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SargeW · 09-14-2008, 11:48 AM

Yep, I was all stowed away and ready to pull out of Gettysburg after a week of exploration. I fired the Cummins and had an unusual "shake". I had the VMSpc system running and a quick check gave me the bad news. I had a trouble code set from the ECM. The VMS spells out in plain english what the trouble code is and what the defination is.

What it gave me was that from PID 157, Injector metering rail pressure. And the malfunction, "Low Voltage".

Nuts, well it looks like I am not going anywhere now. I called Coach Net and Informed them of the problem. After giving them the basics they swithched me to a Tech advisor. A brief conversation with him and he agreed that a trip to a Cummins facility was in order.

But on Sunday? Not likely. Instead we will linger here in Gettysburg until tomorrow when Coach Net will get approval from Cummins, then tow me to a repair facility, most likely in Harrisburg about 45 miles from here. I am not mechanically inclined enough to say if this is a bad injector, or an electrical problem that is causing the injector to malfunction. I did take it out for a test drive to verify the condition. It stumbled, ran rough, then smoothed out and ran good. But not for long. Then the whole process would repeat itself. So I headed back to the campground to wait the night and hopefully hear from Coach Net in the morning.

Hopefully it won't be too long of a delay and repair.

Sarge

SargeW · 09-14-2008, 11:48 AM

Yep, I was all stowed away and ready to pull out of Gettysburg after a week of exploration. I fired the Cummins and had an unusual "shake". I had the VMSpc system running and a quick check gave me the bad news. I had a trouble code set from the ECM. The VMS spells out in plain english what the trouble code is and what the defination is.

What it gave me was that from PID 157, Injector metering rail pressure. And the malfunction, "Low Voltage".

Nuts, well it looks like I am not going anywhere now. I called Coach Net and Informed them of the problem. After giving them the basics they swithched me to a Tech advisor. A brief conversation with him and he agreed that a trip to a Cummins facility was in order.

But on Sunday? Not likely. Instead we will linger here in Gettysburg until tomorrow when Coach Net will get approval from Cummins, then tow me to a repair facility, most likely in Harrisburg about 45 miles from here. I am not mechanically inclined enough to say if this is a bad injector, or an electrical problem that is causing the injector to malfunction. I did take it out for a test drive to verify the condition. It stumbled, ran rough, then smoothed out and ran good. But not for long. Then the whole process would repeat itself. So I headed back to the campground to wait the night and hopefully hear from Coach Net in the morning.

Hopefully it won't be too long of a delay and repair.

Sarge

lthrnk · 09-14-2008, 04:10 PM

Sorry to hear about your problem. Could be a fouled injector or as you say an electrical problem. The Cummins ISB are usually bulletproof. Better it happened there and not on the road. Good luck with the tow, hopefully they will have the correct equipment available to make it trouble free.

Let us know how you make out.

SargeW · 09-14-2008, 04:38 PM

Thanks Mike,

I'm hoping for an easy fix as well. Or at least a quick one. BTW, great blog! Jan is doing a great job!

Sarge

SargeW · 09-16-2008, 04:32 PM

Well, two days later and the problem was fixed. What I thought may have been an injector problem turned out to be a failed fuel rail pressure sensor. It is the sensor that sits right on top of the high pressure fuel rail and monitors the pressure in the rail. Pretty critical considering that the rail will hit a maximum of 28,000 pounds at it's peak.

The code that my VMSpc had shown was the correct code and description, but when the tech hooked up the laptop with the Cummins "In Site" software he got a whole load of additional information about what was going on. It was interesting to watch as the software program walks the tech through each step with sub menus that contain picture diagrams of the part in question. It took about 45 minutes with the laptop to isolate the bad sensor.

However, the dealership did not get around to my coach until around 10 PM. By the time that it was checked out and the parts guy started looking for a sensor, we were beat and ready for bed. We spent the night in the rig in the parking lot, and at 0800 the next morning a tech was knocking on our door telling me that he was ready to install the sensor.

The coach started but didn't run very far before the motor died and wouldn't restart. So it was installed right where it stopped.

An important note here, I prepped the rig for the install before the tech walked in. The bed was stripped and the mattress off, the bed platform up and the motor cover was off. When he walked in with the sensor it literally took him 60 seconds to unscrew one and screw the new one on. Turn the key and the Cummins jumped to life. Then I reassembled the all the parts and put the bed back together. I feel better doing it myself, as now I am sure that it was done right.

It was all under warranty so I don't know what the bill would have been. I'm sure that it would have been scary........

Sarge