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Ed_Manifold's avatar
Ed_Manifold
Explorer
Jul 13, 2017

Generator

Last week we were at Lake Shasta and one early morning I was awakened with my generator starting on its own. We were plugged into the 50 amp campground power and I do not have automatic start on the generator. The generator is an Onan 7.5 diesel. I got up and shut it off and I did notice that my microwave was flashing and I reset it. I did have my Hughes Autoformer plugged in but without auto start I don't see that would make a difference. I started the generator today at home and run it a couple of hours with the front air conditioner on and it run fine, it did seem too crank a little longer but otherwise good. I did service it in February with oil change and new filters. I have had the motorhome since new and the starting issue has never happened before. Any ideas what could have caused this starting by itself?
  • Had a cat start mine one afternoon by stepping on the outside start switch. I put a toothpick under it so no vermin could do it again.
  • We had a Generac 7.5k diesel that got into the habit of starting on its own. We took it to Leale's in San Jose who replaced the control board. Problem fixed.
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    Might have pets you don't know about.. I've had some insects **** on connections and short stuff out..

    Also water and loose connections.
  • You are not crazy this has been posted several times in the past you need to do a search on the problem I just don't remember the cause.
  • Was it raining? Water could have gotten into the (generator control) wiring and caused it to start. Old posts here talked about it.
  • Old-Biscuit you got it together. I thought maybe he had one of those new smart generators and it sensed it was going to get hot outside and if he would have left it alone the air conditioner would have came on.
  • bad start switch, short in the control wiring, (i had that happen once ) it was near the generator
    all it takes is one mouse chewing on wires, and a little moisture
    control board in generator getting flakey
  • No auto start ...YET generator started by itself


    Microwave was flashing...
    Loss of AC Power..battery voltage went down...gen auto started.

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