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Interesting ride home……
I left Jeff’s place in Tennessee for the ride home….(btw, Jeff’s shop is great and worth the trip). I’m making east tennessee luxury coach an annual stop on our way south each year for maintenance and “de-bugging…LOL)
All was well until I was heading into Cincinnati. Coming down the steep grade into town just south of Ciincinnati I noticed the air guages started bouncing and not recovering as quickly as usual when the brakes where applied. Stopped at a rest area and heard a HUGE air leak in the engine area (drivers side behind the radiator) and the coach was having trouble keeping the air up. It sounded just like when I blow out my garage with the air compressor…it was that loud! I found the air leak quickly just didn’t know how to get to it. A quick call to Jeff to discuss and he suggested I go to a prevost dealer about 15 miles north of Cincinnati. I made it there, and again with Jeff’s help, the tech found an access panel that could be unscrewed behind the tag wheel. The repair shop was talking about taking out the radiator and CAC so I said WAIT A MINUTE….let me call Jeff back.
4 hours later they put in a coupling like a quick disconnect to repair the line..I suggested that he use a “screw” style coupling but he said he uses these “all the time on big trucks” and they work fine. The air leak was on the converter side of the coach and the petcock in the drivers bay would shut off the air to that leak. Still not sure what it runs but I’m going to figure that out later. At this point I’m really curious what it takes to be a “prevost service center”….apparently the mechanic told me one or two people where “prevost” certified so I asked to talk to one of them. He knew a bunch about the engine but not much at all about the coach. He obviously wasn’t working in the shop since he came out looking more like a customer service person. I never saw him again and he never came back out to see what was wrong.
Back on the road again………70 miles north I hear that familiar “hissing” again. The auxiliary air guage drops to 90 and keeps bouncing between 80-90..Front and rear air this time drop from 120 to about 100 and dropping to 80-90 at times. Pulled into the rest area and sure enough the air is leaking from the same blown air line as before. That repair was $446.00 and hindsite tells me I should have INSISTED for the screw on coupling. BTW a quick call to the prevost service center and all he could say was “you can turn around and drive it back or go to our Dayton shop and they will look at it.” I suggested he stick the same mechanic who insisted on not fixing it my way get his ass in a car and come here and fix it…..he couldn’t do that so I will address that one with my credit card company.
Thanks to Jeff I knew that if I shut off the valve in the drivers bay the air would stop and it did. All guages went back up to normal. While I was looking behind the tag wheel into the engine compartment I noticed that the exhaust pipe, coming from the engine (at the turbo I believe) and connecting to the actual muffler was rusted where it connected to the muffler. Once the coach cooled I lifted the heat wrap off the pipe and to my surprise there was about 1 inch still connected to the actual muffler and more than 50% open on the side, no clamp left. That would explain the black exhaust on the side of my coach near the CAC unit which never happened before.
Called it a night, drank a few pops and went to sleep. I called the prevost service center in Flint Michigan (been there before they are good) and arranged to drop off the coach on the way home….So there my girl sits for the next week or so while they get the parts and fix the exhaust and once again the air leak. Well, at least when I get her back she will be completely serviced. All air leaks pretty much taken care of and ready for our departure in late October for the winter.
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10 Replies
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What a nightmare Jim, I think a credit card dispute is in your future.
I’m trying to figure out what line you’re talking about and if it could be turned off with a valve allowing you to continue on your way, what accessory did it supply.
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Is that the Volvo repair shop on the north end of Cincy by I-275?
Davy
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No, it was the MACK shop off I-75 and Sharon street exit…..with a big sign that said Prevost Service Center!
I’m going to figure out what exactly is operated by that line when I get the coach back. Since it is a “converter” valve maybe it isolated all the converter air options? I drove from Dayton to Flint Michigan with the valve off and the coach air guages where normal the entire way.
On my coach there are very few things that run on air… (dump valves, step cover) nothing else is air actuated. The leak would also explain why my Jun Air unit was cycling about every 10 minutes when it used to cycle 4-5 times a day! When I was out for the last few weeks I would simply turn it off as to not burn it out and the only time I turned it on was to dump the tanks. Nothing seemed to be affected when it was off.
According to Royale Phoenix, the Jun Aire on my coach is integrated to do everything the prevo air system does when the coach is shut down. So to me that must mean one more item, the slide seals maintaining pressure. HWH has it’s own compressor in the first bay to tweak the level so I don’t believe the Jun Air is tied into that but I could be wrong.
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If Robert Hitt is on this maybe he can comment. Here is my understanding of getting certification from Prevost.
Prevost has seminars at their service centers around the country for commercial operators. Typically the seminars are relating to the coach and its systems. They range from the electrical systems to AC systems to converter specific seminars, etc. At the end of the training the person attending gets a certificate. I am presuming attendees that receive the course certificate can say they are certified.
I have had the benefit of attending courses (electrical systems and AC systems) and I can tell you they are intense, hands on courses and everybody that attends has the opportunity to ask questions until they understand the topic. When I attended we had the opportunity after sufficient classroom work to go into the shop and work on a real bus. This was clearly a hands on way of learning and the instructors such as Robert Hitt know their stuff and then some.
But………the adage use it or lose it applies here. I remember a lot of what we covered, but I also have forgotten a lot. If I were to work on a coach every day it would be a different story. So a certified mechanic that does not have the opportunity to work on coaches such as ours on a daily basis is going to have a degree of knowledge, but will never come up to the standards the Prevost techs have at the various Prevost service centers. A good mechanic is always going to be able to fix the obvious problems. But I suspect a Volvo mechanic is going to be lost if he is confronted with an accessory system problem, especially if there is some overlap between a pure Prevost system and one in which both Prevost and the converter have shared space in the coach.
But in an emergency someone that possesses at least a little knowledge is going to be a big help, but may also need help from you in how to access the Prevost shop manual, pneumatic system diagrams, electric system diagrams and all of the other tools Prevost provides on line.
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Jon,
Your post couln’t be more true! The first thing I asked was how many busses do they get in here? The answer, hardly any so they most definately did NOT have many oportunities to work on the coaches. My point was that there are “tons” of service providers when you use the service locator app BUT just because they are a “certified prevost” center doesn’t mean they understand the workings of the coach any better than the owners. I think in the future I’ll stick with Jeff’s shop or prevost Nashville or Jacksonville when I want something done by folks who truly know our busses inside and out.
If it wasn’t for Jeff, they where about to remove the entire radiator side to get at the leak. I would of thought that they knew where the access points to the engine are or have the ability to find it at the dealer. I know it is MY bus but for a novice like me, I expect an air leak to have the proper fix the first time.
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When I owned my Wanderlodge I’d often start a trip heading south so I could stop at the factory for service. With the closing of the factory I had to be very selective in whom I let wrench the coach; I ended up doing most everything myself. A couple of experiences like Jim mentions is all it takes to realize what we have in our Prevost Service Centers. I’d drive a thousand miles to let Prevost work on my bus. Luckily I don’t have to because Prevost TN (Goodlettesville) is only 300 miles away. The primary reason I bought a Prevost is because of the Service Centers, parts, factory support, and dependable recourse in case of a screw-up or trouble. If I wanted to trust the probability of getting good service from a random heavy-duty truck/bus repair center I’d still own my Wanderlodge! When Prevost closes shop I’ll be shopping for another bus! Till then I’m going to take advantage of everything they have to offer. Being without a factory gives one lots of appreciation.
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Jim most of the shops on that web page r okay at the Detriot and Trans part but the Prevost or converter part for get it , use Prevost shops or Jeff’s period!!!!!!
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I think that is sound advice Peter…..BTW, I saw your book and browsed it while at Jeff’s. I don’t think these service centers even like working on coaches compared to the big trucks. My last coach was a 45′ Dynamax built on a freightliner columbia chassis. Truck shops where perfect for that rig!
The common complaint seems to be that there is simply “no room to work”. My muffler repair will mean they need to access the back of the engine thru the small panel behind the tag axle. Not much space there to do repairs. I’m hoping the Flint Center (Graff Trucking) can at least fix the air leak in the engine compartment since it is so obvious where it is.
This will be the last time I go to a “truck” shop with my bus. They put wheels on these things so we can drive to the best service centers not just the closest one’s.
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Example: last few days a fellow prevost owner broke a power steering hose–prevost quote 3 DAYS plus hose + tow to their shop. 4 to 5 thousand dollars!! After some understanding help–he accomplished the task for $239 dollars the cost of the hose plus some fluid.. By the way less than a day most of time was cleaning out his bays to get to the hose routing, Break was above fuel tank. I Agree if you have the means and your skills are as a totaly unrelated field. Go to Prevost!! If not just remember another human did the work in the first place..I don’t do computer repairs or heart surgery.. So if you can afford it go for it. no question the best!! My pay grade any major repair I could not do would bankrupt my bus ownership.. If you need help ask/ speaking to the ones that are in a simular situation as my self..Some one may have been there and done that. Bob
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Bob, I followed that repair. Amazing! With 100 feet of high pressure hose in our buses, I’m surprised that we don’t see power steering hoses go more often.
Gerald
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