I couldn't believe it when I saw all the complaints about brakes and rotors! We bought our Journey in February 2009, with 5,800 miles on it. By December 2009, at 20,000, we had to replace front brakes and rotors, and Dodge wouldn't cover it. Then in May 2010 we had the same problem with the rear! This time I just replaced brakes and asked them to resurface rotors. You should not have to replace your rotors every time you replace your brakes!! I liked the Journey when we bought it, but have become really dissatified, both with the car, and with the company.

I own an 09 dodge journey in which I had to replace the front brake pads at 12,800 miles, just after warranty. At 19,8oo I felt my steering wheel shake when I applied the brakes. Upon inspection I realized my rear brakes pads and rotors were shot. When I contacted the dealer I was told by their service clerk that the ceramic pads originally installed at the manufacturer are wearing prematurely and that they are being replaced by a totally different pad with "extended life". In most cases they are being replace in "good will"(free of charge). A service tech also confirmed this but told me he could not promise that this service would be free until further inspection. When we dropped the car off at the dealer our chief complaint was the rear brakes and rotors.

We asked (in writing )that they be replaced in "good will" and that they also inspect the front brakes an rotors because they were replaced at 12,800 with the same ceramic pads that are causing all the problems. The dealership called and said they would replace the front pads and cut the rotors free of charge but would not replace the rear pads and rotors. The tech said they were already doing enough "good will"repairs on the car and that if we wanted the rear brakes repaired it would cost us $370. NICE!

Just to note:THIS IS THE 2nd TIME MY FRONT PADS HAVE BEEN REPLACED WITHIN IN UNDER 20,000 MILES!!!

IF YOU HAVE SIMILAR PROBLEMS, PLEASE CALL (ODI) THE OFFICE OF DEFECTS INVESTIGATION Hotline and make a complaint @ (888)327-4236. They are a branch of the Government Agency NHTSA. (www.safercar.gov) You should also call Chrysler @ 1 (800)CHRYSLER and make a complaint. You can also contact your State Attorney Generals Office.

These calls are FREE and do not take alot of your time. Even if you do not still own your vehicle and Chrysler issues a recall you may be reimbursed for your expense. These problems will continue to plague Journey owners until Chrysler excepts responsibility for their faulty product. Good Luck!

I bought my car May 2008. The first time it went into the shop was in Jan 2009 and my car had about 11,700 miles with squealing noise. (my husband is military and we had to move across country, that's why we have that many miles on it by Jan). At that time we didn't have any money to look closer into it. We took into a dealership and was told $600 would fix it. April 2009 my husband changed out the brakes of the car and took it to the base hobby shop to get it rotated. September 2009 squealing noises started again. Dec 2010 we took to a firestone and they told us our brakes needed to have the brake pads changed out again. We were shocked. Waiting for income tax to come back. Feb 2010 we had the whole front brakes and rotores replaced. Cost $400. April 2010 squealing noses came back. April the rotors were resurfaced! June we stared having squealing noises again. Took it into Firestone since we could the brakes done there. The manager was so SHOCKED at how our brakes were already he called my husband in to the shop to LOOK at the back BRAKES!!! The BACK BRAKES NOW!!! He told us the Caliper was torn and that the brakes needed to be replaced. At this time he told us that he thought we really needed to take it into the dealership. Took the car into the dealership that same day and told the service adviser EVERYTHING. THe side, the brake and ect. By 10am he called us telling us that ALL the brakes were 90%!!! I don;t think so., I told him to call my husband at that time because my HUSBAND saw what they say isn't there! So my husband got out of work early went into the dealership and the service adviser wanted to hand back the car and my husband said NO i want to show you. Advicer said it will be a minute as we are busy. 1 HOUR later he calls my husband. Okay my husband showed him!!! POINTED AT IT AND SHOWED HIM! The adviser was SHOCKED and didn't know what to say BUT I'll come see you in a minute in the waiting room. Okay 15 minutes later he comes for him husband and I and said okay we are right the CALIPER is torn and needs to be replaced. Your brakes also need to be replaced. The caliper is under warranty but not the brakes! OF COURSE!!! Okay now I have the car but I am upset that Dodge wont take a closer look at the DODGER JOURNEY!!!!! Their is something wrong with it. I have spent time and money on this car and it just hit it 2 year mark. I love the car outside this problem. WHAT sucks is that this is a SERIOUS PROBLEM that DODGE isn't taking SERIOUS!!! I called DODGE 1-800-423-6343 and filed a complaint. I ASK EVERYONE, EVERYONE with these brake problems to call! Without the complaints we wouldn't get DODGE TO SEE A PROBLEM until my or your families get hurt and then by then it's to LATE!!! PLEASE CALL IN YOUR COMPLAINTS!!! I BEG YOU!!!! $1000.00 that I have spent is a lot of money but my families safety is # 1!!!!! Isn't yours? MAKE A CALL!!!

Update from Jul 7, 2010: I have already called Dodge, put in a compalnt at www.NHTSA.gov and www.BBB.com so to be honest I am over writting my complaint. I am on here however to ASK that you do the SAME! Anyone and EVERYONE that is having Brakes and Rotors problems leading you to have them replaced costing you a lot of money when your car LIKE MINE is NOW only 2 years old (orginial bought NEW, we SPECIAL ORDERED IT in May 2008). Problems started at 11,000 and now the Caliper was replaced (mine were torn) at 30,000! Please call and file claims at all these locations!!!

Dodge 1-800-423-6343

www.NHTSA.gov

www.BBB.com

Let's make DODGE see how serious this problem REALLY is!!!

I replaced the front brakes and rotors at 24,000 miles and then the back brakes shortly after that. This was in June and November of 2009. I have had constant noise coming from the brakes ever since. I took the car back in December of 2009 and nothing could be found. They are now so loud that I need to return once again to have them checked. I also have a loud noise coming from the front end while the car is in motion. I have also had two motors go out in the doors on he left side. I am sick of needing to have repairs done on a vehicle that I bought brand new. These repairs started just after one year of ownership and brakes are not covered under my regular warranty or my extended one and the motors are $100 deductibles each. It is ridiculous!!!!!

I loved the Journey when we drove it off the lot. I still like the car overall but I'm starting to have the same problems as everyone else and getting mad. I bought the car certified used in December. I noticed strange movement about a month after I had it and took it back to the dealer to get it checked out. They told me nothing. The problem was still there. Now I just got word from the dealership that my rear brakes and rotors need replaced. 30,000 miles and they need replaced, right after it was certified from their dealership less than a 1,000 miles ago. Nice right. Come on Dodge. No wonder american cars get a bad rap. Too many complaints not enough action. I want to buy americna but I'll rethink it later.

I purchased the 2009 Dodge Jouney new in 3/08. In 6/10 I have 22,700 miles and the front pads and rotors are shot. I took the car in for an oil change and tire rotation and the dealer told me I might need new front brakes. I took it to 2 other independent shops and both told me the same thing. Pads were shot and the rotors were too thin to be machined or cut. The end result was a full front brake job for a discounted price of $325.Not a bad price for the job but, it's one that should never have been needed at 22K. I don't know if it's a defect or just crappy OEM parts. Dodge should reimburse owners for this rediculous expense.

Bought this vehicle from Bessemer Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Bessemer, Alabama less than 1 year ago... This is the biggest scam artist dearlership that does not care about their customers one bit.... Started having problems with the brakes making a rubbing or scrubbing sound on 6/7/10 with less than 21,000 miles on it, called on June 8th and made service apt for 6/9 took it in to the dealership who told me that this is normal maintenance and wear and tear on the car and that the warranty would not cover this problem that I needed a total front brake job that my pads and rotors were no good. What a joke, right !!!! Then when I asked for a manager to come out who by the way is a joke in himself and a con-man just out to make a deal, he said that he could not authorize the cost of $250.00 for the repair because I must ride the brake and brakes are 12 months or 12,000 miles,

I have had other cars in the past that I never had to replace brakes on.... I was asked multiple times did I do highway driving or city driving, when I answered highway, tongues got quiet but then kick to say I must be riding my brakes hard then.....Then the manager went on to say that brakes are only good for 12,000 to 15,000 miles (hey----just because I am a woman does not mean I am stupid; I know brakes last longer than that guys, please!!!!), I proceeded to let them know my feelings of the situation with no utter of hey we need to make this right and make a customer happy, just a piece of paper that stated the car needed brakes and that it was potentially unsafe to drive, all the while some service guy in the background wanted to stand there while I am on the phone telling my husband what is happening telling me the brakes wearing out is my fault, because I am a brake rider.

If anyone is thinking from buying from this dealership in Alabama please rethink, they will do or say anything to get the sale, then cut you lose, they are liars and theifs and so no concern for their customers, not to mention the Journey vehicle rethink it all together unless YOU want to be putting brakes on it on a continous bases, something most people do not have the time or money to do, and trust me it is going to happen..... I feel for everyone else on this website that this has occurred to, I called Chrysler headquarters to place a vehicle complaint and did speak with a nice person on the phone, but to no help other than it may take a 24 hour period to hear from them about paying it under a GOODWILL gesture... Well according to the dealership my car is potentially not safe to drive and since this is my only vehicle cant wait till then have to bite the bullet and pay someone (other than that crooked dearlership) to do the job today.... Please think before you buy a certain model, do your homework and see if you can find websites like this, and do not get your car (any car) from this dealership, they should be ashamed of themselves for doing people this way, because not only is my brakes a issue but the entire deal was a scam and the salesmen there new it (because they are not there anymore-----GO FIGURE).......

THANK YOU for this site. Reading about the premature break wear on the Journey was HUGE for me, and one of the owners that submitted a complaint kindly included the 800 number for Dodge to call and let them know about it. My car barely has 10K miles, and the front brakes are shot and grinding grooves into the rotor by now. I was curious about the problem, then furious about it after reading about how prevalent this is. I have to say that I've owned two Durangos previous to this, so I've been driving Dodge cars for about ten years. I absolutely LOVED my Durangos. LOVED THEM, and never had ANY problems. The Journey is another story entirely. Perhaps it's not a good idea to buy the first year of ANY new model, but I've never done that before and may never do it again.

This is only slightly off topic: the reason I first took my car to the dealer was because of a serious vibration and noise coming from under the car that I could not identify. Turned out that some sort of bolt and/or bracket BROKE under the car, and affected the drive shaft such that they has to replace it. The dealer did replace the driveshaft fully under warranty which was nice of them, but interestingly, when I also brought up the brake issue, they were decidedly standoffish.

When I dropped it off for the driveshaft work, I explained to them that the brakes are seriously squeaking when applied - the squeak was a constant unwavering tone, that occurred right at the end of stops - just like the one you hear when your pads are worn out and need changing. He told me two things that I found somewhat troubling: first, he said that they couldn't look at the brakes at all unless I paid them $142.00 first. The quote was "The problem is that it costs 142 dollars to get your brakes looked at.". Since I was there for warranty work, I thought that this brake inspection cost wasn't necessarily something I was planning on, so I asked if they could just please listen to the brakes during the drive testing of the drive shaft replacement, and he said sure they could do that.

So when I picked up the car, I looked at the ticket, and they wrote under my note about the brakes that "no problems were found". Unfortunately, not only did they keep squealing, but it got MUCH worse, and now they're scratching and grinding and sounding just awful. I see a groove being cut into one of the rotors too.

So I called the 800 number provided by the other member here on this topic (8005219922) and talked to one of the reps there. They said they'd never heard of this, but took note of everything I said, and gave me a reference number, and said that someone there at Dodge would call my local dealer to find out why they shrugged off the brake issue, and what they might be able to do this week to resolve the issue.

I'm supposed to hear back from someone no later than tomorrow night at 8PM. Which is good because I'm on travel next week and have to drive to the airport on Tuesday. Definitely need working brakes for THAT! Till then I live in a very small town and fortunately don't have to drive much.

I will update this post once I hear back from them . . . they have a real chance to do the right thing here. Hopefully they're aware of how prevalent this issue is, and will be inclined to remedy it to my satisfaction. Either way, you guys will hear about the outcome. Stay tuned!!!

Update from Jul 6, 2010: UPDATE: Thanks for writing, Tommi T, - this user has prompted me to update my complaint to outline what, if any, resolution I got from Chrysler on this issue.

Well, not much. I did get the call that I was promised, and I told the lady that called the entire story, in detail, as typed in my initial post. She professed to sympathize, but the first words out of her mouth were that brakes are a "wearable" item, and much like tires, they cannot be warrantied beyond the very early stages of ownership: in this case 12K miles or one year, whichever comes FIRST.

I reiterated that this is my THIRD DODGE car, and my first two, which were MUCH larger, NEVER needed ANYTHING done to the brakes. She said that this was indeed puzzling, but before she commented on the matter further, she asked that I take it to a dealer to have it inspected so they could get a technical opinion to add to my customer level complaint. She was then VERY specific about this next point: even after I told her about this website and that I'd read that SO many people are having trouble with the brakes on their Journey, and even after I said I'd owned two Durangos previously for five years each with NO brake problems, she was inclined to express to me that the odds of Chrysler doing ANYTHING at ALL to help me with this, or to cover any part of the cost on this were remote in the EXTREME. She made it QUITE clear that since I've owned the car for close to two years, and that brakes were "wearable" items, that unless the dealer came back to her saying some defect in the car was causing premature break wear that they'd just shrug it off and assume I'm much rougher on the Journey's brakes than I have been on either of my Durangos. This sucks, but I did appreciate her honesty.

So I called the dealer to get a quote on the repair. They quoted over 800 bucks. I called around to other places that do brakes, and found a place that would do it for around 700 bucks, so in the interest of A) getting a better deal on the repair, B) obtaining a LIFETIME warranty on the pads, something the dealer would NOT do, and C) not giving Chrysler any more of my money, I took it to a different place. Had to have all four rotors replaced and new pads all around. Ouch.

INTERESTING NOTE!!!!!!!!!! I had a chance to talk to the mechanic who replaced the brakes and asked him if he's seen many other Journeys in for premature brake wear. He nodded vigorously. He said that this is a VERY common item coming through their doors these days - Journeys that need brakes in the first 5K, 10K, or 15K miles. I asked him what he thought of this, and he said simply that they "didn't put heavy enough brakes on the Journey" when they designed/manufactured it. After I asked for a bit more detail, he explained that the way the emergency brake is designed on the Journey in part determined now they were to design the rear rotors, which evidently played into how they designed the front rotors. I'm sorry to say that I don't remember too much detail about what he termed a "bolt-on" configuration for the emergency brake, but the end result is that not only do they put on cheap pads, but the rotors are about half the mass they should be for a car of this weight.

He pointed to a Saturn parked next to my Journey. He said "See that Saturn there? That car weighs about HALF as much as your car, and I just changed the brakes on it, and the rotors weigh about twice as much as your rotors." His opinion was that they simply needed beefier rotors on the Journey, and for some reason they put on some that can't take the heat under braking for such a heavy vehicle. He said that the pads they gave me will most certainly wear out in about two years, so to be sure I came in early to get FREE replacements, cause they have a lifetime warranty on those pads. He went on to say that two years beyond THAT, if I still have the car, I'll be in again for pads, and this time I'll need rotors again too, since they'll be warped by then due to the excessive heat from braking.

So there you have it. The lady from Dodge called back to see how everything went, cause she never got word that I'd spoken to the dealer about fixing this. I explained that I didn't want to take it to the dealer especially because she told me previously that they wouldn't be inclined to cut me a break or help in any way with the repair, other than to do it and charge me almost 900 bucks for it. So I told her about my calling around to find the best price, and getting it fixed, and I even told her what the guy said about the weight of the car, and the rotor mass, and the likelihood of needing new pads and rotors again. I told her that Dodge would probably just listen to all this and put better brakes on subsequent models of the Journey in the coming years.

I do believe that there are TWO lessons to be learned from this:

1) NEVER NEVER NEVER buy any model of anything the first production run. Just ask iPhone 4 users about this! 2) NEVER NEVER AGAIN buy a Dodge/Chrysler product.

I'm sure that anyone reading all this could conclude just about anything, even that it's not Chrysler's fault, and they didn't do anything wrong, etc. Whatever the case, I can only speak for myself, and I have to say that I will NEVER AGAIN BUY A DODGE/CHRYSLER product. Too bad, too - I used to LOVE their stuff. The 2001 Durango 5.9 R/T was my most favorite car of my LIFE! Still is!!! But those days are gone forever. NO MORE DODGE!

I guess it'll be good to expand my horizons a bit! I just can't wait to get rid of this car. Perhaps I should look into trading this NOW, before dealers find out what a crappy car it is!!!

The Dodge Journey is a piece of crap! After 40 years of owning a car, I am ashamed to admit that I allowed myself to be duped by the amenities in the Journey! I have owned my car for two years and have had to have the brakes and rotors repaired twice! Twice! I have never in my 40 something years of driving, ever experienced such crap. The first thing the mechanics want to say is, "It is your driving!" OMG! Are we idiots or what? No more Dodge products for me. Chrysler should really be ashamed of themselves for putting out this piece of crap and for treating the American people so poorly!

I put on 350-500 miles on my 2009 Journey per week on the highway (little-to-no in-town). The car has less than 36K miles and I was told I need new brake pads and rotors. The second thing they told me is that this is normal. For a Dodge this may be normal, for any other car, no. This is the first American car that I purchased in nearly 10 years. I gave up on American cars when, at 47K miles, the transmission on my Pontiac mini-van went out on the way to my son's Advent program, which I missed. The snotty kid in GM's call center told me that there was nothing he could do for me. When I asked to speak with his supervisor, he told me that he was "the most efficacious person I could speak with about the issue." 10 years later, it still burns and I may have made the same mistake twice... shame on me. I want my Honda (w/125K miles) back.

I took my car in and was told that I or someone in my house must ride my brakes because they needed replacing. I told the Dodge dealer he was crazy and even though I've put 30,000 plus miles on the car the brakes should last at least 60,000. I asked if anyone else has had this problem with the car and was told no. I drive the car on the highway mainly and very little in town. I don't ride the brakes, nor am I the type who does. I drive for a large delivery company, and have for over 20 years without ever having this type of problem with anything that I drive. I will never buy another Dodge and can see why they've lost favor with people all over this country. Wish I would've known of your site before buying this vehicle. What do you expect from a company that is failing and unable to put money into research and development.