Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The SOB's at Freightliner El Paso accomplished almost nothing in spite of charging a great deal and wasting eight days of my time. I got almost to Deming, New Mexico and had a sidewall blowout on a front tire. That took two full days of screwing around to get a front tire replaced. And to get the other tire replaced as well because of cracks in its sidewalls. I had the air filter replaced. It was clogged and changing it significantly improved the performance of the engine. But it still spontaneously shuts down under heavy load, i.e. highway speeds. I had assumed that fixing the air filter and thus the air pressure problem would also fix the shutting down problem since I assumed that the engine was being throttled off by too little air.

Now I have no idea at all what the problem is. I drove back to the mechanics shop in Deming that changed the air filter (it is a huge cylinder and hard to get to). They said that they didn't do such work and that I had to go to an RV service department to get it fixed and the nearest ones were in Las Cruces. So I backtracked fifty miles to Las Cruces. And learned the exact opposite. The RV service department I spoke to said they did NOT do that kind of work. So my trip to Las Cruces was pointless. But since I am here I am going to talk to yet another mechanic tomorrow. So it goes on and on. I cannot see a way get out of this without solving it.

While it is discouraging and dispiriting, it is still true that I have gotten three of the problems fixed: the tailpipe, the air filter, and the tires. If I can get the engine shutting down problem fixed, I think I can go home.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:13 AM

    What an amazing coincidence!!! I'm going to be in Las Cruse this weekend. If you're still there, let's have lunch.

    Actually, the above paragraph is true except for the part about me being in Las Cruses.

    Good luck on getting you mp fixed.

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  2. Anonymous12:02 AM

    Engines shut down for lots of reasons. Does this thing have a carburetor? Perhaps the fuel-to-air ratio is too high, or the fuel pump needs replacing.

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  3. Dear Nick,
    Fuel injectors, no carburetor. Mixture, fuel pump, all good theories but they don't explain the complete electrical shutdown.

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