Journeyman425

I use microfiber towels with both the Miami Shine liquid wax and the Hydrogloss spray detailer. When I wash use a very soft brush - like horsehair, very soft - which makes it very easy to get the roof and makes the wash process a lot faster, yet leaves no etching lines in the clearcoat. I have a microfiber wash mitt too, which I use on the wheels since the brush does not get in between the spokes very well, especially on the wheels on my 300M.

I think the tow rating belies the car's actual capability. Of course, as a dealer service manager I cannot publicly condone towing over the posted limits, but my experience was just like yours. The car showed absolutely no sign of struggle and handled the load with ease. Just like yourself, I monitored all the temperature values in the EVIC and yes, even the fuel economy did not suffer drastically. Now, my camper weighs less than yours and our trip was on level terrain but it was done in 90 degree weather with the A/C on. The nice thing about all this is that now I know that if we want to go a significant distance with the camper, there's peace of mind knowing the car is well within its design parameters rather than straining at its limit.

Did you have the brake pads replaced? if not, please inquire if the wear is even on both sides. If one side is down to 3mm but the other has greater thickness, then that indicates a binding brake caliper which would explain the squeak while driving.

Glad I am not alone! Sure enough, just as I was ready to go to work, the sky opened up and it rained - for about 10 minutes. Just enough to get the road completely wet, then it stopped. Drove to work in the road spray. Rained again on and off during the day while the car sat, then again tonight after we went out for dinner. Same thing, stopped raining and drove home in the road spray. I rinsed the car off when we got home to get the spray off. Tomorrow I'll hit it again with the Hydrogloss and all will be well! You're right about the brake dust, Rolly - my wheels get dirtier from driving on wet roads than from the brakes. When I wipe them down in between washes, there is very little dust.

I went back to your thread with the pictures of your Journey after you had it Opti-Coated. If it looked that good in a garage, I can't imagine how gorgeous it must have been out in the sunlight. Do you have any outside pictures of it after the Opti-Coat treatment?

Ok guys, I have a serious disease. I can't stop cleaning our new Journey! My wife usually drives the car. Last night she came home with the kids after a baseball game. The parking lot was obviously dusty. Then we had a light rain shower this morning so the car was all spotted. Tonight she went to work and took the 300M since the parking spaces at the hospital that she works at are narrow and does not want the new car getting dinged. I love her... Now, there is rain in the forecast. 20 percent tonight, 70 percent tomorrow, 60 percent tomorrow night. Pretty good shot that it's gonna rain. So, what did I do? With an hour and a half of daylight left, I got out the Ardex spray detailer and proceeded to do the whole car, top to bottom, then shine the tires, wipe down the brake dust and clean the glass. Now it's dark and I can't see it. Tomorrow it's probably gonna rain and mess it all up anyway. What the hell is wrong with me? Only you guys will understand this. I didn't post any new pictures because it's too damn dark!

The wheels are indeed aluminum alloy. The cladding is a plastic based cover which has a chrome finish applied to it and then permanently bonded to the alloy wheel itself. The finish is durable if cared for properly. Simple car wash soap and clear water removes the brake dust. I use Ardex Miami Shine on both the car and the wheels and it makes the wheels beautiful and very easy to care for. My 300M has a true chromed aluminum alloy wheel and I agree that it has a higher quality feel than the plastic cladding. I am told that the chroming process is highly toxic from an environmental standpoint and the switch to cladding was done to combat that issue. Not sure how much of that is rooted in fact - I suspect there is a cost-saving measure involved as well - but it sounded reasonable when explained to me.

Depends on the amount of miles and type of driving done in those three days. I had a 1982 Volvo 240 that would coat the front wheels with a light film of brake dust with less than 20 miles driven. I used to have a 15.5 mile commute to work with this car and could wipe the dust off them after each trip. This is with OEM pads and rotors. My 300M hardly dusts the wheels at all. And our 2013 Journey does not produce excessive brake dust, either. The wheels were still very shiny after a road trip to Hershey, PA - nearly 300 miles from our house. Just a quick wipe was all that was needed to make them perfect again.

. While it was sitting mid week i noticed a good glaze of rust coating the rotors. That condition is known as "trace corrosion" and it is very common. After I wash my 2000 300M and the car sits overnight, the rotors have an orange tinge to them the next morning and the first couple of brake applications produce a scraping sound until it is swept off. Trace corrosion itself won't cause so much as a chatter as it will a scraping sound. The car I took off the road - a 1999 300M - sat for two months at my shop before i used it again last week while my new Journey was in the bodyshop (see my thread "Hit Last Weekend). The brakes had a distinctive rotating rumble sound even without the brakes applied due to rust on the rotors which built up while it sat. Once I ran the car for a couple of days, it went away. I was surprised at how rusty they became just sitting in that relatively short time. We did have a lot of rain and very high humidity here during that period of non-use which would be similar to the week yours sat in that salty environment.

I have seen cases where brake rotors warp while sitting on the lot. We just did front rotors today on a new Durango that was delivered this past Friday - came back for a brake vibration. Schedule an appointment with your selling dealer to have this resolved. The braking should be smooth.

This is from the dealer order page. When you are ordering a car from Chrysler and you click the "details" link about the color choice, this comes up. I'm assuming that the Copper color reflects and refracts to a higher degree than Black simply because it is a brighter color and not because of the wax being used. Interesting read: Copper Pearl Coat (PLB) Pearl Coat is a pigmented mineral coating that creates special brilliance and shine by reflecting and refracting sunlight, adding a dramatic sparkle to the vehicle finish. I copied and pasted this from DealerConnect which also included a color sample, but an error message came up saying I wasn't allowed to use the link on this board, yet it allowed the post once I cut the color sample out. Oh well!

I have a bit of obsession with keeping this car clean. No sooner did I get it home than I waxed it top to bottom with Ardex Miami Shine (except for the newly painted bumper) which is a liquefied carnuba paste wax. Three hours later it proceeded to rain on it just enough to get it all spotted, then today the kids had a baseball game 50 miles away and it rained some more. After she got it home I re-cleaned it using Ardex Hydrogloss spray detailer. Just for kicks I washed and detailed my trusty 300M as well. The trouble with Copper Pearl is it shows everything! I have also discovered that It is one of those colors that truly looks gorgeous when it is spotlessly clean and free of dust. As soon as it begins to get dirty, it loses its magic which makes me obsess the way I do. I know, I have issues...

All fixed up and good as new!

Does your dealership have another, similarly equipped 2013 Journey in stock? If so, ask to test-drive the new car with the service manager and see if you can duplicate the sound in the new one. If you cannot duplicate it in the new car, then go right to yours and drive the same route as you did in the new car and duplicate your complaint to the service manager. That will rule out whether or not the sound is normal (I'm sure that it is not, based on what you are saying, but A to B comparisons always help bolster your case) Once that is demonstrated, then they will continue with diagnosis until it is resolved.

Journey is in the bodyshop as we speak. Front fascia is off and being painted. Waiting for the fascia trim to come in and some miscellaneous hardware. Rather than replace the whole front fascia, it can be repaired and the paint blended into the fascia only. If we replace the whole fascia, then the paint has to be blended into the front fenders to make it match 100%. Very tough to do with Copper Pearl. The fasica itself can be repaired as new, just the dark gray trim where the front plate would go has to be replaced. Hope to have it back at the end of the week. Put a dealer plate on my '99 300M and am using the old car as a loaner.

You can disable the interior lights altogether by rotating the rheostat on the dash all the way down. This way, the lights don't wake up if you open a door. From the owner's manual: Dimmer Control The dimmer control is part of the headlight switch and is located on the left side of the instrument panel. Rotating th dimmer control upward with the parking lights or headlights on will increase the brightness of the instrument panel lights, door map pockets and cupholders (if equipped). Dome Light Position Rotate the left dimmer control completely upward to the second detent to turn on the interior lights. The interior lights will remain on when the dimmer control is in this position. Interior Light Defeat (OFF) Rotate the dimmer control to the extreme bottom off position. The interior lights will remain off when the doors are open. Parade Mode (Daytime Brightness Feature) Rotate the dimmer control upward to the first detent. This feature brightens all text displays such as the odometer, EVIC (if equipped), and radio when the parking lights or headlights are on. Dimmer Controls 226 UNDERSTANDING THE FEATURES OF YOUR VEHICLE

From the owner's manual: ROOF LUGGAGE RACK — IF EQUIPPED The roof rack cross rails and side rails are designed to carry cargo weight. The load must not exceed 150 lbs (68 kg), and it should be distributed uniformly over the cross rails. In addition, the roof rack does not increase the total load carrying capacity of the vehicle. Be sure the total load of cargo inside the vehicle plus that on the roof rack does not exceed the maximum vehicle load capacity.

Welcome!

The sub is 8"

Your Journey is rated for 2500 lbs. How far are you going with it? If it is mostly short distance local towing, you will be fine with it. Aerodynamics will not be a major factor since the height of a bass boat is lower than the vehicle height. The weight is not a problem for the powertrain to manage, but transmission and engine temps have to be monitored. If you are towing longer distances in hilly terrain then I would advise against it.

Well, at least it was not a hit and run. We were in the car when it got hit. The kid never saw us, so he says. I'm not entirely sure how you can miss the front end of a Journey in the rearview mirror of a VW Golf. Nevertheless, I have a police report and his insurance info. My insurance company will subrogate against his to recover my deductible at the least. If it had been a hit and run, I'd have gone stark raving mad!

Webslave is correct. All that has to be done is for the dealer to add sales code LMK to your vehicle's options list (easily done) and then reconfigure the vehicle so that the new sales code is picked up (also easily done). See below: STAR Case Contact the STAR Center for assistance if no solution is found Chrysler Group LLC Version 1 Case Number: S1108000159 Release Date: 04/02/2013 Symptom/Vehicle Issue: Daytime Running Lamps Inoperative Diagnosis: Owners may complain that the daytime running lamps are inoperative. Repair Procedure: Daytime running lamps will not operate. No DTC’s in any modules. Select the radio settings menu and select lighting, select Daytime Running Lamps (enable or disable feature). If the radio option is not available, review the vehicle configuration to make sure the vehicle is equipped with the daytime running lamps sales code. Adding the sales code LMK and performing a vehicle restoration will add the feature. Verification: Test the operation to complete.

No need for additives to clean the valves. There's enough additives in most gasoline to control carbon buildup. The issue with the valves has to do with insufficient cooling in the valve seat area which causes the valve to burn just enough to prevent it from fully seating, which in turn causes the misfire. Unless the check engine light is flashing while driving, then it will not harm the catalytic converter to drive it. All of the compression leak down tests that we've done to determine a faulty head came in at 40% or less, which has not been enough to cause a dead miss, but will produce the rough idle / performance lag issues described above.

Me too. I already polished out the white paint from the car that hit us. Looks 10X better already. Snapped the grille back into the facia retainers. Called my insurance, saw the bodyshop yesterday and have a facia on order already. As soon as the body shop can take me, it goes in for repair. Might be a couple of weeks. I am so bummed out about this. I know it's no big deal but you guys know, in the short time I've been on this forum, how much I love this car. I've only made one payment on it and already it's no longer new. I'll feel better when it's all fixed and back to new condition again but in the meantime it kills me to see it damaged. I should just get over it and move on, right? Just had to vent a little to an audience who can really understand!

Took a road trip to Hershey, PA and got nailed by a 17 year old in a VW in the HersheyPark lot: