Broken down leaking oil

[Dan Murphy]

Update to all about our recent breakdown.

The Cat dealer could not find any leaks or problems with my engine. It seems that the engine oil fill cap and/or dip stick was not tight and the engine spewed out a couple gallons. The technician said the C9 engine is a pressurized system and they have had the same thing happen to some school buses when the drivers did not get the fill cap or dip stick closed properly.
The compressor checked out ok and turbo along with the air dryer system. Good news but 5 hours labor to diagnose.

They did do a valve lash adjustment I asked for and found the valves loose so good to have that done.
They said there was no problem with the cruise control but it still will not disengage with a tap of the brake pedal. You must jam on the pedal to cancel the cruise still.
I think we will try to get BCS to look at this in Oregon next month

[Jerry Emert]

Update to all about our recent breakdown.

The Cat dealer could not find any leaks or problems with my engine. It seems that the engine oil fill cap and/or dip stick was not tight and the engine spewed out a couple gallons. The technician said the C9 engine is a pressurized system and they have had the same thing happen to some school buses when the drivers did not get the fill cap or dip stick closed properly.
The compressor checked out ok and turbo along with the air dryer system. Good news but 5 hours labor to diagnose.

They did do a valve lash adjustment I asked for and found the valves loose so good to have that done.
They said there was no problem with the cruise control but it still will not disengage with a tap of the brake pedal. You must jam on the pedal to cancel the cruise still.
I think we will try to get BCS to look at this in Oregon next month

My cruise won't disengage at all with the brake pedal.  I have to turn it off to stop it!  I don't use it unless there is a lot of open road around me.  Please post when you figure out the cause, it may help.
Thanks
Jerry

[Tom and Pam Brown]

Dan,

Great news,!

[Edward Buker]

Dan,

See if the brake light switch causes the lights to come on near the top of the pedal stroke. I am not sure if the cruise control uses that switch but they are usually adjustable. Worth a look. If the brake light comes on at the top of the stroke now then you know that the cruise uses something else to sense the braking condition. On mine a light tap on the brake pedal disengages the cruise so it is possible. I have a Smart Wheel system.

Later Ed

[Dan Murphy]

Ed
My neighbor came over yesterday as I was working around the coach. As I was relating my recent problems to him and telling about my cruise control problem he decided he wanted to take a look.
Now he does not have an RV but is mechanically inclined. As he was poking around under the dash around the brake pedals he found that the cable that was used in the automatic pedal assembly and a couple of speaker wires were jammed behind the brake pedal not allowing the pedals to move forward or back as designed and when we freed these wires we were also able to make an adjustment to the brake pedal so that the cruise control would cancel very easily. The automatic pedals however still don't work.
The cable was damaged and the automatic pedal assembly would not work but we were able to move each pedal to a better position by turning the motors manually. I suspect the entire assembly will need to be removed to replace the motors which appears to be burnt out.
But now I am once again able to cancel the cruise contriol with the brake pedal.
The Monaco/Fleetwood service facility said I need a part in the generator compartment and the Caterpillar mechanic said that according to his laptop the cruise control was functioning perfect even though you had to really jam on the brakes to get it to cancel.
Then I get my neighbor who is a backyard mechanic to fix the issue! I really need to get up to speed and learn to do some of these things myself because I am losing all confidence in the RV service world!!
We have Been to Camping World in Greenwood In. Lazy Days in Fl. And the ARG service in Decatur,In and also to the largest Cat dealer in Indiana and it has been a real mixed bag of nuts for us! Expensive too!!

Dan

[Edward Buker]

Dan,

The good news in all this is that you do not seem to have an engine problem and you are learning the ropes. As far as automatic pedals I do not have that feature and cannot imagine if it did not work that I would miss that one given for the last 50 years we have been adjusting the seat :-) I would probably not fix that one given you got it where you would like it.

The Cat dealer should have caught that pedal issue by checking out the pedal assembly but he was checking the function of the ECU and using electronic diagnostics. Cat really looks at fixing "their stuff" and not so much at fixing RV problems but a good tech should have been in there.

If you own your coach for awhile and get the bugs out of it over a year or two I think you can have some good periods of smooth sailing. Try and find a good truck shop with a great reputation (I like family owned if you can find it) that works on RVs near you and go to them and explain a problem that you are having. If it is something they have done before they will have knowledge and if not then you might look elsewhere. It is hard to find talent around the country given these are pretty much custom made vehicles with lots of systems. BCS is probably the best place for resolving an issue but we all don't live in OR. Seems like you are getting there....sounds like your neighbor needs a job from time to time :-)

Later Ed

[Dan Murphy]

Ed
We will be making a list for BCS as we will be in Oregon for at least a month in August.i hope to visit the facility and maybe learn more about my Beaver.
Yeah my neighbor is a Cracker Jack on fixing things. I found out yesterday he has an EE degree and a degree in industrial Tech. He works a problem kinda backwards and seems to be able to fix a lot of things. He is on disability from a serious motorcycle accident but able to get around about as well as this old guy does. Which is to say a little slow so we work at the same pace and take a lot of breaks! LOL
Thanks for responding and the encouraging words. I was kinda down after returning from the Cat dealer and still having problems but things are looking up today and I hope we have clear sailing to the west coast.

[Jerry Emert]

congratulations on fixing the big issues!!

[Sean Donohue]

Dan, Did you see any oil coming out of the vent tube? It is in the same area as you were describing, the engine may have been over filled. Some dipsticks are not accurate and overfilling the engine can happen. This in turn could cause oil to come out of the vent tube. I recall there are some posts about installing a can on the end of the vent hose to catch the oil...

Anyone recall this issue in another post.

[Dan Murphy]

Sean I believe the oil came out of the fill cap and dip stick tube that a mechanic failed to secure properly. After the Cat dealer spent 5 hrs checking everything else ie; turbo,compressor,oil dryer,etc.the conclusion was the oil escaped under engine pressure from a loose dip stick or fill cap.
Lesson learned is to check and recheck the engine compartment after any work is done or the Beaver is in the shop.expensive lesson for sure!

Dan

[Sean Donohue]

Dan that is true, but do you know about the vent hose I am talking about... Anyoneelse?