Selective Catalyst Reduction ... WHAT?

Don't you just love it when you get a recall notice?  I always cringe.  Where I'm from there are few repair places that can take care of it.  The last time it was about the steps.  They might fall off, or maybe close when you were standing on it, I can't remember for sure.  Luckily I had the steps with the right name emblazoned on the edge, so I did NOT have a problem.

The time before that it was the cruise control.  It took me several weeks to find a facility and make an appointment.  When I got there (it was over an hour away), it was a Freightliner shop that really didn't work on RV's.  They removed half of the dash, leaving scratch marks everywhere, before determining all they had to do was lay down and look up under the steering wheel.

This latest one is from Cummins.  "Your engine may be releasing air pollutants which exceed California and Federal standards."  I know I should care, but I don't.  It has become a ridiculous problem with lots of time and effort to get this taken care of.

I might ignore it, except California will not renew my license tags unless I show them proof of the repair.  It's actually Federal standards that must be met, but as usual, California has gone overboard.

I looked up repair shops.  First off was RWC, the place LaMesa RV takes many of their rigs requiring repair.  They had not heard of the recall.  After two phone calls, they decided I would have to bring it in so they could see what it was about and possibly get a part number, then bring it back for repairs.

I looked up Freightliner's repair shops to find several bad reviews.  Hmmmm maybe I don't want to go there.  I finally called the number on the letter for "assistance in locating your nearest Cummins certified service location".

At long last I contacted a very nice Cummins guy who actually knew what I was talking about.   Here's the deal.  I have to take my coach in and leave it.  They will completely remove the exhaust system in order to find the number on the part that needs to be replaced.

Why leave it?  Because apparently there were four or five different parts placed on different models and years.  No information is available to tell them which part I need.  They will then ORDER the part, which takes four days to get.  Once received, they can replace the old with the new and put the exhaust system back together.  Really?  Why don't manufacturers use the same part in all of the rigs they make?

I know I should have confidence and faith in the repair shop, but I don't.  Yesterday, I made a quick trip downtown, so I wandered over to the Cummins shop to see where it was.  It's in a not-exactly-nice neighborhood and is tiny compared to most truck shops.  My rig will be parked outside for the four days.

With that in mind, I removed literally everything from the bays down under and stored it in the garage.  At 103 degrees, overheating quickly set in.  Me, not the rig.  That brought about a door latch problem.  I'm not exactly an expert at these things, in fact I think I fall in the lower 18% of being even partially capable.

I spent another hour in the hot sun trying to adjust the thing so it would close and STAY closed.  I've done it before, but it's totally a shot in the dark because you can't see ANY of the mechanisms you are trying to line up.  Slam ... nope.  Adjust.  Slam ... nope.  Adjust.  At long last after many tries, it closed and held.  I went inside and sat in front of the fan for 30 minutes trying to cool off.

So Monday is the magic day.  They open at 6:00 am, so I'm hooking up the car the night before and will be heading out for the repair shop.  I'm sending lots of good thoughts into the sky in the hopes of it all coming out well in the end.