Broken Again!!!!!! Grand Junction CO

On Saturday August 24 we departed Glenwood Springs headed west on I-70 to Montrose CO to meet with our friends Dave and Lynn, who were already parked at Meadows of San Juan RV Resort.  

But, alas, on this trip things seem to keep going awry.  We had a pleasant drive following the Colorado River through scenic Western Colorado.  We exited I-70 in Grand Junction and were headed south towards Montrose, when, you guessed it, another check engine light appeared.

I used my Cummins Inline Mini code reader to see the nature of the code. It still showed the older fault codes, which were inactive, but a new DPF pressure fault, the same code we had before we were towed to Denver and spent enough to buy a small house to make repairs.   CRAP.  At least it wasn't a "Stop Engine" code, meaning we could still drive, at least for a while.

We pulled over to the side of the road to curse and to cry and to consider our options.  If we continued on we risked throwing a "Stop Engine" code, which might mean another tow. There happened to be another Cummins factory service center in Grand Junction, only about 8 miles away, but being Saturday, it was closed until Monday.  If we went there it meant sitting for two more nights in a Cummins lot and losing another camping reservation.  This would be the last factory Cummins shop we would be near for many, many miles.  The beginning of the rendezvous with our Grand Circle caravan was quickly approaching, and we surely didn't want to miss that, so we made the decision to detour to the shop here in Grand Junction.

So here we sit at a Cummins shop ... once again 

Aren't rainbows supposed to be a sign of good luck?

On Monday morning I checked in at the service desk and they reviewed all the work done at the Cummins shop in Henderson and checked out the new fault code.  Luckily they were able to get us into the shop quickly. This shop is not nearly as busy as the one in Henderson and the service manager here is much more friendly and communicative.

I won't even try to paraphrase the work they did over the next three days, but I will paste the technicians notes, for anyone who may be interested.  

FAULT CODES

AFTER TREATMENT DPF DIFFERENTIAL PRESSURE-DATA VALID BUT ABOVE NORMAL OPERATING RANGE-MODERATELY TO SEVERE LEVEL.

COURTESY INSPECTION- CHECK DRIVE LINE VIBRATION AT 5-15 MILES PER HOUR.

THE SOOT LOAD OF THE AFTERTREATMENT DIESEL PARTICULATE FILTER HAS EXCEEDED THE RECOMMENDED LIMITS.

X055

LAST SAVED: 29 AUG 2024 09:18:19 AM MDT

8/29/2024-VX055 CLOCKED INTO JOB AND COMPLETED JSA. BROUGHT UNIT INTO SHOP FOR CHECKS. REMOVED THE EXHAUST BACK PRESSURE SENSOR AND MADE SURE IT WAS NOT CLOGGED. AND REMOVED THE EGR VALVE FROM UNIT TO SCOPE DOWN AND INSPECT THE GRID HEATER OF THE UNIT. FOUND MINIMAL SOOT AND GOT WITH SENIOR TECH AND SUPERVISOR ABOUT NEXT STEPS. PUT UNIT BACK TOGETHER AND STARTED UNIT. WATCHING THE SENSORS USING INSITE. WAS INFORMED AS WELL TO CHANGE THE MINIMUM SPEED FOR ACTIVE REGEN FROM 20 MPH TO 5 MPH. AFTER CHANGES WHERE MADE I CLEARED FAULT CODES CAUSED BY UNPLUGGING SENSORS FOR TESTING. GOT ECM IMAGE AFTER DOING SO AND CLEANED UP WORK AREA AND GOT WITH SUPERVISOR. THEN WROTE STORY.

VX055

LAST SAVED: 29 AUG 2024 09:11:02 AM MDT

8/28/2024-VX055 CLOCKED INTO JOB AND COMPLETED JSA. BROUGHT UNIT INTO SHOP AND STARTED GETTING ALL THE INFORMATION FOR TECH SUPPORT. PULLED EGR VALVE AND EGR DIFFERENTIAL PRESSURE SENSOR.

GOT PICTURES OF COMPONENTS THEN CLEANED AND PUT BACK TOGETHER.

ENSURE THE TEMP PROBES FOR THE AFTERTREATMENT SYSTEM WHERE IN CORRECT LOCATIONS. FINISHED GETTING INFO AND SENT IT OFF TO TECH SUPPORT. WITH VIDEOS OF THE SNAP TESTS AND STALL TESTS. WAITED FOR TECH SUPPORT TO GET BACK WITH ME ABOUT NEXT STEPS. FINALLY HEARD BACK AROUND 4 PM AND GOT WITH SUPERVISOR. SENIOR TECHS WERE IN 

ROOM AS WELL AND WE ALL WENT OVER STEPS AND I WAS GIVEN ADVICE AND

EXTRA THINGS TO CHECK ON UNIT. SUPERVISOR GOT WITH CUSTOMER AND I

BROUGHT RV BACK OUT FOR THEM. CLEANED UP WORK AREA AND WROTE STORY.

VX055

LAST SAVED: 27 AUG 2024 11:14:08 AM MDT

8/27/2024-VX055 CLOCKED INTO JOB AND COMPLETED JSA FOR TEST DRIVE.

GOT WITH CUSTOMER AND BEGAN TEST DRIVING UNIT WITH DATA LOG RUNNING. GOT UNIT BACK TO SHOP AND COMPLETED DATA LOG OF UNIT REGEN. SENT LOGS TO GUIDANZ AND CALLED TECH SUPPORT AT 10:12 AND WAS PUT ON HOLD THEN GOT AHOLD OF SOMEONE AND THE CALL ENDED AT 11:12. TALKED WITH TECH SUPPORT ABOUT FINDINGS AND LOGS. WHICH IN RESPONSE HE TOLD ME HE WAS GOING TO LOOK INTO IT AND EMAIL ME INSTRUCTIONS.

VX055

LAST SAVED: 27 AUG 2024 10:05:31 AM MDT

UPDATED-- HAD SENIOR TECHNICIAN JEREMY LOOK OVER DRIVESHAFT TO CONFIRM CLOCKED POSITION AND INSTALL.

VX055

LAST SAVED: 27 AUG 2024 08:57:44 AM MDT

UPDATED--BROUGHT UNIT INTO BAY WITH LIFTS. LIFTED REAR OF UNIT UP TO CHECK DRIVESHAFT ON UNIT. FOUND DRIVESHAFT TO NO BE CLOCKED CORRECTLY. REMOVED DRIVESHAFT FROM UNIT TO CLOCK IT INTO THE CORRECT LOCATIONS. PUT DRIVESHAFT BACK IN AND TORQUED THE BOLTS TO

110 FT-LBS PER SPECIFICATIONS. CHECKED DRIVESHAFT BOLTS AND STRAPS ENSURING THEY WHERE ON AND NOT AT ANY AWKWARD ANGLES OR INCORRECTLY PLACED. THEN RETORQUED BOLTS. SET UNIT DOWN.

VX055

LAST SAVED: 26 AUG 2024 05:08:19 AM MDT

VX055-8/26/2024 CLOCKED INTO WORK ORDER AND COMPLETED JSA.

CONNECTED INSIGHT AND FOUND 1921 CODE TO BE ACTIVE WITH 1 COUNT AND INACTIVE FAULTS OF 2639,3389,3361 AND ALL HAVE 1 COUNT THAT IS INACTIVE.STARTED DOWN DIAG TREE PROVIDED BY GUIDANZ. FOUND TSB THAT WAS STEP 1 TO NOT BE APPLICABLE TO UNIT. THEN MOVED TO STEP TWO CHECKING THE PRESSURE TUBES FOR THE DPF FILTER. FOUND THEM TO BE NEW AS STORY STATES AND CLEAN. CHECKED THE PRESSURE SENSOR IN STEP THREE FINDING IT TO BE WITHIN SPECIFICATION AND NOT STUCK IN RANGE. PULLED SENSOR OFF AND INSPECTED IT. REFERENCE PORT WAS NOT BLOCKED OR DAMAGED. IN STEP 4 1 COMPLETED THE AIR HANDLING PERFORMANCE TEST. TEST PASSED WITH NO REPAIRS NEEDED. PERFORMED STEP 5 AND IN THE PROCESS THE SOOT LOAD WENT FROM OVER 2.8 TO 2.2. WITHIN THE NORMAL RANGE. PERFORMED THE FUEL INJECTOR PERFORMANCE TEST. TEST WAS STOPPED AT CYLINDER 4 DUE TO THE 1921 CODE BECOMING ACTIVE AGAIN, CONSULTED WITH SENIOR TECH AND CALLED TECH SUPPORT. WENT OVER INFORMATION FOR TECH SUPPORT WHICH CONCLUDED IN DOING A SNAP TEST AND STALL TEST WITH THE DOC UNHOOKED. FOUND THERE TO BE NO EXCESS BLACK SMOKE. THEN THEY RECOMMENDED TO DO A DATA LOG OF THE REGEN AND A DATA LOG OF A DRIVE. GOT THE DATA LOG OF THE REGEN AND NOTICED THE REGEN TOOK THE SOOT LOAD TO 0. THEN TOOK UNIT ON A DRIVE WHERE SOOT LOAD CAME UP TO .5 AND WOULD CLIMB TO .56 THEN GO BACK DOWN TO .5, ALONG WITH NOTICING THE DIFFERENTIAL PRESSURE NEVER WENT OVER 1.2 WHILE DRIVING AND WOULD STAY AROUND .2 WHEN IDLING. FOUND THEM TO ALO SIT AROUND .88 WHEN DECELERATING. GOT UNIT BACK TO SHOP AND SAVED DATA LOG. MOVED DATA LOG INTO GUIDANZ AND CALLED TECH SUPPORT. FINDING THAT DATA LOGS DID NOT COMPLETE OR GO THROUGH CORRECTLY RESULTING IN NO INFORMATION FOR THEM TO LOOK AT. CONCLUDED WITH TRYING TO GET THE LOGS AGAIN AND CALLING BACK. GOT WITH SUPERVISOR WHO RECOMMENDED ME TO TRY AND GET AHOLD OF ORIGINAL TECH SUPPORT GUY TO GO OVER INFORMATION IN THE MORNING.

WROTE STORY AND CLEANED UP.

CUSTOMER RECENTLY HAD REPAIRS DONE IN THE HENDERSON BRANCH.

Note that they did find that my drive shaft had been installed incorrectly back at Cummins Henderson, and they corrected that issue.  We also did 2 separate test drives totaling about 100 miles, with the technician riding shotgun monitoring engine parameters live as I drove, but those drives showed no issues.  During the three days we were in the shop they logged almost 17 hours of labor, at a rate of $220/hour, but only charged us for about 4 hours, plus the cost of a few gaskets. This was a pleasant surprise, and I can't say exactly why they did that.  They would have covered anything the Cummins shop in Henderson had done incorrectly, but that was not the case, except for the drive shaft.  In all we were very fortunate that they were able to spend so much time on our coach when we just dropped in with no appointment.  That is seldom the case; often folks must wait days, weeks even months for RV service.

In the meantime we had been calling Meadows of San Juan RV Resort in Montrose every day, explaining that we won't make it this day but might be there the next.

Finally on Thursday August 29, after being parked for 5 nights at Cummins in Grand Junction we departed for Montrose.  Cummins had declared that our exhaust system was as clean as the day the coach left the factory, and we should have no more problems.  Surely now we would make it to the beginning of our Grand Circle caravan on September 2, right?  Not!!!!