bramfrank

OK. It's official. Your dealer is clueless. You don't need the VIN of the donor vehicle, but that of the one you are installing the radio into - and the seller can't provide it unless he has access to the serial numbering system; What you DO need is the serial number of the new radio - the combination of the VIN for your vehicle and serial of the new radio is used to generate the unlock code IF the radio you buy requires it - if it comes from a vehicle made before about 2/3 the way through the 2012 model year you won't need it . . . and you'll find out when you go to install it - and you already KNOW how easy that is. By the way, remember that you'll also need to transfer your Sirius subscription to the new radio . . . . and verify that you are buying a radio with the Sirius module . . . there are LOTS of part numbers and it isn't always obvious. But the basic model you want is the REB. The catalog, or part number is another story. Here's one I found on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/14-DODGE-JOURNEY-AUDIO-EQUIPMENT-RECEIVER-4-3-TOUCH-SCREEN-AM-FM-CD-MP3-SIRIUS-/351418112218 Check your PMs . . . . I sent you a message.

I don't recall whether I have written about this on the board before, but the reality is that snow tires, while they do help, likely cause more problems than they solve for some because people who can't drive in snow install winter tires and then feel emboldened to go out and slide all over the place, in particular those with AWD and 4wd systems. On my weekend drives up to the ski hill where we have a locker and ski the most common site in ditches are Jeeps and other vehicles with drive to all four wheels - I recall fondly watching a provincial police officer screaming at the top of his lungs at some idiot who managed to run off the road in his Jeep - he was wearing ski boots while driving . . . . . it takes all kinds. With the singular exception of the story I'm about to tell, I had never had snow tires on any vehicle and I have never had issues - including drives through the Erie region of Pennsylvania during lake effect snow and a truly memorable drive from Thunder Bay to Sault Saint Marie during a blizzard. Of course, being from Quebec, our nanny state has recently mandated that we must have snow tires installed from December 15 through March 15, even if there's no snow. And there's no snow - if fact I have ridden my motorcycle up here right through to the second week in January one memorable year. But motorcycles are effectively banned during the snow tire period, since no one I know would go out and buy snow tires for a motorcycle for the limited amount of riding that could be done. Now; the story; The country home that we had up in the Laurentians was at the bottom of a hill. We got a lot of snow in the winter, even if there was little to none in the city. There was a reasonably large parking area and lots of weekend visitors. The usual routine was that whichever car came in last would be the one that whomever wanted to head to town would take in the morning. The year was 1995. The vehicle was a Pontiac van - no AWD for those things. One Saturday morning, after a reasonably dense snow fall my (now ex) sister-in-law (my brother's wife) wanted to go to town to get some artisanal baked goods for breakfast. She took the van and started up the hill, but got stuck about halfway to the road and walked back to the house, complaining that I was a cheapskate because there were no snow tires on the van. I went out, drove the van to the top of the hill, parking it on the public road. I came back down to the house, handed her the keys and she walked up to the road, drove to town, got her baked goods and returned - all the while MY (now ex) wife was giving me heck because we didn't have snow tires on the van. For the record, I didn't have snows on my car, either. So I pleaded mea-culpa, and took the van into town to the Canadian Tire and bought four snow tires, had them mounted and came back - my ex was aware of the purchase and of my feelings about having to spend about $600 for tires, but we didn't mention it to anyone. The next morning the Sister-in-law went to go into town to get something or other and I don't suppose I have to tell you that she used my van and managed to get stuck on the hill . . . in almost the exact same spot . . . she was fuming and came into the house yelling and screaming about how dangerous I was and how irresponsible I was because she had gotten stuck once again. My wife gave me a REALLY dirty look to warn me not to react, but I really was never good at reading looks and such and so I DID. I explained to her rather testily that what she had missed was that I had no trouble getting up the hill the day before and that as a result of her previous rant my ex had forced me to go out and spend a lot of money on a brand new set of top-of-the-line snow tires because SHE couldn't get up the hill and that not only had I wasted my money, but in spite of having snow tires she STILL couldn't get up the hill. And with that I put on a pair of boots and a coat, went out to the van and drove it to the top of the hill and again parked it on the roadway and came back down. However I did NOT give her the keys. I told her to take her own car (which was behind the van) because she clearly did not know how to properly drive in snow and if she was going to wreck a vehicle, then that vehicle should be one that she owned. I told her that until springtime she would not be allowed to borrow our cars. It is a lot less about the tires than it is about the driver and their knowing how to handle a vehicle in the snow. I once freed a 4WD Ford Expedition that had snow tires that got stuck in the parking lot at the ski hill - the owner had spun his wheels enough that he'd gouged four little slick semicircles in the ice - and my then vehicle had pretty worn all season tires - a tow rope and about 30 seconds of work and we had him out. I'm about to begin my 5th winter owning a Journey and while the traction control system can work against you on a slick hill, I have found the vehicle to be reasonably competent in the snow. Again; while snow tires do shorten the stopping distance in snow, if you drive cautiously you aren't likely to have issues even without them unless there's a huge amount of snow or you are driving on slick ice (in which case without studs it won't matter).

Since FCA already has the next generation beyond our uConnect radios in the field in newer vehicles than ours AND since uConnect is acknowledged to be the 'best' and most intuitive package on the market, the likelihood of them moving to Carplay is about zero - and the ability to retrofit it to our existing vehicles is a tiny fraction of THAT.

The security code requirement was only implemented on radios in the second half of 2012 - so whether you need one depends on the radio you buy . . . . but codes are easily gotten.

That part is how it is supposed to work.

I suppose you could always get an iPhone . . . .

Sorry to hear of your issues. While I don't have the problem, I can envision a number of reasons for the volume to 'move around'. In no particular order I propose; One reason could simply be that the volume control encoder (they use what's called a 'chopper wheel' to tell the unit that the control is turning, which direction and how much) could be out of alignment - if that's the problem then the simple solution is to replace the entire lower bezel with one from a scrapped vehicle that has the same feature set (with the split centre 'auto' button) and which works. Another might be that what is called the 'clockspring', which is the wire coil that carries the electrical connections between the steering wheel switches and the vehicle proper is acting up. If this is the case then it *might* be related to the issues you have with the cruise control. I will assume that the cruise control still doesn't work; though why you would let it go that way for 5 years seems a bit strange to me; but you may be able to leverage the original failure into a free repair for the current problems by INSISTING that they get the cruise control running at their expense . . . . it may well make your volume start to work. A third is that the buttons in the steering wheel are worn or defective . . . . Fourth; chafed wiring or corroded connections or badly inserted connectors. The last which comes quickly to mind is that it could be that the radio module itself has issues - replacement radios usually be found on eBay and they are simple to drop into place. There are probably more reasons than I've listed, but that's what quickly comes to mind. Good luck

To summarise: 1. There are two places where you can change the digital speedometer readout: - One is via the steering wheel controls, which is a temporary change and - The other is by changing the units selection in the settings menu using the touchscreen - the latter is supposed to effect a permanent change to the display units for the vehicle. Note that using the steering wheel switches to change the units display will ONLY change the speedometer readout and will NOT change the odometer or auto air conditioning temperature units and the selection IS NOT saved. If you use the touchscreen settings menu it will toggle all of the vehicle's display units between Metric to US and this selection WILL BE saved. 2. Consider that if the setting has been changed in the main display using the touchscreen and the temperature and mnileage are now all in US measure and if the unit reverts to US measure after a restart even though Metric was selected . . . i.e. that you change the setting in the UNITS item under the SETTINGS menu and everything is fine until you switch off and then restart the vehicle . . . the problem could be a bad BCM, where such things are stored. If the vehicle is off warranty then this could be a very expensive thing to repair.

If the power socket in the dash is ignition controlled, just connect it to the wires that go to the back of the socket and leave it at that.

Correct . . noting that the system can only generate canned text messages . . . .

Dusty, if the brakes were done hopefully they paid for the replacement.

xcaliber . . . . your phone doesn't need to be compatible with voice recognition - it is the head unit that decodes the commands and then send the 'dial nnnnnnn' command to the phone. I've yet to run into a phone (noting that I don't use and never will use an Apple phone) that pairs with the system that I can't dial directly or choose a phonebook entry from using voice command.

Yes Marc - they're primarily discussing music support via USB for uConnect. But only some phones support on screen text message support (My Samsung Galaxy S5 among them). Note that there's no metadata (which is used to display song titles and stuff) for BT connected music either.

drjbg230 The recall is non-fatal and is new enough that the recall letters started to hit the postal system only last week, so don't sweat that and don't expect your dealer to have the instructions or the potential replacement parts in stock yet either. For the vast majority of owners all they will do it to squirt some Silicone Seal into a bundle of wires where they exit a control module - then they'll send you home.

Well, aside from the fact that the F150 doesn't compete with the Journey . . . . . Consider perhaps that there may be jurisdictions where it simply isn't allowed to respond to or compose text messages. You can, of course always install a lockpick and get around the limitation.

uConnect, when tied to my Windows phone would handle announcements like what you referred to properly, though it didn't do text messages on the radio . . . . maybe when Windows Phone 10 is released it will. My Samsung S5 is well built and works well.

Hmm . . I don't recall anyone saying that song metadata is passed via BT in any version of Android OR iOS. And if it could be and was under BT2.1, then BT4.0 would support it since the protocols are backwards compatible - and if it was, then it could be passed under Spotify and from any other music source that provides that data as well. If it turns out that your missive was wrong in any way it will discredit the complaint . . . as to it being a 'safety issue' as Sherri said - THAT'S gonna get blown out of the water by engineering quickly, I suspect. But if she thinks it's a safety issue she'll escalate to engineering as a priority . . . what happens after that? Probably nothing. But again; if you don't squeak, they won't know where to put the grease.

Agreeing is fine - I was just wondering why you copied the statement without adding anything . . .

This is why I have an extended warranty.

Ask and ye shall be answered. Carefully describe the situation to the rep - be patient, he may not be a specialist. Maybe they'll actually add the feature!!

Not all Journeys the ones with Navigation use GPS time, which is as accurate as it gets.

As a group we know what the system does, but the comments are primarily aimed at the opening post . . . . I'd love to see that data on screen too - nothing stops you from picking up your phone and calling Dodge to make your views known - they do not do product development nor feature enhancements based on what we chat about on the forum. The CSRs WILL accept a suggestion and pass it up to development - whether that will result in anything is anyone's guess. But if you don't ask them they can't even say 'no'.

Not many dash cams have motion detection activated recording. The one I use doesn't - it has the theoretical ability, given the 3 axis G sensor. But it's not been implemented in mine. But for me the limiting factor is image quality; if I can't read the license plate on playback the thing is just a toy - and even if the device has a high res sensor, if the lens sucks (and most of them do) then you won't be able to read the plate number . . . . .

It works just fine with my Android 5.1.1 - that's modern. And yes, the BT link is constrained when it comes to music - they only transfer the audio. They COULD transfer the meta data - perhaps one day in a release. But it would require both updated firmware in the radio and a compatible music player. So just plug in the USB connector - and your phone will get charged up, too.

And?