mechanical-idiot Posted April 5, 2019 Report Share Posted April 5, 2019 2012 Journey RT AWD kept killing batteries. Took it to a mechanic. Couldn't find a parasitic draw. Got new battery. Killed it in 6 weeks. 3rd killed battery. Took it to another mechanic. He did a parasitic draw test. He found that it was drawing 50 milliamps when sitting in the garage with everything off. He said that it should not draw beyond 35. So, he started pulling fuses and replacing them one at a time while checking the draw. He pulled a fuse called HFM (under the dash on passenger side - hands free module) and the draw went down to 29 milliamps. Put it back in and kept pulling. No other fuses reduced the draw. He told me that the fuse was for the bluetooth. Son of a bitch! The bluetooth was intermittent, then quit working for us. So, we pulled the fuse and have not had a problem with the battery draining since. We had to have the battery charged on an industrial charger to bring it up to snuff. He did a slow trickle charge overnight, so it was charged for 2 days. Seems to have brought the battery back to snuff. New HFM costs 737 dollars Canadian at our dealer (before taxes). Son of a bitch! Easy enough to put in (check out youtube for the video), if you don't mind taking off the brake pedal. Seems to be a common problem with a lot of Dodge Journeys. You might want to pull this fuse first if you have this problem. Might save you a few bucks in mechanical fees! Then again, it may be a totally different problem for you. Hope this helps someone out there in the real world. mechanical-idiot Summer Solstice and jkeaton 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mechanical-idiot Posted April 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2019 Oh, I forgot to tell everyone this: My mechanic told me to keep the key fob away from the vehicle when it is not in use. He said that it is constantly talking to the vehicle and could help drain the battery. I don't know shit from grease, so I am not sure if this is true or not, so we moved our key fobs away from the door and put them in the kitchen cupboard at the back of the house. The fobs were about 10 feet from the rear of the vehicle when it was parked. He said that probably contributed to the battery drain. mechanical-idiot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfurth Posted April 5, 2019 Report Share Posted April 5, 2019 Word of advice before paying any dealership for any part - price match the part elsewhere, ESPECIALLY if it's something you can live without for a few days. A Bluetooth antenna on its own is dirt cheap (you can get a USB PC adapter for under $20). An automotive specialty part should not cost anywhere near $750. As for the Keyless Enter-N-Go - that's not exactly how that works. The key fob has to be within 5 feet of the door you are attempting to open. Go ahead - have someone try to open the passenger front door while you stand near the driver front door - it won't (shouldn't) work. There is a delay from the time I grab the door handle on mine to when it actually unlocks (less than one second). That's plenty of time for the door handle to sense an unlock request (the act of touching it creates that request), then transmit a local signal to detect the key fob, receive a return signal from the fob that it is in range and it is the correct key, and return an unlock command to the door(s) in question. Even mediocre programming wouldn't have it constantly searching for the key fob. Summer Solstice and 2late4u 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summer Solstice Posted April 5, 2019 Report Share Posted April 5, 2019 ^^ With the Journey in the driveway, I can operate the remote features just fine from a distance away in the house. The keyless entry, on the other hand, does not work unless the key is with me. I was curious one day and tried it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mechanical-idiot Posted April 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2019 Thanks for clarifying this bfurth and Summer Solstice. mechanical-idiot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natefrog2 Posted October 12, 2020 Report Share Posted October 12, 2020 I had the same issue 2 years ago with our 2012 Crew. Our battery started turning up dead after sitting a few days. We replaced the alternator, but didn't correct the issue; had it our shop for a week and didn't show anything. The only item that was wrong was our Bluetooth stopped working. We pulled the Bluetooth fuse and have not had an issue with the car starting since. A local dealer was going to charge $600-650 to replace the module but I didn't want to drop that on something that wasn't a necessity. I ended up finding a module for $225 online from a Mopar site. I actually finally replaced the module yesterday. It was a pain in the a** getting it out of the housing. Taking the brake pedal off wasn't bad, but 1 of the 2 screws on the module is in an awful spot and took forever to blindly get it to bite. In the end I was able to swap out the module, put the fuse back in, and my U-Connect is working again (yay). However I now will hold my breath in the upcoming weeks that my car will start. If it doesn't, the Bluetooth fuse will come out again. If it does, then hopefully swapping out the Bluetooth module was the issue and we're good moving forward with no starting issues AND having U-Connect back. I'll keep you posted. NavalLacrosse 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bramfrank Posted October 13, 2020 Report Share Posted October 13, 2020 Bluetooth isn't 'uConnect'. The entertainment system is what uConnect is. Bluetooth is . . . Bluetooth. 2late4u 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex519 Posted May 27, 2021 Report Share Posted May 27, 2021 On 10/12/2020 at 12:09 PM, natefrog2 said: I had the same issue 2 years ago with our 2012 Crew. Our battery started turning up dead after sitting a few days. We replaced the alternator, but didn't correct the issue; had it our shop for a week and didn't show anything. The only item that was wrong was our Bluetooth stopped working. We pulled the Bluetooth fuse and have not had an issue with the car starting since. A local dealer was going to charge $600-650 to replace the module but I didn't want to drop that on something that wasn't a necessity. I ended up finding a module for $225 online from a Mopar site. I actually finally replaced the module yesterday. It was a pain in the a** getting it out of the housing. Taking the brake pedal off wasn't bad, but 1 of the 2 screws on the module is in an awful spot and took forever to blindly get it to bite. In the end I was able to swap out the module, put the fuse back in, and my U-Connect is working again (yay). However I now will hold my breath in the upcoming weeks that my car will start. If it doesn't, the Bluetooth fuse will come out again. If it does, then hopefully swapping out the Bluetooth module was the issue and we're good moving forward with no starting issues AND having U-Connect back. I'll keep you posted. Where is the Bluetooth module fuse located? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2late4u Posted May 27, 2021 Report Share Posted May 27, 2021 59 minutes ago, alex519 said: Where is the Bluetooth module fuse located? google is thy friend ,took me about 3 minutes to find this for you 2012 journey............. jkeaton 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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