Community Forums

Bad Bolt · 04-13-2016, 10:39 PM

Driving to the Akron Camping World to drop off my coach for new MaxxAir fans and new bump out awning fabric that was destroyed in a recent wind storm, I had my entire dash panel light up and then go back to normal status with no lights.

This tended to happen when hitting rough pavement where coach status light panel would have all the lights light up, all the gauge needles would sweep down and back to operational status and the panel lights would all go off indicating normal operation.

The light panel I speak of is the one that shows red or yellow status for the coach functions like parking brake, and that light that tells you to wait before starting the Cummins.

I did not have any drive issues, just the intermittent dash thing.

Any ideas?

OLYLEN · 04-14-2016, 07:26 PM

Check the ground strap to the entire panel, that is the common for all the panel.

LEN

Fred Cooper · 04-14-2016, 08:07 PM

Bad Bolt

I am assuming your HR is built on a Freightliner chassis. If not, ignore the remainder of this post.

Your "message center" is temporarily losing power. Here is the sequence it goes through on initial power up:

Initial Power On
When the ignition key is turned to the ON position, the following events occur: All of the message center (MC) lights illuminate. The icons (warning indicators) illuminate for 1 second, performing a bulb check and indicating that they are all working. After 1 second, all of the lighted icons go out except for the:
• low oil pressure
• low air pressure
• parking brake
• check engine The lights in these four icons go out once the engine has started and air pressure is above 70 psi (485 kPa). The parking brake icon remains illuminated until the parking brake is released.
NOTE: The right-hand bottom position of the MC is not used at this time. Also at initial power on, the instrument pointers move counterclockwise to the zero position and vibrate brieﬂy. This is a calibration function of the instruments allowing them to have a zero reference for operation. This is a normal function and occurs each time the system is powered on.

The VDC feeds the message center. The message center then feeds the guages.

Freightliner Service Bulletin 54-12 describes the system and includes troubleshooting info. You can get a copy of SB 54-12 at:
http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/go...13_sbu5412.pdf

Since you indicate no drivability problem, I would assume that all is well with the system up to the VDC. If you were losing power to the VDC, then I think the coach would malfunction also (my guess).

I'd be looking for loose connectors between the VDC and the message center, and connectors between the message center and the gauges. I've read several posts of problems with a connector between the message center and the guages. I assume this is on the message center, but I've never seen it. If you find nothing with the connectors, I'd also verify good battery connections.

I hope you find a simple solution. Post the resolution when you find the cause.

Fred

Bad Bolt · 04-15-2016, 05:55 AM

About as good as a reply as I could expect, Fred!!

and I think you may have solved my problem for me. I cannot test until I get my coach back from CWorld.

I am such a dope...

Last fall, I replaced a bad ring connector on one of the wires going to the chassis batteries. This spring, I noticed the nut was loose that clamped all the smaller wires going to the battery post and I only hand tightened them down because I had no wrench and we were hitting the road for a short day trip to Columbus with my family......guess what? I completely forgot to circle back after the trip and tighten that dang battery nut.

I'll let you know if that is the fix asap.

Thanks very much for reminding me of the SIMPLE things to check!!!