Fuse for Clearance Lights on Phaeton

[malcolmgillingham]

I have a 2011 Phaeton 42'. While driving in the rain last week, when I stopped for gas, I noticed my front 5 LED clearance lights were off. I checked the lights, and they seemed to well siliconed around the edges of the lights. Does anybody know if there is a separate fuse for these clearance lights.? I could not find one that was labeled.

Thanks, in advance.

[dickandlois]

Malcolm,

The marker lights share the same fuse. The only item that comes to mind is the loose of the ground connection or power connection.

You might call the coach builder and ask where you might find the connection point in the wiring harness.
If you are comfortable checking the socket of the marker lights, have a meter and a length of wire to extend the ground lead.
You could open up one of the lights and see if one of the socket connections is reading a ground.
should you read a ground, then one could use the positive probe to insert power at the other socket connection.

This is not real challenging. Because of the low power required to light LED's. You can us a 9 volt battery, 2 clip leads and the meter probes / paper clip to apply power to the socket(with the lights turned off at the switch)to see if the other ones light.
If they light then it is a common wiring point to all the marker lights in question.

Rich.

[manholt]

Rich.

I would be surprised if he had LEDs. My 2011 Allegro Bus did not, and I had on/off shorting out problems with running lights. In Red Bay, I found out that, yes, the caulking was good, just the wrong kind & letting water in!

Carl

[malcolmgillingham]

Thanks for the help.

I got a hold of Tiffin. The tech there said front and back are same fuse.

Back clearance lights are working. Tells me to check behind drivers side head light, it has to be a connection problem.

I will try to check out either way.

Thanks

[huffypuff]

Carl I guess it depends on manufacture and model if it comes with LED or not. My 06 HR has LED for clearance, side markers and high mounted brake light but not regular tail/signal lights or front turn. Looks like in the future there will be LED head lights if there isn't already.

[manholt]

Ray. Head lights (high beam) yes...I don't want to look at that on a dark and lonely road!

Phaeton and Allegro Bus are both Tiffin, the only coach above ABus is Zephyr. The Z had LED in 11, I paid $960.00 for install in ABus.

HR was among the top 5 cookie cutter coaches! Tiffin was not one of them in 05'!

Carl

[jleamont]

I changed my marker lights on top to LED replaced the headlamps to LED with halo's and front turn signals to LED. My coaches front lamps are from a 1997-2006 Ford Econoline, rear are from a 1992-1996 Ford Econoline (no LED available for these yet, mine has the separate amber turn signal). All of the top marker lights I changed to LED with a kit from Bargman that just plugs into the existing socket.

The original headlamps were terrible at night, I had to drive with the high beams on just to see and no one had ever blinked at me to turn them down.

[manholt]

They will blink at you now! Probably say a few unkind words also....go out and turn on your high beam at night, then look at them...you'll still be seeing spots over coffee in am!

[bogler]

We have a 2011, and there was some confusion about fuses for clearance lights. Apparently some units were built without inline fuses while others (ours included) were built with the fuses. If your unit has them, they will be hanging from the wiring harness that goes up to the roof area and you should be able to see them either from the generator compartment or in the rear above the taillights. The front and back lights are fused separately on ours. Sounds like you just need to find the fuse holder and put in a new fuse.

BTW, if you are a member of the Tiffin Owners Forum (TiffinRVNetwork.com) this subject has been discussed more than once. If you're not a member, you're missing out on some great help from fellow owners!

[traveldawg]

Tiffin had a recall because the front & rear marker lamps could leak causing a short. This included certain 2011 Phaetons. If you are the first owner and have not received a recall notice by now you likely have a separate fuse for the front clearance lights and another for the rear.

What they did was put a fuse in-line to the feed for the lamps where the wire goes up to them. Front fuse should be found by opening genni compartment and checking wire bundle on DS. I believe rear is on the bundle on the PS side.

I wrote Tiffin as to whether my VIN had a recall. It didn't, they started including the fuse before mine was built. I have a 2011.

Pretty sure our light are not LEDs. Either way it doesn't matter.

[ekillen@paonline.com]

Our 2011 Phaeton has led clearance lights. Due to water getting into the clearance lights, Tiffin had a recall where a fuse was added as stated in the above post. This recall was sent to all Tiffin owners with coaches that had the problem. Recall included instructions and the fuse assembly to add to the front and rear clearance lights. We received the recall notice and fuses and installed them. I can say that the sealant used does not keep the water out of the lights. We replaced all our lights, and sealed the back of the Command Clearance lights with Clear Pro Seal and this has seemed to fix the problem so far. All ten of our clearance lights had moisture in them.

[obedb]

Moisture in clearance and ID lights (cluster of three) on 18 wheelers was the rule rather than the exception through most of my long career. Pop a lens off with a small screwdriver and replace the filament bulb. They still worked for more miles than would probably be on a 2011 Motorhome before they failed. Not being snotty in this observation, but why the trouble with something as basic as exterior lighting on a rig that costs a big wad of dough??? Sign me puzzled!!

[malcolmgillingham]

Thanks for the help I talked to the Tiffin service, followed up on checking the wiring cluster behind driver side head light. I found a in line 1 amp fuse

replaced it, everythig is working now ( bad place to put a fuse ) should be more protcted

Malcolm

[ekillen@paonline.com]

Moisture in clearance and ID lights (cluster of three) on 18 wheelers was the rule rather than the exception through most of my long career. Pop a lens off with a small screwdriver and replace the filament bulb. They still worked for more miles than would probably be on a 2011 Motorhome before they failed. Not being snotty in this observation, but why the trouble with something as basic as exterior lighting on a rig that costs a big wad of dough??? Sign me puzzled!!

The moisture problem was causing the circuit board in the led light to short out and the power circuit had a 10 amp fuse in it. The results in some cases was a fire or melting of the clearance light, which produced smoke inside the motorhome. The led lights used are made by Command. The fix added a 1 amp fuse to the wire supplying power to the cap mounted clearance lights so it would blow if any of the cap clearance lights developed a problem. Not a fix of the real problem, but it prevents a fire.

[w0ger]

On 10/1/2015 at 10:37 AM, bogler said:

If your unit has them, they will be hanging from the wiring harness that goes up to the roof area and you should be able to see them either from the generator compartment 

Thank you so much for the tip that the fuse is located by the generator. I had crawled up under the dash looking for the fuse holder. After finding your post, we made quick work of the repair. Thank you!! 

[wildebill308]

Welcome to the forum. Glad you were able to fix your problem.

Bill

[f433921]

Placing inline fuses doesn't say much for their design.  One would expect something better for what we pay for the rigs.

Jim

[jleamont]

This is common on Tiffin. My friends Bus looks like spaghetti with in line fuses and non weather tight connections all over the place. 

Im glad you found the culprit, now onto why it opened?

[dickandlois]

2 hours ago, jleamont said:

This is common on Tiffin. My friends Bus looks like spaghetti with in line fuses and non weather tight connections all over the place. 

Im glad you found the culprit, now onto why it opened?

w0ger, I agree with Joe ! Your best starting point might be Tiffin. 

Possibilities are short in an LED - if you coach is equipped with them.  

Have you had the windshield replaced or some repair work on the front of the coach?

Wire would be running through the front firewall in most cases and wire could be rubbing on a sharp edge on the edge. This would cause a direct ground - this short would also tend to come and go also.

Has there been any  interior work done on the interior area - when the inside trim around the windshield was removed ? Some coach builders run the wiring behind this trim and then the wiring exits out through a hole in the front fiberglass behind the top marker lights. 

Rich.