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Bay Door Gremlin?
Hello,
We are on our maiden voyage with our 2009 Liberty H3 Elegant Lady. As many of you mentioned I can’t wipe the smile off my face.
We have a strange situation with our bay doors. It appears they will get “stuck” in the lock position only if I use the dash switch. But the dash light shows unlocked. Once they are stuck nothing but a key will unlock them, and if you unlock one and hit the lock switch again it won’t activate. Ive checked fuses and relays, reset Crestron, reset chassis breakers…I’ve searched the forum and haven’t found my scenario.
I was getting ready to take to prevost today and I noticed I had left the sewer bay open last night. I turned the ignition on to continue troubleshooting and the unlock indicator was gone but the open bay door indicator was showing. I turned off the ignition and the key Faub worked perfectly.
It seems like the open door alert clears the unlock alert. My questions are
1) Anyone seen this behavior?
2) how does the doors locked but indicating unlocked scenario happen in the first place?
3) Any ideas on root cause?
thanks in advance,
-jeff
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8 Replies
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Jeff,
The bay doors on an H3 have a micro-switch on the inside of the door behind a plastic panel that is connected to the electric door lock actuator. The switch is activated by the lock moving to lock or unlock. This switch is what turns the light on your dash.
What has happened on 2 out of 3 H’s I’ve owned is,,,,,,,the lock actuator mounting bolts come loose, and will not let the lock activate the micro switch all the way.
Just follow the wire harness on the back of the door, and you will see the panel.
First, I would lock the doors with the dash switch, then verify that all bay doors are actually locked. If they are, then it will be what I described above most likely. You can raise the doors and let them rest on a bucket or something, so that you can get behind them to work without someone holding the door up.
Take the panel off, and activate the switch with your finger until you find the culprit.
Sorry, I don’t have any picture where I am, maybe someone else will.
Good luck! And enjoy that bus!
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https://prevostcommunity.com/forum/threaddetails.asp?Category=Chassis%3E&ThreadID=8100#68052
Here is the link to the pictures of the lock actuator with the micro switch.
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Here’s what the H locks look like. I have all mine working, but gave up on the bay unlocked warning light and pulled the relay.
2005 XL Thompson Coach
Rarely tow anything behind us.
Sold: 1993 Liberty that we loved for 12 years. -
The 3 phillips head screws will sometimes work loose, because they go into plastic, and the lock jerks back and forth and can cause that. Then the switch will not be activated properly causing the light to stay on.
Also, not being lubricated will cause everything to stick and not travel far enough to depress switch arm.
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Car door lock actuators are inexpensive. To replace them from Marathon or Prevost keep tight hold on your wallet I would suspect . Just had 4 replace at CoachPro LLC. Jim’s Purcell’s guys showed me what goes wrong and how to feel by pulling and pushing the actuator to know its bad. About $1000 each with Jim’s group and the technical advise on what to look for goes with the replacement.
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My 2007 Prevost also had an intermit bay door dash light show up. At a rally Prevost tech with a lap – top did the fix.
The current Multi-flex operating system which replaced most all of the relays allows locating the individual problem door. I have this multi-plex system.
We are no longer picking up the signal from the problem door.
Jeff, your posting say’s 2009 Prevost so you have the Multi-plex operating system…The locking system is Prevost based.
AL
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Thanks for the great info guys. it seems the gremlins have switched parties they’ve gone from locked to open :-). Now the lock won’t activate on any of the doors. Once I get docked for a few days I’ll see if I can hunt it down.
thanks again,
-jeff
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Turn your dash key on, engine start not needed……let all the systems light up 30 seconds or so. The dash bay button seems to be the master in charge.
Every thing should work…I know it’s weird.
AL
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