jeffhoward001

Wow! KM's or miles? Do you have to drive a lot for work?

Funny, I just did that math and realized that even if you bought in 2011, to have 200K miles, you would need to average 18K/year! So guessing that will be a pretty small % of Journey owners at this point. Wow, they made a lot of these cars:

Curious who has the highest mileage Journey on here, and what (if any) were the major repairs as you edge towards 200K (miles, not km We're at 145K, and only major repairs were an alternator, motor mount (skeptical whether this was necessary), and the left-bank valve-seat replacement that Dodge covers at no-charge for '11 & '12 owners. Minor repairs were the bluetooth module, and the stupid blender doors for the zonal climate control. Over all, nothing too exciting or shocking. It's been a good car. I suspect some CV boot or axle replacements are coming sometime before 200K. Trans still feels solid, we get the fluid & filter changed every 50K. Anyone over 200K?

After mulling it over, I think I'm going to hand-roll my own solution. I'm going to attempt a simple aluminum heat-exchanger glued to the bottom of the pan with thermal epoxy. I've seen a few other guys online do it for other vehicles that don't have a good placement for the pass-through style oil coolers. Circle-track guys have been using deep-well aluminum pans that drop down into the unobstructed air for oil cooling for decades. This would be a similar solution, but I'm thinking about doing a little closed-loop coolant re-circulation. It's a pretty low-risk accessible solution, whereas anything to do with the stock oil cooler requires removing the upper & lower intakes, injectors, etc. And beyond that, I'd be nervous screwing with the stock filtering/cooling system. Screw something up there, and you're looking at potential engine damage. Passive cooling through the bottom of the pan is low-risk. If it turns into anything interesting, I'll be sure to share my Frankencooler

Thanks John, where are the remote cooling inlet ports? I can't find much reference to it online.

Super weird question: Does anyone know if the one-piece aluminum Pacifica oil pan is a drop-in replacement on the Journey 3.6? Only issue I can see is if they changed the oil pickup as well. Let me explain: I'm having some oil temp issues towing. Started asking around on the Durango, RAM, and Jeep forums, and turns out its an issue with the 3.6. The coolant-based oil cooler just can't keep up when the ambient air temp is 85+ and the oil temp sllloooowwwlly creeps up to about 250. Which honestly isn't terrible for full synthetic. The issue is now with your base temp on the flats @ 250, then you hit the hill your in trouble. So one solution is to go with a larger all aluminum oil pan, which they started using on the revamped 3.6 in the Pacifica. Unfortunately due to the plastic canless oil filter system, the typical $200 oil cooler fix won't work, so this is the next best bet.

Hi All - I'm hoping to get some guidance on how to proceed with the dealership. Sorry for the long back-story, but understanding the scenario is helpful. Here's the quick background on the issue: 2012 Journey V6, runs fine with normal city/highway driving. Only chronic issue was that the heater doesn't get very hot. If it close to freezing, could take close to an hour Here's the issue: When ambient air temp is hot (+90's) and the Journey's under heavy load (lots of cargo, big hills) the oil gets way too hot In going up a big mountain pass in Arizona when it was 102 ambient air temp, Journey threw a CEL Drove straight to AutoZone and pulled the codes: P0394: Camshaft Position Sensor B Circuit Intermittent (Bank 2) Coolant temp was higher than normal (understandable given the circumstances) so we let the car cool down. After cooling down everything seemed fine Given the CEL scare, I started watching the coolant, oil, and trans temps more closely Coolant and trans would heat-up/cool-down as expected, but the oil would get as hot as 270 degrees on hills, and take forever to cool down. When it got above 260 degrees, I would pull over and let it cool down. Drive another 500 miles with no issues, then ambient temp got into the high 90's again and I didn't noticed that the oil was 275 degrees. As soon as it created 275, another CEL At this point is was pretty clear that the oil was getting too hot and clearly causing the P0394 So best I can estimate, the issue is that oil cooler isn't working properly. I found some posts that suggesting that the heater core is fed off output from the oil cooler. That's when I had the "ah-ha" moment. If the heater isn't working well, and the oil-cooler isn't able to keep the oil temps down, then it would seem that coolant isn't passing through to cool the oil, and very little coolant is making it the heater core. This all makes sense to me, but the dealer is having a tough time reproducing the issues because A) it's summer now so the heater test is near impossible, and B) it's pretty tough for the tech to do a legit load-test for the oil heat issue without driving the car for an hour into the mountains. Any suggestions on how to proceed with the dealer? Replacing the oil cooler is a pretty labor-intensive task, but that seems like the most logical bet. Is it reasonable to ask for the oil cooler to be replaced under warranty if I drive the car up in the mountains take a picture with my phone to prove that it's cresting 260 degree which the coolant stays below 220? A 40-degree delta make it seem pretty clear that the oil is bypassing the cooler. I'm not over-reacting, right? The only should crest 270 degree even under load?

So I'm pretty sure I figured this out after connecting a few dots. Now that we're back up in Oregon where its considerably colder than Arizona, we noticed the heater is hardly working. I haven't 100% confirmed, but I suspect the hose that comes out of the back of the oil cooler likely goes through the firewall to the heater core. This was mentioned in another thread about someone complaining that their heater wasn't working. So if that is true, then this all makes sense. The heat exchanger in the oil cooler is clogged up, so little to no coolant is flowing through the oil cooler (thus making the oil hot) and not allowing the heater core to work properly. I would love to see a diagram of the heating/cooling system, but haven't been able to find a good one to confirm. I would follow the hose on the Journey, but it's buried under the intake manifold :-|

Haha, we did the same oil research on Google. Turns out this is a well-documented issue on all FCA motors that use the the heat-exchanger built into the coolant system. I found the same complaints for the Eco Diesel and 3.6L RAM 1500's and Durango's. For the RAM & Durango guys, they're all towing well below the started GVRW, so this is just an Achilles Heel of the heat-exchanger unfortunately In fact after some additional reading, sound like the original intent of the design was quite the opposite: they were trying to better regulate the LOW temp of the oil in cooler climates. So I'm an edge-case with our Journey hitting the mountains in 90+ degree heat with a heavy load. The biggest bummer is you could resolve this issue with a cheap $100 universal oil cooler if the 3.6L didn't use the canless oil filter

Hi All - 3.6L engine, 110K miles, no the battery has been replaced. If it was the battery, I would guess it would happen more that just when the oil gets hot. Does 275 seem too hot for oil? John - I'll check the wiring harness.

Hi All - Getting ready to take our Journey to the dealer, but have a weird issue and wanted to run it by fellow gear heads. Journey runs fine, except we went on a long road trip from Arizona to Oregon. Lots of hot weather and long mountain grades. We've done the trip several times before, but this time the Journey had problems when the outside air temp was 90's+ on steep grades. We were loaded down pretty heavy which I'm sure wasn't helping. So during the hill-climbs, after having your foot into it for a while, the CEL came on and trans went into limp. Pulled the codes at AutoZone and they said it was a P0340 Cam Position Sensor Signal Intermittent issue. It was 102 degrees out when this happened so we chalked it up to the heat and the hills and kept going. We made it 100's of more miles until it happened again in similar conditions... Hot outside air temp, big mountain pass. However this time I was watching the gauges and noticed the oil temp max out at 275 when the CEL came on. So is the high temp of the oil putting pressure on a cam position sensor that's already on its way out, or is there something else going on? The oils has always ran hot in our Journey but 275 is pretty hot (but within spec for blended synthetic which is what we use). Any thoughts?

Hello - I have a 2012 crew with an 8.4 Uconnect that does a great job playing DVDs, but its not super useful in that the screen turns off when in motion. I'm under the assumption the functionality exists more for the full VES with the roof-mounted screen. So my question is, has anyone with an 8.4 Uconnect added the oem flip-down screen? Since the DVD works, my hope is that the wiring already exists behind the rear climate control knobs. Has anyone tried this? I found several own flip-down screens on eBay for a decent price. - Jeff

Hello - My 2012 Journey with the 3.6 Pentastar is currently at the dealer, and they aren't having much luck diagnosing our issue. We were coming into Phoenix last weekend after a long and HOT road trip down I-10 (outside air temps between 105-110 all afternoon/evening). Temp gauge was running higher than normal but nothing I would consider alarming (and no warning lights on the dash). As I accelerated, the transmission down-shifted from 4th to 3rd, and the engine silently failed. No POP, no BANG, no initial studder, no hesitation. Just full regular power, part-throttle down-shift, then off. We rolled to the side of the freeway, and it wouldn't start. We attempted three times to start it, but nothing. The dealer pulled the codes and didn't find much. Anyone have a similar issue where the engine basically died and was unable to restart until it cooled down? I wish I would have tried to start it one last time after the tow truck driver had dropped it off, but at that point we thought it was a major engine failure. Is it possible that the ECM overheated? My best guess is that the ECM got too hot, but you'd think it would record a OBD code for that.

I agree with that the engine oil cooler sounds like the most likely cause. It's a great feature as it really prolongs oil life, but it's a known part that needs to be replaced as the edges towards 100K. Good news is that it's not *terribly* difficult to replace. I believe it sits under the intake manifold.

I'm really hoping someone can give me an early Christmas present here... We have a super irritating issue that's actually becoming unsafe. For the first two years of ownership our Journey had no issues with the windows fogging up. In fact it de-fogged them way faster than our older cars. However starting last year, any time the temp drops below freezing, the inside windows start to build up moisture. It's starts off like a regular foggy window, but instead of getting better as the car warms up, it gets worse. It's also worse the colder it gets. For example, we're a big skiing family, and on out last trip to the mountain it got down into the teens, and there was literally dripping moisture on the side windows, and I had to keep the defrost on full-blast for the entire trip just to keep the wind shield clear. Needless to say, something about the freezing temps is creating moisture in the climate system. A few weeks ago, the dealer said it was the cabin filter and the refrigerate was low, but that clearly wasn't it because it's still doing it. I've done a lot of searching on the forum and found one guy with a similar issue, but no solution

Something else to think about is how far your towing the boat. If most of your towing is to the local boat ramp, and you live in a relatively flat part of the country, I think you have more flexibility. Long hilly trips that exceed the rating will eventually cause issues

Hi all - Did quite a bit of searching and couldn't find much info on aux trans coolers for towing. We bought a tent trailer that's 2k unloaded and 2.5k gawr, so right within the Journeys limits. We went on a 100mi trip on a 90+ degree day and the trans got up to 195 degrees a few times. My understanding is that temp is fine, it's over 200 when varnish can start to build up. But if we had more gear or people, I'm thinking we would want an aux trans cooler. Has anyone installed one with some before & after testing? I'm curious how much it helps, and I assume you had to break the dealer seal to add additional trans fluid?

That's great feedback and makes sense. We're looking at one of the lighter Forest River R-Pods. They get good reviews, and are targeted at the CUV market with low tow/tongue weight, and low air-resistance. I find that towing with non-truck vehicles tends to be a very polarizing issue - one side being the "I should be able to tow the Class III limit if a Class III hitch fits!" Then the other side being the towing purists who balk at towing with anything less than a real "truck" or diesel. As with any argument, most real use-cases tend to fall towards the middle. For example, does towing a heavier trailer put more wear and tear on the car? Probably, but there are so many variables. How often do you plan to tow? How far is your average trip? Are there a ton of hills, or is it relatively flat? Will you be against a 40 mph head-wind for half your trip? Will you pay attention to your trans temp gauges? Anyway, we definitely fall in the less-frequent crowd. We make probably 4-5 trips per year and stay within a 100 miles of home. There are definitely some hills, but I'm fine taking them slow and using my gears. We already have a brake controller and I wouldn't tow without one. There's a local rental shop that has some R-Pods for rental, so we'll probably do that next spring before making any real purchasing decisions. Thanks again for all the feedback so far, I'd love to hear more examples if people have them.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the insight. I was also hoping for some feedback from people who have done some towing with their Journey.

Hello All - We're thinking about buying a 15-17 ft travel trailer to tow behind our 2012 V6 journey, and I was surprised to see so many negative posts. Given the high output V6 and thr six-speed gearbox, this seems like as good as it gets for normally aspirated V6 towing. The trailers we're looking at are 2500-3000 dry weight, so should be less than 4k loaded up. Questions to the forum are: 1) Why is the journey towing cap 1K less than the caravan. That makes no sense 2) If my expectation is to cruise at 55mph on the flats and I'm Ok with gearing down to 35-40 mph on the hills, will this be a decent towing experience? Ten years ago we were towing campers with engineswith 25% less horsepower and only 4 speeds. Not sure why the Journey has such a bad rep for towing. Maybe the high-powered diesels have raised the bar way higher? - Jeff

Anyone attempted a Lockpick Air V1 install along with the MimicsX2 product? If everything works as advertised, it would be amazing. You wirelessly stream video from your Android phone via Miracast to your UConnect screen, then the MimicsX2 module "catches" your touchscreen input on the UConnect and pipes it back to the phone as a touch input. Seems like a game-changer to me if everything works properly. Has anyone tried this out? - Jeff

Just a heads up, you were using the wrong product. Not sure if their website has been updated since you purchased the product, but it's very clear now that the V1 is for specific models, and the V2 is for others. Example, V1 is for Chrysler 300's, Journeys, and non-SRT Chargers. V2 is for RAM, Jeep, Durango, etc. This is because Chrysler made some significant hardware changes and essentially "branched" the UConnect product into kind of a premium and value line (that's my interpretation anyway). if you look at features, the V2 UConnects have other more advanced stuff like phone app integration, pandora, etc. Did you email their support? I'm still looking into their Lockpick Air V1, and I received a super-fast reply in email. I would hope their support would be quick to tell you a bout the V1/V2 compatibility.

I would agree 100% with both of you... I suspect this has something to do with fuel efficiency. Which in all honesty, I wouldn't mind that shifting behavior if I had a choice. For example, on my Audi it had a "sport mode" which was nothing more than a single sent to the TCU (position on the shifter) that made the transmission hold the gears a little longer and downshift a little earlier. It's genius because in "regular" mode it up-shifts super early and uses "throttle adaptation" which actually makes the throttle "softer" so to speak, which in turn makes for less downshifts when the driver adds only slightly more throttle pressure. So instead of me just complaining more, onto solutions I'm going to give Dodge a call about the TCU update (if any exist for my 2012). I think that's a good start. I'd also like to look into after-market TCU flashes for Dodge TCUs. I know some exist for the higher-end SRT's and such, but haven't looked into anything for the Journey. A switchable "sport" and "economy" mode would be amazing, but who knows if that exists. If I find anything, I'll be sure to report back to the forum.

We originally started talk about transmissions on my "285 vs 305hp" thread. Thought I'd share this new data on a new thread that's specifically focused on the transmission. 1) Can't remember who, but someone mentioned that "adaptation" in the TCU may make the transmission "feel" a little better after it adapts to my driving style. I'm happy to report, "Yes and Yes" After about a month of drive, shifts seem to be a little more crisp and it seems to down-shift a little sooner (which fits my driving style). 2) So the biggest annoyance now is the dreaded 35mph "death zone". I'll explain - Both me (the "car guy") and my wife (knows nothing about cars) both had the same fundamental complain - right around 35mph, (which happens to be the speed limit on all the streets with hills around our house) the DJ kind of "poops out". After some playing around with it, I realized that it's the shift from 3rd gear to 4th gear. ...It shifts into 4th gear, loses considerable power ...which forces you to press harder on the accelerator forcing a down-shift ...which in-turn surges the car forward ...which in-turn encourages you to let off the accelerator ...which in-turn causes an up-shift to 4th ...which in-turn... you get the idea. It's most annoying on hills where the drop in power really matters. So I pulled some data on the HP/TQ curve of the Journey's 3.6L as well as some logged shift points at different speeds, and suddenly it all makes sense. The largest ratio-difference is between 3-4. Referencing the data below, you can see there's a huge drop (36%) in the ratio difference between 3rd and 4th. While that in itself isn't a huge deal, it becomes a huge deal when you see how that effects the power output of the engine. The range from 2000-3000rpm is what I would consider the "bread-n-butter" RPM range for this engine during regular driving. 1st gear is really low, and the TCU knows it. So (this is my assumption) they programmed the TCU to hold 1st gear a little longer when you have anything more than moderate throttle pressure. This makes for slightly higher revs coming out of 1st, however it's a great shifting experience. It revs out to a little over 3K, which drops you nicely into 2200 rpm range in 2nd. PLUS, the power will always feel more responsive with higher ratios because the engine has more "cranking force" against the drivetrain. They did a great job with the 2-3 ratios by dropped the ratio between 2nd and 3rd to just 19%. Again, this provides a great shifting experience because the drop in percentage difference means a 3K rev in 2nd will drop you into a nice spot on the TQ-curve in 3rd @ around 2500 rpm. So here's the rub... They screw it all up with 3rd to 4th. Like I was saying before, the higher the ratio, the more "pull" the engine has against the drivetrain. So they really shoot themselves in the foot on 3rd to 4th. They not only exceed the transmission average of around 30% per-shift, but do so (unfortunately) at a VERY critical time in the driving experience (~35-45 mph). Looking at the data, you experience (roughly) a 55hp drop in power when the engine shifts from 3rd to 4th @ 3K revs. Rarely does data so perfectly match real-world situations, but that is exactly what it feels like. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd feel like a nice well-tuned V6, then when it hits 4th, it feels like you took the engine out of my wife's Civic and dropped it into the Journey. Which, given the HP numbers at the 1800rpm, that would be a pretty accurate comparison!! So what's the fix? I think two things: 1) They need to have the transmission hold 3rd longer, especially when there's additional throttle pressure. The easiest way to "detect" a hill is simply by measuring throttle pressure against speed. On a 6% grade, you will likely need to press the throttle 25-30% more to achieve the same acceleration as you would flat ground. 2) I don't know if this is getting too complicated for TCU programming, but when it detects a down-shift from 4th to 3rd, I think it would make sense for it to continue holding 3rd even if the driver lets off the throttle a little. This would prevent the vicious down-shift/surge/decelerate/up-shift situation I described above. Longer-term fix would be to actually use the funky "fourth-prime" gear as a regular gear, and spread the ratios out a little more over seven gears (yes, there's a hidden seventh gear inside all of your Journey's )

This is true... Once you have it though, it's tough to go back to not!