Community Forums

N6CUS · 10-31-2014, 08:53 PM

Now this is weird I have the Onan Energy Command 30 on my Onan 8500
Diesel and 2 times now in the last 3 months I came home and or work up at home and my Gen is running. It starts and runs by it self. Yes it is set to manual
and in the info/setting area that shows why it started the is nothing.

I know low batt voltage it will start automatically High temp ac starts and gen runs, and quite time off and all that stuff I NEVER use and its all set to manual start
BUT like I say 2 times now It has started by it self and ran. I'm afraid to be gone over the weekend and its running the entire time

I have called ONAN and they don't know
take it in they say but it happened 3 months apart
so how can they duplicate it to solve it.
Maybe just start throwing parts at it?

any suggestions ??

PS yes its on manual start, and I have now turned off the house batts when I'm not using the motor home so the Energy Command 30 is off to prevent starting

Ray,IN · 10-31-2014, 08:58 PM

Sounds like you found a simple solution to both your genset phantom starting problem and your coach batteries running down while unused.
As to finding the cause of phantom starting; I would have an Onan genset shop double-check the wiring schematic against your wiring for the energy command. Sounds like an intermittent short, or a loose connection.

KIX · 10-31-2014, 09:08 PM

My Onan 7.5 Quiet Diesel has done this before. There is a control wiring harness that has a multi pin plug near the gen end. Unplug it, spray some electronic cleaner, use some di-electric grease and reconnect the plug. Th plug on mine is on the passenger side of the gen installed between frame rails in the front. Hope this helps you.

Route 66 · 11-01-2014, 05:34 AM

Several members have reported this as the problem and the fix. Moisture gets in there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KIX

My Onan 7.5 Quiet Diesel has done this before. There is a control wiring harness that has a multi pin plug near the gen end. Unplug it, spray some electronic cleaner, use some di-electric grease and reconnect the plug. Th plug on mine is on the passenger side of the gen installed between frame rails in the front. Hope this helps you.

N6CUS · 11-01-2014, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KIX

My Onan 7.5 Quiet Diesel has done this before. There is a control wiring harness that has a multi pin plug near the gen end. Unplug it, spray some electronic cleaner, use some di-electric grease and reconnect the plug. Th plug on mine is on the passenger side of the gen installed between frame rails in the front. Hope this helps you.

Thanks I'll give this a try sound simple enough to fix not actually know for some time if this works as it only happen last time 3 months ago. On the Command 30 panel I went into the setting/info to see why the start and nothing is never listed there as it should be as to why the start.

Qwert66 · 11-01-2014, 09:40 AM

This auto start has happened once on us (we have no auto start feature).
It has not happened since and will do the wire harness cleaning this month.
I did tape a spacer under the start/stop switch "start position" outside on the generator so as to rule out the "critter" option of starting by climbing on it. We don't use that switch to start it anyway. We have the 7.5 quiet diesel.

Okrver · 11-01-2014, 02:05 PM

My 7500 would start by itself once in awhile. I found a cat sitting on my remote start button. Chased it away. No more starts.

N6CUS · 11-01-2014, 05:05 PM

After reading about a critter and a Cat possibly setting on the button
I'm thinking this is a great possibility, I few years ago a rat have gotten in the engine area of my corvette and ate some of the wires, and about a year ago I saw something that looked like urine on the Gen top so i thought maybe the rats again so I started putting rat poison box on the gen top and nothing was ever used, but I just got back from a trip 2 weeks ago and I put the rat poison back on top of the gen as I usually do and after the false start I noticed that all the poison was eaten, so MAYBE this is the critters at fault. I'm going to take all the advice about the cleaner, grease and block the starter button so as not to start at the Genset. Thanks to all. I never would have thought of all the suggestions but going to do all of them.

N6CUS · 11-01-2014, 06:11 PM

I took everyones advice, I cleaned the connector I put dielectric grease inside
I put a piece of plastic under the start button so it can't be pushed and I never use this any how , I noticed that the Rat poison I put in there a couple days ago was gone and there was little foot prints on top of the Gen so I'm thinking its probably the rats, I have Ivey all over the rear of my property and it is a magnet for the rats. and it rained here yesterday. so I'll check and see if all is well now,

TQ60 · 11-01-2014, 06:24 PM

Get some snap traps too.

Yoda2405 · 11-01-2014, 09:01 PM

My QD8000 did the auto start a few times with the EC30 turned off. It finally corrected itself but I believe it was moisture on the remote start switch in the water bay as I had washed it out the day before this first happened. After ventilating the area after thinking about this as a possible cause, the problem went away and has never recurred. It started 3 or 4 times over several days before finally coming to this conclusion and drying the area.
I would check all remote start switched for moisture.

Safe Travels,
David

N6CUS · 11-02-2014, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yoda2405

My QD8000 did the auto start a few times with the EC30 turned off. It finally corrected itself but I believe it was moisture on the remote start switch in the water bay as I had washed it out the day before this first happened. After ventilating the area after thinking about this as a possible cause, the problem went away and has never recurred. It started 3 or 4 times over several days before finally coming to this conclusion and drying the area.
I would check all remote start switched for moisture.

Safe Travels,
David

Thanks David, I did that cleaned the contact and put dielectric grease in the connection