Emergency help needed - fluid leak

[TXUSGUY]

Emergency help needed - 2011 Tiffin 32BR Breeze Maxxforce 7 (Navistar) engine -Leak of red fluid from driver side rear of vehicle. Looks to be seepage from a radiator type hose. I checked transmission and oil dipsticks and levels appear fine. Looking in the engine compartment there is a site glass on driver side in front of radiator. It has a thin red line in center of glass like a thermometer. It shows no fluid level or anything. What is that for and how do you read it? What is the red fluid? Can I drive the vehicle to a repair center. What action should I take? 817 300-0349

[texnet]

Two possibilities... Engine Coolant and hydraulic fluid. If oily to the touch the probably hydraulic fuild, otherwise it is probably Engine Coolant

[TXUSGUY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by texnet Two possibilities... Engine Coolant and hydraulic fluid. If oily to the touch the probably hydraulic fuild, otherwise it is probably Engine Coolant

THANKS! I was able to get a better look (despite my"not fully healed" cracked ribs and partially collapsed lung). It does not appear to be oily so figured it must be radiator fluid. It uses Rotella Extended Life Fluid and itis leaking from a radiator like hose that is fitted inside another readiator hose. There is a black box on DS with the radiator fluid sticker and it has the sight glass I refer to. I stuck a paint stick into the box and got "0" fluid so this is probably the problem. THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP.

[wa8yxm]

If you have power gear hydraulic jacks and or slides they also use Transmission fluid.

I do not know about HWH but it would not surprise me to find they do too.

On my coach the hoses for all the jacks run along the driver's side frame rail.. One hose for the front (runs to a "T" then off to the jacks on both sides) and 2 for the rear.

[gkgeiger]

The only red oil I familiar with is ATF, but the new antifreeze (coolant) has a red cast.

[Lault]

No red in HWH, it is clear.

[ottffss]

OP found it was antifreeze. Case closed supposedly...

HWH can have red if someone put in automotive ATF.

ATF is dyed red just for automotive use but it is a clear hydraulic fluid to begin with and that is what HWH uses - before the automotive dye.

[TXUSGUY]

Case closed for now. Waiting to pressurize and leak check before bringing back up yo proper level. THANKS EVERYONE.

[TXUSGUY]

Just a follow-up to my "scared me" coolant leak. Based on my current medical situation I called my friend from church, who is a mechanic by trade, and asked him to come help me with pressure checking the cooling system. I wanted to make sure I had tightened the compression sleeve hose clamps and stopped the one known leak. Especially in light of the fact that my selling dealer said they haven't been able to locate ROTELLA ELC 50/50 for several weeks ANYWHERE! GOOD THING I DID! I tried several phone calls to locate Rotella ELC Coolant and got answers of "we don't carry or we don't sell that brand of coolant or Rotella is only oil not coolant . Then at the urging of my friend I called an International truck dealer who said "I have a warehouse full of it." The Parts guy was in disbelief of the "supply" difficulties. So I went and secured 8 gallons because I didn't know how much had actually leaked out. The first thing I discovered was that the "cheap" radiator cap that Tiffin installed was bent and deformed. It was EXTREMELY difficult to remove. I replaced it with a new one. Works great now like it should. So we started the pressure test and pumped it up to 16 lbs. HOLY COW! NOW I HAD 5 ADDITIONAL LEAKS!!! Anyway, a good thing we checked. My friend was able to crawl underneath, locate and tightened all the additional hose clamps. The alarming thing was that every hose clamp was NOT even tightened. :eek A couple of the clamps were barely even theaded into the worm gear of the clamp!!! How the other hoses hadn't started to leak yet is beyond me. After he tightened them all, we re-tested the system and NO LEAKS. Ok, so we started to add coolant. IT ONLY TOOK 1 GALLON and filled the sight glass to 3/4 of the way between LOW and MAX. Started the engine to make sure of no air locks. But that's ok. Guess I'll save the additional Rotella Coolant for a future date. Makes me wonder if I should report this to Tiffin or would they even care? WHAT DO YOU THINK? I did get a call this afternoon from my selling dealer who told me that Tiffin agreed to sell them a case (6 gallons) at $5.89 per gallon higher than what I paid for it. Plus they are having to pay express freight! Can you say "Selling dealer is kinda dumb!" I called the Parts Dept Mgr of the selling dealer and gave them the Shell distributor's name in Houston as well as the info on where I bought it locally. SO I AM READY FOR MY CHAPTER'S DEC RALLEY! THANK YOU AGAIN EVERYONE !

[paz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXUSGUY ...The first thing I discovered was that the "cheap" radiator cap that Tiffin installed was bent and deformed...Makes me wonder if I should report this to Tiffin or would they even care? WHAT DO YOU THINK?...

First off, the radiator cap, radiator hoses and hose clamps are part of the engine Tiffin purchases from International and are probably not being installed by Tiffin. That being said, Tiffin puts the engine in their chassis and they should be concerned about what kind of quality they are putting into a motorhome with their name on it. Therefore, I would definitely call Tiffin to alert them of this problem. It may be an isolated incident; but Tiffin should be aware of it so they can contact International to let them know they need to improve their quality control.