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davidnrose's avatar
davidnrose
Explorer
Oct 07, 2013

Intermittent power failure on a Frieghtliner Chassis

I have a 2001 Dutchstar with a Freightliner Chassis. I'm having an intermittent electrical problem that has me and freightliner befuddled. While driving along at normal cruising speed with everything running fine all the warning lights come on and all gauges go to zero this lasts for about two seconds then everything comes back to normal. I've replaced the automatic resetting circuit breaker for the ignition system , this was recommended by freightliner. It does not happen every day sometimes it won't happen for three or four days then it sometimes happens twice in one day. I've had service techs look for loose connections or shorts and they claim they found one and fixed it, but the problem persists. I tried to take it to Freightliner in Gaffney S.C. but can't get in because of backlog.
Has anyone with a Freightliner Diesel pusher chassis ever had this problem or does anyone out there have any ideas? I would appreciate any and all help.

2 Replies

  • The gauges are controlled by a board under the dash cover. I would check all of those connections including the grounds.
  • I don't have a Dutchstar or even a Freightliner chassis, but I'll take a wild guess that the problem has to do with a faulty ground.

    The solution is quite simple and cheap. Find and clean each main grounding point. Since the warning lights go on, one could assume it isn't the main ground at the battery to the chassis, but from the chassis to your electrical control panel or similar grounding point.

    The second possibility is one of more of your relays are failing. These are solenoids that are 1/2 the size of a beer can and have two large brass posts and two small brass posts sticking out. They are cheap and easy to replace. You can buy them at just about any auto parts store.