Rear grill removal, Journey

[smlranger]

As I ponder servicing the Journey myself, looks like the fuel filter will be a pain to change unless I remove the lower grill. It does not appear that would be an easy task.

Any of you Journey/Meridian owners ever remove the lower (fixed) grill for servicing the filter?

[smlranger]

As I ponder servicing the Journey myself, looks like the fuel filter will be a pain to change unless I remove the lower grill. It does not appear that would be an easy task.

Any of you Journey/Meridian owners ever remove the lower (fixed) grill for servicing the filter?

[rvrat]

smlranger, I have serviced our fuel filter several times on our 02 Journey and It kind of depends how tall you are but I believe you will find that you can change the fuel filter from the top opening. The lower edge of the top opening catches me at about the arm pit so I can extent my arm down to remove-install the fuel filter. I bought a rubber strap wrench at Home Depot that covers the heavy work. If you decide to remove your lower grill I would like to know how that is done because ours is tilted in the opening and bothers me to the point that I will address that issue in the future.
Hope this helps, Bob

[smlranger]

rvrat:

Well, guess what? My lower grill is also tilted in the opening and I also want to re-position it if/when I remove it to service the filter.

Thanks.

[bill jones]

i just walked over and looked, if I'm not mistaken there are only four screws holding that grill in on my rig. I will get to that when I change the fuel filter next month. Did anyone find a permanent replacement for the air filter (K&N type)?

[rvrat]

I have looked at mine many times and am sure that there are six screws that hold the lower grill in place. Because of the design of the bars that hold the lower grill in place I think I will have to cut the ends off at least some of angled mounting locations and replace them with short pieces of aluminum angle of the correct size so that I can put slots in the new pieces. This will allow me to move the grill up-down and sideways to line it up before the final tightening of the mounting screws. I think it might be a good idea to put some kind of tape around the inside of the opening before attempting removal of the grill, this operation looks like a very good chance to scratch the paint around the inside of the opening if due caution is not observed.
Bob

[Tagalong]

I don't know just how different the configuration is from ours to your rig, but I did everything from the bottom. Didn't remove anything. Just knelt on some cardboard, and reached up between the hitch and the lower part of the grille. I'm not very tall and had very little problem R & Ring the fuel filter. It was my first time, so I was really concerned I might have a problem with air in the fuel line. I got a suggestion from Cummins... take your time and fill the fuel filter with clean diesel pouring into the outsied filter holes, NOT the large center hole. Filling the filter that way only took a few minutes longer. I bumped the key two times and waited for several seconds each time and it started right up.
Hope this helps,
Tagalong