1/2 Canadian
Clackamas, OR, USA
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Hey, Guys. Please keep in mind the original format of this thread. It is not for carrying on discussions; do that in the Class A general forum, or a Technical forum. And look at the original post by Badeye for the correct method of posting in the Breakdowns thread:
12/10/03 05:42am Link | Quote | Print | Notify Moderator
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After some conversation with Diesel-Lover and others on this forum I thought I would try to start a thread concerning breakdowns on the road. We try to prevent this by good maintenance and driving reasonably but it can still happen. As I observed in a previous post, on a roughly 350 mile northbound drive on I-75 I saw 4 class A MH broken down. All were southbound.
If we should have a breakdown and would post the following information on this thread it could be a resource and reminder for others.
RV particulars:
Driveline (Engine, Transmission):
Miles:
Year:
Break Down Description: (You can add any description of the problem here that you think would help others in understanding the situation and problem.)
Symptoms:
Effect:
Cause:
Outcome:
This is the type of information that is recorded in the aircraft industry and other maintenance activities to track failure trends. It will take a while before we see a lot of value in this. If it continues for a time and sufficient data is available, I will analyze the data and put it into a form that I can send by email to any interested parties. I would suspect that an initial report could be done in about three months or when we have about 100 to 150 cases.
1/2 Canadian
1984 Pace Arrow traded for
2006 Beaver Monterey
1997 Ford Explorer Limited 4X4
Flyfishing in my blood
Good Sam Life Member 1334373, 35 yrs. RVing
Family Motorcoach Member F384437, Beaver Ambassador Club 14 yrs.
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Jim@HiTek
Gresham, OR, USA
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1/2 Canadian wrote:Hey, Guys. Please keep in mind the original format of this thread. It is not for carrying on discussions; do that in the Class A general forum, or a Technical forum. And look at the original post by Badeye for the correct method of posting in the Breakdowns thread Edited for brevity.
I have to agree with 1/2 Canadian on this one. My impression of this thread from the start was that it should be a pure collection of RV failures and solutions...impartial, non-judgmental, concise. So the OP does not have to wade through a lot of 'noise' in order to create a practical and useful spreadsheet of RV failures (that caused a vehicle to stop on the road), which I thought was the original intent.
There isn't any reason a poster can't start another thread if s/he wants to cuss out a certain dealer or repair shop while they post the pertinent facts here. I'd be happy with the posters laying it all out, warts and all. But not in this thread.
I hope the moderator comes by and deletes all these useless posts to help clean this thread up.
JMO.
Jim@HiTek
Have shop, will travel!
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Winnebago Journey, '02
Cat 330HP Diesel, 36.5', two slides.
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billy1
castle rock washington
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Joined: 01/27/2003
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Summary, Many are asking for summaries. Here's mine. Regarding Deisel only.
1. Breakdowns more common with rigs less than 5 to 7 years old
2. Most often filters, electrical, and grounding wires
3. Rigs 10+ yrs old; fewer posts by far, mostly aging electrical
parts or wires
Best prevention seems to me to inspect carefully during annual service ALL OF THE ENGINE COMPONETS & WIRES. Those posts indicating no on the road breakdowns are suggesting they do this religiously.
I would like to see other summaries also.
93 Safari DP 36ft
97 Ford Ranger
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brian62
Fremont Ohio USA
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Getting us back on topic 3 breakdowns to report, both on the same rig: 1998 Southwind Storm 34S 7.4L Vortec Chevrolet (before the workhorse) 16,500 GVWR 1st. breakdown 46,000miles Dec. 24 2005(yeah I know great day to have problems) After traveling 450 miles the day before got up in the morning to leave turned key and nothing..not even a click tried emergency start switch and still nothing. tried jump starting and still nothing gave up and call AAA. When tow showed up truck was way too small to tow rig, tow driver tried jumping us also still nothing, tow driver asked if i could put jacks down and he would crawl under and have a quick look, ended up being a wire loose on the starter tightened it up and away we went no further trouble. 2nd breakdown 47,000miles Oct. 26 2006 About 150 miles from home (less than 20 miles to campground) Auto Park light would come on and go off but the brake did not apply (having heard of the the woes of the system i had already done some research on it) got to campgrounds got under the coach and found the pressure maintance switch was leaking (aka RGS(rotton green switch)) was not able to get one, finished our weekend and limped home stopping to check Auto Park fluid and the brake itself(to be sure it was not hot) did this every 30 to 60 miles. got home ordered switch replaced it and all was well untill...... 3rd breakdown 51,000miles Jan.13 2007 After traveling 300 miles the day before got up to leave,started coach put in drive could hear AutoPark disengage (pump running) break disengaged pump shut off but light did not go off, got under coach found nothing leaking system was operating normally so we drove to the nearest chevy dealer(they were no help) so we continued on, checked it every so often for leak\overheating\pump running after about 390 miles i discovered another pressure switch was leaking (not the green one this one was\is gray) switch was not availabe in the area, just so we could get home (we were on our way from florida to ohio problem 1st started in south georiga buy the time it started leaking we were in tennesse) workhorse in tennesse keeps the green switches in stock but not the grey ones, so i bought one of the green ones (the green and gray switches are exactly the same except for the plug and the function) and put it in place of the gray one just to plug the hole so we could get home. got home ordered proper switch and all is working normally again..... My point of posting these is this...just because we have a motorhome don't mean we have money falling from the sky on us..none of these repairs\fixes was more than $60.00 per occurance in parts and some time and research on my part (thanks again Rodger) if i did not have the knowledge\ability to do these repairs myself the last 2 repairs alone would have cost over $1000.00 each with loss of use of MH hotels rental cars ect. if you have a chevy\workhorse with a yellow knob to apply the parking brake you have some form of the Auto Park system..you may want to get to know the system..i'm sure glad i did..saved me and AAA a bunch of $$$...and i think i have looked at all 54 pages lol Brian 98 Southwind Storm 34S (no toad)
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Oldman
Polk City, Fl
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Joined: 02/24/2002
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RV particulars: American T
Driveline (Engine, Transmission): ISC 8.3 cummins, 6 sp Allison
Miles: 50k
Year: 99
Break Down Description: Shut off for 4 hours and when started ran bad and black smoke. I was close to home so got it back in driveway.
Symptoms: Runs very bad and lots of black smoke.
I scanned it with 2 different units both say "Injection control valve bad. I replaced the valve 408.00 but still runs same. I check
all the pins on the computer and looks good. Did a continuity test to most sensors, changed both fuel filters. I don't want to take it
to Cummins, but may have to. I hate to say it, but it's the worst engine I have ever owned. Im afraid to leave home with it.
Anyone got help?
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JohnnyT
On The Road
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Joined: 07/15/2003
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Generally when you are producing black smoke the Turbo is the culprit. Since the black smoke is an indication of incomplete combustion.
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Oldman
Polk City, Fl
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Hi Thanks for writing.
That's true when running down the road, but this is at 600 rpm, idle.
No boost at idle, big puffs of black smoke at idle. I can't see how it
can be fat and still run at 600, since if you add fuel it picks up the speed.
If I give it throttle it will run up to the governor just fine, and lots of black smoke as well. I wonder if the computer is retarding the whole injection
cycle.
note, I have the air filter and soom of the ducting off and I can hear the turbo just going like gang busters if I run it up.
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snowman99
Texas
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I'm a fulltimer since 2000, but new to the forum. My breakdown was a Cummins 400 ISL, 21K, '06 Dynasty and maintained properly. Driving down the road, 60 MPH, catastrophic engine failure. A wrist pin failure allowed the rod to puncture the right side of the block with a 3" X 8" hole created. Also put a small hole on the left side and a hole in the oil pan.
* This post was
edited 02/28/07 01:58pm by snowman99 *
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Oldman
Polk City, Fl
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I think I found the problem... there is a diode (cummins calls it a transient suppressor) in the wiring harness. It's part of the harness and has no plug connector, but can be bought my it's self.
It's connected across the wiring to the Injection Control Valve, that's way it triggers the code for the ICV. This thing is bolted to the block next to the starter, hard to get to. I'll let you know if it fixes the beast.
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garry1p
Oklahoma
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Joined: 08/12/2004
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1990 Holiday Rambler Aluma Lite
454 throttle body injection.
Fast idle (1200+ RPM) required extra effort for stopping and hard on transmission when putting in gear.
Found bad gasket under the throttle body by spraying WD-40 on base.
Replaced gasket $2.40 and all OK.
Garry1p
1990 Holiday Rambler Aluma Lite XL
454 on P-30 Chassis
1999 Jeep Cherokee sport
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