Neto

OK. The 2008 - 2014 T & C are the 5th generation minvans. According to what I found on the Chrysler minivan fan site, the center bore is 71.5 mm. But the post I found there says that the offset may vary from 35 - 45 mm. I don't know how to verify that, or how to find out what the offset is on my Journey wheels. Is all of this info stamped on the wheel some place? (I'm sort of an old-timer, from back when all MoPar wheels interchanged freely, back before FWD and all of this positive offset stuff.) Or can I find this info in the user's guide? (Anyone else feel that it's hard to find anything useful in there?)

(First, sorry about double posting this. It didn't seem to be going, and I clicked it again.) Starting with which generation of the Caravan / Town & Country? I have the wheels from our 2nd gen (1993), but they are 15". I also have a 3rd gen (2000), and while it has 16" x 6" wheels (same size as our Journey), the bolt pattern is smaller. (They interchange with the 2nd gen wheels, so the same bolt pattern.) I thought that I had read here at some time that people were using wheels off of one of the Jeeps, but I don't recall which, and can't find it again.

What other vehicles share the same wheel size and bolt pattern as the Journey? (I'm looking for extra 16" steel wheels for a 2009.)

We bought our Journey in Florida, so it just had original type street tires on it. Last winter we put snow tires on the front, and left the rears. It was fine, and we never had any of the problems people here are talking about. But of course we drive sanely, anyway. (I lived in Minnesota for 4 winters, and drove a RWD car with just normal street itres, and a bit on the bald side. Poor man College days. There were some times when I couldn't get up the hill on the drive way, but I got along fine, by driving carefully.) Last Spring we put on 4 new tires, so we'll need to put the snows back on in a month or so. I was hoping to find some good used steel wheels for sale, so I could keep the snow tires mounted, and just swap them out myself, but haven't found any closeby. What other vehicles share the same wheels, anyway?

If I were you, before I'd pay someone $200.00, I'd look into putting an additional battery back there someplace, charge it from the outlet (while the car is running), and run the fans off of that.

Motor Age also has articles on this subject. (http://www.searchautoparts.com/motorage) Search for parasitic electrical drain, or parasitic battery drain. Also, it is possible that it is not necessarily a system failure, but some system that is not being shut down. I have read that if left set very long, even the auto lock monitoring system will drain the battery (the circuit that is waiting for you to hit the button on the key fob - Mine's a base model that doesn't have it, & now I'm glad). Maybe other things like the A/C, windshield wipers? I don't know how those are handled by the computer. What people are saying is that anything that keeps the computer awake will do it. The days of "When it's off it's off" are apparently past.

I read an interesting article in the June Motor Age magazine last night, and it reminded me of this thread. I searched on-line for the article, and it's at: http://www.searchautoparts.com/motorage/electrical/troubleshooting-parasitic-electrical-drains I don't personally have most of the test equipment the author mentions, but it gives an idea of the possible sources for the drain, and how the various systems on these cars can drain a battery when the vehicle isn't used every day. I'm wondering now if that isn't what happened with our Journey, even if the battery was actually quite old. It just didn't make sense that after it happened the first time, during the coldest part of the winter here in Ohio, I was able to just charge it again, and it didn't happen again until again this summer. (I did recharge it the second time, and it seemed to be fine after that, the same as the first time. But after I saw how old the battery probably was, I just figured I'd rather do in now, while it's warm, than to have to do it beside the road, possibly next winter. I still haven't taken the old battery in for the core refund, because now it seems to hold a charge OK.) I do have the habit of turning everything off in the car when I shut it off, but I ocassionally forget to, and my wife has already asked me what does it matter. Well, it used to be just so that there was not that extra drain when you're starting it up the next time, but it sounds like now it is important for other reasons as well. It could well be that leaving the A/C or heater, fan blowers, wipers, etc. on when the car is shut down may have been the cause of the battery drain problems. It all gives me the blues with the idea of trying to keep up a car like this as it ages. I sometimes wish for the pre-computer age cars.

The years mentioned above are 2011 - 2014. Does that mean to say that the older models are not affected by this? Our 09's battery went dead during the winter, but was fine then until a few weeks ago (after a slow charge). Considering where the battery is located, and the difficulty of changing it, I didn't want to mess with it in the cold winter months. So now when it happened again, I put in a new battery. The old one said Daimler-Chrysler on it - does that mean that it was the original, from the factory? If so, it gave very goos service, as the manufacture date on our 09 is 01-2008. That means the battery lasted more than 6 years.

I picked up a good used Saris model 1047P Guardian in a used-goods store for $10.00. It is probably not the model or design that Saris would have matched with the Journey, but it works fine. I don't have a hitch on our Journey, but if I did, I would adapt this rack to one that would swing around to the right side of the vehicle. There would be an arm extending from the hitch a bit over half way to the right side, with a hinge at that end, and a pin someplace along the middle to hold it in place while driving. (Maybe the arm would have to go over farther than I think, or have other pivot points - I've never tried to mock this up.) My objective would be to be able to swing the bike(s) over to the side so that I could have direct access to the trunk when the hatch lid is up. It seems to me that the type that has you lay the bike down still really restricts access to the trunk area. (I have never had one, or even seen anyone lay one down, so it's just my impression.)

I'm thinking that driving style (and traffic conditions, of course) must have a lot to do with it. We have an 09 with stock rotors. Very adequate stopping power, and no warpage. We do live in a very small town, don't often drive in heavy traffic, and I, at least, am very light on the brakes. (My wife tends to use the brakes more than I do.) We have had the car for several years now, and have just over 55,000 on it. I did just replace the rear pads a week or so ago. I don't know about previous service, but it was the first time I've had to do anything with the brakes.

Very few people rebuild master or wheel cylinders anymore, but we used to always go the rebuild route, unless the walls of the bore were too pitted to hone out. But if the fluid level is staying up, and the pedal drops, but you can build pressure by pumping it, then the fluid is bleeding past the piston inside the master cylinder. It can be as simple as a piece of dirt, or excessive wear on the bore, or degredation of the cup. I am possibly making a lot of assumptions here, because I have not rebuilt a master cylinder since about 30 years ago, on a 72 Dodge Coronet I had back then. I have not had a master cylinder go bad since, and the honing stones on my hone have fallen off, so I doubt if I'd do it now anymore, except on an older car. On the 72, as I recall, the fluid level was going down fast, but there were no external leaks. It was leaking out of the master cylinder into the power assist chamber, and being sucked into the carb by the vacuum system.

One comment regarding topic titles - Topic titles that do not describe the specific problem, or at least in general terms, such as "Ignition-Starting problem" are not helpful, because the reader must open it and read through a bunch of garbage just to find out what it's about. Also, if the thread does have valuable suggestions or a final solution documented, it can be found much more easily and quickly in a forum search.

Oi! Eu morava em Porto Velho para 17 anos, 1986 ate 2003, e em Forteleza e Brasilia antes disso. Temos que fazer uma visita este ano para manter nosso residencia permanente, mais a cidade 'ta sofrendo aina da alagacao. Nao sei quando nois vamos la.

Thanks for that link. I read through the whole thread, and it sounds very interesting. Just as I was starting to wonder if the larger systems would fit inside the 16" wheels, the question was answered, that you have to have at least 17"ers. Our Journey is the 4 banger, and maybe it's because of the lower weight, or just my driving style, but I've not noticed what I would consider poor braking. But then my first car was a 62 Chrysler Newport, and it DID have poor brakes. (Of course it was also 15 years old when I got it...)

I guess I have been lurking on this forum for so long that I didn't remember that I hadn't joined, so did now, so I could post. This was my first encounter with these brake pistons that have to be screwed back in. (The C-clamp got tight, but wasn't going anywhere - I found out about the special tool from this thread.) What are the advantages of that supposed to be? First I've ever seen that, or even heard of it. (Most of our vehicles are old, I guess.) I also noticed that some have said that the newer Journeys have larger disks (our is the first year model) - has anyone tried to upgrade to the later model brake assembly on an 09?