Community Forums

Mwoodofd · 07-10-2020, 02:43 PM

This sounds like a definite supplier change for the DEF heads. How can so many be going wrong. Reminds me of the Classic Shade Motor and AH pump issue years ago - simple - a bad batch, or supplier of the part - probably import.

brobox · 07-10-2020, 02:54 PM

Yep, I just joined the club with a POS DEF head with only 1,953. I am getting to where I dislike the EPA dearly. They pass their laws, but don't pass any Quality Control into them.

brobox · 07-10-2020, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by philnail

A friend of mine has a 2018 Aspire and a couple months ago left Southern California for Utah. Got at the Nevada state line and had lights on the dash then they went out a few miles away so he kept driving. He got 50 miles past Vegas and got shut down and had to be towed back to Cummings in Vegas. They replaced the def head and he left. The new def head is not reporting the def level correctly and Spartan told him that Cummings tech probably didn’t clear the error codes. I don’t believe that at all. I think they have another bad batch of def heads causing the issues

I was informed today there is also a sensor that has to be replaced with the DEF head. Spartan told me two parts had to be shipped to Cummins. I cannot get an appointment until Cummins has a tracking number on both parts. JMO the entire system and quality control is a joke.

WingsThree · 07-11-2020, 10:22 PM

On our second DEF sensor head, quantity sensor worked fine until 100 miles away from home. Dropped to half after engine re-start at rest stop, dropped to 1/4, jumped back up to half, then back down to 1/4 about 20 miles from layover destination. Now faced with a prospect of a tow whether we abort the trip all together and try to get back home, or press on. The next Cummins repair location is 230 miles away, in Albuquerque.

This is not fun.

Gasman 2 · 07-12-2020, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WingsThree

On our second DEF sensor head, quantity sensor worked fine until 100 miles away from home. Dropped to half after engine re-start at rest stop, dropped to 1/4, jumped back up to half, then back down to 1/4 about 20 miles from layover destination. Now faced with a prospect of a tow whether we abort the trip all together and try to get back home, or press on. The next Cummins repair location is 230 miles away, in Albuquerque.

This is not fun.

WingsThree, sorry to hear that especially about the possibility of aborting your trip.
Hopefully Spartan has a quick resolution to this on going issue.
Richard

757driver · 07-12-2020, 11:09 AM

Sure sounds like the previous Spartan radiator problem. Continue to throw in pieces of junk DEF heads until your out of warranty and then it’s the owners problem.

Turbojack · 07-12-2020, 05:01 PM

Friend of mine was having the check engine light come on. He took it to Cummings in Houston last Tuesday. When he called later in week to check on it, they told him his Def Head was bad and they had a new one on the way.

Coach is a 2019 Cornerstone.

Zarbek · 08-14-2020, 03:35 PM

I have a 2018 King Air on a Spartan chassis. All the way back from my latest trip the emissions warning was on but I was able to get it home. Pulled up front of my house and unloaded. Started it up to bring it to storage, STOP ENGINE LIGHT came on. Limp mode. I backed it into my driveway. I live in an HOA and they don't allow RV's. Spartan said, "we will have the Gen 6 parts Thursday the 13th. of Aug" On the 13th they said, "parts are back ordered they won't be here until the 19th. Today, the 14th, they said, "part won't be in until the first week of September." What!! HOA fines are a coming. I asked for a work around to get it 8 miles to storage. "Sorry, there is no work around." Spartan said due to the COVID 19 the parts factory was shut down for a while. Really? Well when I was working at an automotive supplier there was no such thing as a shut down. You shut down a production line you pay thousands of dollars a day. I'll bet they are still shipping chassis to RV Mfg's and stranding those of us that own. Sorry just venting. Totally unacceptable.

Dieselgem · 08-14-2020, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gasman 2

Mark I believe the head has the level sensor and what ever other sensors required like temp of DEF.
DEF fluid has been required for 10 years on these engines now, to bad they now are giving owners this problem Shouldn’t be lack of experience with the requirements of the system.
Richard

Shouldn't be a lot radiator problems either, but they exist. God forbid that it takes a death and a class action to get someone to take responsibility for these issues. I really feel like some of the suppliers think we are test pilots.

HarleySG · 08-14-2020, 04:06 PM

I think it sucks, you may require a tow, to get an emissions system fixed. I'd rather be stranded on the side of the road, waiting for a authorized tech to reset the ECM (or whatever it takes) to by-bass this issue.

In the state of Colorado, it's required to have an emissions test done every two years. The emissions stations can hook up to ECM to see if there are any emissions codes stored, before passing inspection. I"m pretty sure we all have our coaches serviced at least once a year, so the codes can easily be checked before inspection. If you fail the inspection, you have to get it fixed within a certain amount of time. To me, this would be a better solution than being towed or going into limp mode.

JMO
Cheers!

Gary.Jones · 08-14-2020, 08:08 PM

I have no direct experience with this, but I have seen a post on this forum about an owner that bought a fairly expensive ($200) ODB code reader hand held computer for heavy duty truck engines (and it shows Cummins as one of the engine manufacturers). It sounded like it could clear codes. Not sure if it will fully clear a DEF shut down code code, but I'd look into it... might be cheaper than a HOA fine.

Gary

Hayman · 08-15-2020, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary.Jones

I was getting crazy readings out of my DEF system on this coach similar to yours. I took the coach to Cummins Dedham Springs (Boston) and they replaced the DEF pump, not the head. Didn't make a lot of sense but no more problems.

Gary

How did you like Rte 128 traffic 😳😳 and the rotary into Cummins Dedham ?

WingsThree · 08-19-2020, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zarbek

I have a 2018 King Air on a Spartan chassis. All the way back from my latest trip the emissions warning was on but I was able to get it home. Pulled up front of my house and unloaded. Started it up to bring it to storage, STOP ENGINE LIGHT came on. Limp mode. I backed it into my driveway. I live in an HOA and they don't allow RV's. Spartan said, "we will have the Gen 6 parts Thursday the 13th. of Aug" On the 13th they said, "parts are back ordered they won't be here until the 19th. Today, the 14th, they said, "part won't be in until the first week of September." What!! HOA fines are a coming. I asked for a work around to get it 8 miles to storage. "Sorry, there is no work around." Spartan said due to the COVID 19 the parts factory was shut down for a while. Really? Well when I was working at an automotive supplier there was no such thing as a shut down. You shut down a production line you pay thousands of dollars a day. I'll bet they are still shipping chassis to RV Mfg's and stranding those of us that own. Sorry just venting. Totally unacceptable.

Yep, that all sucks.

An update on our saga. After getting the second new sensor head installed, we took off on our first leg, about 2 hours out, the system started to act up again. Pulled into lovely Deming NM, and parked it for the night, with the guage showing 1 bar with a full tank. The next morning, I powered up the the system with the key (no engine start yet) and the gauge showed snapped back to full, after a just a nano-second. I thought ok, we press on then. Four hours later, dropped to one bar, then just before arrival at next layover, went back up to 2 bars. After parking, I tapped on the head with a small hammer, added more def to get it back close to full, and the the guage showed full. The rest of the trip (about 1,000 miles) it worked fine. Dropped down to 3/4 when it should have, and stayed that way for the rest of the trip (almost down to half tank, but not quite down enough to trigger the guage to show half.)

It's hard to believe, but the key for us was to tap lightly on the sensor head, supposedly there are "bubbles" that are goofing up the system, and after some time and occasional tapping, it appeared to function normally.

Back in storage, the coach is coming back out next month for another trip, looking forward to seeing how it will do the next time.

Dieselgem · 08-19-2020, 02:06 PM

This problem is begining to become a saftey issue. Sooner or later some one is going to get hit on the side of the road. How come nobody who is having the issue is filing a complaint. If this was anything else that cost this kind of money it would have been finished.

I saw the post that said other manufacturers are having issues, bull. Maybe an issue, but not a widespread problem leaving folks stranded. What is it going to take to fix it, not just one coach at the time? I am fearful this will go the way of the famous radiator.