Journeyphenia

As a follow up to the first impressions I had after air intake modification, here's what I've found after about 3 weeks of driving and about 4 tanks of gas. 1. Every once in a while, I now have slight bucking of the trans or engine. It only happens at deceleration and has happened 2 - 3 times 2. Every once in a while, a harder shift feel on acceleration, likely 5th to 4th prime, not sure. It has happened about 4 times. 3. Much less hesitation when hitting the gas to make it through a traffic light in time. Still has great pedal feel, smooth and stronger accelerations. For these reasons, I could totally live with the issues mentioned above. 4. I tried 87, 89 an 91octane. 1st was 91, then 87, then 89. I went back to 91 because it seemed the best. I was hoping it wouldn't and conventional internet wisdom told me it wouldn't make a difference. City didn't seem great with 87 or 89 but it's very hard to gauge city. Switched back to 91 and city seems better. The car showed a city averaged 18.6 and the math showed it at 18.4. That was on Shell 91 in city only driving with a minimum load of 100 lb and sometimes a load of 200 - 300lb. Typically city was stoplights every mile, medium accel. up to about 42 - 45mph, cruise until the next stoplight in a mile or so and so on. Short highway travel seemed great on 91 octane but I didn't check elevations then. The only long highway was with Shell 91 and packed with about 300lbs. I drove from 2800ft to 4200 ft elevation, some driving around a few towns around 4200 ft with stop and go, 3 more highway trips from 4200 ft. up to 9000 ft and back down to 4200 ft. A return back down to 2800 ft with some minor scenic stops, dirt roads and some in town driving on the way. The car registered 24.7 mpg. I couldn't check the actual math. From past experience, it has been very close to what the car shows. 4. Sometimes in city driving, I feel that the air feeding into the snorkel above 25 - 30 mph has lightened how much pressure to put on the pedal. Taking the foot off the pedal at 30 - 40 mph and the vehicle seems to slow down at a slower rate than in the past. It's a feeling I'm still getting used to.

I thought I'd share this for anyone interested in an easy improvement to the Journey. I smoothed out the air passage from before the snorkel to the throttle body and it seems to have given me a smoother/quieter engine, better mpg and better shifting. Here is what I've done in case you want to give it a try. 1. The top section of plastic that integrates into the front grill along with the underside of the hood, are the surfaces which the air first passes over in route to the air intake snorkel. The is sealed between the two surfaces by rubber seals on the hood so you'd only address the area within the rubber seals. I smoothed out those surfaces by applying auto wrap film to them. The factory plastic is fairly smooth but nothing in comparison to an auto wrap. You'd need to read up on auto wrap and use a blow dryer to get the wrap pliable to the surfaces. 2. To apply the wrap film under the hood, I first removed the rubber seal which sits in front of the snorkel opening when the hood is down. It prevents direct air flow into the mouth so removing it immediate give better air flow. My guess is that it was meant to prevent objects from entering the air filter housing so after I removed the rubber, I drove the car for about a week and in heavy rain to see if any water or objects would end up in the air filter housing. I didn't get anything into my air box and I drove it mostly on city streets. During a heavy rain, I checked out under the hood and found a few drops near the inlet but other than that, totally dry. I've checked it after a lot more driving and still nothing in the air filter box. 3. The film wrap on the top of the grill covers everything forward of the snorkel and ends inside the snorkel at the bump up of the snorkel. It goes over an ill fitting joint of the snorkel and grill section and smooths them out. Before I wrapped, I smoothed out that two matting surfaces with a file, a razor and sand paper so that it's as level a surface possible between the two. Before I wrapped this, I also tightened up the joint. That part is mentioned at #4. 4. I added film to the top underside of the air inlet snorkel. I removed the plastic push pin running through the top of snorkel. The pin connects the two sections of plastic but it's sloppy fit. I then pulled the snorkel up closer for a tighter fitting joint between the two, put some gorilla glue under the joint and drove a small screw to bind them until the glue dried. The film I applied went back about 3" into the mouth, enough to cover the old screw hole and the push pin hole. The film also wrapped down the sides into a U shape. 5. All of the work I did where I was using auto wrap, I tried to first remove any rough edges to create very smooth and flat surfaces with. If you feel around in the snorkel you will find rough spots and areas that can be improved from what came out of the factory. 6.After everything was film wrapped, I ran a cloth through the snorkel into the air filter housing to remove any grime and did the same wipe down inside the air filter housing. In the air box, you will also find rough edges on the surface shortly before the air exits the box toward the throttle body. I used mostly a razor on those rough spots, maybe some fine sandpaper as well. The section of plastic between the air filter housing and the throttle body also has some mfg. imperfections and rough edges. I used a razor to clean those up as well. When finished, I had a very smooth passageway for air travel. I don't know the physics of it but it seems like that lack of turbulence somehow made the computer read the air flow differently and improved transmission shifts and the 2nd to 3rd hesitation shift. It also improved higher speed kick downs. The entire engine seems quieter so my guess is some of the acceleration noise was partly rough air noise. The engine feels much smoother during acceleration from this as well, mostly in 3rd gear. I know this sounds like a stretch. I was only looking for improved power so these results were a surprise to me and it's not as if I found the result I was looking for. It came out of left field. I hope this is info someone can use and let me hear if it works for you. If anyone finds the interest, I'll try to post photo's.

You can bend the spring plate portion closest to the tire. I added larger wheels and bent it up about 1/3", using my fingers, tire attached.

I have the Michelin Premier LTX at 245 55 19. The specs say 10" tire width but on the Crossroad 7" wheel, they come out at 9 5/8" wide. The diameter is 29.6". No issue but I intentionally bent upward on the bottom plate of the strut. I bent it up about 1/2" to get more clearance. It would have been tight in the front if I hadn't but would fit. Ideally, I would have wanted about slightly over 10" wide tires but I balanced that with tire weight and how that would negatively affect the breaking, mpg, turning ease etc ... They are expensive but it improved everything related to ride, the orig. tires had 42K miles, with increased noise and roughness so I can't fairly compare to new orig tires. The new ones are super quiet, smooth, better breaking, really nice.

My error, looking at your photo, I see it's a production sticker. I misread that sticker as a male/female connector in my last post with that other photo. My hitch wiring is the same as in this photo.

The kit is Dodge part number P68080976AC. It's for the 2015 Crossroad and other journeys from what I've read here. It's new in the package and has the instructions. It looks almost like this photo, other than the white connector above where the wires branch off.

I have the oem Journey wiring harness if you need one. I never used it so it's new.

If you can lift your front bumper by hand and reduce the gap at the headlights, the solution I used might work for you as well. I saw gaps below the headlights on other 2015 CR models when I bought and I thought it was normal. The gap was about 3/8" from my memory. It may have been less but I remember that it looked wrong to me. Mine is now about 1/9" or less. I have had some road scrapes on the underside of the stainless trim of the front bumper. I'm hoping that in having raised the bumper by about 5/16" helps with that. Good luck to you with your issue. It takes time to go through it and figure how things go together and how each affects each. Let me know if you have any other question as you go.

The Crossroad front bumper is not the same as other Journey bumpers and I think the issue is only on the crossroad. Sounds like you have the same issue I had. If you can lift your bumper about 1/4" to 1/2" and if there seems to be about 3/8" gap under the headlights, you probably do. Removing the grill starts out easy but getting the lower portion of it to pop out of the bumper can be tricky. You need to lift up on the lower grill tabs for them to release/pop out from the bumper With the grill removed, if you lift your bumper, can you feel space between the bumper and the frame which it rests on? The backside of the bumper has 4 determined points where the bumper rests on the frame. It may have more but you can't access them this way. Those points are where I placed mending plates. Use a jack to lift your bumper to the point which you lessen the gap to the headlights. My gaps are about 3/16" ? Do this to determine how thick your shims need to be. I used 1/16" paper drywall shims to create the thickness needed for no play between bumper and frame. That is how I know how thick a mending plate I needed. I combined enough mending plates to equal the shim thickness. It ended up that two mending plates were about 1/4" and two were about 3/8". The plates screwed into the top of that frame and slid under the bumper at those support points on the backside of the bumper. Don't bring the mending plate as forward into the bumper as possible. Push them as far forward and then back them off enough so that if you push them bumper in with your knee, the bumper doesn't hit the plate. I think my mending plates were about 4" long. There won't be a crack on the bumper. Where the bumper meets the front body panel will begin to have a gap. There is a plastic support that joins them. That part is what will crack. Yours may have and you will know by looking at the tightness of the panel to bumper. If it begins to gap near the headlight, it's cracked. It costs $19 but with the fix above, you may not need to replace it. The first photo shows the crack at the top edge. The third shows looking down from the hood latch, My shims are specific to my work, 2 white and 2 black. You can see one black to the left. They are screwed to the black frame. Let me know if you have other questions.

Thanks. Something will probably go wrong at some point but just accept that and it's much easier to appreciate the good in this vehicle. We have 3 cars and it's a reality that something will eventually break. My list of problems isn't a complaint as much as a list of things for other owners to keep an eye out for while under warranty. As an example, I didn't catch the bumper looseness issue until out of warranty. With Dodge being a pain to work with, we need all the info and background we can get to lobby for fixes. The term SUV is used loosely and most have very little utility. I have the 5 seat version with a ton of storage below deck in back. All my work tools go there and by flipping the cover deck upside down, I am able to fold it back to access all underneath without having to lift it away. The totally flat seats in back, passenger seat folding flat, the cargo tie downs, the other storage and a roof rack make it the most utilitarian car out there from what I have found. The driving position is also one of the most comfortable in that, sitting in the car, many vehicles cause your right leg to have to angle to the left rather than straight ahead. I went to carmax and sat in most cars on the market back when they left all the cars unlocked. This angled driving position was common. I'm not sure there is anything more important that the drivers comfort and in this vehicle, it's just about perfect for me.

The Crossroad bumper is a different bumper design than the other Journeys so it may only be a Crossroad issue and may have already been addressed in production. I bought in mid 2014 so I have an early production. The dealership parts dept. hinted at a known issue and commented on stocking this part that breaks. On the rear side of the bumper are 4, what I will call, "blocks". I can only feel them and they feel like hard styrofoam. These "blocks" sit on top of a structural frame and are what support the weight of the bumper. I removed the grill and was able to fit 1/4" and 3/8" spacers between these blocks and the structural frame. Doing this, raised the bumper so that the bumper and body panel joint was straight and also removed the gap between the headlight and bumper. It wasn't a matter of something broken. I found that out after replacing the broken part, it's an issue of an incorrect calculation of the bumper block dimensions. A thicker block will rest on top of the structural frame at the correct height and support the bumper weight as well as line up with the body panel and headlights.

My OEM tires are ready to be replaced at 39K. I plan to put 245/55/19 on next. The bottom spring plates bend upward fairly easily to give more tire space. I bent mine up about 1/4" with my fingers to check it out. I think it's fine to do that or, am I missing something?

One other glitch, the gas tank holds 19 gallons and the gas gauge isn't very accurate. I ran my tank dry and out of gas until coming to a coasting to a stop, to find out what the issue was with the fuel gauge inconsistency. The tank only took 19 gallons when empty. That explains better why my gauge is on E and I can only fill up about 16 gallons. Sunglass case - Dodge ordered 5 replacement map/sunglass consoles because each came in with a blemish on the sunglass cover. They finally told me that there was nothing they could do and that the blemish was acceptable to Dodge. I repaired my original replacement, which had broken again, because it was the best looking blemish of the ones they ordered. They come out of Mexico and seem to have a real issue. If your return spring snaps, it's an easy repair. It goes back onto it's seat and need some glue to hold it from sliding off. The unit pulls off of the ceiling but putting it back on and having a tight fit required me to put a backing behind the headliner so that it snapped into place completely.

3rd gear is a little short and 4th comes too early. At slowed speeds you may have to put your foot into it a little to get it to downshift into 2nd or 3rd. I use the manual shift when I want a sport mode or accurate gear choice and that helps a lot.

Regardless of Dodge's lack of taking care of my warranty issues, I love my 2014 Crossroad. I decided I'd have to live with whatever issues come up and realize that I had to accept those issues because I do like the car so much. 1. Mine had a production flaw with a front bumper looseness. Inside the bumper, the support frame and interior of the bumper have too much play. The left side of the front fender began gapping from the fender panel. The brace which joined the two broke and replacing it would only cause it to break again. I had to remove the grill and retrofit mine to fix the problem. Now it's super tight and aligned better with the headlights and the fenders. 2. The granite crystal metallic paint doesn't match exactly from the rear doors to the rear panels 3. From 3rd to 4th gear, it doesn't shift that well 4. The driver seat had a looseness that had to be replaced. Took lots of work to get them to replace it. 5. The sunglass/map console has a flawed design and keeps breaking. The spring inside will slip off it's location. I glued mine and it's been fine since 6. The rotors warped and had to be resurfaced. It only showed on downhill braking. 7. Getting Dodge to take care of things was like pulling teeth, filled with expletives and frustration on my part, truly a company that is clueless on building brand loyalty. With all this, I still love the car and will probably buy another.

I have a 2015 Crossroad and there is an issue with the front bumper design/assembly. It may only be on the earliest production, not sure. First, I had to replace a bumper brace that was taking the weight of the drop. it had cracked. Dodge had 3 of these obscure parts in stock because, as they said, they break all the time, its' a known issue. If your bumper is drooping like mine was, you will see a gap developing where the bumper ties into the body panel and also between the bumper and the headlights. I looked at a new Crossroad and saw a tight fit so I was sure that it didn't come this way new. If there is a gap and play, you probably have a cracked brace which joins the bumper to the front panel. This will likely be the part you need to replace, $19. Don't replace it without the retrto fit or it will break again. After you replace the brace, do the retro fit. There is no fix, you will need to retro fit it on your own as I had too. I used a jack to get the bumper up to it's natural location and remove the body panel gap. I removed the grill and added 4 metal shims to the steel frame, which the front bumper rests onto. After taking off the grill, put your hand inside and between the bumper and the steel frame and you will feel the play that exists and will come up with your own solution. Now the bumper is solid, doesn't sift up and down. Good luck.

I have a 2015 crossroad and there is an issue with the front bumper. Dodge had 3 of these obscure parts in stock because, as they said, they break all the time, its' a known issue. If your bumper is drooping like mine was, you will see a gap developing where the bumper ties into the body panel. There is no fix, you will need to retro fit it on your own as I had too. I removed the grill and added 4 metal shims to the steel frame, which the front bumper rests onto. After taking off the grill, put your hand inside and between the bumper and the steel frame and you will feel the play that exists and will come up with your own solution. Now the bumper is solid, doesn't sift up and down. Good luck.

My fuel gauge is inaccurate sometimes in that it doesn't go to full and shows empty when it has 4 - 5 gallons. Dodge has replaced the fuel filter as the solution. Does anyone know how and if the fuel filter affects the fuel gauge accuracy?

It's hard to find because 225/55/19 doest seem to be in the computer system of any auto parts stores I went to. Your size cable/chain should be in most auto parts stores physical reference guide. I bought some cables at O'Reilly Auto Parts yesterday, Laclede brand #2019. The 225/55/19 isn't marked on the package along with other tire sizes but it fits. My tires are half worn and I adjust the cable to the 2nd from smallest setting. Use the rubber strap on the wheel face to keep any slack from forming on the back of the tire since there isn't much room between the tire and strut assy. back there.

I posted earlier about this. I called U Connect and that is who will likely give you the most accurate info. They told me the update is the issue. My car was can't open maps shortly after the update and only then. They replaced the unit with a remanufactured under warranty and that one is acting up in other ways. The command "find address" gives me a few contacts in instead. This has happened 6 - 8 times and requires me to turn off the system or the ignition and it goes away. This never happened before the remanufactured unit.

I spoke with U Connect and was told that the security update to my 8.4 caused an issue of "Can't unlock Maps". We had about a 3 - 5 minute conversation and I felt she was giving me honest info. Mine was fine until a few months after the security patch/update or whatever it was called. It was under warranty so they are currently replacing the unit with a remanufactured one. The Dodge mechanic told me that they haven't had many remanufactured units come back but I'm not so sure he'd tell me if they had.

I had what I called a creaking sound on my 2015, over speed bumps and up driveways/sidewalks. The next time I had a tire rotation I sprayed silicone dry lube on all the moving parts of the passenger front wheel. It reduced it to almost 0 so whatever it is seems to be in one of the connecting components or bushings. My advice would be to give that a shot and see if it helps.

I put a little more pressure on second and especially third to get better power. Shifting from fourth to third or third to second seems off. Coming around a typical street corner, it lugs in fourth much of the time. Coming around a corner and up a freeway on ramp grade is worse. Thanks for the post!

Had this happen many times. I have to think about how I use my foot to release the brake so it's kind of a bad placement to me.

I have a 2015 V6 with a creaking right front suspension at slow speed, over speed bumps and up driveways. Taking it to the dealer this week. It isn't a thud, definitely a creaking noise. Started at about 25k. Any help or advice as to what it is?