John/Horace

ECM main computer almost never fail on any cars. Very robust design, doesn’t even run directly on 12 volts so it can’t get zapped etc. If mechanic is so sure that is problem, get in writing that he guarantees it or he refunds the money if he is wrong. Random no starts or car cutting out while driving with no code stored, is often cps, crank position sensor( or signal from it losing continuity to ecm). Fairly cheap and easily replaced part on most cars. Heat and vibration cause it to fail. On the older hyundai the wires would get visibly frayed and start to ground out. If you are lucky you will sometimes get a cps code pointing you in right direction, like daughter in laws 2012 journey 4 months ago, but not always in my experience. Especially on Hyundai, which are generally good cars.

Costco chart called it group 86 and it was identical dimensions and post orientation. Fit perfect. Usually I try to fit the biggest battery I can because they often charge the same for more cranking amp heavier battery. A larger stronger battery gives longer reserve if lights on etc, sometimes lasts a little longer. Because of awkward location on this vehicle I didn’t bother. Didn’t appear much room to spare. Try to cleaning off the remote jump start terminals with wire brush/sand paper. Or scrape multi meter probes for better contact, you should be getting over 12 volts if battery is still starting car. The agm glass mat batteries like Optimum are supposedly quite good; better vibration resistance, lighter physical weight. Very pricy for cars; I’ve used them on my ATV with good results. Small charging magneto and running a winch for plowing makes it a tough application. I use a special terminal spray to help prevent corrosion; seems to help. Sprayed on connections after install, lightly. There are other options.

I’ve never seen a car start with a battery that measures 11.5volts. You must be boosting it or your meter is inaccurate. Battery after 4 years pretty common. Not a lot of extra room on fender pedestal, get the right group number to fit.

Welcome to the forum, sounds like a frustrating problem. What codes are showing up with a scan? Which engine and how many miles? If no codes stored; then my WAG would be cps, crank position sensor. It can shut off car fast enough that code not always stored. Fairly cheap part, around $40 approx.

Look at the the two half shafts on the front wheels, make sure the boots are fine and not twisted. If a c/v shaft comes apart internally the wheels won’t move the car, but part of the shaft will still spin. Very rare type of failure to happen. If rpms are climbing and no movement, friction disc on clutch or pressure place probably worn out. Could raise front of car with both wheels up, engage in gear with car running and see if one wheel spins with no weight on it. This would confirm clutch slipping, or if grinding noise differential side gears in tranny bad.

Cause I am .....cheap haa haa. I’ve had great results with Costco (Johnson Control) batteries in the past. $120 price minus $10 recore and a 2 percent executive discount. Dealer last I checked would be almost double the price, and although slightly better, probably wouldn’t last twice as long. Good question.

If your journey started at -40 without a block heater, your battery is probably still fine. My 2014 r/t battery is still original and vehicle has 175k kilometers on it. Synthetic oil really helps with extreme cold starting IMO. On an old school analog load tester is still showing over 400 cranking amps at approx 50 F. The digital units at the parts stores are definetly more accurate. Just changed daughter in laws 2012 original journey battery on a 2.4 (little easier to crank) at Xmas with Costco unit. It was still functioning but she works shifts at a hospital, wanted to avoid problems. Old battery gets recycled to my lawn tractor now. I have to say I’m fairly impressed with the factory batteries; lots of power options on these cars as well. Pick a warm day if you do change battery, lots of plastic clips to wrestle with. Not my favourite place to work on a battery in a slushy wheel well. The 2.4 had tons of room under hood without having to use wheel well. Soak the 9/16 nuts on the battery hold down bracket with PB Blaster spray half hour before starting job. They get pretty corroded from the road salt. Old school battery tester picture.

Really good point made by 2late4u about warranty on repair done last year. If it is heat exchanger replacement again. Consider changing out the rear spark plugs that are accessible in minutes with the big plastic intake manifold out of the way. Saves approx.1.5 hrs of labour doing that at the same time. I think approx.100k mikes or 150 Kms for plugs is recommended replacement interval. The three ignition coils I would probably reuse unless really high milage vehicle.

It hit -23C around -5F early this morning here, not trouble shooting weather. Its a real chore cleaning up the mess between the cyclinder head valleys during the heat exchanger replacement. It’s possible there is lingering oil from last years repair and the snow/slush has washed down some of the old oil. Single oring seals holding up to 700 kpa or approx 100 psi of pressure during cold start ups and warm up. I wonder if it should have been double oring design. I always use 5w20 synthetic hoping to keep oil pressure a little lower. Dealer charged me $380 IIRCC for complete assembly with all sensors; fairly cheap for something this complex, maybe corporately discounted to reduce customer backlash. Volume moving items would be cheaper how ever. Passenger side leak could also be crankshaft pulley front seal; cheap $10 part fairly easy fix. Leak would be directly below pulley on front of engine. Usually a high milage engine failure item. Good luck....keep warm.

You can add UV die to the oil and check with a black light if washing engine doesn’t work. Maybe a valve cover gasket. Oil pressure sending unit on cooler is listed as a common source of leak. Did you use an after market cooler replacement?

Sarcasm and car forums unfortunately in my experience often go together. Probably because it’s mainly guys. i just joined here after lurking a little bit. It seems more civilized than a lot of other car forums; you might be a little too sensitive IMO. I was on a Elantra forum years ago called ElantraXD run by a few 20 something fan boys. The sarcasm was hilarious if you weren’t on the receiving end of it. They were trying to control double posting and off topic rambling inside threads. It can be tricky to keep forums useful and functional at the same time; somebody has to be the sheriff if things don’t run right. There is not a lot of tools to work with. My two cents for what it’s worth.

I said diode, I meant adding a resistor. You can also install an LED bulb load resistor on the tow vehicle. One resistor is required for each LED turn signal. ... Since the incandescent lights have a higher draw, it is possible for the LED lights to burn out if they wired in line with incandescent lights. Replacing Incandescent with LED lights on your Trailer - CMI

Ground shouldn’t be an issue, one of the wires in the 7 pin connector will be ground. I believe led need a special wire harness for trailer lights to tie in car. It’s a small black box inline in the harness like what is showing in the link below. Regular vehicles just tie right in without it. Look at your new wiring to see if there is a converter box in line. You can add a diode by itself as well if you known what you are doing, but led converter module easier. New Ford F150s requires flashing ecm for trailer wiring, but that is mainly for the trailer brake controller that is built Into dash. One pic shows led harness the other is the regular lights harness. These are diy pig tail hook ups, no cutting wires or splicing or heat shrink connections. Is there a Uhaul trailer place near by? They are usually pretty good for trailer hook ups, around a long time. Good luck on your big move.

I’ve noticed fill amount also seems a little low after oil change on my 3.6 as well. Haven’t put a level on my engine compartment or waited over night for drainage, which in winter might help. I’m using the 5w20 factory spec oil. i wonder if the filter gets saturated and holds absorbed oil which throws the fill amount off. Containers also hold a bit of residual oil , especially if using multiple quart containers in winter. Try propping up empty containers for 10 mins each and see how much oil seeps out, its surprising.

Suspension noises can be tricky to trouble shoot. The stabilizer bar on a car is to help handling by transferring weight to the opposite side of car when turning. Rather than just throwing parts at it there are steps you can do to help diagnose noise source. Front and rear stabilizer bars are not carrying weight so easiest way to see if it’s the source is to remove the end links and just leave the bar in place. This separates the assembly parts and allows you to safely drive it to check for noise. If it’s gone the source is either the end links or the two bushings on the stabilizer bar. You could even drive a few days with out end links in place until you get parts. If noise is still there, there are now quite a few potential sources for noise unfortunately. Struts are the most common wear item for noise, but there are parts often over looked , like the link rod or lateral arm bushings in the rear suspension. Not that expensive but changing them can affect alignment, so not just a diy job. Even Worn subframe mounts can create weird noises. Mechanics stethoscope can be handy for finding stuff, not very expensive either. Spaying lube like someone mentioned also quite useful to isolate sources. But not a fix.

I also maintain vehicles for kids. On a short visit it’s like NASCAR pit crew repair routine. Tranny often overlooked for maintenance with the “sealed unit” dealer selling concept. No dip stick means forget about it; ... can get expensive. The full synthetics definitely last longer, but eventually the additives wear out. It’s not necessarily that the oil is dirty or contaminated. New oil is better than unknown snake oil additives IMO. On the journey six speed it was quite easy to suck out almost exactly four litres with manual pump . A little less volume on the 4 speed. New ATF+4 oil even from dealer not expensive compared to tranny rebuild. Some vehicles the pan filter has a magnet built into it (Hyundai sometimes). Makes it more important to drop pan and change whole unit in that case

I would have just added gold fish and called it a day. New lights quite an improvement in appearance.

I’ve done the 6 speed tranny fluid but not dropped the pan on a dodge 4 Speed yet. I agree oem mopar parts is way to go if not crazy price; guaranteed proper fit worth a little more money IMO. AMF+4 in jugs a little cheaper, if not dealer then good after market brand Iike Castrol. Buy extra fluid; I like to use manual suction pump a few days after pan drop and replace another 4 litres. Hose fed down through dipstick and it only takes 10 mins to remove used oil. Now most oil is changed out. 4 speed uses pan gasket not silicone, so no over night drying needed, also kinda nice. If pan-has a little donut shaped magnet , clean it off and reuse it. Use 1/4” ratchet and don’t over torque those little fastners, use torque wrench if you have one, approx setting 100 inch pounds. Make sure to clean off surface where pan gasket goes, scotch bright or sandpaper to remove all of old gasket. After oil change and truck started, shift through all gears then back to park. Read dip stick info, it may say to measure fluid in neutral, use parking brake. Fluid temp matters, H for hot or full engine temperature. Low level can cause cavitation, damage tranny, accurate level matters. Messy job....good luck. No dipstick for the 6 speed is no big deal. Dorman sells a dipstick with markings on it and a temperature chart. I think rockauto sells it still. Pics of dipstick kit and cheapo Harbour Freight type oil suction pump, very handy $15 item.

You may have fixed this by now. I would put the old sensor back in first since car functioned without limp biscuit mode. What codes showed up that made you change tps sensor? It’s possible they sold you wrong part. It was the whole throttle assembly you changed out correct? May not be a plug and play part, sometimes they can require a learn procedure from a dodge compatible hand held scanner. Drive by wire cars also have an output sensor on the gas pedal that works together with throttle actuator.

Hey there just decided to join the site. I have the joy/hate of looking after two Journeys in the extended family for two years now. A 2012 2.4 owned from new and a used 2014 R/T Awd with the much more fun V6. Have owned/worked on quite a few different brands (yeah I’m real old) over the years. Like a good value play in the used car market, and there aren’t that many at a good price that hang together. I’m a retired millwright mechanic on pension so I like to diy what ever I can. Electrical always the bigger challenge than straight mechanical stuff. Waaayyy too much complicated electronics on newer cars; but when working right I’m happy to have them like everyone else.

The newer style lid like in my picture has a small plastic piece held in place by two tabs. The small plastic piece looks identical to what he is holding in his hand. I had to replace my leaking oil cooler last year, the pic is the newer style cap from my 2014. I’m guessing the plastic sometimes gets britttle with age and the constant heat. I think this piece seals opening in top of filter, part of bypass design.

Nice link YYZ lots of info there. Sooo it seems like the check valve that is broken, forces the oil through the filter. Driving it as is means the oil can bypass being filtered, short term not that big a deal IMO. Early cars didn’t even have oil filters until approx the early 1950’s and the oil quality was also crap. With the mopar part number some else posted, you should be able to track down part. Rockauto lists a dorman and mopar oil filter cover, both in stock for between $11- $17 cdn pesos. Rockauto really rocks for parts IMO, cheap shipping and quick delivery even across border. Good luck. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/dodge,2015,journey,3.6l+v6,3309784,engine,oil+filter+cover,5561