Cummins ISL Recall - Possible Connecting Rod Issues

[vicsryd]

I came across this recall notice on the NHSTA web site which involves some Cummins ISL engines manufactured between October, 2005 and April 2006. It involves the possibility of a connecting rod failure and retrofit of the ECM and engine for early problem detection. The notice has a range of serial numbers of engines that might be affected.

If you registered your engine serial number with Cummins they'll be sending out a recall notice soon. Otherwise you may want to contact your Cummins dealer to check it out.

[vicsryd]

I came across this recall notice on the NHSTA web site which involves some Cummins ISL engines manufactured between October, 2005 and April 2006. It involves the possibility of a connecting rod failure and retrofit of the ECM and engine for early problem detection. The notice has a range of serial numbers of engines that might be affected.

If you registered your engine serial number with Cummins they'll be sending out a recall notice soon. Otherwise you may want to contact your Cummins dealer to check it out.

[Route 66]

Although I'm a Cummins fan, I'm extremely disappointed that Cummins waited this long, as we all knew about this last year when some ISL RV engines were self destructing.

Cummins promptly recalled the ISLs used in emergency vehicles, as they should have, but decided to repair RV ISLs that failed.

Cummins lack of action on the part of RVers caused a lot of anxiety during that period.

I was in the process of ordering my DSDP when when this hit the fan, and I served written notice to my dealer and Newmar that an engine in the questionable serial number range would be acceptable.

My engine was built after the serial number range in question.

[vicsryd]

The shame of it is Cummins is the cheap route and not pulliing the engines unless they fail. Their theory is the population that potentially coudl have the failure is approximately 2000 engines and they estimate (lord knows how) that only 5% will actually fail and will be covered by warranty. Sounds like anyone affected by this recall had better either put on a lot of miles on their coach before the 5yr/100K mile warranty expires on the engine.

[Route 66]

When this issue first surfaced, the engines were failing within the first 2000 miles, and some within the first 500 miles.

Cummins said if you made it past the first 2000 miles, you "should" be OK.

Small consolation if your engine is within the serial number range.

[jimandsue60]

Where can the serial number be found on the engine?

Thanks
Jim

[Pusherman]

Jim,

The easy way to get your engine s/n is to call FTL with your VIN, and they can tell you your engine AND tranny s/n's.

[jimandsue60]

Thanks Don, I will do that in the morning, it seems they only want to accept emergency calls on the weekend.

Jim

[jimandsue60]

Thanks for the heads up, fortunately my engine s/n is not on the list.

Jim

[Dave O]

I haven't heard of an ISL850 before which is what is being recalled.

What coachs and models was it used in?

Dave O

[vicsryd]

CM stands for "control module" and the number is the model of ECM. Pre-2003 ISC/ISL's are CM550 and 2003-2006 are CM850. This seems to align with changes in diesel emissions standards. I believe there is a new ECM for 2007 engines/emissions but haven't seen any information on it yet.

[vicsryd]

I didn't notice this before but in the letter to the NHTSA Cummins listed the number of engines affected shipped to different OEM's. FCCC received 666

[Route 66]

This is from a friend of a friend who had this problem.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Hi guys,

It was indeed a faulty wrist pin. I will attach a picture that I took of the one that was at fault. Because all of the wrist pins in this engine came from the same lot, they are all being changed. The pistons are also all being changed as are the arms. In other words all that you see in the picture are being changed. The one pictured shows how the heat burned and changed the color of the metal around the faulty wrist pin. Also note in the pictures the deep scratching of the piston as it flopped and pounded against the sleeve. Eric says that the engine would have blown completely in a very short time.
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[vicsryd]

The letter to the NHTSA says the remedy is to add instrumentation and programming to detect symptoms and de-rate or shut down the engine to prevent catastrophic failure (i.e. prevent expensive collateral damage to the RV). If the ECU reports the right fault codes then they would replace or rebuild the engine.

So was it your friend was able to convince Cummins to rebuild his engine outright? Or did they test it and decide it was destined for immanent failure?