I have a cat 259d3 with 450 hrs I doing a snow removal job and I got a red code that said speed motor something and the machine stoped and parking brake came on. I looked and can’t find the sensor so I kept running it for a second to load it on trailer and then a bunch of codes came up right joystick left joystick right left voltage both travel motor sensor 1 and 2 voltage below and above normal the parking brake is on and machine won’t move and can’t get parking brake to release. Turned off machine it worked for a second then did it again now won’t move at all
Post your machine serial number.
CW918626
CW918626
From the records I see your machine has the Advanced Display in the RH panel. Can you provide a list of the eight Diagnostic Codes that you have please.?
E875-2 Machine Low System Voltage Check the battery and alternator 3700-3 Machine Loader Bucket Inclinometer Sensor Voltage Above Normal 3700-4 Machine Loader Bucket Inclinometer Sensor Voltage Below Normal 3700-8 Machine Loader Bucket Inclinometer Sensor Abnormal Frequency Pulse Width or Period 41-4 Machine 8 Volt DC Supply Voltage Below Normal 2474-3 Machine Left Joystick Forward/Reverse Position Sensor Voltage Above Normal 2474-4 Machine Left Joystick Forward/Reverse Position Sensor Voltage Below Normal 2475-3 Machine Right Joystick Forward/Reverse Position Sensor Voltage Above Normal 2476-3 Machine Left Joystick Left/Right Position Sensor Voltage Above Normal 2476-4 Machine Left Joystick Left/Right Position Sensor Voltage Below Normal 2477-3 Machine Right Joystick Left/Right Position Sensor Voltage Above Normal 2477-4 Machine Right Joystick Left/Right Position Sensor Voltage Below Normal 2685-8 Machine Left Drive Motor Speed Sensor #1 Abnormal Frequency Pulse Width or Period 2686-8 Machine Left Drive Motor Speed Sensor #2 Abnormal Frequency Pulse Width or Period 2687-8 Machine Right Drive Motor Speed Sensor #1 Abnormal Frequency Pulse Width or Period 2688-8 Machine Right Drive Motor Speed Sensor #2 Abnormal Frequency Pulse Width or Period
The E875-2 Event is potentially causing all the others. Can you start by measuring the voltage across the battery terminals in a few different situations:- 1. Key off. Engine stopped. 2. Key on. Engine stopped. 3. Engine running at Low Idle. 4. Engine running at High Idle. Please ensure that you put the probes of your multimeter right on the centre of the battery posts.
I dont have a Multimeter. But right before all those codes popped up a red message came on in red can't remember the exact words. but it happened on my 249d when the final drive sensor harness came off. plug it back in worked. so When that happen last night I got out and cleaned all the snow out of the tracks looking for the sensor and harness but couldn't find them I was able to find this online you can't even see the sensor to see if the wires are broken or something. so, I just cleared the code, and it ran for while then would stop red code would come up i would ignore it trying to finish cleaning everything up then all those codes I listed above came on and the machine stopped and i could not get the parking brake to release so I cleared all the codes turned the machine off then back on worked for a while. did that a few times then I had to turn the master switch off to get it to release the parking brake. Finally, I was worried, so I got it back on my trailer and it stopped soon as it got on. we messed with it forever nothing would work. towed it home 2 hours later went out started it no codes in active anymore didn't move it back and forth cuss it was on the trailer and I didn't want to risk something happening at 1 am. but i sat in it for an hour lifting the arms up and down tilt back and forth and would bump the forward reverse joystick nothing happen. It has a premium warranty and i was going to Bring it into Cat on Monday Morning not sure if they will look At it. But I am falling behind on my Jobs and thought there might be something simple to access the speed sensor they buried behind everything you can imagine.
Why would it go away after the machine sat for a while
It's unfortunate you don't have a multimeter. Without one it's bordering on impossible to troubleshoot. I can understand your thinking regarding the travel motor speed sensors, but that would not explain all the Codes for the joystick and bucket inclination position sensors. The other key Diagnostic Code is 41-4 Machine 8 Volt DC Supply Voltage Below Normal. All the sensors on the machine are supplied with 8v DC from the ECM. If that supply goes AWOL, possibly due to low alternator output, then every sensor on the machine will register a Diagnostic Code. That's why my first suggestion was to check the battery voltage both stopped and running to see what the alternator is doing. If it checked out OK then the next move would be to run the troubleshooting for the 41-4 Code.
Nige, is this "8 volt supply voltage" the same as a OBD2 equiped cars "5 volt reference voltage"? If so and he's getting a pile of codes, knowing he has low reference voltage, something is pulling that down or a bad ECM. Does he have the ability to read his codes in the order they are generated? If so, look at the very first code. Unplug the device or sensor related to that code, clear and recheck. If that's the only code and 41-4 is gone BINGO. Of course that only works if Cat posts their codes in the order they occur. If he had a multimeter and could monitor that 8 volt line, he could disconnect one sensor/device at a time while watching that voltage
They don't unfortunately. The problem is that low alternator output can not only create low system voltage but at the same time create low 8v sensor supply power (generated from 12v system voltage inside the ECM) that powers all the sensors. Sensors are powered from, and grounded back to, the ECM. See the example below. As I see it the first step is to check alternator output, and if that checks out OK the second step is to troubleshoot the 8v supply. There is a fairly simple diagnostic procedure for that - but again it needs a multimeter that the OP deson't have. There's the problem. Usually if you unplug a device that has an Actve low voltage Code, that Code will simply change to a different Active Code showing open circuit. Active Codes can't be cleared, so unplugging won't work.
I got a bolt meter from the Naibor when I went to pull the rubber protector off the batt terminal it was kinda stuck it’s -1 degrees and my machine was broke outside on trailer so I got a small flat head screw driver and very easily went to pry the red rubber cover off and the whole battery terminal came off I can move it all around. So I’m trying to get them separated but it’s cold and rubber is stiff when it’s cold is there a small chance this is the issue for everything. The first code was the e875 been there for weeks I talked to cat and they had me look up the voltage in my display at the time it was good enough and they said it’s not super bad but will get u on the list to bring it in
Ok so I got the battery all tight I could tell that they had a zip tie to tight and it pulled the back of the battery cable up and they left it or didn’t know from the factory. So now In the service menu under diagnostics under view events view active says nine under logged says e875-2 Under service menu under diagnostics under view diagnostics under view active it says 3700-3 but I’m guessing it should say that I work in the cold and that broke the other day under logged it has all the codes from before with 1 new one 1628-3 machine armrest position switch voltage above normal. But I did unplug that last night and plug it back in. And in the status parameters menu it says voltage 14.5 I think it was close to 12 before. Key off engine off 13.93 Key on engine off 12.58 Engine on low idle 14.53 Engine on high idle 14.56 This is what I set the meter on hood that’s the right setting Also do you know what happens when u select the usb software update says are you sure the display will reboot in update mode. I know the machine has product link not sure what all that does but I can see some on my computer when I log into cat
So assuming his alternator is good, he could unplug any random device and check for that +8 vdc and see if he has +8, less then +8 or zero volts. I'm not suggesting he try this but before I were to fork out the money for a ECM, I would confirm the ECM had or not have a solid +8. There's only a couple of ways to do that while isolating the rest if the machine. I don't know Cat so I will refrain from my seat of the pants instructions for that. What I will say is, if there is zero volts out of the ECM, I would not just throw in a new one because of the high probability of a short down line of the ECM that would most likely fry the new one as soon as you flip the switch
Repaired the wiring harness for this. 3700-3 Machine Loader Bucket Inclinometer Sensor Voltage Above Normal No more codes at all thank you guys. I think it’s crazy that a loose battery cable ended up locking the machine out where you couldn’t even turn off the parking break and with the bucket up stuck in the machine
I'm glad you got to the bottom of it. As I said from the start the clue was the low system voltage. Everything else diagnostically was pretty much guaranteed to come from that. One thing you may not be aware is that bettery terminals do loosen over time so what you evperienced was not so unusual. You really need to check them periodically. I'd check with your dealer. I'm not 100% sure how Product Link updates work these days. They might update over the same celullar network that the PL transmits on but I would not swear to that. Please come back and update with the dealer response. I'd be interested to know what it is.