A couple of you wanted pictures. This is a classic recall case. The first pic is what the owner saw from the exterior. The second is of the perc area with the insulation and outer housing removed. It's hard to tell exactly where the leak originated, but I suspect at the common weld between the 12V pocket and the 110V pocket. I'll know better when the cooling unit is actually removed from the box.
This is a RM3862 out of a 2002 5th and is on the recall list. The element is marked 115V-325W. Part # 173768-03 The ohms will be checked tomorrow and I'll edit this post with the reading. Dometic has supplied a new cooling unit and will warrant this defect for the owner.
Edit...the resistance of the element turned out to be 36.5 ohms and will be replaced. Now all you number crunchers can go crazy. :) Of course the element in the recall is in a grey area. Whether Dometic will replace it at no cost is unknown at this point, since the unit is over it's warranty period. But, we'll see. Either way, it has to be replaced.
For those of you keeping score, the new element was checked and it shows 40.4 ohms. Just barely within the specs of +/-10%As a side note, the new cooling unit came with a thermofuse attached. The original fridge didn't have one, so it needed a small rewire to include it in the circuitry.
