onecrazyfoo4u

And that's exactly how you know which mechanics to avoid. That's a horrible, lazy suggestion some mechanic provided cause he was too damn lazy to actually investigate the problem. I would have demanded my money back and ran as fast as I could. Then posted a horrible review of the shop online for all to see. Just another reason why I never go to a mechanic to do auto work.

That would be killer if they get you the durango with little extra cash. I'd be interested to see what they offer you. I would hope it's total price buyback of the Journey.

Don't be scared to pry it open...the fob is meant to be opened. Open it up and make sure none of the buttons are sticky; if they are lube them up. Then put a new battery in and see how it behaves.

The sail panel is a very common spot to mount tweeters to on vehicles...due to ease of access and plenty of space for them. The few systems I've had all have the tweeters in the sail panel.

I have yet to see a single article about HID's leading to car crashes, have you? Come on now, we all know the stock DJ housing doesn't scatter nearly that bad at all. We've all seen the horrendous hondas and ricers where yes, the scatter is horrible and right in your eyes. But the DJ isn't bad at all...I would never call the DJ stock housing dangerous with 35W HID's (I don't know about 55W). Not all of us have the money to retrofit projectors. Of course I would LOVE to have them, just too cheap to get it done. Not knowledgable to do it myself. I've said it in previous HID bashing threads, there are many things out there that are illegal that people do to their vehicles. I don't see threads bashing on people with too dark of tint, bald tires, stock DJ undersized brakes (LOL), etc. This is just one of a dozen plus things that people consider illegal and that may consider dangerous. Do what you want to your vehicle. As long as you aren't killing people (once again, we all know the stock DJ housing isn't going to do), then it's your own butt if you get pulled over for it. I do find it hilarious that the Dodge sticker on the inner driver door frame says the vehicle is equipped with HID's. I would show that to the cop if I ever got pulled over for HID's.

I'm with you, had HID's on the DJ for over a year now...have never been flashed by anybody. I've driven in front of my DJ several times in my low commuter car. Never had any issue with the brightness. They are definitely no brighter than any other HID vehicle out there. This is with 35W DDM HID's. You just gotta watch out for the HID nazies .

Why not just go to Rockauto and copy the list of all those part numbers for each filter?

LOL, can't compete with the good ole Aztek though. That's top of the ugly list for everyone...

I just use the amazon parts finder and order the cheapest cabin air filter. They are usually around $10 or so. They all do the same job 😀. I have k&n air filter so no replacing there

Nice, you keep saying you are done with the audio system though ! There will always be something new to add! I haven't touched the audio in this vehicle since my wife drives it primarily. But in my daily commuter I've had a 13" sub and 1200 watt rms mono amp to match, along with 0 gauge wiring throughout. The subwoofer and box alone weigh 110 lbs! I like to pound hard occasionally . I've always had a huge 1000+ watt system since my high school days...first MTX brand, then JL Audio, and now Elemental Designs (an independant company that produced killer products to compete with JL Audio top of the line; but they went bankrupt unfortunetely). My system is not for the week of heart. People have said it sounds like hurricane Katrina in the trunk, lol.

It almost sounds like it could be something besides the transmission. Maybe a fuel cutoff or spark cutoff causing the power loss and bucking. Do you have any other dealers around you to check with?

Yeah, that's why I think if we had to, we would stick to the setup of the 5 yr old in the 3rd row in his booster seat. Plus it's easiest for him to climb in and out of that back seat by himself. We'll experiment with the setup when the baby comes in a couple of months and see if we like it. If not, we'll start SUV shopping! I'm not avoiding the minivan because of my manhood . I freaking want it to be able to go offroad and camping worthy, just like I've said multiple times in here. Yes, they are very convinient and big and open. But not going to work with the ground clearance of a car. Have you guys tried the GMC Acadia before? It had nice 2nd row captain seats. I guess it's one size down from the Tahoe/Yukon though.

Oh I see what you are saying. Yeah, our seats are the same. I wasn't thinking about just the infant car seat base...very true, you can probably still flip the seat forward with just the infant base. Unfortunately we don't have one right now to try (we just traded it in for a convertable car seat). That would probably work though...since it's still somewhat easy enough to access the 3rd row to help him buckle in until he can learn himself. Then we'd just have to decide if the loss in hatch cargo space would be acceptable. Hmmm, decisions. I know if we go test drive some bigger/newer SUV's we'll want one for sure of course . We'll have to test it out and see how much of an annoyance it is for my wife to do that several times a day (drop off at school, run errands, pick up from school, activities, etc). She does 90% of the driving with the kids each day. I think she would get tired of doing the seat juggle multiple times a day...

Does the Durango, Grand Cherokee, Explorer, Tahoe have just the two side captain seats in the second row?...so no need to pull up seats to access third row? That's the big killer, is you can't pull or flip the second row seats to access the third row with the big ass car seats latched in. There's just not enough wiggle room. So the 3rd row access without moving 2nd row seats is a must. What SUV would you all turn to if you were to upgrade to a bigger SUV? I don't know what the easy entry 3rd row is, you have to flip up the seats to gain access....which you can't do with car seats strapped in to both sides. We've thought about doing the roof pod or hitch rack to carry excess stuff when there's not enough room in the hatch. Just seems like such a pain to access them all the time. Plus they'll lower mpg a little bit I'm sure. We've tried out the minivans...and they are nice and huge and practical. It's just the offroading/camping thing that's a goner. Two low of ground clearance. We need that capability in a vehicle. Our second vehicle is just my cheap commuter car. We don't want to have two fancy newer vehicles. No need to pay for that. Plus don't want to be transferring car seats back and forth (or purchasing two sets of car seats). It's simple just to have the one nice family vehicle (while I drive the crappy commuter to work ).

That is interesting. You would think the dealer could trace down the problem. Have you tried touching the main upper/lower radiator hoses when the reading gets up that high? You should still be able to touch them if they were in the normal 180-190deg reading. If it's reading 250deg, you should easily be able to tell a difference with your hand (or a laser temp gun if you have one). If there's no difference, then the coolant temp sensor is bogus.

Definitely do not let it get above 230-240deg F again! That's the damage point. You can easily warp the block/blow a head gasket at those temps. The only time I've gotten to 230deg is up the 20mile long mountain pass on the way to Vegas on a 115deg day with the A/C blasting. (Going 75mph up a long steep mountain in 4th gear really heats things up). I turned the A/C off and temps went back down to 220deg until the mountain pass was over. Did you have those parts replaced to try to fix the high coolant temps? Or did the high temps start after replacing those parts? I would start with the basics, even though they replaced those parts, verify they are working. Does the relay kick on the fan properly? Does the fan turn on with the A/C turned on? Does the thermostat actually open? Is the coolant temp sensor working or is it giving bogus readings? Are there any coolant leaks whatsoever or does the fluid level stay good? If all of those systems are working, then the only other problem would be the radiator itself. May be clogged and need a back flush with high pressure water.

So we've had our 2012 DJ Crew for 3 years on the dot now...got it for $25k and paid it off over a year ago (thank you overtime). So it's really nice not having a car payment. And we love our DJ, not a single problem with it, runs like a charm. Have 83k miles on it now (put almost 30k a year on it). One of the main pushes for our DJ was the cheap cost and excellent mileage for a big engine. Here's our delema. We have an almost 5 yr old, almost 3 yr old and a new baby due in June. The 5 yr old is in a booster seat now, 3 yr old still in a giant convertable seat. We've tried the 5 yr old in the 3rd row. But it's still too hard for him to buckle his own seat belt...plus it's a pain to have to open the hatch everytime for him to get in and out. Plus we lose most of our hatch storage and can barely fit a stroller in there. So we're back to normal configuration with them both in the second row. I think we'll be able to fit the infant car seat in the middle of the second row. If we can, it'll obviously be crowded, but at least we'll have back hatch storage still. It will be a pain to get the newborn car seat in and out of the middle seat. On top of this, we are relocating to Utah for a new job in a couple months. There we'll be able to drive 1/3 what we do now (average probably 10-15k miles a year). So there won't be a huge need to have 25+ mpg gas mileage. We are thinking of upgrading to a bigger SUV with the 2nd row captain seats, so our 5 yr old can just walk back to the 3rd row to sit. Our DJ would be worth ~$16k private sale or ~$14k trade in. Probably due to our high mileage. But we can easily afford the car payment, no problem. What would you all do? We've looked at minivans and just can't make ourselves do it. I know they're convenient, but we like to go offroad, camping, tow stuff. SUV is more practical for us. If you guys would upgrade vehicles, which SUV's would you be looking at?

A lot of motorcycles (and I've seen mustangs) put those kits in. I think it's just a little wiring box you wire inline to the brakes. It'll make it flash 3 times, then go solid. There's tons of different options: http://www.flashingbrakelights.com/

Well if you're going to hit a deer, at least make sure you kill it so you can eat it! You have to get revenge somehow! Luckily it doesn't look like the door was damaged, maybe just scratched? Looks like a new fender, headlight, and bumper cover are in the works though. That sucks man...nothing like tanting your brand new vehicle.

Very cool. I may do it and report back what mine is showing for comparison! What is TBN? Looking again, it's weird that Calcium is the only thing that reported above national average. I wonder why that is?

Good post! Looks easy enough to do, would just need to order the special dip stick tool to check for levels. But for ease of service, I think I'll take my vehicle to the dealer; even though I hate to do it!

Wow, very cool. Kudos to you for getting an analysis done! How much did it cost to get done? How many miles are on your DJ? I'd be interested to see a 100k mile analysis done with the manual stated 8k mile change interval. If it's cheap I may try it out with my mobile1 5w-30 synthetic changes on oem filter. I'm at 83k miles currently.

Good info, thanks man. I bet the dealer pays about 1/4 that price for the parts though...but at $150 it is a decent deal to get the service done. I will definitely do just the drain and refill, no flush. I don't think there is any dipstick on our DJ to check transmission fluid level. Don't the just pump in the correct amount of fluid and call it good?

You had to have had other work done to tally up to $500! There's no way just a trans drain or flush cost that much!

Great info guys, thanks! Looks like I'll avoid a full flush then (which probably costs more anyways). Just ask for a drain, filter change, and refill then? What fluid did you guys go with? Just the standard mopar transmission fluid, or did you upgrade to synthetic or anything?