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MICowboy · 07-02-2012, 07:45 AM

Just returned from a quick weekend trip in the '98 Tradewinds and I had my first issue with overheating. Bought the coach in April and traveled ~1500 miles since without issues.. In fact the temp gauge never even entered the "green" normal band, just stayed in the "white" cold band on the left of the gauge.

Roughly an hour into the drive on Friday (running around 65 mpg) my "Check engine" light started fluttering... to solid... then the high temp light started fluttering, to solid. Never made it ot the "Red" band on the temp indicator, but got close. We pulled over for lunch and the temp went down. I tried lowering the speed to 60 mpg and the warning lights never came back on.

I have read on this board how the "slobber" tube will coat the radiator so I am thinking that is my problem. We have a long (~2,500 mile) trip coming up in a month so I think it may be time to try and clean the radiator.

I plan to spray degreaser on the rad, and then rinse well with a garden hose. Has anyone done this before with sucess? Comments??

Rook · 07-02-2012, 08:43 AM

Lots of info on here about this. Spray a good grease cleaner on the radiator from the front, it's difficult because of the fan shroud, but you have to get in there to do it.....then first flood with low pressure water spray from the rear....later from the front. If it's very dirty, do it all again. A "fix" for a short slobber tube is on here, as well. Rook

sgtjoe · 07-04-2012, 08:36 AM

If you do a search on here you will find that the majority use a Dawn Dish soap mixture. To make sure it's the radiator you can do an inspection at night when it's dark by having someone running a flashlight around the radiator fins from the back while you look from the access panel inside to see if the light is coming through the fins. If a clogged radiator is the cause of the overheating you will notice that the flashlight will not shine through the outer poortions and will shine really good through the center.

Hope you can get it clean on your own, mine cost over 8 hundred for Freightliner to disassemble and steam clean the whole back end. Now once a year I mix up some Dawn Dish Soap with water and spray both sides.