"This is the toughest code to find and fix" was the quote from the mechanic after he hooked up his computer. Not what we wanted to hear. This was on the 13th of DEC, day 3 of our first trip in our 3 day old coach.
Approaching the end of a very long travel day, the following symptoms and warnings happened simultaneously - Engine Malfunction light illuminated, CHECK ENGINE warning illuminated, audible warning sounded (buzzer), engine power rapidly derated. Pulled off to the shoulder and verified no other warnings or abnormalities were evident. Engine idling just fine. As it turned out, this happened just 1/4 mile short of our intended offramp for the night. Limped into the RV park (speed limited to approx. 50MPH) and started making phone calls. Of course, it's Sunday night.
First call was to Entegra who in turn called Spartan. Spartan called within 5 minutes and deciphered the SPN FMI codes into a Cummins 559 code which translates into -
Injector Metering Rail 1 Pressure - Data Valid but Below Normal Operational Range - Moderately Severe Level. The ECM has detected that fuel pressure is lower than commanded pressure.
The next call I received was from Coach-Net. Keep in mind, this is a 3 day old coach and we had not registered with Spartan, Cummins, Coach-Net, no one. I advised Spartan of this and was told no problem we can do that on the phone right now. Same with Coach-Net when they called approx. 15 minutes later because Spartan had called them. Coach-Net had already found an authorized Cummins Dealer less than 10 miles away.
The local Cummins Authorized Dealer, who was actually a Freightliner shop (Abilene, TX) was unable to see us until Tuesday. Tuesday morning we got hooked up to their computer and that's when their mechanic told us of the difficulty with this code. As it turned out, he wasn't kidding.
Long story short, parts were changed, limits (fuel flow) that were marginally out of tolerance were adjusted, filters changed etc. to no avail. We left Abilene about 4 days later only to have the same warnings and symptoms outside of Odessa, TX. This time we went to a Cummins shop, Southern Plains.
With this fault code, Cummins has a trouble shooting computerized checklist that the mechanic has to follow. It is monitored by Cummins, so no short cuts can be taken. The shop in Abilene, although Cummins authorized, does not have all the special tools required for this checklist. Because of this, it took their mechanic 3 full days to go through the checklist. At Cummins Southern Plains, Odessa, this took less than a day to complete.
Cummins ended up dispatching a field expert to Odessa, and after 4 more days and 3 additional failures while they were driving the coach, it was determined that a suction fuel line from the fuel tank or the tank itself was the culprit. Apparently with their computer hooked up while driving the coach, he noted the fuel pressure drop from 20 hg (normal range) to 10 hg just prior to the warnings presenting themselves again. Cummins Southern Plains is not capable of swapping out fuel tanks, so the coach had to be delivered to Lubbock Truck for the repairs. And of course, a new fuel tank had to be shipped to Lubbock.
When they removed the tank, silicone particles and pieces of welding slag were observed inside the tank. Spartan has asked that the tank be sent back to them so their engineers can take a look at the tank. They don't feel the silicone shavings are the problem.
We finally got the coach back on Thursday, some 6 1/2 weeks later. Spartan had the coach delivered to GA and thankfully, no fault codes or problems enroute
A few take aways from our prospective. Bad time of year for this to happen with Christmas and New Years and the days off associated with those holidays at the shops. Couldn't control that. Cummins Authorized Dealer vs. Cummins Shop. Go for the Cummins shop if possible. Although it probably didn't make much difference for us because in reality, neither one found the problem, just time savings because of the special tools involved running that checklist. Spartan was great on this. Offered to rent us a motorhome and not knowing if we had a toad, offered to rent us a vehicle. They will be reimbursing us for our expenses.
One final thought, this is not an Entegra problem for anyone that will want to think that. As always, Entegra has been and still is on top of this. This tank is probably a standard fuel tank used on scores of other brands. We were just unlucky that it was our coach. My intent in posting this was to follow the mission statement associated with this forum: Supporting thoughtful exchange of knowledge, values and experience among RV enthusiasts.
Hope this helps someone down the road, Brian
) Fur kids Carl & Alvin
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