Jonathan Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 We recently purchased a 2011 Journey, with the Pentastar V6, for my wife. I noticed that when the cruise control is set, and you encounter a hill, the speed decreases quite a bit and stays that way. Last night I watched it slow down over 5 mph (8 kph) until we reached the top of the hill. This hill was mildly steep, for a highway, but none of our other vehicles have had this problem. I have noticed the same, though less drastic, on much lesser hills. We have owned many GM and Ford vehicles and have never had this problem. The Fords that I have owned would never slow down more than 1/2 mph on a hill. The GMs would usually lose a couple mph before catching back up. I am sure that this is very annoying to the people behind you. Has anyone else had this problem with their V6 Journey? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaskGuy Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 We recently purchased a 2011 Journey, with the Pentastar V6, for my wife. I noticed that when the cruise control is set, and you encounter a hill, the speed decreases quite a bit and stays that way. Last night I watched it slow down over 5 mph (8 kph) until we reached the top of the hill. This hill was mildly steep, for a highway, but none of our other vehicles have had this problem. I have noticed the same, though less drastic, on much lesser hills. We have owned many GM and Ford vehicles and have never had this problem. The Fords that I have owned would never slow down more than 1/2 mph on a hill. The GMs would usually lose a couple mph before catching back up. I am sure that this is very annoying to the people behind you. Has anyone else had this problem with their V6 Journey? It is something that everyone is having... The transmission seems very slow to downshift. I hope that they fix it with a different transmission program in the future, but I doubt it. I think they programmed it this way to get better mileage. it can be overcome by manually downshifting slightly before a hill. I shift to 5th before a small incline or 4th as I'm coming to a larger hill on the highway. Perry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtomatoman Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 I personally don't see this as a problem. Its cruise control. If you need speed on a hill, the power is there. . . down shift. Just remember that the transmission is programmed for the best fuel economy. IMHO, losing 3-5mph on hills is an acceptable compromise to get an extra 20 miles out of each tank. Those extra efforts on hills really do affect overall fuel economy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
humansoul Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 This appears to be normal for the Journey. I've noticed that it tends to stick to the higher gears unless you really push down the pedal or shift to that gear yourself. Although we don't have the ECO mode option to turn on or off, I think Dodge specifically programmed the speed to gear ratio to save on gas... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armendegga Posted August 20, 2011 Report Share Posted August 20, 2011 Personally, I've noticed this: The Journey will downshift from 6th to 5th when there it drops 5kmh. It will drop from 5th to 4th if it continues to drop another 3kmh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Posted August 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 Thanks everyone for the responses! I figured it was just the TCM programming to maximize fuel economy, but I wanted to make sure. It will just take us a while to get used to burying the accelerator to get the transmission to downshift more than one gear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgeman324 Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 Yeah mine does that too, but never past 5mph. I live in Colorado and so we have lots of hills and small mountains on our drive between Denver and Colorado Springs, and yeah, if I do nothing, it will slow to 5mph under set speed and then downshifts and quite quickly gets back up to speed, no matter the hill angle. But, as I've driven and figured it out, I always just give it a head start when I see the hill coming up and just press the gas at the right time to get the momentum up before the hill and I don't lose speed that way. So, whether you downshift the autostick, or use my method, you can keep the speed at the set number somewhat easily. But yeah, it's definitely a programming for the tranny to save it and save gas mileage. I miss the little option I had on my 2004 Dodge Ram Hemi, when I cut a single cord going into the ECM that turns off the transmission's torque controller (programming), which allowed my automatic Hemi truck to bark its tires shifting into 2nd and 3rd gears, it was sweet. Didn't want to think of the damage being done inside that tranny though, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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