Cummins up in Smoke

[Nathan Focht]

Well, after only 6900 miles, we are stranded in Columbus and the coach is in the morgue. We were driving down the road on cruise at 60mph and suddenly the alarms go off and the engine shuts itself off. I go out and smoke is pouring out of the engine area.

After I wet myself, I looked and the ground is covered with oil and the engine is coated. Long story short, the Cummins service center has so far found metal shavings and antifreeze in the oil. They tell me the computer showed multiple oil warnings even though the dash never lit.

The current estimate is a totally new engine and 3+ weeks stuck in Columbus. Full-timing is going to be really dismall for a while.... Anyone have anything positive to offer me or am I up the river without a cummins???

[Nathan Focht]

Well, after only 6900 miles, we are stranded in Columbus and the coach is in the morgue. We were driving down the road on cruise at 60mph and suddenly the alarms go off and the engine shuts itself off. I go out and smoke is pouring out of the engine area.

After I wet myself, I looked and the ground is covered with oil and the engine is coated. Long story short, the Cummins service center has so far found metal shavings and antifreeze in the oil. They tell me the computer showed multiple oil warnings even though the dash never lit.

The current estimate is a totally new engine and 3+ weeks stuck in Columbus. Full-timing is going to be really dismall for a while.... Anyone have anything positive to offer me or am I up the river without a cummins???

[Latitude]

That is not "nice" The only good thing is it is still under warranty!!! You will be back on the road soon and it will be a memmory. Chalk it up to "experience"

Rick

[Lug_Nut]

I wish I could offer some positive info, but I guess you don't know yet the whole story yet. The ME, I believe uses the ISC which is a great engine with a near flawless service record. I would certainly be interested to know what the actually issue is and what lead to the failure.

Peter

[Dav5942]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Lug_Nut:
I wish I could offer some positive info, but I guess you don't know yet the whole story yet. The ME, I believe uses the ISC which is a great engine with a near flawless service record. I would certainly be interested to know what the actually issue is and what lead to the failure.

Peter </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

No, Peter the ME uses the ISL.

Nathan, there was a problem with the engine that ended up with a recall-don't know if your engine was in that range-hopefully its resolved quickly to your satisfaction.

The recall(don't quote me my memory is getting shorter as I get older) was due to a connecting rod failure on ISL engines manufactuered over about six months. The recall fix, which did not come out until just recently(about six months after the problem was perputuating-engines were literally blowing up) was to add software/hardware to tell you the engine was getting close to failure before it failed! If you do a search here and on Woodalls you should find the recall and effected engines. Dave

["007"]

Sorry to hear the bad news Nathan heres a LINK to what was going on over a year ago.
Some pics on pg 12.

[Lug_Nut]

Thanks for the correction Dave, I thought the ISC was in the ME. I remember the introduction at the Tampa RV Super Show, could it have originally been introduced with an ISC?

Peter

[Doc Mark]

So sorry to hear of your engine mishap, Nathan.

But as long as you're in Columbus, and have some time to kill - try going German Village & Schmidt's restaurant. Also Bucco de Peppo near the Columbus Nationwide Center. Great food!

Let us know how the repairs are going & hopefully you'll be back on the road soon.

Mark

German Village Information

[Route 66]

Nathan, so sorry to hear of your troubles.

Could you post the engine serial #.

It would be interesting to know if it was one of the engines in the range of the recall.

[Harm]

Nathan, really sorry to hear about your engine troubles. I hope you have a better experience with Coachcare than I have in the last three different centers I have been at. I am really surprised to hear you have had a failure at your mileage. It was my understanding from talking with Cummins officials that all failures have been in the first 1000 miles. My engine falls within the recall. In our travels I made an appointment in advance with a Coachcare center to have the recall done and spent an entire day waiting for the parts to arrive. Then I was told they would arrive the next day then not for five days. Needless to say I motored on without the recall being completed. I wasn't too worried with over 14k miles on my coach but now learning of your experience I am going to be worried again. I don't see it as much of a fix when they are only wiring in a warning light of impending failure. I wonder what will happen when one fails after the warranty is expired? That is one expensive engine to replace!
Good luck and be thankful your under warranty and will recieve a totally new engine, not a patch job.

[Nathan Focht]

Well, it sounds just like what happened to us. This morning they authorized a complete engine swap. They said the engine was shot. Our # is 46586509. How can I tell if it was in that batch? Warranty is covering it but they are saying we will be stranded for 3+weeks.

[Route 66]

When the ISL issue first came up, Cummins issued a recall for emergency vehicles only, but here is the serial # range.


<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> ALL CUMMINS ISL CM850 DIESEL ENGINES INSTALLED AS ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT ON EMERGENCY VEHICLES BETWEEN OCTOBER 17, 2005, AND APRIL 6, 2006, WITH ENGINE SERIAL NUMBER RANGE FROM 46542688 TO 46601872. THE CONNECTING RODS WHICH TRANSFER ENERGY FROM THE PISTON TO THE CRANKSHAFT ARE DEFECTIVE AND CAN RESULT IN SEIZURE OF THE PISTON PIN. A PISTON PIN SEIZURE CAN RESULT IN A MISSION-DISABLING ENGINE FAILURE. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Dav5942]

Nathan, As you have probably discovered your serial # was within the range. In fact it is 20 off(46586529) from our original chassis(& engine #) which we told Newmar we would not accept. They changed ours(after much discussion) to a number outside of the effected range. Don't know what to tell you but give them HEl-!! At 6900 miles we would have been somewhere between Mexico and Alaska-not good wherever you are! Any damage to the coach? Have seen where the engine blew out the rear end of a DP and wiped out the trailor behind it.

[Harm]

Nathan: Check this link out:
http://nhthqnwws111.odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/documentList...=RCL&fromPublic=true
Click on the second of the three documents. Yours is the second to the last lucky number. It is NHTSA Campaign #07V354000