aggies09
11-07-2010, 09:52 PM
The Conder family and several friends spent a most enjoyable weekend at College Station, TX with Loc McNew and family and friends, as well as Gordon and Jenny Deen, tailgating and watching the Fightin' Texas Aggies (Whoop!) of Texas A&M University beat up on a lesser known team from Norman, OK. Fun was had by all, although a little less by Gordon.
We departed mid morning headed back to home base in Abilene, TX and all was going exceptionally well on a beautiful fall morning when the Yellow engine warning light came on followed immediately by the Red stop engine light and then followed immediately by loss of power and engine shut down. Now this series of events has the possibility of really ruining your day.
After checking all of the gauges to make sure I hadn't missed something, I began checking all of the things that you would immediately think of a) Is it low on coolant.....b) Is there adequate oil and no contamination from diesel, etc. c.) Can I see anything that has come unplugged or a ground that has come loose. ....d) Maybe something electrical has tripped out that has caused me to stop......
None of those were the case. All looked good. So I first called and received some thoughts and advice from my buddy Loc, who was under the weather a bit, but still tried to help me. (Thanks). That left me searching, so I called our resident expert, Jon Wehrenberg, who gave some assurances that there were really only about three things that could shut us down. Coolant/temperature sensor, oil pressure sensor, and I believe oil temperature sensor, so I began chasing down those items. Thanks Jon for the assistance.
After trying the coolant sensor and having no luck, and not being real sure where the other sensors were located, I called the Prevost emergency road service number and they began walking me through a process of elimination. The process began with disconnecting the sensor at the coolant reservoir and then removing the oil pressure sensor connection below the intake manifold on the passenger side of the engine. When disconnected that will allow you to continue driving, but you must rely solely on your manual gauges to insure that you have correct oil pressure. This is what I did and it allowed me to get home safely today and begin the necessary repairs later this week.
Now the important thing about all of this is that I learned how to flash DDEC codes without a reader. As you may recall, I posted a question in early September, and asked if anyone knew how to flash the codes, but received no responses, so I am going to detail that in this thread for future reference by other POGers in need.
A. Turn the ignition key to the start position, but do not start the coach.
B. Immediately to the right of the ignition key is the red engine override switch. Press it once and release.
C. This will begin the DDEC diagnostic. A code is interpreted by a series of flashes. The red stop engine light will show you active codes. The yellow check engine light will show you historical codes. All codes have two digits. So, after you follow the steps above you see the red light flash two times quickly followed by a brief pause and the five quick flashes again that would be equal to code 25. The diagnostic tool will progress through all active codes (red) first and then show all historical codes (yellow). This can be very valuable at helping to narrow the possibilities of what is going on when you are stranded.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I thought this was very valuable information if you don't have a DDEC reader. I hope these instructions are clear enough to understand for most. If you can make them clearer, please feel free to add your input.
We departed mid morning headed back to home base in Abilene, TX and all was going exceptionally well on a beautiful fall morning when the Yellow engine warning light came on followed immediately by the Red stop engine light and then followed immediately by loss of power and engine shut down. Now this series of events has the possibility of really ruining your day.
After checking all of the gauges to make sure I hadn't missed something, I began checking all of the things that you would immediately think of a) Is it low on coolant.....b) Is there adequate oil and no contamination from diesel, etc. c.) Can I see anything that has come unplugged or a ground that has come loose. ....d) Maybe something electrical has tripped out that has caused me to stop......
None of those were the case. All looked good. So I first called and received some thoughts and advice from my buddy Loc, who was under the weather a bit, but still tried to help me. (Thanks). That left me searching, so I called our resident expert, Jon Wehrenberg, who gave some assurances that there were really only about three things that could shut us down. Coolant/temperature sensor, oil pressure sensor, and I believe oil temperature sensor, so I began chasing down those items. Thanks Jon for the assistance.
After trying the coolant sensor and having no luck, and not being real sure where the other sensors were located, I called the Prevost emergency road service number and they began walking me through a process of elimination. The process began with disconnecting the sensor at the coolant reservoir and then removing the oil pressure sensor connection below the intake manifold on the passenger side of the engine. When disconnected that will allow you to continue driving, but you must rely solely on your manual gauges to insure that you have correct oil pressure. This is what I did and it allowed me to get home safely today and begin the necessary repairs later this week.
Now the important thing about all of this is that I learned how to flash DDEC codes without a reader. As you may recall, I posted a question in early September, and asked if anyone knew how to flash the codes, but received no responses, so I am going to detail that in this thread for future reference by other POGers in need.
A. Turn the ignition key to the start position, but do not start the coach.
B. Immediately to the right of the ignition key is the red engine override switch. Press it once and release.
C. This will begin the DDEC diagnostic. A code is interpreted by a series of flashes. The red stop engine light will show you active codes. The yellow check engine light will show you historical codes. All codes have two digits. So, after you follow the steps above you see the red light flash two times quickly followed by a brief pause and the five quick flashes again that would be equal to code 25. The diagnostic tool will progress through all active codes (red) first and then show all historical codes (yellow). This can be very valuable at helping to narrow the possibilities of what is going on when you are stranded.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I thought this was very valuable information if you don't have a DDEC reader. I hope these instructions are clear enough to understand for most. If you can make them clearer, please feel free to add your input.