Finally received my Freightliner steering box (8018) recall notice

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John Canfield

John Canfield

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We have discussed this recall at great length on the 'other' forum.  A little background for those unfamiliar:

Recall only applies to the Evolution chassis (with independent front suspension - Horizon/Vectra)
Model years of 2004, 2005, 2006, ??  (not real sure the years impacted)
Recall applies to the ZF Lenksysteme 8018 steering gear

For the longest I was certain that due to the mileage on my rig, the recall didn't apply to me since this first surfaced over a year ago.  That is obviously not the case.  To say I was surprised to see the recall appear at the end of 2008 was a surprise to say the least.  At first we assumed the notice was for our Jeep.

The recall will consist of inspecting the steering gears for certain date codes and replacing them if appropriate.

We are headed west next month and already were planning on stopping by Freightliner Tolleson to get our new fuel fill necks installed, we'll just add one more thing to the list.
 
I just got my ZF 8018 recall notice too, John.  Like you, I have relatively high mileage for this sort of problem, which usually shows up in the first 10k miles of use. I have a Liberty/Freightliner chassis
 
Interesting. Let us know how it goes. I had already had a recall done on mine when it was about a year old.  It concerned a tie rod that was not long enough and didn't have enough threads to screw completely into the opposite end of the rod.  LA Freightliner wound up replaceing the part.  

As a matter of fact, I had a pretty good fight with them about the incident. When I had received the recall I called and made an appointment to get it taken care of.  I showed up at the prescribed time, it took about an hour to get there from my house.  About 2 hours of waiting, not counting the 45 minutes that I showed up early, they call me into the shop. The girl behind the counter tells me "OK, the recall applies to you. You will have to make an appointment to come back and get it taken care of".  WHAT??  I nearly lost my mind.  I started to leave, and then thought what the heck.  I walked back in and demanded to speak to the service manager.  After giving him a piece of my mind and telling him exactly what I thought about his "service", he suddenly found time to install the recall then and there.  It took 30 minutes.  But they were ready to let me drive an hour+ home and come back when they had time.  And this was susposed to be an "Oasis" dealer!

They will never see a dime of my money again.  

Sarge
 
Gary - I had no idea American Tradition used the Freightliner with IFS.  I knew Mandalay (Thor) used it.

Sarge - yeah - I would have been really, really peeved about having to return.  We have certainly had our moments like that with our vehicle ownership.  The last situation was a recall on the Jeep.  The dealer had to look at it, then order parts, then we returned.  We had the Cummins ISL fuel line recall done early summer - when I was setting up the appointment I made an arrangement for them to have the part on-hand and ready for us (Cummins Phoenix.) 

I'll give Kirk at Freightliner a call after the first of the year and make sure they will be ready with parts.  Both Cummins and Freightliner in Tolleson (Phoenix) are both excellent places for service and very accommodating.  (Be sure you have an autoformer for Freightliner - their 30 amps is more like 18 amps  ::) )
 
I had no idea American Tradition used the Freightliner with IFS.
Click to expand...

Only a few did - nearly all American Coaches are on Spartan chassis or Spartan/Liberty.  In 2004 AC offered a choice of Freightliner or Spartan components with their [then] new Liberty chassis and I've got one of the few Freightliner Libertys built. Hardly anyone took the FL option and it was dropped the following year.

But then, I've always been a bit of an oddball!  ;)
 
I met a fellow with a Winnie product a few years old, forgot which, but I think I remembered him telling me it was one of 200 diesel pushers made by Workhorse.  Whatever chassis it was, he has one of 200 ever made, or one of 200 that Winnebago ever used.

My chassis has been good to me - I have no issues with it (except for the slow fuel fill which we will address in another thread.)  Going up to Alaska (when Ned/Lorna/Russ/Brewers were up there) we hit a frost heave that bottomed out the air bags and we hit the bumper (prevents the frame from meeting the suspension) - made a terrible bang and I was certain parts must have been left in the road.  Nope - no problems!  (That one snuck up on us :-[)
 
You know, mine does the slow fill as well. But I found that when I rotate the pump handle 90* towards the rear of the coach, the tank fills pretty smoothly. If I let it hang straight down at a 180* then it shuts off constantly. 
 
Sarge - we'll explore this with greater detail (I suspect) in a day or two.  One suggestion was to invert the filler handle and I have heard this helps with some models.  Sounds like a variation of that technique works with you.
 
but I think I remembered him telling me it was one of 200 diesel pushers made by Workhorse.
Click to expand...

Workhorse makes two diesel pushers - the R series chassis was the earliest and larger one and now there is the UFO, which is a pusher available as either gas  or diesel. I don't think Winnie ever produced a coach on the R series chassis, but the Destination and Itasca Lattitide use the UFO pusher chassis.
 
Finally received my steering box recall notice. Took it in today and the good news is that Mine is "okay". When this surfaced some time back I thought mine was okay, then I got the notice and figured it wasn't. It's starting off to be a good year! 
 
Cliff - I just called Freightliner in Tolleson today and Kirk said "you should be okay with 40K miles" on the coach.  They just need to inspect the gear box, so we'll be there probably around the end of the month. I'm going to have them install the new filler necks which will probably take up most of the service time. We'll catch you guys a little later in Yuma!
 
I have two independent reports on this latest round of the ZF8018 recall:  All they are doing now is checking the serial numbers on the steering gear to see if it is within the affected range, and verifying the mileage. If the odometer has greater than 15k miles, the conclude the recirculating ball mechanism must be OK, cause it would have failed already if it was not. All you get for your trouble is sticker to say it was inspected and an entry in Freightliner's data base.
 
That's exactly what they did. Checked the serial number and placed a sticker in the door frame. The tech was beneath the coach for about ten minutes. Didn't put it on a rack, start the engine, turn the wheel or anything else.
So I guess I'm good to go. Yeah!
 
RV Roamer said:
I have two independent reports on this latest round of the ZF8018 recall:  All they are doing now is checking the serial numbers on the steering gear to see if it is within the affected range, and verifying the mileage. If the odometer has greater than 15k miles, the conclude the recirculating ball mechanism must be OK, cause it would have failed already if it was not. All you get for your trouble is sticker to say it was inspected and an entry in Freightliner's data base.
Click to expand...

That's basically how my conversation went with Kirk at Freightliner.
 
We got the recall early in the summer for our 07 Vectra.  When we got to the factory there was a new steering box waiting for installation on our coach. The job took @ 6 hours. Make sure you give it a good test drive after replacement, our steering wheel was not centered after the job was complete and test drove by the tech. Only a minor adjustment was needed.

Jim
 
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