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true... and i love the simplicity of my DTA360.. however ive grown up playing with computers under the hood and building gassers with both carbs and plain old distributers as well as building gassers with MPFI and wow I do have to say it was nice to be able 'Hop up' a motor for playing by simply writing a new computer algorithm for it...
that said yes it can be tough to track an issue down.. and the diagnostic tool has to be used like any other Tool..its an AID in fixing it.. but good old intuition.. listen / smell / feel / and measure still have to be used..
often times people read the "codes" and assume that code tells you what to replace..
if the computer says "oil pump pressure low" it doesnt mean replace the oil pump.. or maybe it does... it still has to be troubleshot..
just like when one of us on a mechanical sees the oil P gauge running low.. we go through a whole battery of "tests" if you will to track down the issue..
while I agree the computer is much more complex.. and I question its ability on a diesel to really increase economy.. its all for the tree-huggers more or less and emissions on diesels.. esp the 07 - UP stuff...
I do believe when it comes to busses that people with electromechanical knowledge can buy an 'E' economically and have a good bus... and perhaps if they are totally non-mechanical in nature and plan to take it to the shop for everything they do the same.. simply because more and more techs trained and EXPERIENCED on fully mechanical diesels is harder and harder to come by.. the first thing any tech wants to do is hook the computer up and see what the engine tells them that the driver doesnt..
if i get a fail-to-start the first questions are "did you get it hot, did you run it out of oil, did you run out of fuel?"
the human factor kicks in where the driver doesnt want to incriminate himself 'well it ran a little warm but nothing out of the norm'...
so i hook the computer to it and see a code set for "Engine oil temp over 260", "Oil pressure low threshold 2" and I know that thing was roasted.... if its a 6.0 they probably melted the standpipe... if its a 7.3 they probably lost oil pressure and drained the HPOP reservoire.. if its a DT-466E theres probably 2 gallons of coolant in the oil pan...
inceidentilly IHC Gives away the servicemaxxpro software for free now for anything Pre-Maxxforce.. so your VT-365, DT-466E,T-444E, DT-530E can all be diagnosed in the free version of the software...
purely Mechanical busses are getting harder and harder to find.. and will continue to be so..
the 'E' can also be programed to go into survival mode so it doesnt get destroyed because someone didnt watch the temp or oil gauge.. or because the bus has one of the 10 million flaky IHC dash clusters out there where the gauge is defunct..
the computer can be programmed to reduce power, warning audible / visual, or even shutdown if you want it to based on different parameters including water temp, oil temp, oil pressure, and fuel pressure... if the engine has a factory PYRO (I think the 6.0's do) it can reduce power based on EGT over-temp..
yes we can all agree that fully mechanicals are much simpler and eas yto work on for the average guy.. but those arent gonna be around much longer in the auctions.. so its time we embrace and learn the 'E' series and good at them...
one way to do that is connecting your fully working bus to the computer and capturing lots of data in various scenerios.. so you can see what it looks like normal to help you figure it out when its not normal..
-Christopher
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