b1pig Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 hey guys. recently, i've noticed that the Journey will have "valve clatter" for a second (or less) at startup after sitting a while. i had also recently had a problem with my Jeep (JK 3.8) doing the same, except it was for 3-4 seconds. turns out... Fram filters have a series of issues... one being crappy (or nonexistent) anti-dranback valves in the filters. swapping to a K&N in my Jeep fixed it. however.... i had some questions since the tech stuff i have read on the 3.6 a while back stated that the engine was designed to defeat any chance of oil drainback problems. made me wonder. so, i called a friend of mine who is a dealer tech. he looked up some info and found a dealer service note. apparently there is a noted problem with some 3.6 engines related to the VVT system. the word he used escaped me, but essentially the solenoid(s) for the VVT are the cause of the clatter. nothing will usually be done until it trips the CEL and one of the VVT solenoid codes are displayed. based on what he has read, its more an annoyance than anything serious, however, if the codes are in the system, they will definitely fix it. thought i'd put that up here for anyone else who may run into this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tstone Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 The VVT system uses solenoids? Something I noticed when I was shopping for this Jounrey, was that EVERY brand new 3.6L on the lot had this clatter. To me that is a big red flag. I can understand old engines doing this, but not brand new ones. All I can suggest is switching over to a full synthetic oil and seeing if it goes away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrxz24 Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 video with sound would be nice to see. Can you post it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1pig Posted January 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2012 (edited) dont have it right now... but if i think of it at some point, i'll do it. update.... just went out and fired it up. didn't do it. like i said... on mine, its completely unpredictable, but the car has been sitting for two days. Edited January 26, 2012 by b1pig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1pig Posted February 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 just a note. the car hasn't done it again since i posted this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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