DenverRick Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Hello, I have a 2013 journey awd with the 3.6l engine. it has 89k miles on it. Recently, it started running a little rough. Kind of like when you know you need to change your oil, so just rough to the trained ear of the person who has driven the car for a long time. Usually, I know that means it is about time for an oil change or I add some MOA and it quiets it up (mostly an issue at idle or steady rpm's you 'feel' it kind of in the gas pedal or hear it in the engine). I added some oil additive and couldn't really discern if it was better but wasn't any worse. I just changed the oil about 2k miles ago so it shouldn't be due for a change. Air filter is in ok shape as well. Fast forward to about a month after adding the oil additive I get gas on a cold, snowy night and was just a bit below 1/4 tank in there. Fill it up take it home. Start it next morning and it is running like a sick dog. Not idling at all and real rough when i have to restart it because it died while idling. I decide to try and drive it about a mile and turn around when I come to the conclusion its not cleaning itself up and houston we have a real problem. CEL is on. I get a reader and get a P0300 and a P0303 code. I'm assuming I got a bad tank of gas and it fouled the plugs. I throw plugs and new coil packs in the car, might I say what a job to remove that upper intake. Old plugs seemed worn as much as 90k plugs should nothing super alarming about them. Get the car all back together and start it up after i cleared the codes. Same problem persists. Now it is just giving me a P0300 code but still running about the same as before. It'll run above 2k and drive but it doesn't idle or can't idle in gear without dying. I was so frustrated I have just parked the car and am deciding on the next steps. I called the place I got gas from to ask if they have heard any complaints about the gas in the time period i bought it and they said no. It makes me think maybe it's not bad gas. I'm kind of at a loss what to do next. A mechanic friend of mine said dropping the tank and getting rid of gas, then running new gas in the car, then after you have cycled the 'bad gas' out of the lines/injectors you will probably want to change the plugs again bc the bad gas or the misfires may have fouled the new plugs up. I've been reading up on the cylinder head issue on these but it seems like that'd be giving a misfire on 2,4, or 6 and shouldn't really impact 2013 models? Right now I'm just getting a P0300 without any specific cylinder being listed on an additional code. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. I got the car for relatively low cost and am worried if I end up having to throw a lot of money at it that it may not be worth it in the long run. So I appreciate any insight from your experiences with this engine. This journey is taking me on a sad journey right now trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with it. Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhareFred Posted November 4, 2019 Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 What oil additive and why? I have 95K miles on my 09 and never added anything. Change every 5K miles with synthetic. Never really heard of a ruff idle when you need an oil change but what do I know. maybe add some SeaFoam or other heavy duty injector cleaner to the gas tank, see if it helps. Could be something with the intake manifold. I had a condition where the car would die when cold going from R to D. Would do it once then not again till the next time it got cold(10+hours of sitting). Dealer replaced the intake manifold because some kinda internal valve was screwing up. Fixed the issue but I don’t know what code was thrown, sorry..... 2late4u 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DenverRick Posted November 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2019 Oh I just threw an oil additive in there just to see if it helped. It was just a shot in the dark bc it had worked for me in the past on different vehicles. Fool's errand this time so no real benefit gained. I tried adding sea foam and heet to the gas tank to see if it was a water issue but that didn't help. I don't drive it hard at all and its had a good life for the 20k miles it's been mine. The guy who had it before me did a lot of highway driving as a regional salesman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2late4u Posted November 5, 2019 Report Share Posted November 5, 2019 old oil or over due oil change does not make a car engine run bad,might be a weak fuel pump and the engine not getting enough fuel or plug up fuel line would be my guess, had a boat that the fuel line anti-siphon valve was stuck have way open. long summer before i finally found that, kept pulling fuel pumps and filters draining gas thinking i had water in it,changing filters and plugs. would run okay at idle but trying to go faster it would run like crap... what kind of plugs did you use OEM i hope? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DenverRick Posted November 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2019 yeah i put OEM spark plug replacements in and checked their gaps. I think this weekend we might try draining the tank and see if bad gas is a culprit but feel like I'm kind of grasping at straws on that one. 2late4u 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larryl Posted November 5, 2019 Report Share Posted November 5, 2019 If you are gonna drain the tank change the fuel pump as well..... jkeaton and 2late4u 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armando G Posted November 7, 2019 Report Share Posted November 7, 2019 I think the gas thing is a long shot but who knows. Why not take it in for a full diagnosis? If you start spending time and money on guesses, it might be worth just trying to get to the bottom of it at the dealer, or other trusted mechanic. My DJ is currently at the dealership (2 weeks now) for a transmission job under warranty, but I've learned that trying to guess what's wrong is not always the best way to go. Unless of course someone can say exactly what the problem is... which I don't think anyone can. 2late4u 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2late4u Posted November 7, 2019 Report Share Posted November 7, 2019 (edited) 14 hours ago, Armando G said: I think the gas thing is a long shot but who knows. Why not take it in for a full diagnosis? If you start spending time and money on guesses, it might be worth just trying to get to the bottom of it at the dealer, or other trusted mechanic. My DJ is currently at the dealership (2 weeks now) for a transmission job under warranty, but I've learned that trying to guess what's wrong is not always the best way to go. Unless of course someone can say exactly what the problem is... which I don't think anyone can. ^^^^ as above mentioned guessing can get expensive have it checked at the dealership and get a detailed report for a service diagnostic charged usually around $100 also once fixed make sure you do a trans-service of the fluid and filter,and a coolant flush and refill as you are due for them as well Edited November 7, 2019 by 2late4u Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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