Uh, Oh Something’s not right! Error Code ID 94 FM 2

We left Brady Texas and moved on down the road with our next destination to a place we have visited many times before, Canyon Lake Texas. When we were about 15 miles away, I noticed our check engine light came on and was amber.

I looked for a spot to pull over and when I maneuvered safely off the road, I checked my add-on scanner which revealed an error code ID 94 FM 2. I searched on-line and found a website that explained it was “Injector Metering Rail – Data Erratic, Intermittent or Incorrect'”. The ECM “detected that the fuel pressure signal is not changing”.

Reading that it was not a serious problem (requiring towing) I drove on. The check engine light went off and I drove another 10 miles before the light came back on. I pulled over once more and saw the same error code, so I waited until the light went off again.

As I pulled back on the road this time, I notice excessive black smoke from the tailpipe when starting off or under load, but we were able to drive another 10 miles to campground. I did notice some "stuttering" when I got close to campground when under load.

At the campground I called Cummins, and they suggested it could be the Fuel Pressure Sensor which I ordered since we were here for 6 days. A $400 part, (circled in yellow above) but it was worth a try if it meant not having to go to a service center.

In the meantime, we will simply enjoy Canyon Lake. For us that means daily walks around the campground and occasional day trips. Our favorite day trip is down the old river road to New Braunfels. 

As soon as the part arrives, we can figure out what we are doing next. But such is life on the Road of Retirement…

Replacing the Touchpad on our Microwave/Convection oven…

We were surprised one afternoon when we attempted to use our Sharp Microwave/Convection Oven and suddenly nothing worked. It was at that moment we began to realize just how important this appliance was. We use it to warm up and cook our food, but we also rely on it for other uses in our daily life we had completely taken for granted.

Not only do we use it for cooking and reheating we use it as our evening light. It is also our clock to tell time and to set timers. We either had to replace it with a functional one or have it repaired, the sooner the better!

As with any problem I hit up google and you-tube immediately. After about an hour of reading and watching videos, I had come to the conclusion that it was most likely the touchpad that had failed. If it wasn’t the touchpad then it had to be the control board. Felling pretty certain about this I decided we would attempt to fix it ourselves rather than replace it.

Of course the risk was if the parts didn’t fix it I would still have to buy a new one. I found the parts on the Part Simple website after searching our model and serial number.  Both parts were about 75.00 each. A new oven was over $700.00 so I placed the order after reading I could return the control board if the touchpad solved our problem.

So how did I attempt to repair it?

First, I unplugged the microwave. Since I was pretty sure it was only the touchpad, I removed the front panel of our microwave which housed the touchpad. I then took a video of all the wire and plug connections so I could reassemble it properly.

Next, I carefully disconnected all plugs and wires connecting the touchpad to the microwave so I could remove the whole front panel. There were 5 screws holding the control board to the metal frame of the front panel. I removed these which exposed the touchpad and the ribbon wire connecting it to the control board.

Once the ribbon was removed, I then connected the ribbon to the new touchpad. I screwed back in the 5 screws to attach it back to the control board and then reconnected the front panel frame making sure all wires and plugs were correctly connected by looking at my video of the removal of it.

Once the front panel was back in place I plugged in the microwave and tested it. Thankfully everything was functioning as it should, so I didn’t have to use the new control board. I was able to return it for a full refund. This fix was achieved for about $80.00 thanks to Google and You-Tube!

What is that rattling noise?

Next stop for us was in a park we have been to many times before, San Angelo State Park. We initially planned to stay four days but when we arrived we noticed a strange noise coming from the front end of our Honda CRV. Everything I read online suggested it was a suspension issue, but I had no way to get under the car to check it out.

More online research yielded an overriding favorite place for car repairs, Kelly’s Auto Repair. I called and they said bring it over as they would be able to squeeze me in. I sat about an hour when the mechanic called me to come into the shop. I went udder the car to see that the stabilizing rod had lost it’s bushings and needed to be replaced.

I authorized the job so after calling around for parts, they located one. Less than an hour later the job was done! The total bill was… get ready for this… $84.10. I was floored as I was expected nothing less than $350.00 and honestly expected more. I paid my bill and will tell everyone who will hear me to go there for any needed car repairs if  anywhere near San Angelo Texas. I feel there is no more trustworthy and competent mechanic to be found!

With the car repaired we enjoyed hiking in the state park, visiting the craft beer spots downtown and playing a bit of disc golf. San Angelo State Park may not have much of a lake but it has miles of good hiking trails. One of our favorite loops is the Roadrunner Trail, a 3.2 mile loop.

On the Roadrunner trail there is a turn out where there is another fenced pasture with Bison and Longhorn Cattle on it. One day we happened to luckily walking by when the rangers were feeding the Bison and Cattle. We had an enjoyable chat with them about the herds and all their newborn babies.

It has been a wetter than normal late spring and early summer here. As a result there are a lot of wildflowers in bloom and it is still very green. Butterflies are fairly abundant on anything that is blooming. Also, as I mentioned earlier, we have been coming here for years and this is the first year there was enough water in the lake to actually look like a lake!

With a few days remaining in San Angelo we thought we had better get some last dinners at a good Tex Mex restaurant. As luck would have it we found a good one that had some excellent salsa and great cheese enchiladas…

NOTE:  We are currently in Roswell, New Mexico until July 5th…

Installing A New Kitchen Faucet…

This resort life in Arizona has been tough! Between happy hours, dips in the pool, playing pickleball and good soaks in the hot tub it’s hard to find time for much of anything else. However, since we do live in our RV sometimes there are things to fix and sometimes there are items needing upgrading.

The upgrade this time around was to replace our kitchen faucet.  I am the type of guy who hates to replace something which works perfectly well such our our old kitchen faucet. Sharon, on the other hand has no problem with such triviality. Thus, we have a new Peerless faucet to put into our kitchen sink.

The nice thing about replacing the faucet is that any residential faucet will work in the RV but anyone who does plumbing knows it isn’t a fun task. Add in the fact that there is hardly any space in an RV to do any type of work I fully expected this to be a not-so-fun job. My first task was to turn the water off to get ready to remove the sink.

You may wonder why I decided to remove the sink. Well there are two reasons. One is that the caulk seal around the sink was is a bit dicey. There were a few spots which let water through to drip below the sink. Also with the sink out of the cabinet it would be relatively easy to install the new faucet.

Once I turned off the water I opened the faucets to let out all of the remaining water and water pressure.. Then I used a sharp knife to cut along the top of the sink between the sink and the countertop thus cutting through the old caulk. Next I had to remove everything from the cabinet beneath the sink to gain access to the brackets holding the sink to the countertop.

To get to some of the screws I had to remove all of the kitchen drawers in the adjacent cabinet. With all screws removed I took out the brackets holding the sink up. Then I unscrewed the PVC retaining ring just above the sink trap to free it from the pipes below and then unscrewed the hot and cold water pipes from the faucet.. Then the sink was lifted out (with a lot of wiggling around) to be cleaned up.

I then unscrewed the clamp under the sink that held the faucet in place. Next I unscrewed the retaining ring and the faucet was freed from the sink. With the old faucet removed I then removed all the caulk from the sink and the countertop with a plastic caulk scraper. Tedious but necessary and afterward I cleaned all the surfaces with rubbing alcohol.

Now I was ready to install our new faucet. Tightening up all the screws after installing the retaining ring and the faucet was on the sink. After a lot of jiggling I finally got the sink back in the countertop. The sink sat a few inches lower than the countertop allowing me to put a line of 100% waterproof caulk around the lip of the countertop hole.

Now to get the sink to adhere to the countertop I inserted two 2 foot wood clamps through the sink drain by taking them apart and inserting one end through the drain. I put the clamps back together and after laying a 2x3 across the top of the sink I was able to ratchet the wood clamps up to tighten them against the 2x3 thus pulling the sink upward. This secured the sink to the underside of the countertop and then I simply cleaned up the excess caulk wetting my finger to wipe up the excess and wiped it on a paper towel.

I let the sink sit 24 hours to ensure the caulk had dried them reattached the sink brackets from below (they probably aren’t really needed but I put them back in anyhow). With the sink secured I took off the wood clamps and reinstalled the hot and cold water pipes using some Teflon Tape. Lastly I attached the drain pipes by tightening the retaining rings.

I ran the water to test for leaks and viola! We have a new faucet installed… now back to the hot tub to soak my body from all the contortions I had to do to get this thing installed…

NOTE: We are currently in Mesa Arizona until March 11th 2020, then over to Tucson for a few days.

Spring Flowers, Friends and Food in the Brazos Valley TX...

One of the main reasons we come through Texas in the springtime is to see all the beautiful wildflowers. We became worried we might not see any since they started blooming very early in Texas this year. Luckily for us the weather was mostly mild and wet until we arrived in Texas so we were rewarded with the blooms of many wildflowers.

There are several scenic drives in this part of Texas and with it so green this time of year we thought it would be fun to drive around and search for wildflowers. On the trip we found a cool little cabin and we wondered about its history. It is always a treat to see the roadsides covered in Indian Paintbrush, Bluebonnets and other flowers.

Along with viewing flowers in and  around College Station we also enjoy seeing friends from our past who still live here. While visiting with our friends Gary and Anne at their really nice country home we also had a great visit with friends Rose and Darrel. They live nearby so we walked over to visit a garden they built to honor a lost relative.  Rose also showed us her beloved Pineapples which looked hearty and healthy! How cool it was to see baby pineapples.

Another friend we met at one of our old watering holes, Lynne, brought Sharon a gift which was totally unexpected  She explained was shopping at a venue when she saw this cool little RV bracelet and knew just who to get it for, Lynn had recently lost her husband who was a great friend of mine. While Greg is missed  I am sure he would have smiled upon Lynne’s generosity. Thanks Lynne!

We also like to spend our month here tackling some chores we had been putting off. I finally got around to repairing our TV which was acting up. I also found time to wash and wax the RV. This chore usually takes me a week to do since I only wax a small part of the RV at a time.

Of course it isn’t all work… We also find time to re-visit some of our favorite haunts. One of the first places we visited (and most often visited) is a small mom and pop spot called Coco Loco. Their Carne Asada tacos along with their green and red salsa are sorely missed by us when we are gone so we will have to revisit often before we leave…

NOTE: We are now in College Station Texas until mid-May.

Hiking and Waiting for Repairs in Colorado…

We pulled out of Longmont and moved over to the Transwest Truck and RV in Frederick as we were advised there is a RV’s courtesy parking lot which has 50 amp power but no sewer or water. We did fill up with water before leaving and when we arrived at Transwest we pulled into one of the vacant sites. There were about 4-5 other rigs in the lot that appears to hold about 10 total. We would be taking our RV over to a work bay the next morning.

As morning came (early I might add) we drove the RV over to the service area and checked it in at 7:00 am. Sharon is never happy getting up that early and was even more unhappy when they didn’t move the RV into a bay until 8:45 am. They spent most of the day tracking down electrical circuits trying to isolate the issue with our gauges going off. At the end of the day they told us they couldn’t get in touch with Freightliner about some readings because Freightliner apparently closed early for the fourth of July.

We drove back to the lot knowing we would be around here a few days as July 4th was the next day and everything would be closed. At least we have power and so we are in good shape. We went hiking in the Hiel Ranch Open Space to do short trail there.This area is a bit higher and more scenic than the Rabbit Mountain area.  We had previously hiked in the Rabbit Mountain open space one other time but is sure gets a poor rap from the locals we have met. However as newcomers, Sharon and I thought it was scenic and enjoyable to hike in.

One day we played a little disc golf at another 9 hole park in Longmont and afterward went over to have a beer at a local brewery in Frederick called Echo Brewing which we though was quite good. We met a real nice local couple there named June and Roger and had a great time chatting with them.  They have a 5th wheel and are thinking about RVing more extensively. Roger had to go out of town on the fourth but June invited us over to her house for happy hour and then took us to a good spot to see the local town’s fireworks display. What a great time we had and we really appreciated hanging out with June on the 4th rather than hanging out at Transwest! Encounters such as these are one of the best things that makes travel on the road special…

On the 5th of July we took the RV back over to Transwest hoping to hear from Freightliner. At about 7:30 we were back at the service center. About 10:30 we asked if they had discovered anything only to learn that Freightliner was having phone issues and they still hadn’t gotten in touch with them… Sigh… By the end of the day it was finally determined that our culprit was a faulty ECM or Electronic Control Module.

While we are happy they “think” they know what the problem is, we of course won’t know for sure until they install the $1550 part. As we mentioned before, back in Albuquerque they thought our problem was the ABS which we had replaced only to have the had the fault codes and gauges fail once again.  While there are no real guarantees this will fix the problem we are certainly hopeful it will just that. It is irritating that back in Albuquerque I suggested to those Freightliner folks that I thought it was the ECM (Electronic Control Module).  Anyway, we have to go ahead and pay the high postage to have the new ECM part overnighted so the work can be done of Friday. We will see how that goes…

NOTE: We are now in the parking area of the Freightliner Shop in Frederick Colorado…

You’re Not Going to Believe What Happened to us…

The time came for us to leave our sunset paradise in Keaton Beach so we readied the RV and hit the road about 10:00 am. All was going well on the drive as we passed through the town of Perry Florida. However, heading west on a nice two lane road,something caught my eye.

NOTE: What occurred next  felt like it happened in slow motion –  almost as if I was in a Sam Peckinpah slow motion movie scene.

So what was it that caught my eye? It soon became obvious what it was… a wild turkey! How cool was that? As it started in flight I could see it was a large,beautiful wild bird. Its wings were beating slowly as it lifted its mass off the ground and became airborne. Oddly this turkey was flying toward the road instead of toward the woods as most do. I was watching it take flight and was in wonder of it when I suddenly realized that if the turkey didn’t fly a bit higher I might hit it. With no time for action (only thoughts) the bird suddenly struck the top of our RV on the windshield !

Back at real time…. we heard a BOOOM! The loud noise startled Sharon as she was looking down at her phone. The sound was similar to hearing two cars hitting each other. A shower of very small glass particles littered our dash board and the windshield itself was shattered with cracks going from the top tot the bottom. Less than 40% of the windshield had no cracks after striking the bird.

Being on a two-lane road gave us no choice but to continue down the road until we could find a suitable space to pull over. Before pulling over we called our insurance company to start a claim. Sharon searched the internet to see if we should worry about the windshield caving in on us if we drove any further with it as cracked as it was. Feeling as if we could safely drive it I put duct tape over the cracks on the top and bottom of the glass to hopefully secure it. We also put in a call to Tiffin Motorhomes who suggested we use clear packing tape to tape all the cracks as soon as we could.

We drove slowly over to Mexico Beach and checked into our park. I immediately went and bought a roll of packing tape to tape all the cracks to keep it intact in case we had to drive any further. It took the whole roll! Meanwhile, we have heard tentatively from the insurance company and it looks like we will have to drive on down the road to have it repaired.

It certainly was not an exiting way to spend the day but alas, it is all part of the experience of life. We aren’t particular happy about this event and its future inconvenience.  The thousand dollar deductible will hurt the budget a bit but we came out unharmed so we have simply chalked this one up to bad luck. However, we both can’t help but wonder if this was an omen and if it was we have no idea what it means…

In the meantime life goes on and we have spent our time here in Mexico Beach solving insurance and logistics stuff. Each afternoon we took a walk to the beach and would end the day at our favorite local hangout (Lookout Bar) where there is always another stunning sunset over the ocean for us to forget about that eventful day…

NOTE: We will leave Mexico Beach Florida today and head east to Robertsdale Alabama for a night before continuing on towards Louisiana in hopes of getting our windshield repaired...

Doing Minor RV Repairs and We Love our Awning Shade Attachment…

We have slowly settled into our site here in Bonita Springs Florida for the winter. It is always fun to set up all of our more “permanent stuff” when we have these extended stays. One of our favorite long term stay items is our extended awning shade screen we bought several winters ago. It creates a sense of privacy and of course a sunscreen from the glaring sun when facing the west which we are this season. I simply attach it to our awning with little “S-hooks” which are also used to hang our Christmas lights on. It is surprising how much cooler it keeps not only the outdoor area but inside as well…

For wind protection I attach our screen to the ground two ways. First I use a good quality rock climbing rope to tie off the corners. I use this type of rope since it has a lot of give and spring to it letting the awning flex in higher wind gusts. I attach the rope by looping it over the awning bars and then I use a corkscrew type anchor to tie it off on. After both corners are secured I use tent stakes a few more cork screw anchors to tie of the bottom  so it will flare outwards and help secure the awning screen. I love, love , love the little room this set up creates.

We have been spending mornings after breakfast walking around our large park. We also have been ticking off repair items piled up over the course of this year's travels since last winter. Obviously we fix major items as needed but smaller items and items that can be put off  just get put on a list until we get somewhere for an extended stay. This way we can order items and have them delivered so we slowly accomplish every task on our repair list.

A few items i needed to order were a new drain “pop-up center” for our bathroom sink and a new drain screw for the bathroom shower. Our RV is almost 10 years old so these items had rusted completely through. A long screw holds the shower drain in place and it had actually rusted in half leaving part of it in the baseplate it screwed into. I had to drill out the baseplate and rethread it so I could plug in a new screw down drain. Thankfully the drain/stopper in the bathroom was much easier to replace.

I would suggest that if you haven’t done so is to check and see if your screw holding your drain in the shower can turn without disintegrating. If you can get the screw out take it to your nearest Lowes or Ace Hardware to buy a stainless steel screw. as stainless steel will never rust and then you will never have to replace your drain like we did.

I also had to replace the small LED bulb which burnt out in our water pump indicator switch. I hate it when these burn out since it makes it so you never know if your water pump is on or off. These are very easy to fix and for less than a buck you can get two replacement bulbs. It is a bit tricky getting the old light bulb out and I chose to solder it back in place but others choose to wrap the wire leads around to the posts on the other side of the switch. If you don't understand what I am talking about  this link will explain in detail how to replace the LED bulb.

It sure is nice having a mailing address so we can easily get needed items for our repairs. I have many more things to repair but at least we have gotten off to a good start. After repairs, we will go through every drawer and cabinet to purge and organize. Such is life during extended stays on our Road of Retirement.

NOTE: We are now in our winter home for the next several months in Bonita Springs Florida at Imperial Bonita Estates RV park and Coop.