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aftergolf · 01-05-2023, 05:49 PM

We have an almost one year old 2021 Sunstar 27P on a Ford F53 2020 Chassis with the new engine. The coach is still under warranty from Winnebago and from Ford.

During a trip over Thanksgiving in the mountains of Virginia and in Tennessee the battery light would come on climbing long grades and then go off going down a grade or on flat terrain. Several times the light would come on at intermittent times on flat grades and go off.

The first time it happened, stopped at a rest area and called Winnebago and they said it was a Ford issue. Called Ford and they were no help, except they would have us towed to the closest Ford dealer for them to evaluate. I called the closest Ford dealer and they said it would be 2 months before they could look at it. Decided to continue to drive on our trip and the same thing happened on our return.

Coach is now at Ford and after 4 hours they have determined the charging circuit is working properly and the batteries are charged and test ok.
Ford is willing to dig a little further but not much more without a guarantee of payment if they find an issue that is not Ford's but Winnebago's. Was told there are several fault codes but they have not looked into those yet.

I reached out to Winnebago and waiting for a reply. So right now I am in the middle of this problem.

Any thoughts on what to look for or what guidance to give Ford? I am not confident the local Winnebago dealer has any expertise in this area, but have not talked to them yet.
Thanks in advance for any help.

BayRunner · 01-05-2023, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aftergolf

We have an almost one year old 2021 Sunstar 27P on a Ford F53 2020 Chassis with the new engine. The coach is still under warranty from Winnebago and from Ford.

During a trip over Thanksgiving in the mountains of Virginia and in Tennessee the battery light would come on climbing long grades and then go off going down a grade or on flat terrain. Several times the light would come on at intermittent times on flat grades and go off.

The first time it happened, stopped at a rest area and called Winnebago and they said it was a Ford issue. Called Ford and they were no help, except they would have us towed to the closest Ford dealer for them to evaluate. I called the closest Ford dealer and they said it would be 2 months before they could look at it. Decided to continue to drive on our trip and the same thing happened on our return.

Coach is now at Ford and after 4 hours they have determined the charging circuit is working properly and the batteries are charged and test ok.
Ford is willing to dig a little further but not much more without a guarantee of payment if they find an issue that is not Ford's but Winnebago's. Was told there are several fault codes but they have not looked into those yet.

I reached out to Winnebago and waiting for a reply. So right now I am in the middle of this problem.

Any thoughts on what to look for or what guidance to give Ford? I am not confident the local Winnebago dealer has any expertise in this area, but have not talked to them yet.
Thanks in advance for any help.

While I don’t have a direct answer that may help but you said that it only happened on the long up grades. What RPMs were you running up these long grades? Did you down shift and run higher RPMs or leave it in a high gear and run lower RPMs?

aftergolf · 01-05-2023, 06:05 PM

Was always in drive and would downshift when necessary. Did not keep track of the RPMs but went up when the engine shifted.

Arch Hoagland · 01-05-2023, 06:10 PM

Are you sure it wasn't the Check Engine Light?

I always carry an OBD reader with me. It has paid for itself.

aftergolf · 01-05-2023, 06:15 PM

For sure it is the battery light, not check engine.
There is no gauge for the battery, only an idiot light.

Arch Hoagland · 01-05-2023, 06:52 PM

You could use one of these if you have a cigarette lighter tied to your engine battery:

https://www.amazon.com/LIHAN-Charger...s%2C143&sr=8-4

Have you ever used a voltmeter to check the 12 volts right at your battery terminals with the engine running?

aftergolf · 01-05-2023, 06:56 PM

Yes, have checked voltage when running and was 13.4 at idle. The Ford dealer has much more sophisticated equipment and was told everything is working to spec for the entire charging circuit and batteries.

SteveJ. · 01-05-2023, 07:03 PM

With the extra speed and possibly the fan engaging it could be the serpentine, (I, assume) belt slipping.

twinboat · 01-05-2023, 07:21 PM

Did you have the generator running ?

The house battery charging thru the isolation/charging circuit can sometimes cause the alternator to sense its not charging.

Sometimes just turning on the headlights will put out the low battery indicator.

Sent from my SM-A025V using iRV2 - RV Forum mobile app

aftergolf · 01-05-2023, 07:28 PM

So how would one figure that out? In the shop the coach is in the service bay. Don't know if you can simulate the load on the engine?

aftergolf · 01-05-2023, 07:30 PM

The genset was not running. Headlights were on during the trip.

Mark_K5LXP · 01-06-2023, 08:07 AM

This is the battery light on the dash and not some other battery indicator? If it's the dash light, it's controlled by the vehicle computer and Ford has set all the parameters that will trigger that light. So even if it's caused by an external condition like loads or unintended situations like a miswire, what makes the light come on is known. Poking around on technical forums you should be able to get a good idea what the operating parameters are. If they can't duplicate it at the dealer then you might be stuck with hooking up a meter or two and watching various operating points in the system to detect what might be going out of bounds when the light does come on. OBD data might reveal something but often it doesn't monitor all the points you might need to observe. This could be a problem with a component overheating or thermally unstable, a bad connection or even something winnebago inadvertently or incorrectly connected to some point in the chassis. Since the problem doesn't obviously present itself you get to decide if you pay someone to chase it down, or chase it down yourself.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

dkoldman · 01-09-2023, 08:50 AM

I would file the warranty issue with Ford to get it documented. Be prepared to pay the checkout fee, because they likely gonna hide behind they don't see anything.

I had a WBGO issue that would not occur at dealers lot as it was random. They made me pay a checkout fee despite my knowing something was wrong with WBGO wiring under warranty. But WBGO could do nothing if Dealer saw nothing. Made sense, but did not fix my problem.

8 months later with problem still randomly occurring ( and pissed with the dealer to never return there) I got a clue as to where the issuer might be. It was a loose connector pin behind the outdoor breaker panel that was not making good contact. I fixed and reset and problem has never reoccurred. I showed what I did to Dealer, because they should have found, but they just smiled and offered no refund for their failure to diagnose properly.

Maybe try to find another Ford dealer or call Ford Motorhome assistance directly to make them fix it. I can't see it being a WBGO issue.

aftergolf · 01-09-2023, 11:29 AM

I have a case opened with Ford Motorhome support. Was told it will take 1-2 weeks before I will hear back from anyone at Ford.

Contacted WBGO support. They are going to set up a call with WB technical support and the local Ford dealer to discuss to see if they can figure out something. Hope to have that call completed this week. WBGO does not think there is anything on their end that would make the dash battery light come on.

The local Ford dealer is willing to dig in deeper but wants someone give a credit card to pay for their time. Looks like a blank check for them to charge $$ if they cannot find something.