Shop Frustrations

Regen: I'm not a mechanic and have no advice. My '09 Freightliner had a recurring regen problem at around 6 or 7000 miles and ultimately shut down and wouldn't restart. Fortunately, I was near Boise and was towed to a dealer. Whatever they did (EGR/exhaust gas re cycler valve) has held up for 299000 miles.

Shops in General: If at all possible, save your breakdowns until you're well out of range of a terminal. I had to bounce around between Portland and Seattle for a few days with no power steering. I finally got a load headed to CA, sent in my MAC and wound up at the dealer in Redding.

Shop techs are a lot like truck drivers: Despite their lack of experience, they all think they're the best there's ever been . . like the supervisor with 25 years of regen experience? A 3 or 4 year old technology?

A word of caution: Check your truck after every repair and B service in particular. I ran oil dry after 2 days because the drain plug hadn't been secured properly. Then, very recently, I had a fuel filter that had been so over torqued when it was installed, it collapsed and ultimately failed. That was a very expensive and time consuming roadside breakdown. 85 miles at 70 mph would have been nice for a change . . but not in a tow truck.

This truck has a recurring electrical nuisance problem. I've had it in terminal and dealer shops and, for the longest time, the service writers would look at me like I had a doughnut hole where my brain was supposed to be. That is until I was at the prequal desk in SLC (for another problem) when the Gremlin actually appeared and the service guy witnessed it! Talk about a harmonic convergence; the Detroit rep was standing about 3 feet away! He popped open a mysterious black box, replaced a solenoid and the problem went away . . for a few weeks . . at least.

 

What bothers me about the shops is this and I just found this out on Monday. I needed some work done on my truck, and I was heading home. I would leave them the keys and they could bring it in when ready. Nope, have to sit in line and wait for them to look at it and decide it fix now or later. If later, then I guess that I can go home and come back for it. As far as PM, as far as I know, sit in the long line and wait. I am based out of Cols. Do not know why just not leave the key, and after home time, come back and it is done, and they have 3 days to get to it.

 

Because the shop folks are paid by the hour and you are not. So 3 hours of your time is cheaper than 15 minutes of the grease monkey's.

 

I leased a truck from Swift recently. The deal was 23 days no payments, 30 days, Swift pays all repairs. First load out, had a breakdown-- $236. Tcalled load in Troutdale and put truck in shop-- 4 days and about $500 +. DPF light, check engine light, windshield washer pump, and 2 roof leaks. So second trip out, just about an hour east of Troutdale the DPF light and check engine light came back on. So I drove around a few thousand miles like that just trying to make some money and knowing I have some time to get it in the shop before the 30 days. So the other day while waiting for a shipper for over 8 hours started the truck up in the dark to re-enter their gate, the dash lights would not come on. Fooled around with fuses but they were all good, the lights came on by themselves after shutting the truck off and on again, however the ABS light was permanently lit now. So on my way back for hometime truck blew out a coolant hose in the middle of the Rockies and had to contact breakdown again to send mechanic to fix me up. $1016 and all they did was hacksaw off the little copper elbow pipe, and bypass the heater control valve which had broken. Put the truck in the shop Friday 18th, and they have to send it to the local Kenworth on Monday which is not expected to be seen until Tuesday.

 

That is good to know. Wonder if the same if you need a PM. Last time there saw at least 6 trucks in line waiting. That would be 6 hours that I could be home. Leave the key and have them bring it in when ready.

 

I hear ya Dodger. We have only been at one terminal shop that listened to us and worked efficiently an got the problem fixed. When we expressed our thankfulness to them they said some people take pride in doing a good job and working for their pay.
This was in Tx.
We had work done in another terminal shop an as you experienced they left a mess. Not only that, they also went thru our things. They didnt even bother to cover up the mess they left in our sleeper. We went to their fleet manager an let him know if anything was missing we were calling the police. Course he tried to down play it an we said no way!!! That is our home they just rifled thru, they had no business entering that part of our home an we considered it home invasion, even tho it is a company truck we should not be victims of people who think they have the right to paw thru other peoples belongings. They had gotten into our snacks an were openly eating them when we walked up to the truck!
The fleet manager appologized for them an we said we were calling phx an making a formal complaint! He turned pale an got them to appologize also, but that sucks ya cant even trust those who work on the trucks.