brwengel

My Journey seems to have a howling/rattling noise when I accelerate. It seems to be comming from the baffles in the mufflers, and it seems to be less noticeable after the car warms up. I've mentioned it to the dealer a few times, but of course they can never get it to make the noise.

Did you have to buy the "special" caliper turn in tool for the back or did you figure a workaround?

I'm curious by what you mean when you talk about a special tool. I'm close to doing brakes on my Journey, but I haven't actually looked at them yet. It was my understaning that there are just two bolts to remove and then take a C-clamp and push the piston back into the caliper. Do you know something I don't?

I don't know what to say about this, my front headrest stay at whatever setting I have them at. The manual doesn't mention anything about this feature, except to say that you can raise the headrest without pressing the release, but the release must be pressed to lower the headrest.

Sorry I don't have anything else for you...

I notice that same thing on my Journey when I first back it out the garage in the morning. It does it whether it is hot or cold outside, so it's not temperature related. It almost seems that the oil drains out of the torque converter overnight, and this is what is causing your slipping sensation, again, mine only seems to do this the first start-up of the day, then it's fine for the rest of the day.

I was on the Dodge website today and I noticed that the powertrain warranty is 5 years 100,000 miles for the 2010 model year! When did the lifetime warranty disappear, they've advertised the 2010 for a bit now, but this is the first I noticed the change in the warranty.

My SXT with 3.5L gets an average of about 22 mpg. About 80% of my driving is highway and I can tell you that my mileage increased about 1 1/2 to 2 mpg when I turned the A/C off.

I have just over 19,000 miles and have had 75 fill-ups. The worst mileage I've gotten is 18.6 mpg and the best was 25.1 mpg (only one time)

A friend of mine has a 4-cyl and he gets about 24-25 mpg (mostly hwy driving), but he is always complaining about the lack of power! I think he wishes he would have gotten a 6-cyl.

Yeah Sam is exactly correct, on my Journey the releases face the center of the vehicle. The one closest to the center is the larger of the two releases, and the outter one is the harder one to get to. The release is in recessed into the plastic ring, the problem in trying to locate it is that you have to do it blindly as there is no adjustment for the headrest. Once you see how it works it will be easier the next time, but until you get it removed you'll be cursing it and you fingers will be sore!

Good luck.

My subscription was activated by my dealer, about three weeks after I took delivery of my car I received a package in the mail from Sirius/XM. It was a welcome package with channel guide and an offer to add a year up front at a reduced price. So if the dealer does what they are suppose to do then Sirius already knows and you've been activted (my radio worked the day I drove it off the lot).

As a side note I have a buddy who bought his Journey the same month I bought mine (back in June) and his Sirius stopped working about three weeks ago (he only had the preview channel). So he called them up and they reactivated his radio and told him he would have free service for one year from that new date.

As far as the on-line service, I think you have to pay a few bucks extra for that even if you have a paid subscription, but don't quote me on that.

I took a look at the vinyl molding, and it looks thick enough to protect your bumper. I just wonder with it being 1/8" thick how well it will conform to the highs and lows of the molded bumper. It will probably only sit on the high spots and since I noticed that you live in New England, what will happen when you get some freezing rain or snow under the low spots.

Just thinking out loud....

Yeah I was floored by the cost, but I don't know about waiting to see how much it gets scratched. If $130 will save a scratched bumper then it's worth it to me. You can always pull the cover off when you go to sell your car someday and clean up the double-sided tape and it looks like new (except for maybe it won't be as faded as the rest of the bumper).

As I said in a previous post, the protector is plastic and not a rubber material, so if you scratch it, the scratch will be a lighter color and the scratch will show. I have a dog and her claws can leave some visbible scratches that you can faintly see but can't feel.

Hope this helps...

P.S. I think I found a 10% off coupon that covered my shipping cost.

Just my two cents worth, I have the clear film on my front bumper and mirrors. While this film is great for protecting against small things, it's not going to protector against scuffing or scratches while loading and unlaoding. It's just not thick enough, think of it as an extra layer of clearcoat on your paint!

Hope this helps, and Happy Motoring...

I don't know if you've considered seat covers, (I know that is not the solution you were looking for) but even if the dealer cleans the seats you might consider seat covers. I have the CoverKing brand, you can read about them here:

http://www.dodgejourneyforum.com/index.php...pic=844&hl=

They are made of CR-grade neoprene (wetsuits) so I have no water staining issues!

Happy Motoring...

I think the problem is related to the seat protection applied to the fabric (this is done from the manufacturer of the seat materials). I had a Jeep Liberty and would set a bottle of water between my legs while driving, and as a result this would leave a dark mark on the seat. When the Jeep was new (and under warranty) I would complain to the dealer. At that time there was a Service Bulletin about this problem and they would clean my seats, and no I don't remember what they used to clean my seats. Ask your dealer about the problem and they should be able to give you some good advise.

Hope this helps, and Happy Motoring...

With regards to the Lemon Law, it varies by state and I'm not sure where you are located, but I can tell you my experience here in the state of Georgia. We had a Mercedes that had a problem and we kept being put off for months waiting for a "software fix". Finally I called the Govenors' office and they quickly educated me on how the law works. It seems that the car had to be in the dealer on three seperate dates for the same repair (they could be three consecutive days) and then you have to give them written notice and they have one final attempt for a repair. Up to this point my local Mercedes rep told me he would never take the car back and they have teams of lawyers, blah, blah, blah, but once I called him about the Lemon Law, they didn't want to take the car back under those condtions. We had a new replaement car in about two weeks, they only thing we had to pay was the mileage we put on the car, I don't remember the cost, but it was determined by the state and was fair.

Hope this helps...

Be careful when you are taking a car in for service these days, if they have a warranty issue and can't resolve it during your current visit, they will leave the ticket "open". What this does is not have repeated visits for the same issue. If they can't resolve the problem, make them close out the ticket and open a new one on your next visit.

I just returned from a weekemd trip to TN this past weekend. On the way home it was a rainy day and as a result pretty cool, so I decided to turn off the A/C (here in Atlanta the A/C is always on). I reset my fuel economy calculator and within a few miles my MPG jumped up to 28 !!! I thought this can't be right and surely it'll eventually drop but it did't. I filled up the gas tank before I got home and did the calculations, and sure enough it was about 3 MPG better than it had been. I guess I can turn the A/C back on and see if it drops back. Now this is very unscientific, and I can't believe the A/C sucks up that much gas, but now that fall is here we'll be able to drive a bit more without the A/C.

I'll keep you informed.....

Never mind.....

Actually the mount for the cover is molded into the side panels. And the side panels have many diffeences between the 5 & 7 passenger models.

My apologies to both of you, I wasn't doubting you, I was just stating the fact that my Journey didn't indicate when my headlights are on. After seeing that both of you are from Canada, I'm sure the difference is related to your day-running headlights.

There is no indicator on my dash to tell me when my headlights are on, the only way I can tell is by my dash lighting going to a dim state. Of course this is a bit harder to see in the daylight, an easy test is to set your headlights to Auto and then turn your wipers on and after 15 seconds the headlights will turn on.

Hope this helps, and Happy Motoring...

Actually I cannot find the same CoverKing seat covers on my Costco US site anymore, they only have some cheesey ones listed.

CoverKing lists these on-line retailers;

5StarShine.com

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CARCOVERPLANET.COM

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Covers4Auto.com

Covers4Auto the only Custom site you will ever need. Carrying Custom Seat Covers, Custom Car Covers, Custom Dash Mats, Custom Sunshields, Custom Floor Mats and Universals.

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You're not going to believe this, but the exact same thing happened to me yesterday. I was driving along when the car jumped into neutal and even after I left off of the gas the engine continued to rev at 3,000 rpm's, it eventually returned to an idle. My wife insisted that I had bumped it into neutral, but I know that I didn't. My Journey has about 7800 miles on it, so I guess I'll wait and see if it happens again. The dealer should be able to hook up to the computer and look at the history to see if there is a record of the event.

Let me know how you make out with your dealer.

Actually my seat covers are made with cut outs for the side airbags, see my post with pics about the covers here;

http://www.dodgejourneyforum.com/index.php?showtopic=844

http://www.dodgejourneyforum.com/index.php?showtopic=843

Also my passenger cover is made especially for the flip-up and fold flat seat option. And I think they also make a red insert for our friend who just ordered the red Journey!

I love my covers because they are easy to keep clean, and the dog hair comes off easy!

Normally I wouldn't use 93 octane, especially since it usually cost 40 cents per gallon more, you wouldn't see a dollar benefit with the increased gas mileage. My only choice at this particular Costco was 87 or 93 octane, and as I said for only an additional 20 cents it was well worth it.

I also would add that in another car I have, I try to use gas that doesn't contain ethanol. It's hard to find gas without ethanol added, but it is out there, and when I burn a tank of ethanol free gas I can travel about 50 miles per tankful further. I know that the ethanol doesn't burn with as much power, and it immediately drops my MPG, so the extra cost of ethanol free gas is definately worth it, when you can find it.

Just my unscientific two cents worth.

Happy Motoring...

On a recent long distance trip I ran across some cheap gas at Costco in South Carolina. The premium gas (93 octane) was only 20 cents more than the regular gas (87 octane) so I thought I'd try a tank. As soon as I drove away from the pumps my onboard computer changed my avg fuel economy by two MPG! I thought this can't be right, after all how would it know what type of gas I had just put in. So I drove that tank out and calculated my mileage and it had increased by three MPG! So I bought another tank of 93 octane and I received the same results.

I guess to prove my theory I could switch back to 87 octane gas and see if my lieage drops back to the previous level. I'll keep you posted. I guess it depends on how much more the premium gas would cost to make it worth while, most places I fuel at the premium gas cost almost 40 cents more, but when it only cost 20 cents more then it is definately worth while.

Happy Motoring...

I just received my protector two weeks ago from Sherwood Automotive. There is double-sided tape down both ends and one piece the entire length near the bottom edge. It certainly isn't water-proof so I suppose water could get under it and then freeze, but it is pretty firmly held in place.

One note is that I'm a bit disappointed regarding the material the protector is made from. I guess I expected it to be a bit more rubbery, instead it is made entirely from plastic and is pretty stiff. If you were to scuff this protector it would surely leave a mark, and while you have protected your bumper cover, you're left with a permenant mark on the bumper cover. For more than $130 I expected better quality, although the fit is great and the installation is a breeze, they could have used a better material choice. Just my two cents worth.