tmoffitt

Yeah I knew it was a while back, but thought I'd mention about the safety recall in case anyone else is in a similar situation. It was a recent recall here in Northern Ireland. Crazy prices for keyfobs though.

Hi all, I have a 2009 Dodge Journey 2.4SE (I live in the UK - Northern Ireland), 43k miles on the clock from new, and have an unusual very intermittent vibration. I can't remember when it started though. My wife thinks it might have been after the tyres were replaced about 2 years ago, but can't be sure. On the other hand, it might have been when I replaced the brake disc & pads about 6 months ago. The vibration feels like it's from the front left wheel, and happens pretty rarely, and usually when traveling for some distance at 60-70mph. One day it happened on the motorway with a slight vibration (and noise) which seemed to get progressively worse the further I went. I slowed down and could feel it "grab" at the disc as I braked. I got out and looked at the tyre as I thought we maybe had a puncture, but it was fine. Upon moving off again (carefully) after a minute or so, the vibration had disappeared and didn't return until maybe a week later. It never seems to happen at low speed. One thing I've noticed though, is that after about 10 or 15 minutes of driving at any speed, there is a slight "squeal" from the brakes (not sure if it's front left, right, or both), which stops if I brake gently, or if I move slightly left or right, although it eventually returns again. It doesn't seem to make any difference if it's wet or dry weather. I'm wondering if this could be related, i.e. could it possibly be heating up and temporarily warping the disc slightly, causing the vibration, then after stopping for a minute would it have "unwarped" after cooling a bit ? The squeal does tend to get worse, the further I drive. Another thing I wondered is if the pads aren't fully retracting perhaps ? Or maybe just bad pads/discs (they didn't come from the Dodge dealer, but from a local car shop) ? Any suggestions ? The tyres seem to have even wear across them and the tread is still about double the legal limit, although they will all need replaced in another 6 months or so I reckon, or less (I do about 5k miles per year). As I say, it's very intermittent but I'd love it to disappear !

Hi Sazzleevans, I was browsing the forum after a long time and spotted your message. My problem was that both my keyfobs were damaged - one got squashed by my wife in the house front door as it closed, while she managed to drop the 2nd one into a bucket of water. As a result, only the central locking of one worked, while the other one would operate the ignition. I'm also in the UK - near Belfast, Northern Ireland. We'd been making do like this for a couple of years because of the high cost, but earlier this year there was a factory recall to replace the ignition, where there was a safety risk of it moving to Accessory position by itself while driving. Because of the replaced ignition part, we ended up with two new keyfobs You should check with your local UK dealer about this, though it sounds like you eventually got sorted out although had to pay a bit.

My wife managed to smash up her key fob (2009 Dodge Journey 2.4SE) and now the remote locking/unlocking won't work. The key fob still starts the car OK though - the only problem is that she has to unlock the car by inserting the key into the passenger door lock, then open the passenger door which sets off the alarm, then she has to climb in, reach across and insert the key fob into the ignition to turn off the alarm. Not so good at 5:30am when she's heading to work. My own key fob works fine, so we've 2 "working" keys, albeit one of them won't remotely unlock/lock the car. I've tried changing the battery but that didn't help. Also tried opening it up and cleaning all the contacts, but that didn't help either. Not sure if there's much else I can try. I put the meter on the contacts inside the key fob, for the lock button contact (and also unlock), and it measures around 2 volts, so there's power getting to the button circuitry OK. Any ideas ? We're in the UK (Northern Ireland) and the local Dodge dealer has quoted me £174 (around $265) plus another £35 ($55) to program - though the manual says I can do it myself with 2 working fobs. I'm just wondering if "working" means just in the ignition (which would be OK), or working as in the remote locking also needs to work ? Guessing probably just the ignition. The P/N is 05026422AC - like the poster from 18 months ago. Anybody know where I might be able to get a replacement key fob for a reasonable price (preferably in the UK), or even just the circuit board, as I can reuse the plastic parts ? There's no way I'm paying £174 - the wife can just let the alarm ring for a few seconds !