DJ service today first 5K

[mydodgejourney]

I dropped the DJ off at commodore motors today in Wandsworth SW London for her first service , I felt it needed a thorough going over after the Romanian trek, I picked her up new on july 12 with zero miles and have almost 5k on her now, oil needs changing and I noticed some heavy scoring on the brake discs so have asked the garage to check that out and replace with higher grade pads, I have noticed other posts/comments alluding to unusually heavy brake wear at lower mileages so I guess this must be it, I have also asked them to check the car over in all departments for possible faults, not that I really noticed anything to cause concern but she took a serious thrashing on the highway and climbing the carpathians in 37 degree heat. Overtaking was an issue, fully loaded with luggage with the heat and the altitude it was a struggle to overtake the myriad of trucks clogging up the Romanian roads, Im going to look at an engine re-map to try to release a bit more power before we go again next summer.

my overall thoughts on this "pumpe duse" 2ltr VW lump is that while its adequate to do the job it just does not seem to do the car justice overall, I have the R/T model fully loaded yet this 4 banger oiler is the same as fitted to the SXT here in Europe, what the R/T really needs to set it one model up in the range is a different diesel lump, something with a little more power and a couple of more cylinders, that V6 2.5 ltr that they used to put in the old model Passat, that would be a perfect engine for the R/T, not so large as to affect the cars tax bracket too much or its emissions, but big enough to set it up as the top of the range model, this current diesel just feels a little to ..well...unrefined...if thats the right word, its a bit noisy on cold startup, but then I suppose most VW diesels are, and although it cruises nicely at 100mph its spinning at over 3500rpm which is a tad fast for that speed I think, my old Seat Alhambra tdi would spin at 3k at 100mph so gearing is obviously playing a part, but to summarize, a different diesel has got to be a consideration when the next gen Journey is announced, Dodge/Chrysler are selling a fabulous idea short with this particular diesel, I think its fine for the SXT but If Im weighing up more cash then I want a bigger diesel, no question.

then there is the gearbox, now this is a weird one, I did a lot of crawling along in traffic on the Romanian run, lots of 2 and 3 mph in first gear, and if you lift off the gas at that low engine speed the DJ lurches forward as if stamping on the brakes sending contents and passengers bumping forward, you have to let the gas off ever ever so gently when crawling it seems then the car slows down as you would expect an Auto to do, its not really a fault, more a foible that you have to get used to,

other small niggles were the center armrest, its too far back for my left elbow whilst driving long distances meaning I soon got an achey left shoulder until the missus came up with the bright idea of a small cushion she stuck between me and the center armrest, did the job perfect, another curious thing, the first time I took it into a jet wash I noticed a layer of paint came off the passenger door mirror, just a thin strip not the whole mirror and no where else was effected so that was a bit annoying, but the icing on the cake...after all that driving thru some seriously dangerous road conditions thru Romania I managed to avoid getting so much as a scratch on the DJ, lots of very hairy near misses some of which I have to say we were lucky to escape with our lives.

next jaunt will be to Tamworth is Staffordshire this saturday for a visit to Thomas the Tank Engine Land....

[Burn]

Thank you for your review

for the paint chip , check your warranty booklet , perhaps you can get it fixed for free if it's too apparent... not supposed to fall off that easily. But it was a jet wash ..sometime it can be very strong..

[mydodgejourney]

picked up the DJ after work yesterday, £220 for the full service using genuine parts, biggest shock was the engine oil, the boss told me it was a special order item from Chrysler only something about it being "low ash" oil and it was £15 a litre so that mobil turbo diesel stuff that I used abroad to top it up was probably not a good idea then, Im going to have to order 5 litres to keep around for top ups now and again, and the brake pads where fine just the calipers where a 'little stiff' and the scoring was caused by road conditions, not surprising considering what we drove on over there, the Pads are good for another 3K he reckons but I shall keep a close eye on that.

have a great day wherever you are.

[Tiptronic]

You have the same engine / gearbox combo as my old Jeep patriot. 2litre VW CRD witha Getrag 6 speeder. However rumour has it that the latest CRD Patriot w ill be fitted witha 2.2 Merc Benz Crd unit. It supposed to be a better option. Maybe they may fit this to the Journey eventually. The Loaner Journey I had was also CRD / 6 speed . OK it was a SE & never loaded , I found it had loads of power & the 6 speed was even better than the Patriot. Perhaps I'm more used to Chrysler / Jeep / Dodge than you ( owned 3 so far) but I dont have trouble with arm/footrest??

I think your dealer is telling you a load of bollocks about he oil---My dealer uses Mobil 1 Synthetic in Petrol & Diesel engines , there is no special mystery to it. ( I think the CRD is every 8.000 miles.) However when this unit is fitted in a Skoda or Audi the oil change is every 20,000 miles ( work that one out?) Dont go paying for special oil--cos there's no such thing!!!!

[mydodgejourney]

You have the same engine / gearbox combo as my old Jeep patriot. 2litre VW CRD witha Getrag 6 speeder. However rumour has it that the latest CRD Patriot w ill be fitted witha 2.2 Merc Benz Crd unit. It supposed to be a better option. Maybe they may fit this to the Journey eventually. The Loaner Journey I had was also CRD / 6 speed . OK it was a SE & never loaded , I found it had loads of power & the 6 speed was even better than the Patriot. Perhaps I'm more used to Chrysler / Jeep / Dodge than you ( owned 3 so far) but I dont have trouble with arm/footrest??

I think your dealer is telling you a load of bollocks about he oil---My dealer uses Mobil 1 Synthetic in Petrol & Diesel engines , there is no special mystery to it. ( I think the CRD is every 8.000 miles.) However when this unit is fitted in a Skoda or Audi the oil change is every 20,000 miles ( work that one out?) Dont go paying for special oil--cos there's no such thing!!!!

I have read some good things about that 2.2 Merc engine, that would be a fantastic choice for the Journey in my humble opinion.

my RT is an Auto, I didn't mention that before, mated to the current diesel its a bit sluggish on the pick up from standing, but once it gets going its not so bad, Im being picky.

we drove to Tamworth to the "Thomas Land" amusement park on Saturday from London, M25, M40 M42 and I was doing 90-100mph most of the way, that was actually its first real motorway run without being loaded to bursting with luggage so I had a chance to really push it and was very surprised at the torque at those speeds, my daughter slept most of the way thru and engine noise is minimal and the ride is beautiful, composed and direct, and very "car like" but for me the armrest is definitely too far back and the lack of a footrest is bloody annoying, but those are personal driver aids that Im sure vary from person to person.

good point about the engine oil, I thought that was a bit suspicious, Mobil 1 it is from now on...

big run this weekend as I have to go to Antwerp in Belgium, Im looking forward to that.....

have a great week wherever you all are.

Mark

[Tiptronic]

Thanks for reply Mark--I didnt know you had the Auto box , I was interested to hear how it ran. I prefer auto if possible & was interested how that 6 speed Dual Clutch auto performed.......Cheers ..Pete.

[mydodgejourney]

Thanks for reply Mark--I didnt know you had the Auto box , I was interested to hear how it ran. I prefer auto if possible & was interested how that 6 speed Dual Clutch auto performed.......Cheers ..Pete.

Morning Pete, I read about that dual clutch thing, I wondered how that was supposed to be "different " from a regular auto, is there some other benefit to having a dual clutch on an auto box then ? other than it shifts when its supposed to? I had to have an Auto anyways, living in London a manual is not an option unless you enjoy torturing your left knee lol.

the 'box is smooth and the changes imperceptible, when you engage 'Drive" it takes about 2 seconds for engagement and that "+/-" selection is great for hill climbing or jumping in and out of traffic like for example overtaking and pulling in between long lines of trucks and other slow moving traffic, you see the gear number next to the mileage reading with a little box around the number so you always know what gear you are in, interestingly you cannot hold it in 1st gear in this mode, if the revs go past a certain point it will still change to 2nd whether you want it too or not, but once in second it will hang on all the way until you change to 3rd, I guess thats to prevent any 'box or clutch damage ? the changes are instant and I would even go so far as to call it "sporty" which I guess is part of the idea, the other point to buying an auto was the wife is learning to drive Auto's only as she says changing gears gives her "too much to think about when driving" lol.

have a great day Pete.

Mark

[mydodgejourney]

I thought I might add to my thread started about a year ago, I have clocked up 16K in the Journey now, most hard European autobahn miles, the car is well and truly 'bedded in' now, no major problems as yet.

the brake pads are still on original and the Kumho tyres will go next Spring, after talking with the Chrysler dealer regards the warranty and my local tyre shop Im going to go for the Michelin Latitude 235 size

tyres as Chrysler tell me they will continue to honor the warranty with this option.

I have the engine warning light on at the moment as previously mentioned on another thread, but as Im in Romania on holiday right now Its difficult to get it sorted, a local Merc garage was able to look

at the problem and got a reading on their computer as 'particle filter' but were unable to delete the light, going to try a possible Dodge dealer later this week out here.

the only issue I have now with it is at very high motorway speeds the steering can feel a bit 'twitchy' you need to concentrate as even the slightest movements can cause the car

to change direction with a sudden jerk that is very scary until you get the hang of it, I had become so use to it that it was only when a friend shared the driving with me to Spain

recently that I noticed it again, at 80 plus mph he found the steering jerky and quite sharp, I put it down to tall 19 inch rims.

in daily use the Journey is exemplary, economy is good, important as the cost of Diesel sky rockets in the UK, and my wife and daughter love the comfort and ride.

as a side effect of ownership is the admiring glances the car gets every day is always nice, I would have liked to upgrade to the 2011 Dodge but its not to be for

us in the UK, never mind, I will keep it another three years and see whats about then.

have a great day where ever you are.

[BAC]

We too have the Journey R/T Diesel Auto and have done 19,000 miles in it.

A word about oil. The dealer isn't giving you BS about the low ash oil. If you put any other oil other than fully synthetic low ash oil to VW 507.00 specification you will sooner or later wreck the Diesel Particle Filter. This DPF needs to regenerate itself on a regular basis. This is done by the vehicle being driven at fairly high speed to get the exhaust system hot to burn off the residue in the DPF. Frequent short trips will start to clog this up as the car isn't getting hot enough to burn it off. Should you want to save a few £'s by putting the wrong oil in will permanently damage your DPF and it will need changing at your cost as it won't be covered under warranty, somewhere in the region of £1000 I'm told. If your engine light is on and the fault code comes up as 'Particle Filter' maybe the damage is already done. I'd get the oil and filter changed straight away. There is such a thing a special oil but in our case it doesn't have to be from a Chrysler dealer, all major manufacturers do it (Castrol, Shell, Fuchs etc) but as aleady said it MUST say Low Ash to VW 507.00 on the label.

I think the Getrag dual clutch gearbox is great. Fantastically smooth changes. This too has special oil it's Castrol BOT 341 but unlike the engine oil you can't get it everywhere. I had a problem a couple of months ago with a tiny oil leak from the gearbox, long story short the dealer couldn't get the oil so I made a number of calls to Castrol, Petronas, Dodge UK and couldn't get very far. In the end I e-mailed Getrag in Germany, here's my e-mail to them;

Dear Henning Von Watzdorf,

I have a problem that I hope you can help me with. I live in the UK.

I own a 2009 Dodge Journey R/T 2.0 Diesel with the Getrag MPS6 6 Speed Dual Clutch Transmission. Currently my car is in my local Dodge main dealer with a slight transmission leak whereby some of the seals have failed. The seals have been replaced and my garage is finding it impossible to obtain the correct oil to refill the transmission. The oil needed according to the owners manual is Castrol BOT 341. This oil cannot be ordered through UK Chrysler Dodge because now Chrysler is part owned by FIAT they won't supply oils and lubricants. Instead FIAT UK told my dealer the oil has to come from an independant supplier Petronas here in the UK and it will take 5 working days for it to be delivered. I am planning on taking my car on holiday on May 28th to Scotland (500 miles away) and therefore need to get my car back on the road as soon as possible. My dealer tells me thay only need about 1 litre of this oil.

I have since spoken with Petronas and they confirm that Chrysler Dodge lubricant orders go through them but they are waiting for stocks of all oils to come in so 5 working days for delivery to my Dodge dealer seems unrealistic. I have also spoken to the technical department at Castrol UK and they tell me I have to go through my main dealer. I explained all the problems and they then suggested that perhaps the Getrag DCT 250 transmissions used in a number of Ford and Volvo cars could use the same oil in their transmissions as mine. It appears that Ford Motorcraft market an oil for use in DCT transmissions and this may be an option.

My question to you as the manufacturer is, do the MPS6 (wet clutch?) transmissions share the same oil as the DCT 250 (dry clutch?) transmissions?

Their answer back confirmed what I thought and that is Ford use a similar gearbox and the oil is available from Ford dealers, if not on the shelf it takes a day or two.

Here's Getrag's reply;

As you've mentioned already – the same MPS6 transmission / spare parts are also used at Ford.

The easiest way to solve the problem is to buy the oil at a Ford dealer (should be on stock).

Powershift Transmission Fluid BOT 341 from BP Castrol

5l à Spare Part No. 6U7J-M2C936-BA / Finis 1490761

1l à Spare Part No. 6U7J-M2C936-AA / Finis 1490763

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Kind regards

The part numbers are the 1490761, 1490763 numbers.

Brakes;

I just had my front pads and discs changed as they were about worn out. Luckily a Dodge dealer who had given up the franchise had a set of pads on E-bay for £40. I did buy genuine discs though. So far the brakes seem better and there is alot less brake dust, so maybe they have made improvements. With the old pads I had to clean the wheels about every two days, now it's about 10-14 days.

Armrest;

You do know it slides back and forward? I always drive with it forward and and resting my arm on it is fine.

New Diesel engine?

Dodge as a seperate brand has pulled out of the UK now so sadly no new Journey's. Even if they did continue to bring them in they wouldn't be fitted with a Merc or different VW engine. Now that Fiat controls Chrysler thay have put two versions of their diesel engines into what they call the Fiat Freemont (re badged 2011 Journey) that is just starting to be sold in Europe. Apparantly we in the UK arn't getting them (at least not yet). I hear production of the 'Freemont' needs to be stepped up in Mexico up as more people in Europe are placing orders than cars available. The Italian national football team are using the Freemont so at least the profile of the car has increased there -something that never happened here in the UK!

Tyres;

There have been many posts about this subject and it looks like 235/55/19 is the way to go. Out of curiosity have you had uneven tyre wear? I noticed my rear left tyre was wearing more on the outer edge than the other three. I mentioned this to my dealer and they told me (I'm not sure on this) but there's no adjustment on the rear suspenson and that they had seen this wear on this particular wheel before -maybe we have too many roundabouts here and the back tyre is scuffing? How's yours? I'm going to keep rotating the tyes so they wear out together and then replace the lot as we can't get the proper size.

I hope this info helps. Do you get alot of people looking at your Journey? We do, I think I've only seen a handfull on our roads.

Cheers!