Drive a 2015 Western Star 4700, has had its issues where yesterday was a little different. Started up just fine, allowed the electronics to cycle and stabilize then started. Performed my walkaround. Let air build to drier purge, tested brakes for leaks and then left yard. Got roughly 1/2 mile away and thought speedometer seemed low for sixth gear about then the gauges cycles to Zero, all of them but truck still running. Then dash lights went out and came back. So wheeled off at gas station, cycled system down shutting everything off counted to ten slowly turned on key and watched gauges exercise full sweep, started and still no instrumentation. Back to shop. Used spare truck for morning, mechanics called WS dealer and downpowered everything for five minutes all came back, tried it several times before calling ‘good’. Seems WS’s use similar SAM module as Frt Lnr. Had to ask, why did the company opt to electric Gauge functions that can become so useless when mechanicals are so simple? Air, boost, oil pressures all went away as are Electrical from the module to the instruments. What a waste of time and effort.
I suspect its because they were made somewhere overseas by laborers making $3.00 an hour.
Sometimes it's good to check for overcharge, if it acts up again.
One of the first things the Mekaniks here looked at, 14.1v at idle and only up to 14.2 at 1000.
Well then just mount a knife switch on the side of the cab or dash for fast disconnect.
Currently my truck will set the cruise on its own if the switch is on don’t have to touch anything else just turn the cruise on our shop looked at it today and decided it would have to go to freightliner once they get a decent truck for me to swap into also can’t use high idle runs straight up to 1600 if you try to set it
you didn't specify what high idle is. I think 1600 is a fine high idle!
What you have there is one of the first driverless trucks.
Because it is cheaper to run wires than run hoses. They can dance around all they want and claim "better diagnostics because its all computerized", but its simply a cost savings feature. (X) $$$'s cheaper per truck x 1,000's of trucks per year= bonus for the stock price gain/ CEO. They sure didn't make the truck cheaper when they dropped their cost.
That sounds like the same problem the early Navistar 3 box systems had. You would go through the entire troubleshooting tree and not find anything. Then cycle the key and everything is perfect. Having disconnected and reconnected everything somehow reestablished the communication (for a while) This sucked a lot. No parts replaced, no billable hours. So you just wasted 2 hours for nothing. As far as why electronic over wired, you only need 4 wires for an electronic device. Power , ground, CAN high and CAN low. Plus, like vetech said, some foreign kid assembles PC boards for $3 / month.
On some of the w/stars they use a couple of 100amp(i think) fuses mounted under a cover on the engine side of the firewall. I've seen them get green and crusty and make poor or intermittent contact which may cause voltage fluctuations. Thats likely not the cause but it never hurts to check them. Usually if they are the problem, its dead on the side of the road
These ecm & wiring discussions-First place half of the connections you can't even reach, I love this crud of do a drop test and check pin #so and so. Half the crap isn't even listed unless you have access to factory wiring diagram associated with that vin #. Freightliner five control modules KW and Pete the same. PacCar and Freightliner both have had recall after recall on wiring harnesses alone. Too many features is the problem. As far as saving money when it's on the build line for the manufacture, Ha. The money is in the replacement parts-price out a headlight switch or a gauge for a PacCar product. If a truck is kept past 6 years you've lost your ass, because the repairs will far out weigh a payment and the repairs will never end. Pretty soon your married to it. P4 headlight for a 2019 Cascadia $752.00, magnetic variable speed water pump DD15 $930.00 about the size in your car. Change the heater core better bring a bottle of acetaminophen. It's molded into the dash-you cut it out and glue a supplied piece back to cover the hole. I don't talk about this crap much because I don't want 5 pm's every morning. sorry. American made and designed crap.
Yeah my truck is a 17 Columbia glider with 573000 on it right now the mechanics at my terminal are just glorified parts changers they won’t do a clutch or trans and it usually takes them about three times to get a wheel seal right minor issues I’ll fix myself it’s just faster and I know it was done right
well I don't blame them, replacing a gear box or clutch in a columbia is a real turd of a job.
I’ve never had to do one in a Columbia or Coronado which is about all we have now the shop they send them to has a 1 day turn around usually
It's one day, one day of hate.
I have several colorful Expletive words that get used often when into a machine that is a PITA to work on, the Allis was NO exception, they KW is earning a few currently..
I swear at them constantly, and I find that certain vehicles take on the persona of the ******* that drives it. But what really causes me to grin is when someone who thinks their above it all and so mature they wouldn't cuss if they had a mouthful of ****. Then they run into the machine that was designed by a goblin and is full of goblins. You can see the blood pressure-face and ears red as a beet then finally they loose it, and show their human side. But of coarse I will help them along and poke them with a sharp stick.
Always fun poking the cat in the cage!!