I’ve Had It With This Faulty Truck

Woke up this morning at 0500 to the truck low volt and refusing to crank. Absolutely ****ed off.

It’s a 2022 Cascadia that’s had electrical issues from start. It has a throttle assembly wiring defect that disabled all driving safety control systems while driving. Company’s mechanics were skeptical but it got fixed. Took them two weeks because my company wanted a bunch of tests done for future info.

Two nights ago it’s too cold for opti-idle comfort mode, but I have it selected. I notice load shedding warning in about 20 minutes. I have nothing different plugged in, a fridge, microwave in standby, phone charger. I unplug all that. Battery rundown start does not want to activate at all. I crank it a few times to give it as much juice as possible and sleep with everything off. Slow crank but it works.

Last night temps were warmer so opti-idle worked fine. WELL, tonight it wasn’t displaying any issue so I go to bed for the night. About two hours later inverter is screaming shutoff low power. Honestly, half asleep I didn’t think to crank it to save it’s ass as it still cranks fine if that hits cutoff. Which, the batteries never rundown without a significant load on the batteries.

So, I’m waiting on roadside to jump the battery. Mechanic is sort of irritated wondering why I wasn’t in opti-idle. I told him it should crank on its own without comfort mode. It’s not like it would start anyways in this weather. SMH I hate the phantom electrical issues in this truck.

Have you checked the connections on your batteries? Loose nuts can cause the symptoms you describe.

It’s going on for 50k service. It was at Freightliner at 15k for the wiring defect. Thanks

Have you checked the connections on your batteries? Loose nuts can cause the symptoms you describe.

I just checked the batteries. Everything looks great. Clean and covered with that blue goop. Drove 4 hours to consignee and I’m only at 12.8v with truck off. Normally is 14.2v.

Blue Goop? lol if its not a "dried" goop, same as that red crap they spray on the terminals. It can be seeping between the cables and posts, causing bad connections ! They need to be DRY at the connections.

When I was a diesel tech, the lube guys would spray that red crap on the batteries, guess what? Next day EVERY newly serviced truck was dead in the morning, so day the mechanic would have to clean terminals free of that red wet spray. Parts Dept idiots, never listened to quit buying that stuff.

U-haul was just as bad with that stuff, when I did road call's out in the field to go do jump starts, the battery terminals were soaked in that red spray, which never dries, hence bad connections.. Using primer paint, would be better to seal the cables from corrosion than that battery red spray stuff....

Just an FYI from a 45 year mechanic lol

Was wondering what that crap was for. It’s some thick blue grease that’s got a hell of an odor. I figured it was conductive or something.

In the bay getting it looked at. I’m only a year in, figured I killed them in ignorance. Not sure. Hadn’t had a single issue until earlier this week they just started draining fast.

Given the truck 6 months ago with no miles on it. Only has 57k now.

Clear die electric stuff best...Just fixed buds Yukon, out of the blue it's been having dead batt issues. Put new bolts in load tested ok (3yr old) battery.... No parasitic drain on it so testing other parts possibly throttle body actuator shorting out.....

Good luck with ur rig. We had battery issues on our 2019 FL next pm they replaced our batteries....hear the 2020s n up have all sorts of gremlins in electrical systems.....Mentors truck has been in shop a ton for the safety sensors....auto brake sensor n side 1 lol he unplugs em when they act up.

Appreciate that. Definitely agree on that. Never trusted this truck. They tried giving me a different 2022 that was completely f’d from factory. Sensor wiring issue, wouldn’t idle at all. There’s at least 5 others in the fleet that had the bad throttle wiring.

Curse the day they switched out the 2017 for this one. TA didn’t feel like spending the time on a diagnosis so I’m watching it for the next few hours instead of sleeping to see what it does since likely won’t be fixed for a week.

Opti idle has a complete mind of its own so can’t trust that. It’s holding better with inverter off. Usually holds high 13 when truck is off. Right now ticks down to 12.8 right away. It’s hard to find what is considered normal but it starts to slow crank not much lower than that.

Company mechanics thought I was crazy on that issue. Brakes started locking under 10mph. After coming to a stop would illuminate pretty much the whole right side of dash. Adaptive cruise, abs, traction, hill start, and one other would malfunction until flipping power disconnect.

Started happening constantly. Was spinning tires on dry ground. Freightliner found a damaged wire in throttle assembly. They said the short was also trying to derate the truck. Had noticed it was a little uneven on the acceleration and braking. Figured that was some computer stuff controlling the throttle.

I don't know if the same rules apply to commercial vehicles, but I've lemoned out two trucks, a Dodge Dakota and a ram. 3 major issues within the first 3 months Iirc. One I did a good faith buyback and the other was a complete lemon swap. I highly doubt that the company would do that. Also wondering if this might have something to do with the chip shortage.