HELP Buzzers going off driving Help Help

[Fishfry]

2002 International bus 3800 444, Basic bus used for transporting prisoners from the beginning of being new, Georgia state prison bus.

long Beeping goin on at 2000rpm, all fluids are topped off, no door sensors. has no air brakes just hydraulic.
Accelerating past the long beeps they get shorter and quicker beeps.

Travling across states to get home.

[Kentucky Dreaming]

speak in complete sentences. Do the buzzers only come on at 2000 RPM?

I don't know of anything like that unless a speed governor that I've never heard of

[Fishfry]

Yes beeping at 2000rpm.

[nikitis]

And you're sure there are no prisoners escaping?

Just kidding 😂

Perhaps tell us where in the bus the buzzer sound is coming from. Is it coming from the gauge cluster, or below the gauge cluster at the floor. Location of the buzzer can maybe tell us something.

Is air pressure good (Do you have air brakes). If you go below 60 PSI it can go off to warn you to stop cause brakes are going out.

[Fishfry]

The bus has hydraulic brakes,
No door sensors,
All fluids full,

The buzzer sound is coming from behind the instrument panel.

[nikitis]

So gauge cluster then. Do you have any warning lights with the buzzer?

It's possible there is a warning light and your bulbs in the gauge cluster are blown. They use older incandescent type bulbs so you could be having an issue and not be warned. You may want to take that cluster out and replace all the bulbs in it then try again.

When I bought my bus almost ALL 20 bulbs were shot. I replaced them all so I could see what the hell was wrong with my bus. Also it may be time to get a scanner to see if there are any inactive codes which regardless of bulb situation can tell you something is wrong.

[Fishfry]

I will look in to that, thank you

[Omnibot2000]

My cluster occasionally starts beeping for no reason. Done it 3 times in the last 2.5 years. I have scanned it and no codes.

Get a nexiq clone communication device at the least and the free software from international. Good tool to have.

As mentioned. Make sure all dash lights work.

I've concluded my cluster is freaking out occasionally.

Now I believe these buses also have a brake monitor that can beep. Not totally sure, never dug into one that failed. Might be where my beeps come from too or the cause of them..

[cadillackid]

long beeps are usually the oil / water alarm typically if you over-temp the coolant to 228 or the oil past 230 (at least thats what the book says).. or if your oil pressure is lower than 10 PSI for more than 5 seconds..


shorter beeps are often related to the hydraulic braking.. if the powered steering pressure drops it starts faster beeps.. if both brake light switched go inop I beleive it will beep and turn on the brake motors.. the brake-press light is supposed to come on...


finally.. the 3800 clusters were some of the worst made.. numerous posts on various forums about how terrible the solder joints are.. you can re-flow the solder or send it away to someone like circuit-board-medics to have it fixed.



like mentioned the bulbs burn out too.. 6 years ago i replaced every bulb in my redbyrd cluster and guess what 3 or 4 of them are already burned out.. I have my digital dash but i'll still be pulling the cluster out to fix because I hate burnt out lights on a dashboard..

[Omnibot2000]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

.


shorter beeps are often related to the hydraulic braking.. if the powered steering pressure drops it starts faster beeps.. if both brake light switched go inop I beleive it will beep and turn on the brake motors.. the brake-press light is supposed to come on...

..

Mine was beeping fast. Only time it did this was on a start up when cold below freezing to warm the engine and walked away from it to come back 5 min. later to beeping. Everytime I would shut down and start up and beeping gone.

I always stick around on first start to make sure I have oil pressure on the gauge before walking away. Had oil filter seal failure at -40c even with synthetic oil on a Nissan. Oil pressure more or less ruled out for the bus

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Omnibot2000

Mine was beeping fast. Only time it did this was on a start up when cold below freezing to warm the engine and walked away from it to come back 5 min. later to beeping. Everytime I would shut down and start up and beeping gone.

I always stick around on first start to make sure I have oil pressure on the gauge before walking away. Had oil filter seal failure at -40c even with synthetic oil on a Nissan. Oil pressure more or less ruled out for the bus

if you lose oil pressure for real on a T444E it wont run.. the HPOP needs a good solid flow of oil from the low pressure pump or it will run out and shut down the engine.. doenst take very long either.. some guys have reported having the HPOP run dry from simply not pre-filling their oil filter at an oil change..

[Omnibot2000]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

if you lose oil pressure for real on a T444E it wont run.. the HPOP needs a good solid flow of oil from the low pressure pump or it will run out and shut down the engine.. doenst take very long either.. some guys have reported having the HPOP run dry from simply not pre-filling their oil filter at an oil change..

Point I was saying I don't have low oil pressure.

Unlike my worn out tractor. That thing has like 2psi LOL

[BamaBus]

Originally Posted by Fishfry

Accelerating past the long beeps they get shorter and quicker beeps.

Sounds like the roof(or window) emergency exit buffering with the increased wind pressure causing sensor activation?

[Omnibot2000]

Originally Posted by BamaBus

Sounds like the roof(or window) emergency exit buffering with the increased wind pressure causing sensor activation?

If his is a bluebird like my 2001, all my exits have a buzzer. What I believe he is talking about would be a beep.

[nikitis]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

if you lose oil pressure for real on a T444E it wont run.. the HPOP needs a good solid flow of oil from the low pressure pump or it will run out and shut down the engine.. doenst take very long either.. some guys have reported having the HPOP run dry from simply not pre-filling their oil filter at an oil change..

I just added 4 qts to my bus yesterday. I've been losing oil out of the dipstick. (It came with a replacement stick from china) Even says China on it. Oil was at the fill line. I still got 40PSI of oil pressure even low, and it still started up like a dream.

Adding 4qts put it almost above the full line slightly. I don't know what to do about the dipstick situation. I bought a rubber hose that fits over the dipstick tube at the top, the handle of the dipstick is double the size width of the dipstick tube, and doesn't even cap onto the tube it's so large.

Yesterday I measured the width of the tube and stick handle, and realized a rubber fuel line could fit over the dipstick tube, and be wide enough for the chinese made dipstick to fit sort of snug over the rubber, but it's not very deep so not sure if it will permanently stick.

I'm trying it out now to see if it'll hold together and stay in, but if it doesn't I think I'm going to find some high temp superglue and glue about 1centimeter of tube to the dipstick so it can basically hug the tube better to hold it in.

I also did a blowby test on the engine oil cap, and she's good. No visible blowby at all. I was worried that maybe the engine was getting old and creating blowby and blowing out the dipstick, but it's simply not the stick made for the engine, and it's lose and comes out.

[Omnibot2000]

You can measure your dipstick to a OEM dipstick to confirm it's marked correctly. I could tomorrow evening....at least on mine Being aftermarket it might not be accurate?

I like to check blow by on hot engines. When it warms up it could create more blow by as the oil thins. Had a engine that sounded perfect cold. As it warmed up I could hear a "thud" in the exhaust note. Performed a cylinder contribution test and #6 cylinder was weak, down 50 psi while other 7 cylinders were around 350 psi. Did a leak down test and confirmed ring issues. Meanwhile the oil fill cap sat on the oil fill just fine with no movement. The engine was a vt365/6.0 powerstroke.

[nikitis]

Originally Posted by Omnibot2000

You can measure your dipstick to a OEM dipstick to confirm it's marked correctly. I could tomorrow evening....at least on mine Being aftermarket it might not be accurate?

I like to check blow by on hot engines. When it warms up it could create more blow by as the oil thins. Had a engine that sounded perfect cold. As it warmed up I could hear a "thud" in the exhaust note. Performed a cylinder contribution test and #6 cylinder was weak, down 50 psi while other 7 cylinders were around 350 psi. Did a leak down test and confirmed ring issues. Meanwhile the oil fill cap sat on the oil fill just fine with no movement. The engine was a vt365/6.0 powerstroke.

My engine was hot. I was running for 30 mins driving. Then did the cap check. practically no blow by coming out. Looked good. The engine itself sounds great. I have a good ear and know how to listen for rod knocks and irregularities in compression between cylinders if it's far off, (not which cylinders are off, but if any are off from the others) and it all sounds very regular and strong.

My only worry is if there is an oil leak in the rear main seal of the engine as there is oil under my engine which may be coming from there, but I plan to do a clean up here real soon by de-greasing it all as a part of my undercarriage maintenance, and then watching it carefully where the leaks are coming from. I know for certain a lot of oil is coming from the dipstick tube due to my dipstick situation, you can even see the oil trails from the tube downwards, but I think there is also oil leaking from the rear main seal of the engine because there's a tiny bit of oil on the other side where the dipstick tube oil leak could not reach. (though it is possible it was on the underside and blew upwards as I drove it.) If the rear main seal is leaking it's a slower leak, but will get progressively worse. I may have to when I do my transmission upgrade at the same time go ahead and fix that seal while it's out.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by nikitis

My engine was hot. I was running for 30 mins driving. Then did the cap check. practically no blow by coming out. Looked good. The engine itself sounds great. I have a good ear and know how to listen for rod knocks and irregularities in compression between cylinders if it's far off, (not which cylinders are off, but if any are off from the others) and it all sounds very regular and strong.

My only worry is if there is an oil leak in the rear main seal of the engine as there is oil under my engine which may be coming from there, but I plan to do a clean up here real soon by de-greasing it all as a part of my undercarriage maintenance, and then watching it carefully where the leaks are coming from. I know for certain a lot of oil is coming from the dipstick tube due to my dipstick situation, you can even see the oil trails from the tube downwards, but I think there is also oil leaking from the rear main seal of the engine because there's a tiny bit of oil on the other side where the dipstick tube oil leak could not reach. (though it is possible it was on the underside and blew upwards as I drove it.) If the rear main seal is leaking it's a slower leak, but will get progressively worse. I may have to when I do my transmission upgrade at the same time go ahead and fix that seal while it's out.

on a 444E look to the valley... the EBPV / turbo pedestal is a known place for oil leaks.. as are the HPOP lines coming out of the heads or HPOP itself.. you'll see wetness in the valley that often runs down and ends up running between the block and the flywheel housing making you think a rear main is the culprit

[Omnibot2000]

There are also 2 big oil galley plugs in the back of the head. 1 on each side. When mine leaked it mimics a rear seal leak. At least on my OBS Ford it did.

[nikitis]

Ok, thanks I'll check those. I didn't notice oil in the valley, but I'll look closer.