Sculptor

Two days ago I had the chance to chat with the service manager at the dealership. He said the 210 running temp is absolutely normal. This confirms many comments above. He further said the viscous clutch has a special oil that, when the engine hits a certain temperature it becomes hard, no longer viscous. That’s a detail I didn’t know. He seemed unsure but guessed the temp would be 225 or so. His description matched comments above, I should be able to feel the fan kick on, and will notice a decrease in speed/power. This info is old news to most of you, but I, for one, learned some stuff. Thanks guys.

There is a switch up high on the brake pedal. It has a feeler to sense the motion of the brake pedal.

For full transparency; When I took a quick look at the radiator “stack”, I could not see how to lean far enough in to see the bolts. Yesterday I got the low pressure hose out and found that it’s easy if you try. Stepping inside the front (quarter) bumper made all the difference. A SHOUT out to Rick and others for your helpful comments. I didn’t actually unbolt anything, DW and I proceeded to scrub the outer grill screen. The AC condenser was quite clean actually. I hit it with simple green and a long handled brush vertically. A light dirt film came off, but almost zero bugs or clogging.

Turns out it’s a viscous type of fan. Never have noticed it kick on or off.

That would make sense. Thinking not like a trucker, but more like a car owner, I have noticed it up near 210 maybe twice on a good pull up a hill or the other day in hot temps. My reaction was to turn off the cruise and downshift to put the rpms up to 1800. So it’s never really got as hot as the comments here say. I guess that’s good. Like was mentioned also, as twitchy as these trucks can be, no lights came on. Really appreciate your help, thanks.

Repeating I don’t understand much of the above, but your logic seems excellent, and I think you might be onto something with your connector theory. Probably not related, but I have also read of the main battery shutoff switch corroding and causing hard-to-trace errors.

Sorry to read all this. It sounds like you are making progress, that’s good. Wish I understood it all. I bought NOX sensors on eBay a few years ago, and they haven’t given me any trouble so they were good quality. I know everything has changed since last year, but maybe?

I will have to take a closer look at mine today before it heats up outside. All I know is the fan is always spinning when the engine is running.

Thanks Moresmoke, I appreciate the info. I thought at the time it might be ok, since there were no lights. But just in case I wanted to ask “all y’all”.

The thought just occurred to me the noise I always assumed was the turbo kicking in, might have been the fan? The turbo gauge is usually toward the low side at slow speed, maybe 60 with normal acceleration. it’s loud enough to hear but would make no difference to the conversation. No I don’t have a manual switch. I’ve never had the truck up near the 210 f mark, until yesterday that is. I have read others talk about this but I’ve never noticed the sound of it. You guys are being very helpful and thanks. side note, just did a short grocery run, the temp stayed at 180 and never fluctuated. But that was bobtail. And it’s down about 90 f today. Elevation in Rapid City is 3000+ if that matters.

No I have never checked the oil temp. The level is solid, never loses any oil. Now that the tank was replaced never seems to lose coolant either. I’m probably thinking like a car owner, anywhere near 212f is very bad.

I had the expansion tank replaced a month or so ago at a dealer. I know they left the “low coolant” codes there for the next service guy. So they told me. Otherwise I’m pretty sure no codes or bubbles in the system. I have been advised to get a code reader but I’ve been buying tires. 😁

I noticed I can’t see or reach the front by tilting the hood. Maybe I need to twist and stretch more. Or climb up and stand on the frame. Maybe It’s obvious and I’m being dense. Not the first time.

I have not tried this. Sounds like it can only help. To reach the front bolts of the stackup of condenser/radiators should I remove the grill?

The cab is so loud I have never noticed the fan come on. When I open the hood the fan is always running, maybe that’s why I never heard a change.

Not an emergency, we aren’t stranded. We are hauling a 19k fifth wheel. My engine temp is nearly always steady, 180 f. It’s a 2013 D13. The only time I ever noticed it heat up was climbing a big grade in North Carolina. So it was fine yesterday morning, then we stopped for a break and shut it down for about an hour. It started fine, and we rolled on. An hour or two later I noticed the temp was about 200. We were in rolling hills, nothing aggressive. My speed was higher than usual at 70, so I slowed to 64. We came to a long downhill grade and it cooled right down to 175-180. On a steeper climb in 12th gear 13-1400 rpm it heated up to 210. Later on, I made sure to downshift during the climb and this helped also. The ambient temp was approx. 104. The grill screen has some amount of bugs, the radiator ( or the ac condenser) is clean. I’m going to spray the radiator out my first opportunity. I have never done that. It seems odd since it was the normal temp all morning in similar weather. I don’t recall ever driving long distance in very hot weather before so maybe this is totally normal and I’m overthinking it. What do you folks think?

Welcome all 3 of you. The folks here are very helpful, you will be happy you joined this forum.

Safe Travels! If you will travel through northern Kentucky, I highly recommend The Ark Experience. (On the pricey side I will admit)

Yeah I get that. I still don’t know what happened to my wine bottles with the melted candles. Lol.

I don’t know why, but I thought you were in love with the orange color? Aqua will be nice too, just sayin’. 😁

So idk what your switch connections look like. IF you have loose wires, maybe you can use them. You said you can’t find any connection points, so there are no wires in the vicinity of the aux switches, or no loose unused connections anywhere behind the dash? I found one or 2 of these were live when the key is on. One was connected to The 12 volt outlet, one was live, one was dead. I took a photo of these connectors but it was two or three years ago. I wanted to find a matching connector for some reason. Might have been because some are live and usable.

Chief, have you reached any conclusions yet about your current needs vs. your equipment choices? I have recently taken an interest, but only to add capacity to run a CPAP while boondocking.

So are you home now? You were on the road recently. I can’t even keep track of where WE are sometimes. 😁

Hi Rick, we stayed at Follow the River. Nice place! After the Ark Encounter we were on the fence about staying longer. After some discussion we decided not to visit the Creation museum. Also after studying the river route I followed the Garmin route to I-71 - I-75 and we topped off fuel at the TA before I-275. We then looped west and north to try highway 127. 35 mph city stop and go 2 lanes and a few stares. Lol. That lasted until I could get over to I-75 again. I would have liked to see the scenic river drive and your farm. For future reference is the river road big rig friendly? The road on the Kentucky side was not good!

We have been on a journey from wintering in Falfurrias, Texas. San Antonio, Cottonwood AL, Smyrna TN, Florence IN. We arrived in Greenville OH last night. The Garst Museum is first on the list. We might just get to the Air Force museum in Dayton. Very few campgrounds there and either very expensive or bad reviews. We will be in Laingsburg, Michigan next week for a wedding.