Stuck in Freightliner Hell…

Oh well, this too shall pass… That was the last sentence of my last blog. I know it is true but what I didn’t know was how long it would take. We spent 10 days in Albuquerque with all but two of them with our RV either in the shop for the day (two days) or in the shop overnight (5 days). When we first noticed the check engine light flicker my guess was that we had a fuel line or fuel filter issue. Boy was I wrong.

The initial diagnosis was that we had a failed Turbo but were told there could be other issues as well but they wouldn't know until the turbo was removed. The CAC or the engine could have also been damaged. Yikes!!!

Lonestar Trucking is the one and only Freightliner Cummins shop in town. As a result they are swamped with trucks as they also work on Cats, Western Star and others. They also don’t take appointments instead taking customers on a first come first served policy. They open at 7:00 am but close at 7:00 pm whereas a lot of other trucking repair facilities have an overnight crew.

Once the techs took off our Turbo we were informed that the CAC and engine appeared to be fine but that it was discovered we also had a warped intake manifold. We do recall the Freightliner people in Gaffney SC telling us at a previous maintenance visit that we had an exhaust leak that would have to be taken care of in the future (aka now!). The manifold had to come from Denver so our RV was tucked into a corner to await the part.

The man we spoke with the most was named Dan L. and his customer service skills were… well, let’s say sorely lacking. Communication at this trucking service center is weak at best. Fortunately for us one of Sharon’s best friends lives in Albuquerque so we packed up and went over to stay at their house. We hoped it would be a few days but it turned into five…

While we did have a blast reconnecting with Vicki and Roger and greatly appreciated their hospitality we were itching to get back home. Most of the pictures in this blog are from a Summertime Event held in Albuquerque where we had a great time listening to various bands  and from a day trip to the top of Sandia Peak. We needed these diversions to relax and forget about all the stress the repairs were causing.

I won’t go into the detail about how poor communication with customers was between the service center and their customers (including us) but will highlight one truckers issue when he found out he had been waiting in the lounge for a “simple repair” to his truck’s air conditioning only to learn (by him asking) that the tech who was working on his truck had left for home several hours earlier and they didn't know how much work he had done or when he would be back! This was a perfect example of how bad it was.

Anyhow after five days of going back and forth to learn about the status of our RV we were finally told we could probably have our RV back at just before closing. I decided to take it for a test run over to a casino about 10 miles away to fill it up with diesel and give our girl a test drive. Well, all was going well and we did notice the engine was much quieter but then all of the sudden the gauges all stopped working.

The next morning we took it back at 8:00 am and it wasn’t till 3:00 pm while on a walk around the building to stretch our legs we learned what happened from a tech (not the customer service people). We apparently had a failed ABS module another part which of course needed to be ordered. The service guys informed us the part would be about $900 plus labor which completely shocked us. This is after we just paid $7,500 for the previous work.

Well I told them that the gauges worked perfectly before their repairs and it must of been something they had done to damage the module. While they wouldn’t budge on taking the blame they did finally say they would discount the part and also not charge me any additional freight, shipping or labor. At least it was still drive-able so we could go back to the RV park down the street for the night until the part arrives.

The part was supposed ship overnight but of course it did not, so after calling and then stopping by, Don assured us it was scheduled to arrive the next day at 10:30 am. He asked us to drop off the RV at that time so they could work on it soon after the part was received. We went off for a little last minute shopping and lunch but when we returned the RV hadn’t moved an inch. Exasperated, we inquired about the status and after another 1/2 hour we at last saw the RV drive into a bay for the repair.

It was finally repaired and test driven but then began the exhaustive wait for the final paperwork. The total bill for all repairs was nearly $8500. YIKES!!! We did use our FCOC membership card to get 10% off parts (which in itself was a chore since no one knew how to do that adjustment without help from the main parts manager). But we were sure willing to wait as the adjustment of a nearly $500 discount was great especially given the $10 membership fee this year.

We celebrated the finishing of our repairs at Nevus Tap House with two former full time RV’ers who now reside in Albuquerque. What fun we had catching up with Catherine and Jo Beth sharing laughs and stories over a nice beer…While we really enjoyed Albuquerque and our friends we were SO VERY GLAD to hit the road once again!

NOTE: We left Sumner Lake State Park in New Mexico and spent 10 days in Albuquerque NM but we are now in Questa NM…