Primary and Secondary Air Tanks Empty in 24 hours

[Rsponsford]

Originally Posted by deandec

Well, I have had ramps for many years to do my diy lube jobs. But now I have no suitable place to crawl under the rig without me lying in the neighborhood roadway. Yikes!



Today, I found a mobile roadside repair guy with a very good google rep who will make an attempt to find the leak.



I just do not trust the big shops who view the process as a cool way to milk the money cow during the search for a solution, or who have to learn my rig's systems because they only work on similar systems once a year. [emoji5]

Just saw this thread. I had to replace the automatic leveling solenoid valves a few months ago. On my Concept they are located behind/above the front axle right in the center. They are attached to an aluminum manifold and fairly easy to access once you’re safely under the coach. I drove up onto solid ramps. The HWH solenoids are about $90 each.

[deandec]

Originally Posted by Rsponsford

Just saw this thread. I had to replace the automatic leveling solenoid valves a few months ago. On my Concept they are located behind/above the front axle right in the center. They are attached to an aluminum manifold and fairly easy to access once you’re safely under the coach. I drove up onto solid ramps. The HWH solenoids are about $90 each.

Attachment 264188

When your HWH valves were leaking was your coach able to maintain level with the assistance of the auxilary 12v compressor for days in a row.

Mine does, but when I shut down the house battery, the coach drops in about 48 hours.

[Rsponsford]

Originally Posted by deandec

When your HWH valves were leaking was your coach able to maintain level with the assistance of the auxilary 12v compressor for days in a row.



Mine does, but when I shut down the house battery, the coach drops in about 48 hours.

My compressor had to run frequently in order to keep up. I imagine it just depends on how bad the leak is. My leak was inaudible and took me forever to locate. I finally sprayed the soap solution in the right place and discovered it was leaking out of the back of the solenoids where the wires come out. Try soaping them up and see what you find.

[deandec]

Well, I gave up on the personal search and took the rig to a NorCal Kenworth shop to see if they can find the leak affecting the two air tanks.

They have a lift and real mechanics along with my observations that the brakes and leveling system hold air.

Let the money river begin to flow.......

[DJ55]

Good luck, will be looking forward to seeing what they come up with. I just went through some poor (and expensive) service from a Freightliner shop in Hurricane, UT, tryng to get my own air leak fixed. Hope your experience is better than mine was!

[Ken Hurst]

Dean,

Yeas ago I had this problem and it nearly drove me nuts. I have a 1995 Magna and kept losing air. I finally found the problem by spraying a soap solution on every thing associated with air that was even close to the tanks. I have forgotten the name of the part that was leaking. It was between the tanks and, I think, tied them together. The part was available at the local heavy truck parts supply store. I also found two other leaks. One leak was in the front ride height valve and another was one of the front water drain valves.
Last week I had to repair a leak in the left rear. The bag would leak down over night .It wound up being the left rear ride height solenoid. Hope this helps. Lots of luck.

Ken Hurst

[deandec]

Ken, thank you for the air tank connector information.

I shared it with the Kenworth shop and I also believe it is a likely cause of my tanks going empty when the leveling and braking system do not seem to leak down.

[DJ55]

FWIW, my leak was also at the air tank. On my coach, the driver side air tank has two large fittings that screw into the side of the tank; both of those suddenly started leaking and needed to be replaced. My symptoms were a bit different though, in that when the pressure was depleted, as registered on my dash gauge, we still retained level but our braking system had no pressure.

My shop made some mistakes in replacing those two fittings and I wished I'd check their work before allowing them to give the coach back to me. I discovered problems later that evening and had to take it back to them the next day, and for various reasons that turned out to be an unpleasant experience. What I learned: take your own spray bottle of soap solution and flashlight with you when you go to pick up the coach, and check all of the air system connections around where they worked before you accept the coach as fixed and drive it home.

In any event, I hope they get your coach fixed without any issues.

[deandec]

Norcal Kenworth found two leaks in their search. One at the air tanks and one at the leveling valve.

I have no other information so far, and , have not yet seen the invoice!!

[deandec]

We picked up our coach from NorCal Kenworth yesterday.

Three leaks identified and repaired. Two air tank connections and the front Gillig leveling valve.

The rig held max air pressure for 36 hours so far. Will be traveling soon to further test the fix, but pleased so far.

Cost was about $850 for the repair.

[DJ55]

Good news, and thanks for letting us know how this ended up for you. Also nice to know you found a good Northrrn Calif. shop for this kind of stuff