So yesterday I heard a loud " clunking" coming from the journey yesterday. I thought from the sound maybe I had a CV axle failing. I limped it home, got it on jack stands and climbed underneath to see what the issue was. To my utter surprise the bottom two bolts that secure the PTU to the transmission were completely loose ( one completely missing) the housing around the bolt holes are broken both in the PTU and transmission. The threads look as though the bolts were cross threaded in. We just had the torque converter replaced less than five months ago. How do these bolts simply come loose? I've been a backyard mechanic for over 40 years and I've never seen bolts simply coming loose or falling out for no reason. The only reason I had the Torque converter replaced by a shop was that I didn't have the proper tools and tranny jack to do the work myself ( engineering design of how this drivetrain was built made it impossible to do the torque converter replacement at home).
Has anyone had this problem or bolt failure? I'm trying to gather as much information before I contact the Transmission Shop that replaced the torque converter.

 

The last guy to put it together screwed it up. Might wanna give the shop a call, and see what they are willing to do for you....

 

I just want to confirm with others that those bolts simply don't work then selves loose for no reason other than " normal wear and tear.... And I'm almost %100 sure that the PTU must come out in order to pull the transmission from the Journey....