Fyda Freightliner - day 1

As I mentioned in the post about Sunday's activities, we went to Zanesville, Ohio to visit Fyda Freightliner to address an issue with the dash air conditioning system. We also had a concern that the engine cooling fan seemed to be running continuously instead of running when the engine was hot and stopping when the engine cooled down.

The shop opens at 5am, so we got up at oh-dark-thirty and were waiting at the gate when they opened.

Carl went into the service department to check in -- he took pictures of a couple of signs informing customers about charges. We are thinking that the "electronic service tool fee" is akin to a carpenter coming to work on a project at your house and charging you a fee every time he picks up a hammer? Maybe only if it is an air- or electric-powered hammer...

These labor rates are actually pretty reasonable compared to what we've seen at motorhome service centers -- they are now charging over $200/hour in many places!

Getting up at oh-dark-30 means that a nap in the waiting room is necessary. While it may look like he is choking Miss Kitty, she is actually very happy and purring.

The technician checked out the two concerns. He found that the air conditioning compressor (that had been replaced in August 2023) was working fine, but that there was some "restriction" in the system preventing the freon from doing its job going through the system. Since the a/c dryer had not been replaced in 2023, it was a concern and the feeling was that it and the expansion valve should be replaced.

For the engine cooling fan, the technician found that the clutch was frozen so the fan ran continuously. It would need a new clutch.

Unfortunately, the shop had none of the needed parts. The air conditioning parts have not been available from Freightliner for a while (which is probably why the a/c dryer was not replaced last year), but they found that there were OEM parts available in Texas. The fan clutch could be sourced from a Freightliner in Memphis. The parts were ordered to arrive on Tuesday afternoon.

There was nothing more to do on Monday, so we got Gracie back by about noon...

I had driven the Jeep up to the overnight parking area -- this is a picture of Gracie coming by the Fyda building as Carl moves her to the parking area.

Gracie coming into the parking area -- there is an area with a LOT of potholes before getting into the Fyda lot. Carl was traversing slowly as Gracie was rockin' 'n' rollin'!

Our friends, Jane and John, live not-too-far away and met us for lunch... we then returned to Gracie and sat outside and visited for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Another selfie shot -- looking upwards!

While it isn't fun having to get repairs done, we're hopeful that they will be able to resolve the problems -- and it was great to get together with friends!