-
Strange happenings
On our way back (early – storm coming) from grandkids visit in Florida and New Orleans. 1300 miles each way. Great trip and no problems with our 2001 Marathon XLII XLII #692. The DD series 6 only has 67000 on it. We are the second owners.
Took on fuel at a Love’s in St Joe, MO and about 60 miles later check engine light came on. Never has happened before. No detectable problems with operation. Runs like a top.
About 100 miles later stopped at Interstate Power in Omaha and had them read the codes. Showed 43, 46, and 64 but all dates old. Tech said dates don’t mean anything. So he cleared the codes and said to get things looked if it happens again and none of the codes would interfere with going on home – Sioux Falls. Nice folks and no charge for the service!!!
Here is where the “fun” begins. Left their shop and about half a block later both tach and spedo stopped working. Nothing else. The tach turned all the way round and is still in that spot.
Back to their shop. Tech looked at breakers, relays, etc in box in engine compartment and said all looked ok. No code ever showed up. Still cleared from before. Said let it set with everything turned off and try again. After 10 minutes off, restarted and still same. They said their really good DD tech won’t be here until in AM so Lisa took the toad and headed for home. I am afraid to drive it the final 180 miles to home until I can be sure the ECM not going to crap out and leave me by the road. So they said pull it by building and wait overnight. In order to get to that spot, had to drive some and while doing that spedo worked!!. Tach still non functional in full wound out position.
Any thoughts? What is going on? Safe to try to make home and have DD folks there look at it? Appreciate the help. For now waiting in Omaha
Mike/Lisa Bess
2001 Marathon XLII
F150 toad
Sioux Falls, SD
-
2 Replies
-
Same thing happened to our 2005 XL-II Marathon. It’s the truck shop lap top, plus a poor ground connection with there plug. One of those codes the tech said paid no attention is a transmission code (memory guess), and another your tech wasn’t paying attention.
There is a simple trick to return RPM needle.
Send me e-mail with your phone number….it’ll be easier to talk.
AL
*your e-mail is not open
-
Here is the rest of the story. Al was kind enough to call and told me that doing a laptop reading from the reader port was the problem and he had seen it before and DD knows all about it. Also tapping on the glass can sometimes loosen the tach back to life. I did a lot of banging but no joy so night in the parking lot.
Next morning same tech comes out and hooks onto the reader port and says tach getting signal from ECM and Vanner putting 13.7 to ECM. Pull out and now tach still pegged and spedo back to not working. After a few miles stopped and waited with engine off and now have spedo but still no tach. Approaching Sioux City, IA decided to try Al’s fix again and rapped the tach glass. It worked but all hell broke loose. Got CEL and SEL!! Guages and performance ok but dove for the nearest exit which took me to a Love’s. SEL went out and came on and then off in process. Al had told me he had figured this all out through Prevost Pass so I gave them a call and they hooked me with a DD guy in Nashville, Rick. He listened patiently to my story and then said that DD was indeed aware of this and in Nashville they had seen it often. Apparently the laptop plugged into the reader port shoots a small current through the ECM and it goes nuts with tach and spedo problems common. I had flash read the SEL and the CEL when I stopped and got a 25 (all good) and a 46 (low turbo speed). He said ok to continue but to expect a lot of weird stuff until gremlins got satisfied. He also that the code for low ECM battery that came up before shouldn’t be ignored and may indicate need for a new ECM. Hmmmm
So hit the road and trip to Sioux Falls uneventful.
So I have learned a few things and have a few questions. First, Al Herman is a genius. Close to Jon, Tom, and Jeff Rowe. He was spot on. Second, Prevost Pass really works. Couldn’t believe how fast they got me hooked up with somebody who actually knew what they were talking about. Third, keep people with laptops away from that reader port.
Question now is where am I on things. Apparently the original CEL was a false reading and everything else followed from there. Do I need a new ECM? The $$ are ouch but so is being towed off the road. Does that ECM battery code reflect the little internal battery or the feed from the Vanner? What should I do about that 46 code? Is that just part of all the fun?
Big thanks to Al.
Log in to reply.