Intermittent Starting Problem: 2007 Journey

[wef94]

My 2007 Winnegago 36-ft Journey on a Freightliner chassis with Caterpillar C7 engine and 6-speed Allison transmission sometimes will not crank. Often when the key is turned on, but before it is turned to the cranking position, all of the obvious electrical functions of the dash come on and work as usual except that the transmission control display does not light up. When this occurs, turning the key to crank gets no cranking response.

On most such occurrences, repeated attempts at turning the key off and back on will result in the transmission control display eventually turning on and the engine cranking. However, sometimes it fails, despite repeated attempts to crank and repeated removal and reinsertions of relays and fuses in the electrical control panels.

On two occasions, the fiddling with the relays and fuses didn't work and the coach required towing to a Freightliner shop where they fiddled with the relays and fuses and finally got it to crank.

On the last occurrence, a circuit board in the rear electrical panel was deemed the problem and replaced. However, the problem persists.

I would very much appreciate any constructive advice on getting this problem fixed and/or any work-around that can be offered to manually induce the system to crank when it fails to crank normally. As it is, the RV is too risky to use.

[wolfe10]

wef94,

Welcome to the FMCA Forum.

One important statement you made is that things on the dash (such as dash HVAC fan) work when this happens, but that the Allison shift pad does not illuminate.

Check with Freightliner, but on most chassis, there are TWO fuses/positive wires for the Allison-- one for "memory" and one that activates when you turn the key on.

Also, use your Allison shift pad to check for Diagnostic Codes:

With key on/engine off/Allison shift pad illuminated, hit the up and down arrows at the same time. This would bring up Oil level. Hit both of them again. That will bring up d-1 (for Diagnostic code 1). If no code, it will flash d-1 and then - -. This means there are no stored codes. If there is a code, hit the mode button to bring up d-2...... Pull out your Allison manual or look at Allison's website to determine what the codes are.

[dickandlois]

wef94, Welcome to the FMCA Forum !

Brett, got his post in before me so lets see what you find out.

Is you coach model WKP36G or WKP36SG ?

Rich.

[wef94]

Thanks for your responses, Brett and Rich.

I checked for diagnostic codes and there were none listed in the TCM/ECU. No help there.

I've never solicited help from the Freightliner factory and wonder what is the best way to do so. Any suggestions?

By the way, Rich, my Journey is a model WKP36G.

wef90

[dickandlois]

wef90,

When the key pad lit up, did you try to start the engine?

When you call Freightliner factory service you will need the last 6 characters of the Vin. number. They are located in Gaffey SC.

Good people that will do there best to get you some good information!

CUSTOMER ASSISTANCE OR CONCERNS
Contact our Customer Support Center at
1-800-FTL-HELP (1-800-385-4357)

Factory Service Center

Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation
552 Hyatt St.
Gaffney, SC 29341
(phone) 864-487-1700

Thanks for the feed back. The one item that gets many of the coach owners and service centers, are bad or intermittent grounds.

Your Cat ECM ignition signal connects to pin 70. There is a connection from the same wire to the Grid heater and that goes through a Diode-They can be problematic.

The signal will pass through a relay that is powered when key is in the start position (if memory survives my correctly)

With your setup the transmission TCM is in the start circuit - looking for a park brake signal,transmission in neutral signal and it could be going through a circuit that is verifying that the slid(s) are in-Jacks are up.

The wiring changes form time to time and model to model.

Rich.