2014 Freightliner cascadia evolution electrical problems

Discussion in 'Trucking Electronics, Gadgets and Software Forum' started by JCase82, Jun 8, 2015.

  1. JCase82

    JCase82 Bobtail Member

    9
    4
    Mar 4, 2015
    Rialto, California
    0
    Hey everyone. As the title suggests I have a 2014 cascadia evolution with some SERIOUS electrical issues. I was unsure of where to post questions about this so I saw electrical and came here. Apologies if I'm in the wrong section of the forums any moderator feel free to move me to the right place. Anyhow let me get down to the meat & potatoes.

    My 2014 evolution is practically brand new. Had 112k on the odo when i got it. I've since put about 70k on it so the truck is still (or should be at least) its prime but having only had it half a year I've already run into a gambit of electrical issues. Lemme run down the most common.

    -This truck loves I mean LOVES to chew up fuses. Mostly the 12v power outlets of which i have 5 but only 2 work. It blows these fuses on a regular basis so much so I've removed every screw in the glove and only hand tightened 1 so I can have easy access to the fuse box. I never use the 2 up front foot anything beyond my .5amp cell phone charger and even that i unplug every night but it blows thru the fuses like a fat kid through cookies. It has also twice blown fuses to my cab lights for no reason whatsoever.
    - my truck is equipped with a merritor wabco collision mitigation system that's somehow also tied directly into the entire cpu. Problem with the system is it occasionally will detect a false positive "imminent accident event" and just recently emergency braked my truck. Mind you that's a HUGE safety hazard to have my truck braking on its own. Immediately after that incident I informed my company and turned the truck into maintenance. Of course they could find no faults in the system and it hasn't done it since but it shook my trust of this whole radar collision avoidance crap.
    - my truck has started throwing fault codes CONSTANTLY. At first it would be 1 or 2 codes and they'd happen separate of eachother and never in close proximity to eachother. But as of late it's been having multiple "faults" and it's come to the point where I'm starting to recognize the #### codes. Here's the most recent run-down of faults.
    ~fault 1:
    Cdu 42 spn 90 4 fail 9
    ~fault 2:
    545 16 0 spn 90 4 fail 9
    ~fault 3:
    Cdu 42 spn 1121 fail 9
    ~ fault 4:
    Cdu 43 spn 2919 fail 9
    ~fault 5:
    545 16 0 spn 1121 fail 9 (duplicate? Or somehow separate)
    ~fault 6:
    545 16 0 spn 2919 fail 9 (again listed as a seperate fault by the ecu somehow)
    ~fault 7:
    No abs spn 639 fail 7
    ~fault 8:
    Cdu 42 spn 5606 fail 19

    Now I spent 6 years as a diesel mechanic but it was for the army so I know my knowledge doesn't have a huge cross section into commercial vehicles (especially since the vast majority of our vehicle maintenance is outsourced when it comes to advanced electronic systems) but my intuition in this case leads me to believe there's got to be some sort of issue with my trucks wiring. I was thinking maybe a bad wiring harness but I again have no experience with commercial trucks. Are freightliners known for electrical issues? I've found a few recalls for my model truck but they were issued way before I took ownership and this is a company truck to boot so I'd imagine they'd have taken care of any recalls way before I got it. Sorry I'm a bit distracted my collision mitigation system won't stop beeping CONSTANTLY to remind me the system has an error cruise control disabled. I forgot YAY! that's a thing with the merritor wabco "on guard" system. If it detects an error in its system it disables cruise control how awesome is that!? He says with heavy sarcasm.

    Apologies for my long winded rant basically I'm looking for anyone who may have been a dealership mechanic or had experience with freightliner trucks. I'm hoping maybe you can shed some light on the error codes fault codes. I think the "fail" part is the number of times that specific module has failed a systems test but I could be wrong. And I'm hoping if any of you are the kinds guy I'm looking for that you could shed some light on what my best course of action should be. My truck has been in the shop twice already for the 12v fuses constantly blowing now it's throwing error codes every single day. I can't focus on my job knowing my truck is rapidly deteriorating. Any help us greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

    P.s. The pictures show my radar aka CMS system fault and information panel to show it's registered 8 faults. Yesterday it was 3 today it's 8. Tomorrow it'll be 2 everyday it's a different number.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. ipogsd

    ipogsd Heavy Load Member

    977
    515
    Jun 13, 2012
    0
    Collision avoidance system canceling cruise can be over ridden by rapidly turning the cruise on/off three times.

    Does your windshield leak?

    Check all of your grounds starting at the battery.
     
    jtaran06, JCase82 and Dave_in_AZ Thank this.
  4. Dave_in_AZ

    Dave_in_AZ Road Train Member

    55,182
    370,028
    May 4, 2015
    0
    Out of all my shakers, I had one once that was an electrical lemon. Fuel injector rail problems, and lighting harnesses. And it was just bad wiring harnesses, and connections from the factory. The rest never had a problem. And I had one with a leak that leaked through the clock. I just a bought a '14. Haven't pulled with it yet, so I hope I got a good one. The problems I had with the other one weren't earth shattering, just nuisance. I even had to wait til I got to LA to get the one lighting harness replaced because its when the new style Century's came out, and no one even really had parts handy, not even dealers, in fact I got one of two harnesses available at the time. But that truck was the exception, not the rule, like the dog above me said, check the grounds. I had a new Cascadia ( company truck ) start to try to morph into another dimension once while going through PA. I'm like wtf is this? It's got like 9K miles on it now right. Well the battery connections between batteries were never properly tightened, like the dog said, it was doing all kinds of weird electrical stuff, fixed in 20 minutes.
    Electrical and electronic problems are some of the most irritating.
     
    JCase82 Thanks this.
  5. JCase82

    JCase82 Bobtail Member

    9
    4
    Mar 4, 2015
    Rialto, California
    0
    @ipogsd from what I can tell my windshield is fully intact no leaks I've read somewhere sometimes FLs have issues with the windshield leaking into the truck causing issues but never to this extent. I will double check though just to rule it out before taking it to a dealer (our fleet maintenance takes forever and hasn't fixed this yet). I'll see if I can Google a wiring diagram for the truck I know most common grounding points frame rails, battery terminal etc but this entire truck except a few spots is fiberglass so I'm betting there's bound to be a few under the chassis I'd overlook being unfamiliar with this truck. I didn't know about the cruise control override though I appreciate that tidbit of info. I understand the safety aspect of not using cruise in bad weather (rain, snow etc) so I understand why it disables cruise when the windshield wipers are turned on but having it disabled because the system is going haywire was driving me nuts. So again thank you brother.

    @ Dave tell me about it. I spent 5 years auto tech and 6 in the army as a diesel mech and in those 11 years the most frustrating problems to solve always involved intermittent electrical problems. A customer bringing in their car because it did "this" only to be unable to replicate the problem and therefore unable to pinpoint the issue. In the army it was a lot easier as stated we outsourced those sorts of things but even so I hate chasing down electric ghosts in the machine on my own vehicles. Unlike my cars at home though I can't just hook up my sun tool to the ecu and pull fault codes and sensor values as I'm sure commercial trucks probably run their own obd ports. I'm going to check common ground in the morning before I get out on the road see if I can find any loose connections or corrosion. If I'm lucky it'll be a loose bolt and I'll be on my way otherwise it's back to the dealer.
     
  6. 123456

    123456 Road Train Member

    10,555
    5,745
    Oct 22, 2010
    32179
    0
    I wish you luck.

    When you find the solution be sure to let us know.
     
  7. Hershey

    Hershey Bobtail Member

    1
    0
    Mar 24, 2019
    0
    Did you ever find out the issue whit the cdu 42
     
  8. dispatcher69

    dispatcher69 Bobtail Member

    8
    5
    Apr 3, 2019
    0
    my company has upwards of forty freightliners ranging from 2014-2018. I would be hardpressed to find a single one with more then one functional outlet. That being said sourcing the issue comes down to something extremely simple like a fuse ground, or something as complicated as finding a short in a harness or connector. best bet, pull up specific wiring diagrams related to the connectors and look for shorts in connector pins, damaged pins. or better have the technician you trust specifically target those connectors for shorts, rather then spending hours of labor searching for issues. if you turn up with nothing atleast you can make a list and narrow down possible causes. good luck sir
     
    Hershey Thanks this.
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.