Psyke

Can't take advantage of the block heater when you're at the supermarket, parked on the street, or at a general parking lot (in most cases). At home it's not a big deal because I have indoor parking. In any case, as long as I can see, I'll start driving, so in general, I don't idle very much; when I did the tests the other day, I had parked the DJ outside for an hours and idled purposely to see how long it took to get up to a reasonable temp.

But, all that is besides the point; the fact is that once the vehicle gets up to normal operating temps (after idling, I did go for a drive to push the engine and get the temp up), and the front cabin is all toasty warm, the second and third row vents are still pushing out cool air, which is a concern. I'm going to bring it into the dealer to have it looked at.

Hey Folks,

For those who had their Journeys last winter, what you thought of the heating in the vehicle? with our first subzero weather tonight, I figured I'd take the time to play with the heat, so I parked outside for an hour and went back to test the heating; Obviously very little heat to start, but starts to get slightly warm when the coolant hits 70-75c... Because the V6 idles so low, it takes a while to get up there(about 5-10 minutes). Doesn't help that you can't rev past 4K either to help it along.. Start driving and the temp starts rising pretty quickly and at 80c it gets pretty comfortable, and once it starts hitting 90c it's time to start lowering the temp in the cabin...

Of course, this is the front blowers....the second row passenger (and for that matter 3rd row as it feeds off the same tube) get nothing but very slightly heated cool air, to the point that it looks like it'll be useless once we start hitting <-10 weather...IF anything, the heat from the front will heat the back faster if we direct it that way. If I turn off the front vents, and go floor only, it seems to get a bit hotter, but still nothing that would keep me warm if I were chilled..doesn't work the same way if I go top vents only.

Anyone happen to know what feeds the second/third row blower? and what's your experience been with the second/third rows?

cheers!

Steph S.

First and foremost, don't trust the Evic; it's very rarely correct and can be both over and under the true L/100Km. I ran the DJ to empty to find out how much fuel the tank would take and it was about 74L to fill.

I've done a bunch of Hwy driving this summer and often compared true calc vs what the evic says and it's usually Off. The worse offence was when I had it down to 7.9L/100Km yet when I filled up and checked the numbers, I actually got 9.3. another time when the evic showed 9.2, I had actually done 8.2, so it's really all over the board, which is odd seeing as it should be able to determine how much fuel is being injected to the cylinders at any given time.

City driving in regular traffic will kill your mileage pretty fast. With the summer brings much less traffic due to vacation times and I was hitting close to the EPA numbers of 13.8 and even exceeding it a couple of times, but school starting up again this past week, I started hitting 17L/100 km again like I had when I first got the vehicle; the main problem is the DJ is so freakin heavy that stop and go kills it; it wants and excels on the open road.

I'm pretty happy with the clearance on the DJ, and handling with a full heavy load on gravel/dirt/potholed roads (went camping this past weekend with the family) felt good, and definitely didn't lack for power.

as for clearance, it really depends on what you're trying to avoid; I used to have an issue with the Caliber in that I'd always scrape the bottom front facia when parking, to the point I cracked it one winter. I haven't had this issue with the DJ yet as it clears most curbs easily enough, however, I did hit a raised walkway on a ramp in a parking garage, and hit it rather hard. Sheered away a couple mm's of plastic at the very bottom (almost like a lip..not sure why it's there...), but finding that the facia is much stronger than the Calibers and couldn't find any real damage anywhere.

yeah

We took it to the dealer and left it. They called us and told us it wasnt lit up any more when they checked it..They washed the car and checked the tire pressure. No message now when I checked.

yeah, once the car is turned off, the message clears, unless it's something serious or repeating. Turning off in park for me always clears after I shut off.

So . . . what WAS the message?

Probably vehicle not in park; that's how I always set it off

no, it's really a single italicized i <---Just like that, that appears in the top right hand corner, right under the temperature. it's an indication that there is a new message in the messages section of the EVIC, as Bramfrank mentioned. If you want to see for yourself, try turning off the DJ while not in park

cheers!

Steph S.

well, t

The only real advantage over air is that nitrogen is dry.

Compressed air is very moist, and most compressed air tanks hold a lot of water that can make its way into the tires.

That causes corrosion on the tire press sensors.

Also, Nitrogen doesn't seep through Rubber as much as regular (nitrogen has larger molecules than Oxygen), so it will maintain proper inflation longer. As for water in compressed air tanks, I recommend to people to by yourself a little portable compressor; it's as dry as oxygen can be. Besides, most filling stations charge for air now days anyway.

Cheers!

Steph S.

@Mcgusto82, I totally understand what you're saying, but I do believe it depends on point of impact. If I collide with someone directly into their rear, I'm at fault because the lane change has been complete, and I should have been able to avoid, particularly since the video camera shows that he started making his turn well in advance (that would be the more damning part, . even if I have right away, I still need to be vigilant to stupid people and react accordingly. If he were to hit me while changing lanes, or for that matter, I were to hit him on his side as he's making the change just before I get there, the one making the change would be at fault, because the lane change isn't complete.

One thing that might change the results is what a charge of not maintaining a minimum speed on a highway would do.....

As for the phone, I wouldn't leave it in the car, but yeah, having to leave it plugged would be a pain, but then again, you might have to do that with almost any cam you wan to keep running for an extended period of time.

Cheers!

Steph S.

actually, no, he wouldn't have been at fault. from the very start of your video, you see that he's signalling, and you're far enough that you should have had enough time to slow down to allow the merge.If you slam into him from behind, then you're at fault because you had enough time to anticipate/react to his signal;you're camera shows this... If he makes the lane change as you're coming up next to him, and hits the side of your vehicle, then he's at fault because he didn't check his blindspot. if he hadn't signaled, then he'd be guilty of an illegal lane change, but, fault for the accident would still fall to to the previous two scenarios. I went through this with when I sideswipped a person who decided to speed up to over a 100Km/h in a 60 to pass me before I could complete my lane change just because he didn't want someone in front of him (he had been driving slightly slower than I was prior to me deciding to make the lane change and turning on my signal). Of course that's not to say what he did was not dangerous, going from stopped traffic into faster flowing traffic, not to mention that he should have changed lanes to allow faster traffic to pass on the left of him when he had the opportunety, but then again, you were guilty of that yourself in your second Vid (starting around the 1minute mark), although not as bad as blowing the stop sign in the first video out of the parking garage, and with a cop on the corner at that

Double07, as for the camera, if you have a relatively recent/decent smart phone, just grab yourself a mount for it and should be able to get pretty good video, particularly if it shoots HD. Best of all, it's usually pretty easy to upload to Youtube and the like once you're done.

cheers!

Steph S.

The lights shut off after about 10 minutes on their own. Doesn't anywhere best kill your batteries. Leave them on.

That's all and good until the neighbors or others come knocking on your door and to say you left your headlights on. When I went from my accent (auto off) to my caliber (no auto off), I had a habit of keaping the headlights on and had the above scenario a number of times, both at home and in parking lots :D

great to hear it's going well, other than the brakes. And yeah, it's very easy to get carried away with the speed as you just don't feel it; the wife just got a ticket for doing 50 in a 30 (80Km/h in a 50Km/h) zone in the city, which is so unlike her. the cop still gave her a ticket, but put her down as being just slightly over the limit to avoid a point and insurance hit. the really sucky part is that she went through a known speed trap to boot.

Unfortunately I think you hit it on the head; they put in the auto shut off in all modes except for when the engine is running so that you don't accidentally leave the system in acc and kill the battery if you happen to leave the car.

While I don't care for the system for the system for the same reason you mentioned, without having to pull a key anymore I've caught myself exiting the DJ a couple of times with the car still running. Doesn't help that the v6 is so freakin quiet

Cheers!

Steph S.

I've been seeing the same issues under both IE and Chrome, albeit it can be random. when I look via my phone (chrome on android), then it's better, but then again it's giving me a mobile site, so it's quite a bit different to the full site.

cheers!

Steph S.

only when the wife adjusts it after I do *grumble*

I have to agree with Drb, Enjoy the vehicle; you purchased new so you have a power train warranty. Note any concerns you have and bring them up with your dealer when you go in for your first service, but generally relax. I've spent hours in the three months I've had it so far just driving with the radio off, listening to the engine, not that I was looking for problems, but because I love how it sounds, particularly when I floor the gas . Sure I hear transmission clunks, but what I've read on line, this is generally acceptable, even if it is a bit annoying. An 8speed transmission would probably smooth things out a bit.

On top of that, a lot of the engine problems you've probably been reading about are regarding the older 3.5 engine; This engine's issues, particularly oil issues, happens with all Chrysler vehicles. The Pentastar engine is still only a couple of years old and there will probably issues that'll pop up, but general reviews of the engine are highly favourable.

Cheers!

Steph S.

When your not using the DJ how far away do you keep

your fobs?

Could it have been the electronics sensing and initiating

over and over thet did the battery in?

The fobs being close to the car shouldn't be an issue as they should be passive unless a button is pressed on them (at that, the fob's range for the keyless entry system is a pretty small bubble on both the drivers side, passenger side, and rear hatch). The handles on the DJ on the other hand are another story in that they can be incredibly sensitive, and, even without the fob around, will activate with slight touches. I was going to ask him about that too if I hadn't noticed that he was parked in a garage; If he had been outside, it's very possible that rain could activate the DJ's systems pretty regularly, as I have done with a hose while washing it.

cheers!

Steph S.

^{I went with 16" steel rims and winter tires for my 2011 Crew but I'm not sure if your 2012 Crew has the new, larger brakes that we've been hearing about. It seems that the larger brakes may be too big for 16" rims to fit.}

How much was it for the wheels drb227? Do you what the 17"s were going for? I've emailed my dealer for a quote but haven't heard back yet.

cheers!

Steph S.

I'm back up to 21.5L/100kms on my R/T AWD... this is ridiculous

D., Is there any possibility that someone is syphoning your gas?? just a thought *shrug*

Just got back from my trip to Dorset (Huntsville) and for 766km going through Algonquin park with the all the steep elevation changes, I managed 8.8L/100km total. It was 8.2L/km going there, and 9.4L/km coming back. I think the difference was that on the way there, I used the ACC sparingly (actually, it was off for 3/4's of the ride and then for quick a quick 5 minutes every so often at the end of the journey), and on the way back, it was on all the way. I also maintained a speed of around 90-95km/h for most of the ride (most of the trip, the posted limit was 80, except for the 417, which is 100, where I still maintained about 98km/h). If it weren't for all the steep grades, I probably could have done better over all.

Funny thing is that the EVIC showed 8.4L/100km going there, and 8.0L/100km coming back (the evic was reset each way when I filled up for gas). So while it seems I was able to drive more conservatively on the way back, the AC kills the gains, not surprisingly, but then again, the Evic doesn't take the AC load into consideration...kinda odd..

On the flip side, my GPS showed 9.3L/100Km both there and back; it was programmed with epa's estimates of 9.4L/100Km Highway, and 13.8 City. the GPS bases it's calculation on these estimates along with current speed, how fast you took to get to that speed, distance travelled, and elevation travel.

I'm starting to think that the Evic is programmed with Chrysler's own 12.6L/100km city/7.8L/100Km highway as base, and modifies it depending on predetermined accelerator use, rather than having a sensor that tracks fuel flow vs distance travelled, which you would figure would be pretty easy as it has to deliver a specific amount of fuel to each cylinder, so it's already making the calculation. EPA's calc seems dead on vs my GPS, and the return trip, if they did their tests with ACC always on, which would be more realistic to expect.

thoughts?

One other note. I did actually use Cruise control for most of the trip there, and found one nice surprise; switching from Drive to Manual shift, including actual manually shifting, did not take the DJ out of cruise mode. This came in extremely handy for hills in that I just left in cruise, would down shift when hitting a hill, and then go back into OD when I hit the peak. Made for very easy management of the hills.

Cheers!

Steph S.

yeah, you have to talk to the parts department guys because they consider it a "special part". I just went with conventional for the summer. When I go to change it in the fall, I'll change it to a synthetic for those cold morning starts.

Just did my first oil change at 5795km; Warning came on around 5700km or so. Oil/filter was pretty dark, but not the worst I've seen. Interesting that it comes on at this time when the maintenance guide suggests 13K km.. *shrug* no biggie.

For those wanting to know, Canadian Tire stocks the filters; they are listed as Fram CH10955 in their books (only one available for the V6 3.6L engine), but they didn't have them on the shelves. they have them in the back stock room and turns out they are the Mopar filters. just under $10.

All and all an extremely easy oil change; love the filter placement. There was more than 6L in the pan as I ran out of room emptying the waste back into the old bottles; will have to plan a little better next time.

Engine sounded even smoother after the change and a quick drive. Doing a 350Km trip tomorrow morning and again tomorrow night, so we'll see how the mileage goes.

Cheers!

Steph S.

well, if you want a rudimentary example of why it's good to change your brake pads after changing warped rotors: put both your hands together as if you were praying. Now bend your fingers to to the right. now straighten your left hand again, leaving your right hands finged bent back. your left hand is the replaced rotor while your right is the old brake pads... like I said, rudimentary, but gives you an idea of why .

I thought that the third row had it's own mini fan/blower, else the system wouldn't be strong enough to reach back there.

I checked my second row quickly yesterday and found it quite powerful (as did the three year old, who asked me to turn it off as the "wind" was bothering her....)

congrats and enjoy!