John/Horace

Haven’t worked on the Chrysler 3.5 timing belt. But I have changed close to a dozen belts on various vehicles from Honda to Hyundai V6’s. Did a 2.7 Rondo V6 last year for my daughter. Belt, idlers, tensioner, CPS sensor and water pump. You only want to go in there once if possible. A lot of labor removing crank pulley and plastic covers. If it’s out one tooth generally a vehicle will be hard to start but it will run. Timing out around 6 degrees so awful idle and not really driveable. Two teeth and engine generally won’t start. In neither case is there any contact with valves or engine damage. It’s very easy for even an experienced mechanic to have timing out one tooth on any of the timing gears. There is a small flexible cam that mechanics can use to inspect valves through plug hole for damage. Time consuming job some guys won’t want to do. If car just died without a bang or lurch. Maybe the valves are still ok and it’s worth trying to get an inspection. The real proof is pulling all covers and seeing if timing marks line up. A lot of labor involved. Experience needed to assess if marks are properly aligned. I’m pretty sure your code is from timing being off from belt jumping. Belt may look ok from quick inspection, its the small teeth underneath that matter, there is probably one section of a few damaged rubber teeth or slots. Look at very bottom of plastic cover by the crank pulley for any small chunks of rubber.

How did you clear code, with a reader. Pull battery power for 5 mins, code may clear.

It allows in outside air. When car is turned off it will try to cycle to open position, vent interior moisture. When it’s open you can see outside light coming in threw dash filter. Removing filter helps seeing if it’s stuck closed. People often poke it open to temporarily fix problem. Changing it is an awkward job even with glove box door dropped down.

With 3/4” drive you can get a a few foot long pipe and add it to the breaker bar. Remove nut with hub cap off and wheel on the ground if possible. Safer and weight of car helps. Counter clock wise to loosen. Even heat from a torch helps with seized threads. Impact gun which vibrate when used is always best, but not essential. Its only torqued at 100 ft pounds; removing rust on exposed threads with wire brush will prevent damage on nut threads. People resuse the old nuts but technically they are suppose to be replaced on most vehicles after removal. Dealers do.

Link would be helpful. Rear arm oem is pricy. Cheers.

Thanks for follow up. Curious how many kms on the original viscous coupler now ? Had to change both side lip seals on our 2014 rear diff. They literally rotted out from road salt and started leaking. Time consuming crappy diy job. Never went low enough to cause any damage. At 244k kms or 151k miles now. Now that I have learned of vent issues, plan on getting to it and cleaning it out. There has been a handful of people on site that had similar oil leaks with coupler. Have owned multiple jeeps and trucks with awd, haven’t experienced this problem yet. But the Journey sees lots of mud and salt…and I’m never lucky.

These guys list two versions, check actual Mopar number on the sensor. Their Pics are usually accurate. I don’t work for these guys. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/dodge,2019,journey,3.6l+v6,3443655,heat+&+air+conditioning,heater+air+door+actuator,10721

I’m not a big tv person. Friends sometimes send me stuff. Yeah Merry Xmas and haaapppy new year.

The comments are the best part. They range from “needs 350 D cells not included ….to please crash test…immediately. https://jalopnik.com/russia-has-new-ev-thats-totally-going-to-destroy-tesla-1851117732w

Best lighting diagrams, might help a bit.

Can’t be done. Haven’t heard of any diy person being able to do it. If you call transmission shops I’m sure they will even say they don’t do it. On this site there are threads about swapping it out with rear diff left in place. People usually buy a whole rear diff from auto recycler and only use coupler. New coupler by itself more than double used diff.

Viscous coupling is not rebuildable. Rear end or differential is now toast. Running out of oil not like running out of gas. Side seals where c/v shaft ps go into rear diff are a common failure. Oil goes low and internals get wrecked. A used rear diff from auto wreckers is only cost effective option. Removing rear drive shaft temporarily should allow you to still use car until parts found. Continuing to drive car as is will probably destroy front transfer case as well.Adding thousands to get back awd ability. Wheel bearings are pretty good on Journeys. Only one of 4 has been changed on wife’s RT with over 150k miles.

Cool work going on. Glass matt on the air tank is a nice touch. I still think a ludicrously loud air horn is needed to match the sound system. Not many people have the compressed air to run one properly Might score some points at a competition. Cheers.

Mmm looks like the 3.6 also has decoupler clutch, all the units for sale list the feature. I used a dealer rebuild on our 3.6 so installed a complete unit a few years ago. It stopped charging but no whining noise. Coupler is used to save energy apparently. Cost is around $130 ish for just coupler, so whole unit is probably better option. Made in Canada…probably why it failed.?

You might get lucky if it was just the stuck position affecting solenoid. Hatches are awkward to take apart I find. The little black square camouflaged lock button is on the left side of hatch overhang Close to license plate lights. I think I found it a year after owning car. Pretty sure on all journeys have it. It’s like pressing chrome buttton on front doors, should unlock or lock car if fob is in pocket I believe.

The spring return in the latch handle gets really rusty. I have to constantly spray ours to keep handle free. The hatch is not metal so it’s fine, no rust. Spring should have been galvanized or proper plating. Car was professionally sprayed by a company, Rust Check more than once. But they seem to miss some items. My wife’s 2014 RT outside button on the hatch won’t trigger unlock anymore. So either main passive entry or key fob has to unlock hatch. I also see a dance with the dreaded broken wire in rubber boot coming soon. Older 2012 Journey daughter in law has is still fine for hatch function. But oil pan has a pin hole leak (even though repainted ). Older high milage cars are an ongoing battle in the rust belt. My garage not heated, but at least no wind.

Not really. Like OP said, scanning is only way to know for sure. The tpms have a built in lithium battery that gets weak over time/miles. Some times the weaker battery will be strong enough to get picked up if it’s moved closer to receiver to pick up radio frequency output signal. Antenna is in lower dash or A pillar I think, shouldn’t have seen glycol. Your failure may have just been a coincidence when oil cooler puked. With balancing cost etc people often opt for new sensors when installing new tires. Lots of aftermarket cheap sensors from Rockauto etc. Some people pop the bead and pull through a new sensor without removing tire or balancing.

Nice pics and write up. So clean underneath, definitely not a rust belt car. The entire Harbour Freight set probably cost less the a single snap on crow foot. Tool pays for itself on one job. If you haven’t made your own tool to fix a car….your not a real back yard mechanic. Cheers.

Torque converter holds several quarts of fluid that doesn’t drain with a pan drop. Some people do that first,(pan) run the car for a bit and then syphon out as much as possible from tube under the hood. Then refill. I think I was able to pull out 3 quarts using this method. Then added exactly 3 more fresh quarts. You end up doing about 70% of fluid. Which usually stays red and doesn’t go to brown. Depending on change interval. Have tried doing the unhook the tranny lines method in the past. But only return line which goes to a bucket. Funnel to a 1/4” supply line not easy. Running for 25 seconds drains almost whole system, as soon as flows slows a bit I shut off car. Hook back line, refill tranny and run a bit. Then unhook line a second time and repeat. We are lucky ATF+4 is not liquid gold like ZF or some of the other fluids. Still cheaper than a rebuild if it fixes problem.

Helpful post and link. I’ve wedged my head under the dash fighting with those tiny motors. Funny click noise and then working again with the fresh air blender door motor. Poke from screw driver frees it up when you hear the big click. Small spray of silicone afterwards. Have a replacement motor from Rockauto for the next time it stops. I think it’s the motor that is always cycling on shut down to vent cabin air. Not looking forward to doing it. Windows fog up like crazy when it sticks. At least it’s not a heater core issue in my case. My passenger blend motor has yet to stick. Something to look forward to. ?

Even grinding off paint to get to bare metal. Then fine film of dielectric grease can sometimes fix flaky ground issues. Salt belt cars are more prone to these kind of problems. I went through this with a few Hyundai vehicles, bad strut tower grounds.

If it makes you feel better you can. But it's not necessary, even rear diff doesn't need it. Not limited slip--trak loc applications. Just good quality semi sun like owners manual states.

When the blend door sticks the best indicator is the windshield starts to fog up. When car is turned off the door defaults to open position to help dump moisture from interior, prevent mould smell. You can watch it move when triggered. The blend door is located behind glove box, it’s around $50 but is awkward to replace. Heater cores seem to get plugged up when oat and hoat coolants are cross mixed. 2011-13 was one type, then it switched. Heat exchanger is a common wear item, good to get it swapped out.

If you search here. You will learn factory unit needs to be activated by either dealer or programs like ALFAOBD. People often just go all aftermarket, dash unit and cam for less hazzle. To not lose current 4.3 built in stuff means aftermarket interface needs to be added at the same time. Door chimes, heater controls etc.

Remove belt and run for a few seconds. Go from there. Even a older dry belt can squeak a lot. It’s not just miles but years with rubber items.