mortalalliance

While I agree it seemed early, it fixed my clunking issue. My transmission was jerking essentially every time I shifted from park to drive. If it is something serious, there's nothing I can really do until it starts throwing errors or dies out on me; it's running like a charm now.

I was having this "clunking/jerking" issue almost every time I drove my vehicle. I eventually (begrudgingly) took it back to my dealer just a few hundred miles past my 36k warranty. Long story short, the conclusion the dealership came to was that my transmission fluid was very dirty and was throwing off the mapping technology that the transmission uses to efficiently shift around. I was very skeptical that this was accurate since I shouldn't be replacing my fluid at 36k miles (even the manual doesn't suggest it til 60k I believe). I was already out $100 or so for the "inspection fee," so I figured I'd throw another few hundred on to try to fix the issues. They gave me new transmission fluid and then remapped my transmission. This was about two months ago, since then I have yet have any jerking when shifting from Park or Reverse to Drive. Annoying that I had to change the transmission fluid so early, but I'm glad it fixed my problem.

2012 Journey SXT here that seems to be exhibiting the same issues as everyone else. Same backstory, vibration/jostling/shimmy in steering wheel at 65-75 mph had to dealer multiple times, tires balanced & rotated numerous times and no fix. The jostling seems to vary by road condition and the service manager test drove it on road which didn't seem to upset the car and cause the vibration, so that made feel great..... What's the solution to this problem? Do I just live with this until the tires crap out and replace them with non-Kumho tires. How big of a deal is the jostling? I don't "often" drive at 65+ mph and can survive with the jostling, my main concern is that other issues are going to arise from these jostling symptons. Any suggestions would be great, especially ways of "convincing" my dealer that I'm not making things up.

Now that it is winter where I live in the US (and therefore much colder) I am more convinced that this is just the plastic/rubber components expanding and creaking/cracking. I haven't heard any creaking since early fall and fully anticipate not to hear anything until the climate gets warmer.

nwaring, are you talking about the update below? I am having the same "clunking/slamming" into drive/reverse as everyone else and would love to just get this TSB done to fix the problem

Not really a drastic problem or even much of a concern. I'm mostly interested if anyone else has experienced this problem or if it's something I should be concerned with. My Journey (2012 SXT) A/C will sometimes make a whistle noise when blowing out air. At low-medium A/C levels, the noise is barely audible and easy to ignore. However when cranking the A/C up to High the whistle volume increases and becomes a nuisance. I did a brief visual inspection of the vents and there's nothing clearly obstructing any of them, so I'm not entirely sure what would be making this whistle noise. Also, as I said before this only happens sometimes and I'm not entirely sure what the variable is that is making it whistle. More often than not, however, the A/C operates normally.

I think I'm getting a similar issue, but it's not frequent enought that I'd really been concerned with. Let me describe my symptons so I can see if we're talking about the same thing. I will intermittantly/randomly get a noise from the front of the dash that isn't super loud but sounds like a "plasticy" creaking/tapping. It's not very loud, but it is noticeable and it occurs approximately 5-10 times in a given voyage when it's misbehaving. I'd always assumed it had to do with some plastic components expanding/contracting.

sexyRTboi, I had the exact same issue with my 2012 SXT several months ago. At that time there was an older TSB which addressed some 2011 models. I had the dealer service my vehicle with that TSB and everything turned out great. The TSB DodgeCares posted is a revised (updated) version of what I had done. I recommend printing the TSB and mentioning it to your dealer when you take it in for service. The dealer will probally need to order the disc for the update, and once they get that in everything should be peachy. Also I recommend writing down your saved radio stations on Sirius and/or FM/AM as the firmware update will wipe everything. Wasn't the biggest hassle to just set everything up again, but still....

2012 Dodge Jouney here also. The time does seem to move forward a bit but nothing crazy, I'm not really one to complain about having to adjust my clock every couple months.

UPDATE: My radio has been fixed by the software update associated with the TSB linked above. There are no longer brief, intermittent audio dropouts. I did have to take my vehicle in twice, since the first time they did not have the software on hand, but I'm over that. I also should note the my vehicle didn't match the "apply this update to vehicle built prior to" date on the TSB. When I took my vehicle in to the second dealer, I made sure I explained my issue and mentioned that there was a TSB that explained how to fix it. Thanks for all of your help with getting this issue fixed guys!

Thanks for the quick replies guys! I did see that TSB but skipped over it as I thought it applied to only the Journey 4.3's that were experiencing very loud music levels at ignition. I called a different Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge dealer nearby (fortunatley I live by several) and told them about the TSB involving an update and they scheduled me in. I'll post whether or not the firmware patch fixes the problem. I'm glad you mentioned that the problem was that the processor was getting overloaded because I was somewhat managing to get by with the audio interrupts by switching to AM/FM radio during operation. This seemed to let the processor catch up, therby lessening the severity of the audio interrupts. Not a great fix by any means but something to help in the meantime, it mostly only works when the skipping occurs during SiriusXM operation however.

@bramfrank Yes, the problem of intermittent, brief cuts in sound is what I am talking about. I just read through the TSB board and couldn't find the update you're referring to. Would you please link it for me?

Took the Journey into the dealer service department on Friday and didn't get the result I was looking for. I explained the intermittent sound drop-out to the technician and 2.5 hours later I returned for my "serviced" vehicle. The service report I received essentially said that they couldn't replicate the problem I described and continued (to my aggravation) to explain how SiriusXM radio works and that audio drop outs are normal when under bridges and metallic structures, as if I'm a moron. At this point I requested to speak with the service manager who (after I offered to take him out to my vehicle to "replicate the problem for him") admitted that another customer was experiencing the same issues and they, and Chrysler, had no idea how to fix it. Also, according to the manager, replacing the radio does not fix the issue. I plan on taking it to another dealer's service department in the area to avoid the "jackass-ery" within the next month to see if I can get them to at least take a look at it, or try to replace the radio or something. One of my top 5 reasons for getting a new vehicle was so that I could have better audo option than FM/AM radio with a blank LED display.....but at this point the audio system in my old '95 car is beating this 2012 garbage. Any recommendations on how I should go about getting my car serviced (via the 3 year warranty) again to avoid getting some garbage default "this is how satellite radio works" explanation? Also, if you're in the Dayton, Ohio (USA) area, don't get your vehicle serviced at Dave Dennis Chrysler Jeep Dodge, as they clearly don't give a damn about their customers.

Unfortunately it seems for the US version (or at least my version) I can't adjust RDS settings, the "More" button during FM operation simply gives me time/temperature. Also, after spending too long perusing the settings menu, I determined that it seems I have no way to change anything. I'm a bit bewildered that this is a thing that is even happening. Is this a rare occurrence that only happens to a few out of so many 4.3 units? I can't comprehend how Fiat/Dodge is putting the Journey with this product out and not receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews that everyone's radio is frequently cutting out.

Hey, I'm a bit new to the forums but have recently purchased a 2012 Journey and have been hating driving it for >10 minutes as the "skips" in the mp3 player are overwhelmingly annoying. I have found that a way to "reset" the system and the period of time until the mp3 player begins to skip is by switching to analog radio for several seconds and then switching back to my input device. This is however horribly inconvenient. I am taking my Journey into the shop for the radio next week and had a few questions so I can ensure my dealer's service department is up to par. Is the firmware update for the 4.3 still in the beta version or is there an official release for it yet? Also, what exactly is the "RDS AF or TA" function that you're talking about, I'm not too tech savvy or familiar with acronyms. Finally, in the meantime until I get my vehicle in to the shop, how exactly do I disable them to avoid the mp3 player skips? Thanks for any help you can afford!