Need help & advise: ,04 cummins ISL 400 HP

[CADUCEUS]

I have an Itasca Horizon with approx 8500 miles. Was going to freightliner service center for Trans. filter change. Entered frwy.and at approx. 50-60 mph the red "stop engine" light came on and the engine derated. Got off frwy and shut down. After a few min. re-started engine. No further red light. Proceded on surface streets but noticed a grinding noise in rear while slowing for signals, etc. Also a burnt smell in rear bedroom. At the service center they found thet the fanblade had been rubbing against the steel blade housing which caused an overheating of the turbo which triggered the shut down. The tips of the nylon blades were worn down. Their diagnosis was "road damage". I seriously doubt this, as I cannot find any evidence of such. Does anyone have any ideas as to what would cause the blades to suddenly make contact with the housing?? Would you take a 400 mile trip now that the ground-down blades are moving freely? I will also call Gaffney N.C. When they return next week. If the Freightliner center here, after only a cursory, check still maintains its road damage related then none of the repairs would be warranted!!!$$$$$. Thanks for any ideas as to cause of problem.

[CADUCEUS]

I have an Itasca Horizon with approx 8500 miles. Was going to freightliner service center for Trans. filter change. Entered frwy.and at approx. 50-60 mph the red "stop engine" light came on and the engine derated. Got off frwy and shut down. After a few min. re-started engine. No further red light. Proceded on surface streets but noticed a grinding noise in rear while slowing for signals, etc. Also a burnt smell in rear bedroom. At the service center they found thet the fanblade had been rubbing against the steel blade housing which caused an overheating of the turbo which triggered the shut down. The tips of the nylon blades were worn down. Their diagnosis was "road damage". I seriously doubt this, as I cannot find any evidence of such. Does anyone have any ideas as to what would cause the blades to suddenly make contact with the housing?? Would you take a 400 mile trip now that the ground-down blades are moving freely? I will also call Gaffney N.C. When they return next week. If the Freightliner center here, after only a cursory, check still maintains its road damage related then none of the repairs would be warranted!!!$$$$$. Thanks for any ideas as to cause of problem.

On Monday morning, call Terry Belue in Customer Service and talk to personally 800-835-4357.

I heard of strange things happening, but if something did get into the fan housing, something else should have been damaged also. My question to FreightLiner would be, did you folks design the fan system to collect road debris? If not then how in the heck can you expain debris getting in there, as one of your service centers insinuates.

You should have Gaffney do a through inspection to actually determine the cause. Maybe something on the engine fell off, or a loose part left somewhere by a Winnebago employee finely fell off and caused the problem.

I would stand a firm position that it's not your resposibility and make them prove beyond any doubt what the cause was. AND GET EVERYTHING IN WRITTING... EVERYTHING...

Tomcat F15

[Okie]

Debris on the highway can be sucked up in the fan. I had this happen in La. once,,,,broke one blade on the fan and then the small piece of gator was thrown into the radiator , piercing it in three places....Spartan sent a new fan as the one broken blade would cause an inbalance...suspect you should get a new fan also.

[Cruzer]

Based upon how my Allegro Bus is (Freightliner side radiator chassis w/ 400 ISL) I don't see how your blades themselves could contact the shroud unless something got big-time loose back there. Did the FTL dealer do any adjustments back there (tightened up something loose) or just eyeball it?

If road debris got kicked up into there I wouldn't think you'd see and "rubbing" in the shroud. It could definitely "lock up" the fan blade though, which would contribute to overheating and the red light message. With air coming from the outside to the inside it's pretty hard to jam something up into there, although strange things do happen.