SEPTEMBER.2015
BUSRIDEMAINTENANCE.COM
THE EXCLUSIVE MAINTENANCE RESOURCE FOR THE TRANSIT AND MOTORCOACH INDUSTRY
MAXIMIZE bus engine efficiency p5
Routine voltage checks p4 | The art of effective complaining p6
FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF
It’s all about efficiency
VOL. 05 • NO. 9 CEO Judi Victor jvfly@busridemaintenance.com
BUSRide Maintenance is all about efficiency this month – for technicians, equipment and the shop. Increasing workplace efficiency constantly rates as a top priority among our readers based on surveys BUSRide conducts annually. To that end, top maintenance experts are sharing their insight and analysis on how best to optimize shop resources and increase productivity. Take a look at what’s inside: • On the cover: In the company’s monthly Preparing for Winter column, Colin Dilley of the Prestone Products Corporation explores how best to optimize engine efficiency. • Robert Buchwalter of Prevost details the art of effective complaining, a way to make sure that operators get the most out of their dealings with OEMs. • We spotlight a fantastic story from the BUSRide Maintenance archives, as Chris Ferrone shows how to stop wasting time with broken or inefficiency air filter indicators.
Publisher Steve Kane skane@busridemaintenance.com Associate Publisher David Hubbard dhubbard@busridemaintenance.com Editor in Chief Richard Tackett rtackett@busridemaintenance.com Senior Art Director Stephen Gamble sgamble@busridemaintenance.com Accountant Fred Valdez fvaldez@busridemaintenance.com
BUS INDUSTRY SAFETY COUNCIL
Efficiency starts with knowledge – maximize efficiency with BUSRide Maintenance.
SEPTEMBER 2015
CONTENTS
Richard Tackett Editor in Chief BUSRide Maintenance Magazine
On the cover: Maximize bus engine efficiency By Colin Dilley, Ph.D.
A publication of:
Features Chase down that cracked air filter indicator One $10 filter indicator can wipe a $20,000 engine
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By Christopher W. Ferrone
The art of effective complaining
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By Robert Buchwalter
Departments From the Editor in Chief Products and Services
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POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to:
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PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Nightstick® Dual-LightTM triples the duals Bayco Products, Inc., announced a new rechargeable combination flashlight and floodlight that in addition to those dual operating modes adds dual magnets and integrated dual lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. The new Nightstick® model NSR-2522RM LED Dual-LightTM Flashlight with Dual Magnets is now available for sale with a low average retail price of $99.95 and below. Like other Nightstick Dual-Lights this rechargeable model features two separate light sources. The forward-facing flashlight places a 250-lumen CREE® LED emitter (rated 50,000+ hours) in a deep dish parabolic reflector to offer a beam range of 213 meters (698 feet). A separate 140-lumen side-mounted LED casts a broad but shorter-range unfocused floodlight. Bayco Products, Inc. Wylie, TX
4ONE announces GrabHold 4ONE’s new, ergonomically designed GrabHold, with built-in safety grab handle, helps protect passengers from sudden shifts in bus movement. For the first time, passengers who sit in the aisle position on a forward facing flip seat have something to grab onto during sudden stops and decelerations. Bus company owners and transit agencies will also benefit from GrabHold’s space-saving design, ADA-accessibility features and economical retrofit capabilities. Because of the size and shape of the Grabhold’s built-in grab handle, it eliminates the cost and bulk of adding a stanchion for passenger stabilization. By pulling GrabHold’s easy-release lever, it allows the seats to flip up and the grab handle to rotate/pivot inward freeing up space. That extra space makes room for a wheelchair, which in a normal bus with regular seats would be underutilized or not used at all. The flip-up seats also allow excess capacity for walk-on items when not in use by a wheelchair occupant.
Tracer shines a light Tracer Products’ TP-9364 PRO-Alert 2791™ is an electronic refrigerant leak detector that is certified to meet the new SAE J2791 standard. It utilizes a state-of-the-art infrared sensor to accurately detect refrigerant leaks down to 0.1oz/year (3 g/year). A threeposition sensitivity switch minimizes false triggering and allows for easy diagnosis of small, medium and large leaks. The unit is sensitive to R-12, R-134a, R-1234yf and all other HFC refrigerants, and is certified to meet the new SAE J2791 standard for electronic refrigerant detectors. Sensor life is an incredible 1,000 hours or more. Tracer Products Westbury, NY
Antaira launches new switches Antaira’s new LNX-1202G-SFP and LNX-1204G-SFP industrial Gigabit unmanaged Ethernet switches offer the highest density of Gigabit Ethernet port connectivity in the market. The combination of SFP fiber and RJ45 copper with high Gigabit port count connectivity are designed to help fulfill special needs for security, transportation, and solar and wind power industries. These switches are ideal for any outdoor application with an extreme ambient weather environment. The LNX-1202GSFP series supports 10*10/100/1000Tx ports and 2*100/1000 SFP slots; whereas, the LNX-1204G-SFP series supports 8*10/100/1000Tx ports and 4*100/1000 SFP slots. Antaira Technologies Anaheim, CA
4ONE Exton, PA busridemaintenance.com | BUSRIDE MAINTENANCE
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Chase down that cracked air filter indicator One $10 filter indicator can wipe a $20,000 engine Air filter indicator installed downstream of air cleaner.
By Christopher W. Ferrone Americoach Systems Inc. Glenview, IL [This story originally ran in the July 2011 edition of BUSRide Maintenance.] Even after more than 30 years in this business, I still discover something in our garage on occasion that scares me into action. For about a week I had been hearing a high-pitched whistling noise coming from an S-60 engine. I inspected it and drove it personally, but was still unable to locate the source. With a little more probing, I eventually diagnosed the disturbing noise as coming from the air intake system A cracked air filter indicator. on the engine. The old-school way to locate an intake leak is to spray the intake ducting with starting fluid, which increases engine RPMs. I tried this test procedure and still could not pinpoint the whistling. Finally after a few hours of looking over the engine and ducting, I located a cracked air filter restriction indicator. Mounted on the intake duct, the crack was very small and hard to see. Once I took it off the duct, I was able to see the crack clearly and immediately understood the problem with the failed filter indicator. Air was entering through the crack in the indicator and causing the whistling noise. My point here is how one $10 filter indicator could have wiped out the $20,000 engine; proof that attention to the air cleaner is one of the most important details in engine maintenance. This is how the engine breathes. Similar to a human breathing air that is not clean and feeling it in the lungs. The filter indicator is mounted downstream of the air cleaner. If it cracks and allows air to enter the intake ducting, it is unfiltered air that is entering the engine. As miles and engine hours elapse and mount up, a large quantity of dirty unfiltered air will have entered the engine and caused damage to the all the airside components. 4
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At least three conditions can negatively affect the filter indicator: age, heat and solvents. Any one of these — together or separately — can cause this type of crack failure in the body of the indicator. At Chicago Sightseeing, we change out all the air cleaners in the fleet regularly on a three-month cycle, which equates to about 10,000 miles. This service schedule has worked well for our engines since our fleet has a high percentage of idle time per day. By changing these filters according to a strict timetable — rather than by going on the current condition of the filter — we do not need the indicator in our garage. As a result, we also have systematically removed all filter indicators fleet wide and replaced them with brass plugs, eliminating the need for an indicator. These brass plugs are easy to find and easy to install. This change over procedure has eliminated an unnecessary risk that had no benefit to our fleet. For any coach operator experiencing the same sort of failure, my advice is to immediately remove the damaged indicator and replace it with a new one if the choice is to keep using it, or install the plugs and eliminate the need for an indicator. An additional step is to determine if dirty air entering the engine has done any damage. Remove the A simple brass plug eliminates and turbocharger intake duct replaces the filter indicator. and inspect the turbocharger compressor vanes. If the vanes appear to be pitted or their edges eroded, too much dirty air has entered the engine and damaged the turbocharger, and most likely the air side components of the engine as well. This problem becomes all the more deceptive because it seems so simple and mundane to the casual observer. However, if ignored, it could mean replacing a new engine instead of a mere indicator. In maintenance it is always the simple mundane problem in the first place that often leads to the larger and more difficult problems. busridemaintenance.com
Maximizing bus engine efficiency
The very best AF/Cs not only keep the engine from freezing up in cold temperatures and overheating in extreme heat, they also fight metal corrosion within the engine.
By Colin Dilley, Ph.D. With cold weather approaching, fleet professionals will check antifreeze/coolant (AF/C) as a safeguard against extreme cold and freezing, but AF/C plays a much larger role in engine efficiency. The cooling system affects the performance of other vehicle systems and proper maintenance will ensure the best possible operating efficiency, in any season. If the cooling system is unable to operate efficiently, the heavy-duty vehicle’s emissions, fuel economy, horsepower and durability of engine components could be compromised. How does AF/C protect the engine? The essential tasks for any cooling system are: • Provide efficient heat transfer to control critical metal temperatures. • Increase the cooling index to help prevent boilover and overheating failures. • Provide freezing protection to prevent freezeups or non-starts in the lowest temperatures. • Inhibit corrosion for all cooling-system metals through a wide range of temperatures and operating conditions. • Check the coolant concentration to ensure the correct freeze point/boil point protection is being maintained for the climate in which the vehicle will be operating. The very best AF/Cs do more than simply keep the engine from freezing up in cold temperatures or overheating in extreme heat, they also fight metal corrosion within the engine. Fighting corrosion Rust and corrosion can ruin the efficiency of a cooling system, putting the entire engine at risk. With a myriad of different metals making up any heavy duty engine, it is important to understand the need for inhibitors in the coolant to fight rust and corrosion across all metal surfaces. Cooling-system problems can result from the deterioration of any material within the engine, or supporting systems. Engines cannot operate efficiently with deposits on metal surfaces, which slowly impair an engine’s performance. The correct mixture of coolant with the proper amount and type of inhibitors will guard against corrosion (Original Equipment Manufacturers provide guidelines for coolants in their engines). As the operation of the heavy duty engine consumes corrosionfighting additives, Supplemental Coolant Additives (SCA) must be periodically added to systems with conventional IAC and HOAT coolants to maintain effective corrosion protection. Extended
Life OAT and NOAT coolants do not require SCAs. The inhibitor package within these different chemistries does not determine the level of freeze or boilover protection in the coolant. These inhibitor packages are focused solely on corrosion protection. In the event that metal components become corroded and AF/C flow becomes restricted for any reason, the system’s ability to adequately cool or transfer heat from the key components diminishes considerably. This inefficiency can eventually lead to costly engine damage, both in terms of downtime and repair expense. Efficiency gets help from AF/C testing There are a few key cooling-system maintenance essentials that should be considered in order to ensure the efficient operation of an engine: • Test coolants regularly for appropriate additive levels. • Only utilize coolant that meets industry standards and performance requirements. • Top off cooling systems using pre-diluted coolant and maintain additive levels at regular service intervals with liquid additives. Conclusion The maintenance on a heavy duty engine requires an understanding of the entire cooling system that ties precision and power together. Antifreeze/coolant choices, and the intervals chosen to replenish them, are important for fighting enginecomponent corrosion and other ailments that deteriorate the heavy-duty engine’s efficiency and overall productivity. Coolant decisions can have a profound effect relating to time spent on the road – or time spent in the garage. To safeguard a heavyduty engine’s horsepower, fuel economy, emissions and overall durability, these decisions should be made based on the integrity of the supplier who stands behind the quality of its products, which have been designed to meet performance requirements and industry specifications. Colin Dilley, Ph.D, is the vice president of technology for Prestone Products Corporation. Prestone Products Corporation manufactures and markets Prestone® antifreeze/coolant and related products. For more than 85 years, the Prestone name has provided customers with high-quality products, including one of the leading brands of antifreeze/coolant. Visit www.PrestoneCommand.com
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The art of
effective complaining “One of my guys found a mistake on your schematic that threw us off.”
“We had a hot brake last month.”
By Robert Buchwalter Service Training Manager Prevost
These are the type of statements that service managers from all coach OEMs often hear. Clearly, there is a difference in those statements! The first three are anecdotal. Without further questions, there is little information that we can act on. But the fourth statement is an example of clear communication. We understand the vehicle involved, who reported the issue, the symptoms, the apparent cause, and an invitation to investigate. As maintenance professionals, we now have something we can begin to investigate and resolve.
“We can’t keep batteries in that bus.” “Two days ago, we had a driver report that our fleet number, 1234, your VIN F7001, had an entrance door that was bouncing. We replaced the door damper and that seems to have fixed the problem. I still have the damper. Can you look at it?”
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Investigation by technicians can go a long way to speeding up an OEM’s problem-solving process.
Whether we are on the OEM side or the customer side, we are in this profession together, and we are all human. While we would like to think that we give all inquiries the same priority, when issues are presented in an informal manner, let’s face it, the level of our response is often equal to the perceived level of seriousness. The more serious we think a situation is, and communicate that concern, the more likely it is that the person whom we expect to fix it will likewise perceive the situation. We see this in our own lives. Whenever I have a problem with a part, tool or service, I am sure that more information will yield a more favorable outcome. I try to get the name of the sales person I buy a part from; keep the receipt; document any installation issues; and if I have to return something, then I have this information in order to convey to the person I talk with that I take things seriously and expect they will, too. Whatever the situation, the more information we have will verbally and nonverbally express to the representative that the issue is serious and we expect it to be resolved. busridemaintenance.com
It is the same with coaches. At Prevost, we do not build perfect equipment. Thank goodness we don’t, because this fact has kept me employed for a quarter century. The fact that we all have our noses in this magazine proves that we all work on imperfect products. All the same, perfect coaches are what we seek. All OEMs want the same thing: coaches that carry our passengers without problems and simply require us to follow the maintenance calendar throughout their lifetime. But, we know that isn’t the case. This is why coach companies have maintenance departments and OEMs have service departments. When customers and OEM service managers talk, that is where precision and details count! In the first sentence presented above, the better way to communicate the problem would be, “On D061150, revision 00, page 26.1, there is a 24 volt wire, which passes through a switch, and it is described as a ground wire after that. This is confusing. Is it a 24-volt or a ground wire?” For the second issue, we need more information. We could gain some troubleshooting information if the tech said, “We had a new driver on a coach last weekend, and he reported what seemed to be a hot brake. We checked and both brakes on the steer axle showed visual evidence of high than normal temperatures. We asked him where this happened and he said he had just come off a long downhill grade.” Lastly, the better way to communicate the third problem would be something like, “Our fleet 2349, can come in from a trip with no problems, no trouble indicators, and no codes. If we clean and park the bus, by two days later the batteries are dead. “ It all comes down to communication; we need information in order for us to resolve the problem. Data drives the process. In
the three examples above, the OEM rep involved would know the tech has done some investigation, has recorded the available data or circumstances, and might be on the way to finding a root cause already. But the OEM’s rep knows the individual and the company are taking the situation seriously, and not simply complaining. They want to work with someone to fix the problem…if that involves a report to engineering to report a mistake, perhaps some driver training, or getting out the volt meter and finding the amp draw on a set of batteries, then they are on the way toward resolving the issue. Sometimes we can resolve the problem on the spot; other situations require a formal report. At Prevost, we have a specific process to report issues from the field to our engineering department. This is why we take so many pictures of problems. We use pictures and PowerPoint presentations to convey the situation to the factory. A decision also must be made as to whether or not we need the part for the inspection. So, don’t throw things away! Maurice Gagne, Prevost’s director of service for North America, holds a bi-weekly meeting with engineering to discuss these issues. The problem might be a design issue, an installation issue, out of date part or kit, or some training for drivers or technicians. Whatever the problem is, the more information we can bring to bear, then the more seriously everyone involved will treat the situation. A problem well stated is half solved. So, the next time there is a problem in your fleet that you decide needs to be discussed with your OEM, please gather all possible information, talk with the driver and document the issue. Working together, we can fix everything faster and that is the goal of all OEMs!
TAKE COMMAND
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Prestone Antifreeze/Coolant has protected vehicle cooling systems since 1927.
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