W22 Chassis - Complete Brake Failure - Recall 50901-C

I know there is a long discussion thread on the Workhorse brake issue.  Last night I had a complete brake failure so I decided to start a new thread with the intention of posting the upcoming process and experience of of having the brakes repaired.

Basically, I was preparing to go on a short trip this weekend.  I needed to dump the tanks and fill the MH with fuel.  The total trip was about 15 miles.  Everything was fine for the first half of the trip but upon leaving the dump station, the MH would not accelerate past  about 30 mph and it pulled slightly to the right.  I suspected the brakes, but within a mile or so I was able to reach normal highway speed.  When I stopped at the gas station, while applying the brakes, the MH again pulled to the right.  When I got out, I could smell burning brakes.  After refueling, I waited for the brakes to cool.  Since it was only a mile to our house, I left for home.

I traveled very slowly and in low gear down a hill incase the brakes failed.  When I slowed to turn into our driveway, the brake peddle went to the floor board and would not stop.  I had to use the emergency brake to stop.  I pulled into the side driveway [we live on an acerage] and parked the MH.  When I got out, I looked at the right front wheel and the rotor was cherry red.

This morning I contacted the closest Workhorse service center [100 miles away].  The Service Manager was very helpful.  He stated that the information coming out of Workhorse was somewhat confusing at times.  Currenly, all work was being done with current parts since there is not adequate supplies of new parts.  The instructions to the service centers was to advise the customers that if the brake inspection did not reveal any brake failure then the customer was responsible for the cost of the brake inspection.  Evidently there have been a lot of people who want their coaches inspected even if there has not been any problems or intermittent problems.

He told me to bring the MH in and they would take a look.  I told him that I did not feel safe driving.  He agreed and advised that I call Workhorse to see if they would cover the towing. 

I called Workhorse and explained the situation.  The lady who was helping me told me that I should in fact take the MH to the service center.  I told her that I did not feel the MH should be driven.  She asked me to start the MH and she would talk me through a "drivability test".  This was basically, start the MH on level ground, put it in drive and take my foot off the brake.  If the MH started to rmove forward, then it was safe to drive.

WOW - I just finished telling her that the brakes has stuck, failed and I could not stop the MH last night because the brakes stuck, over heated and would not engage.  THe rotor tuned cherry red.  There is what appears to be brake fluid on the outside of the tires.  Their idea of a "brake safety drivability test" is seriously flawed.

I am currently waiting for a return call to see if they are going to pay for the towing.

I will keep everyone posted on what happens.

Thanks for posting about your problem.  There are many RVForum.net members here that are interested in this Workhorse brake issue, and want answers not rhetoric or cheerleading.   :  

Did they flush your brake fluid?  It seems that the problem has been the caliper pins sticking due to moisture in the brake fluid (not the "way you drive" as the Workhorse Ambassador has reported).

I am very concerned that you and others have reported the brake pedal going to the floor after these calipers stuck.   I am hoping that Workhorse will cover the tow, as I believe they might (and SHOULD).  Let us know if they pick up the tab.

It's also good to hear from members that the Workhorse Center you went to were helpful.  Please go to Workhorse.com and "rate a dealer", as this somehow weeds out the bad ones from the good ones.  While you are there, make sure you have your motorhome registered and once you do, it gives you all the details on your particular chassis, including outstanding recalls and completed campaigns.  When you have your chassis updated on that site, you will be notified ASAP about the upcoming brake recall first on the site, and then by mail hard copy.  I noticed on mine, the completed campaigns are the steering pin, and the fuel clip.....Nothing is on there YET about the recall, and I believe they will put this on sometime in the Fall.  

We just got back from a 3,500 mile trip with no brake issues, so....we are knocking on wood.  We go next week to a smaller trip higher up in the Rockies than we live, and we can only hope and pray that we will not have any issues.  On our last triip, we did the "roll" test every time we stopped to make sure that our brakes had not stuck on.

Thanks to many here at RVForum.net who have notified the NHTSA, and didn't give in to Workhorse, who continued to deny there was ever a problem.  Here is a good example of oversight that actually works here in America!  

Please do us (Workhorse owners and just family here in general) a favor:  Please update your RVForum profile to include what type unit you have, year model, and chassis.

Also, if you go to the NHTSA website, you can report your brake issue, and ESPECIALLY the brake pedal going to the floor.

Hang in there.....keep us updated!

Regarding what appears to be brake fluid on the tires. You might want to check the wheel bearing lube to make sure it isn't low.
Other folks have reported that the heat from the locked brake has forced some oil out of the wheel bearing reservoir.

Clay L said:

Regarding what appears to be brake fluid on the tires. You might want to check the wheel bearing lube to make sure it isn't low.
Other folks have reported that the heat from the locked brake has forced some oil out of the wheel bearing reservoir.

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Good catch Clay!

Re the Driveability test.. and your situtation (Two different comments)

The problem causing the recall is just one way brakes can fail.. The piston swells and jams in the caliper, so it won't release (You, with the aid of the hydraulic boosters can force it to engage but it won't release)  This causes the brakes to overheat, which due to differences in the piston and the cylinder, makes it worse.

However often once it cools down it WILL release, and you can drive it safely.. hence the test, to see if the brake released when it cooled down.. The test actually makes sense.

However.... You said you had brake fluid all over the wheel.. This, to my somewhat trained ear, sounds like you have ADDITIONAL, likely Secondary to the original, issue and you are quiet right that it may be unsafe to drive.

You might try a short trip (The length of your driveway) to see if they are working but I'd be more comfortable with either an on-site repair or a tow to the remote facility.

I am trying to post pictures of what appears to be a frayed ABS sensor cable.  I get a message that the file is too big as the limit is 250KB,  Any suggestions?

Anyone who tells you to drive it after a brake failure has got to be an I#$t. I dont think I would take someones advice over the laptop about my brakes Unless he or she is a cert mech and can put their hands and eyes on YOUR brakes. Maybe they could lead you to the shop and if they fail again you can use them to stop you. I've had 3 failures and wont trust mine until the fix is out,maybe. Ask wh to put it in writing that your brakes are ok to drive now,GEEZ.

All is going well now - the tow truck just pulled off with the MH.  I suppose that it will be late tomorrow or Thursday at the latest until I get the report back.

So far, Workhorse has been very accomodating.  The caveat has been that if there is nothing wrong, I get the bill.  However, the pictures that I am unsuccessful in posting should be proof enough.

One other thing, I had been experiencing an intermittent ABS light on the dash.  The service center and Workhorse said that they are not paying for inspections because of intermittent light problems.  So, I guess you have to have a complete failure of the brake system before they will respond.  I am glad I was going slow and close to home.  I am going to add the NHTSA to my to do list.  There is nothing like personal experience to got one motivated.  I can't imaging having this failure in a mountain pass or heavy traffic.  I think the recall needs to be speeded, though I expect the delay is until there are sufficient new and redesigned parts.

[quote author=JonahNaz]I am trying to post pictures ...  I get a message that the file is too big as the limit is 250KB[/quote]

Try resizing the photos so the individual file sizes are below 250K. If you need help resizing, check out this forum navigation tip.

Did workhorse pay for tow or did you?

JonahNaz said:

I am trying to post pictures of what appears to be a frayed ABS sensor cable.  I get a message that the file is too big as the limit is 250KB,  Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

I use a program called Thumbs+ to re-size and/or re-compress the photo to make it smaller, KB wise that is.

[email protected]
carl and judy
2004 Winnebago
workhorse W22

We had workhorse brakes replaced in Feb.  In our case, the brakes fried while we traveled for 60 miles - level ground few stops, minimal traffic.

At destination we smelled hot plastic from rear passenger wheel. 15 minutes later started motorhome to drive to our site and ABS lite would not go off. This was the only indication we had that there was a problem -  ABS Lite on and Smell from one wheel.

We were told by Workhorse and Lazydays Tampa to drive the motorhome in.. We did not with no problems.  We felt no drag on brakes and never lost brakes.

At lazydays the ABS lite would not stay - Isn't that just typlical when you have a problem -

All four calipers were fried, all four rotors were cracked, all four pads burned -  speed and ABS sensors were gone.  Seals in the fron hubs had to be replaced.

Brake fluid was replaced.  According to the inspecter from our warranty company the brake fluid was burned.  Our cost was 3131.00.  We Workhorse and Navistar presidents and eveutually received $1700 reimbursement.  They refused to reimburse at lazy days labor rates. Guess they hae their own scale.  We understand we are still going to be part of the recall.

Quick update:

The MH was safely towed to the service center and they did the inspection.  The right front brakes and rotors plus ABS sensors were superheated/melted/burnt.  Workhorse is paying for the repairs to the right front brakes plus the towing.

The service center advised replacing the pads to the left front as well.  He said that the pads come as a set so Workhorse essentially is paying for the pads but not the labor for the left side. I am having the pads replaced for the cost of labor.  He also indicated that the rear pads were starting to flake.  Since it is not known at this time what all the recall will effect I chose to replace the rear pads at my expense. 

I also am having the oil changed and chassis/cab airconditioner services.  The total cost is about $685 the three sets of brakes plus other services,  All of the other rotors were fine so I feel fortunate.  Here are a couple of notes of interest per the service center:

1.  There is a long backlog for parts right now so it will be 3-4 weeks before they recieve the new pads, right front rotor and ABS parts.
2.  There could be as many as 50,000 Workhorse chassis effected by the recall and it will take a long time for supplies to fill the demand.

I am still not able to resize the phots, but I will keep trying.

JonahNaz said:

I know there is a long discussion thread on the Workhorse brake issue.  Last night I had a complete brake failure so I decided to start a new thread with the intention of posting the upcoming process and experience of of having the brakes repaired.

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Sorry to hear of your brake problems but am glad you posted. Certainly is consistent with 100's of others that have posted similar problems. Even though it's taken almost 2 1/2 years to force a Workhorse recall, clearly, that's only the beginning steps to actually inspecting, repairing and eliminating these problems. A recall issued a couple of months ago doesn't mean much to people like you when the repairs don't start until October; maybe Workhorse was expecting all affected chassis owners to park our MH's until then.

I've beat this issue to death, mostly because I feel that Workhorse wouldn't take any ownership and offered no communication to the owners and of course, forums had people representing Workhorse telling us to it was our lack of driving skills and/or lack of proper maintenance that was the direct cause, repeatedly offering a laundry list of maintenance items that must be being overlooked. Of course, if that had been true, there would be no NHTSA/Workhorse recall and Workhorse wouldn't be making inspections and repairs, starting in October.

Good luck with your repairs and most importantly, even with a recall, anyone with an affected model-year chassis isn't out of the woods yet...

I am new to RVing and until last Nov when we bought our first ever MH, I had never heard of Workhorse.  Therefore I had no idea of the history of the brake issue.

At this point, I would be leary of recommending to someoone about buying a Workhorse chassis.  There are many types of quality issues that one could probably live with, however, catastrophic brake failure is not one of them.

I will not defend nor condemn Workhorse, but if the service manager is right and there are 50,000 chassis's effected by this recall this is a huge and expensive problems.  If each unit is recalled at a cost of repairs between $500 to $1000 each, this is a $25,000,000 to $50,000,000 problem for Workhorse.  That is a huge hit in the economy we are in.  YES -They should recall the fleet and replace the brakes.  My point is simply that I suspect that Workhorse is working to get the right solution as you only want a recall like this once.  Also, the delay until Fall is due not only to having the right design, but the suppliers need to tool up [which can take months itself] and start producing parts.  I would also imagine that there will be a period of quality testing before new parts are released for installation.

I do not like the situation and I do not like not having use of my MH for the next month.  Formerly, I was a manufacturing operations executive and I know the headaches of trying to solve a problem like this.  While I have a little sympathy for those engineers who are trying to come up with a new design, the executive team needs to be more forthcoming in admitting the problem and taking responsibility.

Although Workhorse is bearing the brunt of the bad press on this issue, I wonder how much cash Bosch is going to have to come up with since the design problem seems to be their fault.

If workhorse would have owned up to the problems with there brakes over 3 years ago instead of trying to blame the owners and then having their mods on the other site do their dirty work, this recall and fix would have been complete along time ago. I for one dont feel sorry for them. Bosch and wh probly wont pay a dime because they have ins for this which is sad because we paid several thousand more for this chassis when we bought it and some of us(I've had to pay for 3 failures) have paid thousands more which wh said I will not get reimburshed. So for all the crap that wh and their mouthpieces over there have put alot of us through, I say pay back is h%&$ and thank you nhtsa. Ok im done venting, for now

winnie35 said:

If workhorse would have owned up to the problems with there brakes over 3 years ago instead of trying to blame the owners and then having their mods on the other site do their dirty work, this recall and fix would have been complete along time ago. I for one dont feel sorry for them. Bosch and wh probly wont pay a dime because they have ins for this which is sad because we paid several thousand more for this chassis when we bought it and some of us(I've had to pay for 3 failures) have paid thousands more which wh said I will not get reimburshed. So for all the crap that wh and their mouthpieces over there have put alot of us through, I say pay back is h%&$ and thank you nhtsa. Ok im done venting, for now

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No, thank you for 'venting'; I couldn't have said it better, even though I've tried for a couple of years and the only thing I have to show for it is that WH was forced to issue a recall notice and that maybe, sometime after October, my MH will be inspected and repaired, maybe? unless WH can find a way to weasel out of paying for anything...

And while I'm thinking of my reply, maybe 'stating the truth' is more appropriate than the word 'venting'...

Richard 34A said:

No, thank you for 'venting'; I couldn't have said it better, even though I've tried for a couple of years and the only thing I have to show for it is that WH was forced to issue a recall notice and that maybe, sometime after October, my MH will be inspected and repaired, maybe? unless WH can find a way to weasel out of paying for anything...

And while I'm thinking of my reply, maybe 'stating the truth' is more appropriate than the word 'venting'...

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Thank you Richard. Good to hear from you. I hope all is going well for you and yours.  I filed a complaint about no reimbushment with www.ftc.gov. I did it over the phone which was easy. The rep  said the more complaint they get the more help they will give. I think this and/or a class action will be the only way most of us will get our money back. Maybe we can get the word out like on the nhtsa brake recall.

I took my Cruise Master on a Work horse chassic for the brake problem on June 22nd , the right rear brake  was hanging and stinking. They said the problem fit in the catagory of the recall and would get it fixed. They now cannot find the calipers any where in the country. I have almost a $1000.00 in tickets to the championship drag races next week end and no way to get there with the 5 people who are depending on staying in the MH. I even called WORKHORSE customer relations and they said in a not so nice way that they are sorry bout that. I have been very happy with Workhorse until now.. So if you are waiting for parts it may take several weeks, WH should have planned on this problem...