersection. When turning, I am on the street I turned on to, but the screen still shows I'm on the street I have been on, and then it makes a sharp turn. On entrance ramps, I'm in the middle of fields/ 2. Voice commands for IPOD not recognized. Will get reply- "command not understood", "updating catalogue". It doesn't matter if I'm in the vehicle for half and hour or two or three hours. 3. Entire screen went blank for about two minutes. A message came up to contact dealer, the screen came back on. So I drove it to the dealer, they checked it out and said there is a fix for it. Apparently a disk will be sent to them. I drop into the dealer and ask if they have received the disk, no, it should be here next week. Well this has been going on for close to six weeks. I still love my Journey, but am getting a little ticked at not being able to use the features that I paid for. So, I demanded another new unit, I told them I shouldn't have to put with a unit that works worse then the one they replaced, but they keep saying that they have to wait for the "fix" to arrive as its coming from the manufacturer of the radio unit. DodgeCaCares, can you PM me.

Thats interesting. I have noticed a few times since the weather has warmed up that I have water under the vehicle by both mufflers. Thought it was just condensation. My Journey is a 2012, but I think I will have a little looksee also.

I went for the 5 seater with some intrepedation in regards to not having the rear seat controls as I owned a Dodge Grand Caravan with tri-zone air. Well we got through our first summer with the Journey, and when my sister in law asked me to turn down the air conditioning, I could see that my fear of not having the rear seat AC was that, only fear. Here on the West Coast of Canada, summers are pretty mild. Most heat waves only last about 1 or 2 weeks, with the rare occassion of 3 or 4 weeks. I can certainly understand why those owners who live in areas of extreme heat and/or cold would want the rear ac/heat. .

Welcome new DodgeCaCares. DennyB did a great job for the Canadian members of the board. I'm sure you will also. I'm retired, so can go on road trips anytime, so really I never plan to go anywhere on long weekends. Next road trip will probably be late May, early June, before the rugrats get out of school. I like less crowded roads.

Thanks DennyB. Your assistance was fantastic. I'm sure all the members here wish you the best of luck in your new position.

I see a lot of Journeys whre I live. Three times, I have been in a Journey "convoy", which was kind of neat. The first time, the front one was white, the second on silver, then me (Storm grey) and the fourth one, black. The other two convoys, dominate colour was silver. As for not seeing Journeys in the United States, I remember seeing sales figures by regions (unfortunatley can't remember wherer) and Journeys are more popular in the South. Just a theory on my part, but I think its due to Dodge image as being a "redneck" vehicle and has a great NASCAR history. Dodge (Chrysler) is the really the only Manufacturer of the big three that is trying to relive the old days of the muscle cars of the 60's and 70's, the SRT line, big V8's as otpions buyers can consider. The Northern states, especially those that get lots of snow, as well as Colorado in the West, one will see more Subarus, I think mainly because of the full time AWD. (Our second car is a Subaru) Another reason for Journey sales being lower may be due to image and whats in and out. it is quite obvious on some automobile board (particularly in Canada), the there is a hate on for Dodge, for no reason other then its a Dodge. A majority of members on the forum, lease their vehicles and freely admit that they wouldn't want to hang on to their vehicles after the warranty has expired. So really what they are saying is the expensive imports are not any more realiable then a Dodge. Its also could be considered a working mans vehicle, and heaven forbid that some people should be seen in that type of vehicle. The in thing seems to be driving expensive Japanese and German imports, after all one can't be seen in a Dodge Journey. For those of us who are comfortable as to who we are, we see a great buy and a great vehicle that doesn't break the bank on purchase and post warranty repairs.

I decided to take a long drive today and see what happens with the nav. I am pleased to say that the street data is back. I also took the display off of 3D, and more streets show on the screen. I never use the 3D mode, but forgot to change it yesterday when I picked up the vehicle. It was a good day to look at how the system operates when the screen is going from daylight to night mode (the drive luckily involved going from heavy cloud cover to light cloud cover so the auto headlights were turning on and off at various times) as that is when I noticed the screen going blank before the they changed the radio. Changing from daylight to night mode is when I noticed the problem before they swapped out the radio module. This time, no problems. :whew:

Don't let my problem discourage you. Stuff happens, I'm sure it will get sorted out in time. This problem hasn't hampered my enthusiasm for the Journey, nor am I having any remorse about ordering the nav. Like I said, I will give it a few days to see if the map display sorts itself out.

Today I had the Gateway Module replaced. This is essentially the part the controls the radio and navigation. So, I get into the vehicle and bring up the map. First message I see is that the maps are out of date as they are a year old. Looks like the unit that they obtained has been sitting around for awhile. No big deal, there is a lot of construction on our freeways where I live, so the map will have to be updated eventually, but I will wait a couple of years, as the construction won't be finished until later this year. I have a older Garmin portable unit with lifetime updates, so when I see it has the new interchanges on it, there is no sense in wasting money on an update before then. After, I select remind me in a year the map comes up. Everything looks OK, all the streets (main roads and side streets) are there. When I pull out of the dealership lot, the auto headlights come on and the screen dims. So far so good, streets still showing. About a half of a kilometer (just over half a mile), I make a right hand turn. As the map is adjusting to the new direction, it zooms out and I loose all the streets except for two, the one I just turned off of and the freeway which is about 5 kilometers away (about 3 miles). OK, so I turn the auto dim feature off, and the screen comes up bright again but still no streets. I head back to the dealership, leave the vehicle running and go in and get the service advisor to come and take a look. He tells me, I have to give it some time to reset itself. He turns the vehicle off adn then back on. We go and adjust the setting for more detail. Everything appears OK again. He then states that it takes time for the GPS to work properly as its a new unit. I'm thinking to myself "but the maps are already on the unit, they're not being downloaded as I drive", but let it go as it was near closing time. So, now I am heading back home again. At the same intersection, the exact same thing happens. Zooms out, no streets. I decide to head home and give it a chance to "reset". So currently I live on a street that doesn't exist. This weekend I hope it will work properly, as I will be going to on a small journey (excuse the pun), and would like to be able to use it. If it's not working correctly by Monday, I will be going back in. It's the one option that I was treating myself to, as I really like the big screen, so it would be nice if I could depend on it. I will update this thread when something happens eg works OK, or further work required.

I went on the NHTSA website and looked at some vehicles (all 2012s), that I was considering when I was looking at replacing my aging van. In order of least complaints to most. 1. Chev Traverse -3 2. Hyundai Tuscon - 10 3. Dodge Journey -13 4. Toyota Rav4 - 24 Like I said in another thread, no vehicle is perfect. I think what counts is how the dealer/manufacturer deals with the issues.

I have only one major annoyance and one minor annoyance more a personal preference. 1. I am still getting a droning noise under mild acceleration, between 60 and 70kmph (37 and 43 mph). Apparently there is no fix yet. 2.I think this is the only CUV with the shifter behind the cupholders. I would like to see a re-design (personal preference), as I would prefer that the shiftergo where the cup holders are. The cup holders where the shifter is. I use the manual shift quite a bit, mainly on hills, and find it annoying that my forearm rests on the armrest. Just doesn't seem natural that my elbows are actually 'behind my body' when shifting. Having stated the above, I still love my Journey. Lets face it no vehicle is perfect.

Ok, maybe with my better half, they were triplets and we are all brother in laws. Wanted Pearl White ended up with Storm Grey :kiss:

When I decided to get a new Journey last year, we had a 2001 Dodge Caravan in a colour called "Inferno red". I really wanted to get this colour again but alas not availabe any more. So I decided I would like the White Pearl coat. I wanted to factory order a new Journey and wanted White Pearl coat, but Mrs DoubleO7, said she would like to see the colour on a vehicle before we order. There where Journeys on the lot, but non in the White Pearl coat, so I let the Mrs select the colour that she liked from the vehicles on the lot. She selected the Storm Grey. Wouldn't have been my first choice, but I wanted to get the vehicle ordered, so I said OK. The colour has grown on me and like you, bright silver would not be a choice. Just to many of the colour around in all makes of vehicles. The Copper pearl coat would have been my alternate choice, but I got to pick the options, so I'm happy. Enjoy your new DJ when it arrives.

This is not a complaint, but the other day, I was getting ready to exit the vehicle and my better half, looked at me and said "aren't you going to turn it off?" Dang this vehicle is quiet at idle. Embarrsing, but loving the quiet

I used your idea about taking a photo of the problem as it happened again last week. I had Mrs DoubleO7 in the vehicle with me and she took photos with her I-phone. I had to exit the freeway and shut the vehicle off as nothing seemed to work in getting the problem to self correct. The next day, I printed the photos and took them into the dealer. My service rep took one look and talked to someone and now a part (sorry I can't remember what part it is) has been ordered. When I take my vehicle in for servicing on the 28th, they will have the part and hopefully problem solved. Will keep you informed.