Ride it out until spring then get rid of it. I personally know 4 people who have had the misfortune of owning a Journey. They are JUNK JUNK JUNK.
If it makes you feel any better, a guy I work with was quoted 1k yesterday by the local dodge dealer to change the alternator in his caliber. He looked it on online and his options are to either go from the top and remove the power steering pump, undo a motor mount and push the engine back or go from the bottom, remove the shields and covers, remove the a/c compressor and wiggle it out. Another brilliant piece of chrysler engineering.
2 minutes of searching shows this is a common problem with these journeys. Sounds like either one of the electric blend door motor actuators is bad or the plastic shaft the actuator rotates has snapped.
We are planning to get rid of it as soon as my wife gets the settlement from an accident she had. Some rocket scientist pulled out in front of her and she t-boned him. Fortunately she wasn't going very fast and only scuffed the bumper on our car. Messed his up bad. I am a little concerned though that the air bags didn't go off, but then that would have totaled the car.
We have had battery issues with this car for a long time. I cant tell you how many times the battery has been replaced. And every time they replace the battery they have to fix the cables and wires around it because they are loose or "messed up" somehow. But its the same dealership that has replaced the battery every time, so I have to wonder what they are really doing. The same dealership also fixed an issue with the AWD system and in the process messed up the exhaust to where it was slightly louder than it was. the tech tried to claim that the noise level was common for all AWD Journeys, but it wasn't that loud when we brought it in. My wife took it to another dealership who found that an exhaust flange had been clocked wrong. Fixed that and it is quiet now. So I don't have a lot of faith in my local dealership, but we use them because they are affiliated with the car lot we bought the car from and we can sometimes work a payment deal thru them for the repairs. Don't think we will be able to do that for the tune-up or the heat problem.
Sounds like we will just have to hope for an early spring. Of course, w live in Ohio where if you don't like the weather just wait 5 minutes, it will change.
