rozwell911

I tend to do all my work by hand when ever i can. I have not had any problems when i do the work. Some shops just don't want tot ake the time to prep a part. Here in California i have seen many a custom paint jobs for many shops with no problems afterwards to trim pieces. It could be your climate, do you get a lot of humidity? Humidity is a major problem for paint, if not done in a sealed spray both and not given extra time for the paint to dry.

It has to be all in the prep work....Remember most if not all bumpers are the same ABS plastic that are used in the trim peices....If the paint can stay on the bumpers made of ABS plastics, why can't it stay on the trim peices that are propperly preped, primered and painted that are made of the exact same material on the bumpers? Now, most plastic trim pieces (not bumpers) are either textured or could have a coating protecting the plastic from weathering...Which if you do not sand lightly, clean and primer it, paint will just flake off. I never paint anything with out using a base coat of primer...primer will stick to most any surface. Paint will only stick properly to primers (Automotive paint that is).

Never used the chrome sprays...if i wanted something chromed, i'd get it professionaly dipped. Most compaines that offer chrome dipping will prep the part for you and dip it so long as you take it off. The sprays are probably similar to automotive paint, so if you went the spray route, u would have to prep the part like you would for a paint job. It is a lot of work, which is why propper body shops (not like Maaco) take the time to prep and paint...you have a much more finished product and a happy customer that will not notice body work has been done.

Not true, propper prepping and primer, prior to painting, will yield comparable results if not possibly better (if you take your time) than most OEM paint jobs. And they will last just as long. Painting is all in the prep work. Now if the plastic is textured and not smooth, you will get the texture showing through the paint job, unless you do multiple layers of light primer or use some kind of filler like bondo to smooth out the plastic. You would apply the bondo over the entire textured area, then sand by had to the appropriate thickness, thus smoothign out the bond, as it fills in the cracks between the textured areas. Int he end you have a smooth, even paintable surface that you can primer and paint, then clear coat. Its all in prep and how much time to take... Now the one problem you may have is finding your exact color premixed. Most dealer cannot get you more than a bottle of touch up paint. ANd the ones that can get up paint cans (BMW is one fo them) only offer base colors, which means you have to mix them in the appropriate color formula to get the color you need. Also to properly apply you would need an air gun....preferable an automotive quality spray gun, but i know some people that have use hobby shop spray guns (guns for models or pinstripe) that have painted small items like trim and small plastic pieces where you do not need the coverage distance of an automotive spray gun. Now to get the paint premixed you need your color code, and head to a body shop you trust and ask if they will premix this color and sell you a can.... ANds please, do not apply it with a brush to the part your painting, it will cause streaks and runs and will not be even.

Unless the factory screwed up, waterspots are not In the paint persay....they do get absorbed into the clear coat though. Common removal, if they are deep is with a clay bar. Chances are clay bar will remove most if not all..if they are deep in the clear coat, a wet sanding of the clear coat by a professional body shop or detail shop will be needed...after wet sanding they will have to repolish and way the car.

I was getting the whine too. Wasnt loud with the radio on, but man was it noticeable with out....engine also winded up loud at high RPMS. Did not like it too much..

SXT 3.5 FWD 7 Seater I posted it in the 13000 mile revview in the forums..But here is the short break down: TSB: Rear Camber nut re-torqued TSB: Power Steering Cap TSB: Hard shifting Transmission/ Clunk in reverse (replaced CPU unit and re programed) TSB/ Warranty: WIN Module (Alram going off while i pushed unlock button on FOB) Warranty: Sunvisor Broke/ Passanger Side No abuse, just from passanger use...Piece of crap IMO. Unresolved with Chrysler: Front pads going bad at 12,000 miles becasue i was 70 miles past the MFG warranty period they would not honor. Replaced with Wager Ceramic pads. Rotors warped at same time. AC did not seem to get cold enough right away in 90+ degree weather..took 20 minutes to a half hour of free way driving to feel cold. Dealer could not duplicate, said ac was blowing at 49 degrees at ac box. Non- Warranty Issues: 19 inch wheel tire size options is too few and far between. OE tires are nice in wet and dry weather but seem to be too thin and do not resist road hazards well like other SUVs of a similar size with different OE tires (I had to patch 3 tires in 4 months after i bought the car. All the TSB's and warrant issues were resolved and fixed with the exception of the 2 named above.

....But not the community.. Let me explain what happened: Back in last January I was being forced to trade my 03 mustang for a more family practical car due to a divorce and having a daughter....well, the real reason is that the 03 back seats are much too small to get a car seat in and out, and for me to be bending over to put my daughter in...also the door opening was not tall enough IM to be moving in and out so offten. So i traded it on on a Journey with only 8 miles on the new dodge. They were selling it for 18, 000.00$'s litterly brand new...I asked them why so cheap? The salesman then explaines that it was a buy back from the chrysler because the original dealer sold it went bankrupt. so they got the car....i thought it was a deal and was told it would ahve lifetime warranty. A month after i signed paperwork, i get an extened warranty notice in the mail stateing that my powertrain only has 3 yr. 36000...i was like WTF?! So i called the dealer and they told me that it never had Lifetime, and that i was incorrect in thinking they said that...mind you i had to of my closes frineds with me when i bought the car....so it was no lie on my end. SO i called and complained to Chrysler...which was little help at the time...they said i had to deal with the dealer....well in april the dealer closes its doors forever...so now i am like WTF...so i continue to hound Chrysler Corp...all i wanted was for them to honor the Lifetime Powertrain....well long story short, chrylser stiffed me from everything. So i traded the journey in this weekend for the car i really wanted that i could not get at the time. an 07 ford mustang GT....originally i was trying to trade in my older stang for a new one becasue the door and back seats are bigger and fit my daughter comfortably back there. so i found a dealer and got what i want for the same monthly payment i payed on the journey. That being said, i am not leaving this community becasue i like it here and what to help you guys out as much as i can... So goodby journey....i will miss it, but it was not me.

First oil change was at 3200 miles. Second was at 9000 (they changed the interval for Synthetic Oil at the dealer) I am at 14000 miles and have yet to have the indicator come on, but that might be beacuse i changed the oil myself before a long trip i took in september.

Here is the problem with your idea. The journey is useing Mercedes Technology with the key fobs. Mercedes Technology is almost identical to the BMW technology in the way it works. That being said, you shoudl check with the dealer to see how many FOB's you can have programed to 1 car. BMW and MBZ only allow you to have 2 FOBS programed to 1 car at any given time. SO if you program another in, it will effectivly "Bump" one of your keys out of sequence and that one key will not start or lock/unlock the doors. They use this as a securty messue as to not have too many active keys out there at one time....SO if you lose a key and buy another fob, they would bump the lost fob out of the system so that a theif cannot steal the car. the second half of your question, is no, you cannot use a used FOB from another car. It goes back to MBZ and BMW technology. All fobs are programed from factory to your vehicles VIN# when you order. The WIN has the vin# embeded in its programing. IF the vin's do not match, the FOB will not initialize and work in your car. Again its a security issue.....or any cheap mechanic can get a fob, program it to your car, and have someone steal your car.

Here in the states we call remapping, "Tuning" as in Dyno Tuning. But it IS detectable, atleast here in the states it is. All a dealer has to do is plug into their GT1 or Motech dealer scan devises and if they are looking in the right area, they can see that peramiters have been changed. Some tuners use superchips/diablo chips and physically put a chip in your CPU to tune...that is a little mroe noticeable cause they break the seal on the CPU. Here in the states, there are very many reputable palces to do it, especially where i live. never heard of any shops stealing peoples cars are sellign their imobilizer files to thevies. its up to you...Tuning, like with Ford F-250/350 trucks with desiles, will definetly in crease HP and TQ, as well as millage.

All cars, even the BMW's and Minis i deal with here are like that actually. All cars use a special locking (atleast they should) device that effectivly doubles the force directly applied at the brakes. BMW's all have seperate brake shoes for strictly parking brake only. The locking device is located between each shoe pad. it clicks like a racetet each with each click of the hand brake, but each time it it locks into place it travels roughly twice the distance of the parking brake handle, kinda how a pully system helps 1 person lift 500 pounds by them selves, it functions in a similar way by appling twice the force each click to lock into palce. Mini is the same way, only the mechanism or lock is the parking brake handle itself. with 2 cables going to each side of the rear brakes (minis do not use seperate shoes, they use the caplipers on the rear of the car, so in essence, your pads will ware slighlty more than usually in the rear). This system is not quite as good as the seperate shoes IMO cause the lock loacated in the brake handle cannot exerhrt enough force IMO as the lock located inbetween the shoes directly on the BMWs. Mini does this as a cost saveing messure. They are still extreamly safe with this design, but i feel the BMWs is a better one....but if you think about it, with a 50000 car vs a 25000 car, id expect the best in the 50000 car. Our cars should be of a similar set up or design...I have dilibratly left my car on nurtral on a 30 degree incline and just use my parking brake to hold the car....it works IMO very well. I do not recomend anyone else try that, becasue it is dangerous, but i obviously cannot stop you if you do.

Its no big deal I thought it was just another interesting quirk that these cars have, nothing more.

Thanks for the update....I am trying to keep a tally of problems with these cars and crate my own database with list of dealer "fixes" and what worked and what did not. The only problem with my data, is that it will not be representative of what % of owners have problems VS. those who dont't. SO any info i come up with will have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Honestly, it sounds like the PCM. A lot of people have had their PCM replaced to fix hard shifting from park to reverse, as well as duing normal driving..... For the 2009's there is a TSB out for the problem. This could possible be the same thing. they will try and reprogram, and if that fails, they will replace the pcm with the newest one.