General Boards > Technical Support
Won't start.
Larry and Heidi Lee:
Hi Steve, my fuel seperator is in the passenger side rear with the batteries and air bleeders.
Bruce Benson:
My thinking is air or fuel restriction as well. I ruled out the vent because you had just equalized the pressure by removing the cap. If you would have said it started, then died i would have gone for the vent. I could be wrong though and the air could have been drawn in or the fuel restricted before you stopped and it all just happened to occur at that time. A stopped up vent could cause air to be sucked in at all of the places Gerald mentioned and more.
You said you were new to the coach so my first thought was that the fuel gage is giving you bad information and that again, you had happened to run out of fuel at that time. You said you added 15 gallons, not enough to fill it if it were really at 3/4. Two things here, these tanks are hard to fill. There is just no way to build them with good fuel flow at the fillers and not mess with the floor plans and appearance. It is a learning curve to know how fast (read slow) you have to go with them and how shallow in you can put the nozzle. There are very few auto shut off pumps that will go full open for long when filling mine.
The other thought is the filters. First thought is that you might have picked something up in the new fuel or stirred something up in your tank. Again, it would seem that you would have gotten a start followed by the engine dieing and again it could have been a big coincidence in timing.
As you see, dwelling on the timing could be a wrong idea. It could be a faulty wire or faulty fuel shut off switch. The big problem that you have is that it is not happening now. How far have you driven the coach since you bought it?
What is the condition of the chassis batteries? Did you try tying the batteries together when it would not start?
I do not think that you should have a vaccuum in your fuel tank. I would want to talk to someone smarter than I about that, finding out how and where it vents.
If it sat for a long time, particularly with low fuel, it would increase the possibility of algae. I would look for that.
If fuel filters have not been changed within the past year, I would change them as a matter of good practice and cut them open to see what you find.
Bruce
Steve Adams:
Bruce, thanks again for your continued assistance. I'll pull the filters as soon as I can get hold of some replacements.
We bought the coach in mid-August. It had been driven about 2000 miles per year for the past 6 years and 12000 miles in its first 2 years on the road. The previous owner was pretty good with maintenance but was not familiar at all with the systems on the coach. He told me he had gotten in the habit of filling it prior to storing it for the year so I though I would carry on with that tradition. He stored it in a heated warehouse with AC power hooked up the entire time.
We've driven about 400 miles since buying it and have experienced zero issues with starting. We have had an air bag diverter valve adjusted, the radiator flushed and filled (nitrites added), an ABS sensor had a bad ground, the refrigerator board needed to be reset, the exhaust manifold gasket was leaking so we had that replaced and the leveling system was worked on though the repair facility never found the sensing (level) unit so it's still not right. We expected to have some issues on any used coach we purchased and this was acceptable to us.
We have other issues to address such as a (new) horrible smell now coming from the washer/dryer (previous owner says he never used it during the 6 years he owned it) multiple broken closet latches, broken toilet seat, the list goes on. And again, this was expected.
I'll let everyone know what I find when I pull the filters.
Thanks, Steve
Steve Adams:
HiLarLee, thanks for the pointer. I looked at it this morning but did not notice anything on the bottom, so I just now went out and looked again and the bowl is a dark green - I'm guessing this is the algea everyone has been addressing.
If algea is in the fuel system and I replace the filter what should I do? Run out the fuel as much as possible? Add an algeacide (is there such a thing) to the fuel system? Replace the filter when the tank gets low? All of the above?
Thanks for everyones help here!
Steve
Richard And Babs Ames:
You have water in your fuel tank and it needs to be removed along with the algae.
http://catrvclub.org/ has links to the CAT help line and they can advise you.
You can also to to RV.net and Forums and PM Brett Wolfe the past presidenet of the CAT RV club and he will give you excellent advice. wolfe10@earthlink.net
There are several methods and depend on how bad your water and algae problem is.
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