Last week we were in Albuquerque NM to have some minor repairs made under warranty to our 2012 Discovery 36J. Just outside of Albuquerque, the check engine light came on along with a "Poor DEF Quality" indication.
Our first thought was that we had purchased DEF most recently from Walmart, and therein was the problem. Turns out that was NOT the case.
After asking for guidance from the Fleetwood dealer, we were told it was OK to drive home, then take the coach to Fleetwood/Cummins to have it checked out. Well...we made it 26 miles north of Albuquerque and coasted to a stop at a truck stop, just as the engine derated and 5 mph was the top speed allowed.
I called Fleetwood Customer Service to explain the problem, and they quickly arranged to have the coach towed, initially, to the Fleetwood Albuquerque facility. The tow truck driver (who was thankful that we managed to get the coach OFF the interstate so he wouldn't have to dodge high speed traffic) called to coordinate delivery with Fleetwood.
Turns out that the Cummins specialist at Fleetwood had quit recently and moved to the regional Cummins facility - Rocky Mountain Cummins. Thank goodness he called! The coach was then diverted to Cummins as a repair destination.
Rocky Mountain Cummins was absolutely slammed with work, both over the road truckers as well as lots of RVs - the Balloon Festival was underway and lots of people wanted work done on their RVs while they were attending the festival. Compounding that, my father recently passed away and we had to get home to be with my 90 year old mother.
To their absolute credit, the Rocky Mountain Cummins guys squeezed us in, and made a quick diagnosis. It took the technician awhile to analyze the problem, but he determined that the NOx sensor was incorrectly installed and that there was a problem with the DEF injector alignment. Part of these issues also allowed exhaust to escape from the muffler ahead of the exhaust pipe. DEF quality was NOT an issue.
In the past, we had experienced very strong diesel exhaust gasses entering the coach while we were driving. No codes were set on the monitoring system at that time that reflected what the problem was. However, now that this issue was discovered, we are very hopeful that we will not experience the problem in the future.
Although we were delayed beyond our hoped for departure time, all the repairs were done very professionally - Rocky Mountain Cummins would not let us leave until they were certain our problems had been resolved. And we thank them for their professionalism!
We also want to thank Fleetwood and Cummins for stepping up to the problem and taking full responsibility! They not only made all the repairs under warranty, they also paid the $850 towing fee. Interstate 25 Towing of Albuquerque did a great job in preparing and towing our coach - and we thank Jim, the tow truck driver for that!
In particular, we wish to express our appreciation to Shawn Smith, Service Supervisor at Rocky Mountain Cummins, for his exceptional professionalism, to Aaron Thomas, Service Advisor; and especially to Bill Maugher, the technician who performed the work on our coach. They explained the problem with the engine in detail and kept us up to date on the progress being made, thereby allowing us to plan for a departure at a time that would allow us to miss the major storm that was threatening the four corners region.
Bottom line - don't assume that a DEF indication of "poor quality" indicates that the producer of the fluid is at fault - it can be any number of things that causes the problem. If the Check Engine light comes on and it's associated with a DEF issue, there's a good chance that the engine will derate, and you'll end up motoring along at 5 mph.
To make all this much more "fun", we also had the experience of dodging a flying suitcase and all its contents that landed in front of us on I-25 before the engine derated (we could perhaps have used a change of clothes after that incident)
, as well as two cars in front of us having a collision
as we were trying to get back on the freeway and head home.
The snow storm hit as we were not too far from home, and we managed to disconnect the toad and park the coach just in time to avoid having to drive through the first winter storm here in southwest Colorado.
Quite an adventure - and we hope that this may help others avoid what we encountered. We've spoken with other Discovery owners who have had a similar experience of diesel exhaust gasses entering the coach while driving. This may well be what caused it.
yet but just went through check engine light problems with the nearest diagnostic center two hours away. After calls to cummins, many, finally determined the manufacture, Fleetwood and others notoriously do not fill the coolant reservoir to max upon delivery! Cummins suggested adding a quart ended up two gallons and a quart in a new coach less than 5 k. Lesson learned! 
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