Problems With 2012 Cascadia and Schneider Maintenance

I'm having the same idle issue with my 2013. Haven't called SEM, because I already know I'm going to get the run-around. It's 0 degrees in St Joseph, MO right now, and the truck won't stay running longer than any other normal day. I've even pulled out from under the trailer and it's still not working. At least my bunk heater works, but with this cold I'm not sure now long the batteries will hold out.

 

You know what would happen if you got a big box of those little hand warmers, and every time it got cold enough that you needed to idle to keep the batteries charged, because SNI was too cheap to fix the problem, you took one of those hand warmers out, did whatever you did to make it work, and went out and wrapped it around that temperature sensor. Would it suddenly be a hot 95* Florida afternoon as far as the sensor was concerned?

 

Two nights ago SEM sugested I do that or pack snow around it when my truck wouldn't idle in -3 temp. Problem is mine is underneath my catwalk - no easy way to reach it.

 

packing snow won't get it cold enuff

 

Yeah thats why I was thinking the heat pack might work, seems it would be easier to trick it by getting it over 70* instead of below 20*.

 

Seems like you should be able to use a peltier element to ether cool or heat the sensor. Wire it to a switch in the cab (or a rheostat if you want to adjust how much it cools or heats) somewhere so you can turn it on when needed. They can even be stacked to provide more cooling and heating if one is not sufficient or if using it to cool you can just add a heat sink to the hot side to make it work better.

Here’s one that comes attached to a heat sink with a fan that says it gets down to -3.6 C using 5 amps http://www.adafruit.com/products/1335.

Here are a few links to peltier’s without heat sinks and fans.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10080
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1330
http://www.ebay.com/itm/TEC1-12706-Thermoelectric-Cooler-Peltier-12V-60W-92Wmax-/261082535971

 

The ambient sensor is a white plug next to frame top of drivers airbag. Unplug it

 

Dunno if this will be readable, but here it is