Several weeks ago while traveling through Maryland in my 2004 Fleetwood Providence pusher, I experienced power loss while climbing or decending hills. While the engine would choke, it would emit white smoke from the exhaust. This continued for over 100 miles.
I took the coach to Freightliner Sterling of Hagerstown, MD. I provided a complete description of the problem. They kept the coach for four days, which meant I had to get a motel room for my wife, myself, and our 2-year-old grandson. I called Freightliner every day and they just kept giving me the runaround.
Finally, on the fourth day, I rented a car and went over to the dealer to retrieve some items from the coach. By chance I ran into the mechanic and asked how it was going. He advised that the coach was fixed and all that was wrong was debris in the fuel pump screen, which he cleaned out. I proceeded to the office and asked for my bill. It took them one-and-a-half hour to prepare my bill. They charged me $1,800. I was shocked, to say the least.
I feel that I have been ripped off and wonder if anyone in the forum can advise if these charges were excessive? I would think that with the description I provided it would not be a problem for a qualified mechanic to diagnose as either a bad injector or a bad primary filter or a bad fuel pump. It is a relatively new motorhome with only 20,000 miles, so that should eliminate the possible injector problem.
Thank you for any words or wisdom.
