I purchased a one owner 2012 dodge journey sxt with awd. It had 19,000 miles on it when bought back in May and now has 25,000 so still under warranty We got some snow last week and when we took out the journey it started out fine but a soon as we hit some large hills we started to spin and the service awd light came on. When this light was on it was like we only had front wheel drive and got stuck. We turned around and was able to get home but could not get it into the garage which has a very slight grade to go up and I mean slight. A little later I started the car and the service awd was not on and it just went right into the garage without issue. So to see what the heck is going on here I took it back out and found a flat parking lot with just a dusting of snow, started to drive slow at first then started to drive faster and caused the suv to spin and lose traction. The light came right on and I was back into the same condition where it just seemed like fwd only. Drove slowly for a bit and the light went off and all seemed well.
I have talked to a couple dealers and also Chrysler customer service and no one has heard of this happening. I feel like I may have bought a lemon here since this is not the only issue.
Other issues:
- Clock is always 15 minutes or so ahead even after you reset it
- Radio will some times be at the highest volume when you start the car
- Ball joint or something else that makes a banging sound when on the brakes from the passenger side. Has been to two dealerships and no one can find an issue with this noise. I have even recreated it for them
I attached pics of the service awd on my dash. On one of the pics you will see that I turned off the traction control or what not but even when in this condition the traction indicator comes on and then the service awd.
Any info would be appreciated (it goes back to the dealership soon)
