2014 3.6L/6AT/AWD does the "click" at approx. 27K miles, trying to add extra ground, where though?

[Shotgun Chuck]

Have a 2014 Journey with the 3.6L V6, all-wheel-drive and automatic transmission (were there ever any V6 manuals?) where occasionally, when you go to start it, it will click once and refuse to crank.  In more severe cases it will show a "key not detected" message.  Happens constantly in the winter if you don't start it every day, very rarely in the summer, however yesterday I had the flashers going for about 30-45 minutes (don't ask) with the engine off and that killed it again.  Multimeter says the battery is fine, and if you hook it up to a charger/another battery it fires right up.  According to my searching this is a common problem and can be anything from loose/bad cables to bad connections to insufficient grounding.  In one video on YouTube, one person fixes this problem by running a 4-gauge battery cable from the negative post to some bracket on the engine block and says that he's never had it "click" at him since, the problem being that he has an older 3.5L model.  I went out to look for anything on that end of my 3.6L block which could serve as an extra ground as in that video, but I can barely even see the block for all the hoses and wires in the way.  Does anyone know of some attachment point or bracket somewhere on the driver's side of the block which could be used to anchor a battery cable?

 

Here is the video in question, assuming I'm allowed to post that:

 

 

In terms of repair history, I can't describe it fully due to it being my mother's car rather than my own, but it has been in and out of the dealer multiple times.  Something to do with the airbox frequently comes loose, something in the drivetrain was broken but still sort of worked (seem to recall it was something to do with the front differential), front differential computer was mis-programmed and had to be reprogrammed, transmission was shifting goofy and had to be put back in learning mode (not FCA's fault - previous owners had different typical driving conditions and we strongly suspect they weren't the best drivers ever either), and I actually can't remember if it's been to the dealer for this before or not.

 

You may notice that my join date is a long time ago; that was my first attempt to register and ask for help with this problem; eventually I gave up waiting for the admins to let me in/for my validation e-mail to get there (I honestly can't remember which it was but seem to recall thinking the site didn't like me trying to register with a Hotmail address) and decided to just run the car every day as a stopgap measure; it seemed to work when we remembered to do it and is usually not necessary in the summer.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Shotgun Chuck

[Armando G]

I would first ask you, what have you done so far to try to fix the problem, if anything. I don't think this is just a DJ issue, I truly believe this is a 'newer' car type of issue. I've dealt with three cars now that had the same type of issue and with all three cars we have completely cleaned out the ground wire where attached (remove any corrosion, wire brush the paint at the connection, and added anti-oxidation gel/stuff), and the issues have gone away on all three cars. With all the systems on these newer cars, making sure the ground is securely connected to a clean metal surface is necessary. Adding an extra ground is just avoiding fixing the issue itself. And if I look really closely at the car on the video, it looks like they cleaned the original surface itself (see pic). That was probably the fix without having to take the extra step. Anyway, that's where I would start, then go to the fuse box and relays to see if there is some corrosion in those areas as well. Moisture will create that little bit of corrosion that will effect the electrical.

 

[Shotgun Chuck]

13 hours ago, Armando G said:

I would first ask you, what have you done so far to try to fix the problem, if anything. I don't think this is just a DJ issue, I truly believe this is a 'newer' car type of issue. I've dealt with three cars now that had the same type of issue and with all three cars we have completely cleaned out the ground wire where attached (remove any corrosion, wire brush the paint at the connection, and added anti-oxidation gel/stuff), and the issues have gone away on all three cars. With all the systems on these newer cars, making sure the ground is securely connected to a clean metal surface is necessary. Adding an extra ground is just avoiding fixing the issue itself. And if I look really closely at the car on the video, it looks like they cleaned the original surface itself (see pic). That was probably the fix without having to take the extra step. Anyway, that's where I would start, then go to the fuse box and relays to see if there is some corrosion in those areas as well. Moisture will create that little bit of corrosion that will effect the electrical.

 

 

Good point.  Have not seen any corrosion on the remote negative terminal but we will sand the paint off and apply anti-oxidation coating in its place.  Can you recommend a brand?

 

We popped one of the battery caps and one cell out of three on that side was low on water; could that also contribute to this problem?

Edited August 29, 2018 by Shotgun Chuck

[2late4u]

battery should have been sealed in a 2014 if you were able to pop it open as stated i would replace the battery with an up to date one, they can check good and still not start a vech.

Edited August 29, 2018 by 2late4u

[Shotgun Chuck]

1 hour ago, 2late4u said:

battery should have been sealed in a 2014 if you were able to pop it open as stated i would replace the battery with an up to date one, they can check good and still not start a vech.

This battery was installed by the dealership some time before we bought the car and has a Mopar label, so we had no reason to be suspicious of it.  (Come to think of it, the original battery was probably fine and was replaced in an attempt to fix whatever is still going on here).

[2late4u]

37 minutes ago, Shotgun Chuck said:

This battery was installed by the dealership some time before we bought the car and has a Mopar label, so we had no reason to be suspicious of it.  (Come to think of it, the original battery was probably fine and was replaced in an attempt to fix whatever is still going on here).

was trying to ask have you had a load test done on the battery in your journey not just checking it with a meter, as you say hooking another car up to it by jumping it will start it makes me think the battery is going bad enough to not start under optimal conditions, run by your local parts store and ask them to do a load test on the battery and also check the charging system to see if its up to par .only takes a few minutes and most do it for free

[Sails]

I am not sure how much different the 3.6 setup is from the 3.5 but my solution to the problem was to remove the air filter box, couple of plastic push pins, one bolt 10 mm if I remember correctly and a bracket that had to be pull from the box.

Once all the plastic is out of the way, if the 3.6 is the same as the 3.5, you should be able to see the engine ground wire that bolts right by the starter. It will be a black cable going to a bolt by the starter.

I bought a 36" 1 gauge cable, removed the bolt used by the ground cable and connected both cables using the bolt.  I then ran the cable up to the ground bolt/connector on the firewall and connected the other end to it.

I cleaned up the corrosion that was on both ends at the same time, put the air filter box back together and haven't had a single case of the no started problem since. 

Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep products have bad history of under engineering wiring, switches and ground cabling, cleaning and/or upgrading things like the engine ground cable help to solve problems.

[jkeaton]

Replace that battery ASAP.

[Shotgun Chuck]

On 8/30/2018 at 4:07 AM, jkeaton said:

Replace that battery ASAP.

Am doing that today.

 

On 8/28/2018 at 8:46 PM, Armando G said:

(remove any corrosion, wire brush the paint at the connection, and added anti-oxidation gel/stuff)

 

Can you recommend a specific product for this?

Edited September 2, 2018 by Shotgun Chuck

[Armando G]

20 hours ago, Shotgun Chuck said:

Am doing that today.

 

 

Can you recommend a specific product for this?

I've always picked up a couple of AGS single packs when working on my battery. They're silicone based and have made a huge difference.

[Shotgun Chuck]

"The book says a 26 will fit" hahahahahaha yeah right.  The guy who designed this battery placement (and bracket) should be taken in a dark room and B E A T E N.

[2late4u]

ive always used the red spray from the can i think its called crc  battery termial protector, always has worked great for me

[2late4u]

yea its in a bad spot, but it fits okay ,i replaced mine about 6 months ago