sdeveau

We've got just over 15,500kms on ours, transmission still hunts for gears. The dealership says this is normal. There's a "sweet" spot, and if you don't hit the gas at that spot, it hunts for the gear. Makes sense, but I thought the Journey was supposed to have a "well-developed" drive train. I'm undecided as to whether it's getting better, or I'm just getting used to it.

Anytime I've had a warped rotor (three times with this most recent visit), all under 20,000kms, they've been replaced under warranty. I also had a fog light go on me; they replaced the bulb under warranty, as well as the brake pads(twice), and a windshield wiper blade. These warrantied issues occured between two vehicles; both Dodge.

Welcome! I have an Inferno Red SXT as well, we went without the third row for the same reason. I'm glad you haven't had the problems I have! I still love my Journey though. Good luck!

As annoying as those chimes are, they shouldn't be affected by reseting the "Change Oil" notification light. It may be something as simple as a fuse, it may be something else though. Your dealer *should* be able to tell you.

*****----UPDATE----***** My husband felt the shudder yesterday, so this morning I arranged to drop the Journey off at the dealer on my way home from work. Because this is the second time we're taking it in for the same issue, I provided them with a written explanation of what we've experienced. They provided me with a rental, which is great; I'm driving a white Mistubishi Outlander for now. At least these frequent trips to the dealership are keeping our kms down. The Manager told me he would call me in a couple of days. I miss my Journey. *****----UPDATE----*****

If your dealer gives you the run-around with brake warranty, I would suggest telling them you'll just deal with someone else. Money out of their pocket and into someone else's essentially.

If you're in Canada, it's a country wide warranty on all new Chrysler vehicles. Brakes are warrantied up to 20,000 kms. The only issue I ever had with warranty repair work was on my old dodge, they never filed the paperwork for my warranty with Chrysler Canada, so I was forced into dealing with the dealership that sold me the vehicle as no other dealership could put the work through under warranty. The information would be in the package you were given when you took possension of your vehicle, as well as on their website.

I have to say that we LOVE our Journey. FWD SXT w/ performance steering & suspension (makes it feel more like a sports car than a crossover). It's comfortable and looks great. The storage is fantastic, big enough for all our stuff, but not too big. However, we have had an unfortunate number of glitches to deal with. Though not every Journey owner has to put up with frequent returns to the dealership for warranty issues, it seems like the issues are split down the middle. What I mean is that the Journeys that have issues have several, and then there are Journey owners who have no problems at all. I'm very happy everything is under warranty, but frustrated that I keep having to take time off work to bring the vehicle back for another repair/investigation. It is difficult for me to recommend this vehicle to someone else, only because I am annoyed that I have had so many problems. If you take your chance and end up with a problem-free Journey, you will be very impressed with it. Even if there are problems, it's still a fun vehicle to drive.

I know what you mean! We purchased the FWD SXT with Performance Steering and Suspension (comes with the 19" chrome wheels). Inferno Red. She's a beauty. The upgraded suspension makes driving her a dream! We love the sound system, the fold down rotating rear dvd with dual wireless headsets makes extended trips to visit family a breeze with a toddler. Storage, utility, the general appeal; it's the right vehicle for our little family. However, I'm very tired of continually having to return to the dealership for little glitches and "annoyances" as you called them. There is obvisouly something wrong with the electrical/computer system in our Journey. I'm not sure what, and of course our dealer can't fix something they can't find. We've had several parts replaced and weird occurances. Kind of like our Journey has a little mischeivious gremlin. The dealer has done very well at lessening the inconvenience, they've always provided us with a rental replacement (though I do question their concentration, very busy service centre). But if I wanted to drive a different car every other week, I wouldn't have purchased a brand new vehicle.

I did have my reservoir replaced within a couple of days. I had to take it in for some other work and they replaced it, the brake pads and rotors, and the driver's side wiper blade. I was thankful that I didn't have to bring the vehicle back again to do it later; very surprised the part came in so quickly. The noise is still there, while it's not as bad as it was when I took it in for repair, it's about the same as it was when we first picked up the vehicle, about 15,000kms ago. I'm guessing it will get worse as we continue our Journey, we'll have them look at it when we take it back in for other warranty work.

The noise you're talking about is probably the traction control or ABS kicking in, and would be normal. The shudder sabelo880 mentioned in the front end of the vehicle when pressing the brakes, sounds to me like a rotor issue. But I'm not an expert, just speaking from my experience with brake shuddering.

For optimal performance, I believe. Our SXT recommends the same, we always put 89 in, every now and then we'll give her a treat and put in some 91. My old dodge preferred higher octane gas, the manual recommended 87, but the engine growled with its use.

I've been noticing a "shudder" from the engine (I think) since I had the power steering reservoir replaced. It feels a little like someone is bouncing in the car, or like I'm driving over uneven pavement (which is what I thought the cause was origanally). Every now and then I feel it in the steering wheel too. Happened this morning actually, while I was coasting on flat pavement. Normally I feel the shudder only when I am excellerating or when I first fire up the engine. Does the engine just have a harmonic point that causes this shudder and it's normal, or should I been more concerned? I think my husband thinks I'm nuts. I feel it when he's not in the car, but it's not as bad when he is, almost unnoticable. It's like having weight on both sides of the vehicle makes it better.... Any ideas?

I distinctly remember one instance when I was merging onto the highway, doing about 60km/h trying to accelerate to 100km/h. The gear didn't want to change, just high revs and no speed, I let off the gas and the revs wouldn't drop, like it was stuck. I decided to touch the breaks and try again; it was only a light tap on the break, barely enough to really slow the vehicle. When I did this, the gear it was in released and the revs dropped. I only had that problem once, and the engine was still fairly new, maybe 5,000kms on it, I chaulked it up to the engine not being broken in yet. My husband didn't seem too concerned about it hasn't happened again. It does still "hunt" for the right gear every now and then. It seems like there is a "sweet" spot in the transmission, and if you don't press the gas at the right time, it has trouble figuring out what it's supposed to do.

Oh I would have LOVED to have been able to do that! Good on you!! I had a similar response from a Manager, but I was on the phone. The Manager asked me what the problem was, at first I was ready to be really nice and polite, and I said, "Well, you hear that honking in the backgroud?" He said, "Yeah, it's really annoying, can you turn it off?" My response: "No, I can't that's why I'm calling you. I'm stuck in the parking lot at work and I'm not driving around with it like this or someone is going to think I stole my own car!" I guess I had a kind of snipy tone when I said it because his response was: "I'm so sorry, that was meant to be a joke. I guess it's not really funny, huh?" He went through telling me to push all the buttons and lock and unlock the door with the valet key, put the key in the ignition, nothing worked, and then tells me to try getting in through the Gate. Well, as I'm sure you know, there is only one key hole on the Journey equipped with remote keyless entry and it's on the driver's door. I told him that I couldn't. He asked me what I was driving, I told him, and his response was, "Well, that shouldn't be happening. I've never had that problem on a Journey before." Well, gee, you think? You mean, it's SUPPOSED to work PROPERLY???

My Journey was built July 24, 2008. I am having a hard time with this vehicle....I swear it feels like if it wasn't for bad luck..... I know what you're saying about the "Auto" setting. That's not the problem. I did the same thing I've always done, with this vehicle and my last, and every light went out, not just dimmed, there were no lights, like the car was off.

We had the same problem! My husband tried 4 times and couldn't get it to work. We had to take it to the dealer who tried several times before it would reset. Very tricky. Very annoying.

Ours showed up early, about 4,200 kms. Much quicker than we anticipated.

I had an odd glitch the other day and I'm hoping it wasn't a warning for something more serious. I turned the headlights on, like I normally do, pulled out the toggle for the fog lights and every light on my dash/radio/gear shift turned off. My headlights were still on, but I had no interior lights at all, I couldn't see my speedometer, air controls, or anything. I had to turn it off and back on again to get them to work. It's only happened the one time. If it happens again I'll report it. I know that's what my dealer will tell me to do anything if I report it now. Just want to know if anyone else has experienced this and if so, did it get worse?

Interesting, I didn't realize there were motion detectors inside the vehicle. What was the butterfly made out of?

It really is a fun vehicle to drive! I remember reading an article that some shmuck wrote stating that the Journey had no curb appeal what-so-ever. Was he blind??? What was he comparing it to? A Lamborghini?? My neighbours love the look of ours as well. I've had people actually walk into each other because they were looking so intently at the vehicle trying to figure out what it was. The look, the drive, the price-tag: we bought it!

My last dodge (an '04 SX 2.0) had the radio replaced three times! The service manager thought I was an idiot and said so in not so many words when he gave me instructions on how to use the radio/cd player! I actually had to bring it in when it was malfunctioning before he believed that I was telling the truth about there being a problem. Before they replaced it the first time, the only fix I had was to turn my car off and then back on again. Which is really annoying when you're sitting in traffic. It would just all of a sudden crap out and I would have to wait until I could stop somewhere to get it working again. Third time's the charm, they say.

Keep pressing them for a resolution. Print off the threads to this post and take it to them. If they still "can't find a problem" then you probably need to find a new dealer. My dealer said the same thing when I reported this exact same problem, "There is no problem". Even the diagnositc reported nothing abnormal. It wasn't until they physically went into my vehicle and surveyed the connections that they acutally found a problem. This is more than just a known "issue". It's a frequent problem that enough users of this site have reported that it should be known to Chrysler. I wish you luck in dealing with this.

In Canada, there is no national lemon law, but each province has some consumer protection statutes. Ontario tried to pass a lemon law in 2002, but the efforts were not successful. Consumers can, however, submit disputes to the Canadian Motor Vehicle Arbitration Plan (CAMVAP) for neutral third-party resolution.

For all us Canadian owners: "Mary Gauthier with Chrysler in Windsor, Ontario says the company "has no plans to restructure" its Canadian dealer network and "no plans to rationalize the number of dealers" in this country. She says Chrysler expects the number of Canadian dealerships to "remain relatively stable" at about 450. One reason for eliminating some U.S. dealerships is that they do not sell all three of the company's brands. But Gautier says "virtually all" of the Canadian dealers handle Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep." http://www.news1130.com/news/local/more.js...514_180527_8992