17,900 miles - Engine Fails

[Yellowboat]

Sorry for a long post.

DW and I were happily driving down Highway 97 in Northern Oregon on Wednesday of last week when our 2006 Ford V10 engine with 17,900 miles started to knock. I pulled over in a small town of 17 people, Kent, OR and I crawled underneath so see if it might be the AC pump, alternator, or fan. No such luck.

I called our towing service and they arraigned to tow us to The Dalles, OR to the Ford Dealer. The Ford Dealer told the towing service that they could repair our motor home. The Ford Dealer looked at our rig the next day and said that the engine needed to be replaced. He ordered the parts and then yesterday he called to say they could not do the job in their shop.

We coordinated a tow with my towing service to Sandy, OR to a motor home dealer that can do the job. Our towing service wanted to take our motor home to the Ford Dealer in Sandy, OR but I talked to the Service Manager at The Dalles dealership and he told me they couldn’t do the work either. The Service Manager had worked at the Sandy Ford Dealership before moving to The Dalles. He called the other dealer and explained why they couldn’t fix it in their shop and then he called the towing service and explained it all to them. In the end everyone agreed to tow the motor home to the motor home dealer in Sandy, OR.

The parts that the Ford Dealer ordered were sent on to the motor home dealer.

I talked to the motor home dealer today and he said that they had two options to remove the engine. Either remove the windows and remove the engine through the windows or to cut a hole in the front end fiberglass and then patch the fiberglass after the new engine is installed. The fiberglass option will cost less as it will require less shop time. And in my opinion it will create less chances for leaks.

I’ve never used a towing service before but I give them credit for being very professional. My card says Winnebago Towing Service but I believe my service is provided by Coach Net. Kudos to them.

We are currently waiting for another week before we can once again return to our trip. The motor home dealer has said he might have it ready a week from tomorrow.

DW and I are perplexed as to what could cause a rod to fail at 17,900 miles. I’ve always had the oil changed on time or before and it has never been low. When we climb hills with the cruise control engaged the engine would become very loud but without anything to compare it to I assumed this was normal for the V10. I would turn off the cruise control when it became too noisy and would allow the rig to climb the hill more slowly.

I once bought a new Ford Van and at around 50,000 miles the transmission went out. I had a new transmission installed and for the first time I had a passing gear. The original transmission was never adjusted correctly and I had no way of knowing. There could have been a problem with my V10 engine all along but I had nothing to judge it against.

[LVJ58]

JD, so sorry to hear of your misfortune. It's rather unusual for the v10 to fail like yours did, and this is the first I've ever read about a major failure of the v10. After engine is replaced, would appreciate some feed back on what caused the failure if there's anyway you can find out.

Hoping the repair is done in a timely manner so you can get back on the road.

Best of luck,

["007"]

Why don't they drop your front axle to replace motor less damage to front fiberglass and possible problems with windshields.
Sorry about your problem had a 460 replaced few years back.

[Yellowboat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by "007" Why don't they drop your front axle to replace motor less damage to front fiberglass and possible problems with windshields. Sorry about your problem had a 460 replaced few years back.

The Ford Dealer was going to drop the front axle but after they looked at it they said that wouldn't work on my motor home. They just finished putting an engine in another MH just before I arrivedm by dropping the front axle but for some reason that will not work on my MH. Poor planning by Ford and Winnebago when there isn't a planned way to pull an engine.

[Izzyblueye]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yellowboat The Ford Dealer was going to drop the front axle but after they looked at it they said that wouldn't work on my motor home. They just finished putting an engine in another MH just before I arrivedm by dropping the front axle but for some reason that will not work on my MH. Poor planning by Ford and Winnebago when there isn't a planned way to pull an engine.

I have thought about the statement you make above many times. It is ridiculous that these manufacturers do not consider these things in their design stage. What if an 18 wheeler wasn't designed to get to the engine. Same goes for getting to water heaters, motor aid fans, A/C ducting, on and on. I have had one big truck dealer/ service place tell me motor homes, particularly "A's" are the worst beast on the road to repair. The flat rate book is useless with an "A" class M/H.

[Drifter]

We lost a motor on our 2006 Monarch at 5000 miles also, we had it towed to Sanderson Ford in gilbert AZ. They dropped the front axle and exchanged the motor in 7 hours and never pulled the inside cover off. That part of the ordeal went well, but everything else sucked. Sorry that this has happened to you guy's.

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yellowboat Poor planning by Ford and Winnebago when there isn't a planned way to pull an engine.

Yellowboat, I know this issue impacts you significantly however this issue can not be attributed to poor planning by Winnebago. On my rig the engine comes out the bottom and I have a Winnebago. Winnebago had nothing to do with that because you can do the same thing on a Damon, Pace, Southwind, Newmar or whatever other rig you can name. Sorry for your trouble and I wish you a speedy resolution.

[Gary - K7GLD]

Seems folks - and apparently the MH makers are FAR more focused upon external paint jobs and dramatic graphics - and interior fabrics and elaborate entertainment centers than they are the inevitable engine and drivetrain maintenance and repair...

On our '88 Winnie Super Chief, engine replacement requires the entire front cap be removed, then the radiator and AC condenser, etc. Even the replacement of the serpentine belt. and other engine belts is a MAJOR event!

These are, after all, motor vehicles, and if our daily automobiles were as poorly designed for relatively common replacements and maintenance, the screams from owners and service personnel would be resounding!

[bdpreece]

The question that comes to my mind is why are they replacing the entire engine? You stated that it started to knock and you pulled over then had it towed. This tells me you probably did not put the rod through the side of the block. What ever happened to the guys that could replace the piston, rod, and crank flush the engine and have you on your way. I have rebuilt a lot of engines in my day never had to throw one away.

[Drifter]

Driver is right, this type of repair has notting to do with what kind of RV you have, the engine comes out from the bottom. If your repair shop can not do the repair that way, move to somebody that can, most likely a ford truck repair. The V10 almost always has the knock coming from the main bearings and must be pulled to be repaired.

[EngineerMike]

Sometimes part of taking the engine out the bottom requires removal of a riveted in place cross member. The cross member needs to go back, and the dealer can't conceive of grinding off the rivets to replace them w/bolts.

If this is the hang-up, they can replace the rivets w/Grade-8 bolts & lock nuts. The Grade8 bolts are 180,000psi steel and will be equal or better than the rivet steel. If the dealer is worried about movement of the cross arm (rivet shanks may have been expanded to fill the hole cavity, limiting movement), then the solution is to use the next larger bolt shank size and use a die grinder to feather the holes to a snug fit.

It is possible the dealer is right, but I suspect this is a case of failure to solve the problems of R&R cleverly. Or maybe it is clever, as the front R&R sounds like the service bill will total somewhere in the vicinity of dealer heaven.
In fact, why not take the engine out the back?????

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EngineerMike In fact, why not take the engine out the back?????

EM, Now that's an outstanding engineering analysis!

[Doug13589]

17900 miles ? That is better than mine it had about 14000 and sort of quit.
I had a vibration thinking it was drive shaft (dropped one on my older mh a month earlier) so I had it checked out locally no trouble found.
Made an appointment in Duluth Mn at the Ford shop.The thing did great going up the hills. I wasn't going to stop.The wife said we better get it check out ,45 minutes later we had the news,number 5 cylinder was not working and it had dropped a valve.
No problem they could fix it they were putting it in the shop as we headed home
They had it pluged in for the freezer and ref.Three days later they called to say they could not get it high enough to get the engine out,but a truck repair across the bay could.It was sent to the truck place and we drove the 60 miles to clean the freezer out.Thinking the ref would be Ok for a couple days on gas if the forgot to plug it in.
the problem was a rocker arm was off.it had broken the shaft it works on, the valve stem was bent and we were out a motorhome for a month,
The best to come of this we are not full timing and still own a house.

PS Thanks to a Candian friend we found that Listerine takes the rot smell out of the ref

[Yellowboat]

I thought I'd update my engine problems.

A new V10 engine was installed in my RV. My wife and I drove the 3 hour drive from Seattle, WA to Portland, OR to pick up our repaired RV. When we arrived we were told that there was a problem with the camshaft sensor. It had worked earlier but now it was showing a fault, but not to worry, because they were out buying another sensor. It would be installed and our MH would be good to go in about an hour.

Well it wasn't good to go. They checked the sensor, the computer, and the wiring twice. All of the test results were ok but it still wouldn't work. They sent our MH to the nearby Ford dealer who didn't really want to work on an RV.

Moments ago, three days after the Ford dealer started looking at my MH, they called to tell me that my RV was going back to the MH dealer who installed the new V10 engine so they can tear down the engine. After I questioned Ford a little it came out that a new V10 engine has been ordered and the MH dealer was going to install a 2nd new V10 engine in our MH.

The camshaft sensor came apart inside the engine and spread metal debris inside our new V10. Ford recommended that this new V10 engine be removed and replaced with another new V10.

JD & Kathy