2004 Vectra 40AD just picked up...

lajuene · 08-01-2011, 10:47 AM

We finally found a 40AD and it was in Florida. We live in NY. We decided to get it because it was Camping World and even though they don't often get good marks, at least they are a national chain. There are 3 in NY State we can go to. The flight down was a lot faster than the drive home.

There are a few problems with it, mostly cosmetic. It is 7 years old after all. But one I have to work on first is the refrigerator. On the way home it was only getting cold in the freezer but not the main part of the fridge. The freezer was keeping a 40 degree or so temperature. After a day it started throwing an error code (no then co) which means too bad, send it in for service. I found instructions on doing it myself so I may try it tonight. Nothing to lose. I have a 4 year warranty from Good Samm that covers the appliances so if I can't fix it I'll use that.

Anyone have that problem before?

Also I want to remove the old style TV's and replace them with flat screens then get a sattelite system installed so we'll have TV with us next summer when we go full time.

The CW dealer in St. Augustine did a very poor PDI on this rig. We found numerous things wrong that would have been super easy to see and fix during the week they had to do it. It's still better than gambling on a private sale I think but it sure ticks me off when people promise things and then do a half way job at it.

Oh well, at least it's home. Drove like a dream all the way. Pulls to the right a bit but maybe an alignment or twheel balancing will fix that. All 6 tires are new (although after the PDI was promised I'm going to crawl under the rig and check the codes)

cbeierl · 08-01-2011, 11:11 AM

Here's a link to John Canfield's writeup of replacing the TV in his 2005 40AD: The glass monster in the salon finally gets replaced with an LCD TV

lajuene · 08-01-2011, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbeierl

Here's a link to John Canfield's writeup of replacing the TV in his 2005 40AD: The glass monster in the salon finally gets replaced with an LCD TV

AWESOME!!

That exactly what I wanted to do. I'm a LITTLE handy so I may just do this. I have all winter and it DOES have a furnace.

Thanks SO much to John for doing it and cbeierl for telling me. I browse here a lot but sometimes it's easy to miss posts that are just what you want.

resqguy · 08-06-2011, 02:04 PM

We used to own the Itasca version. We sold it when we bought our house.

We really liked the floor plan and lived in it for a few months. There was one problem that we were never able to solve. We never got the bedroom slide (seal) to stop leaking. You should put the slide out and run water down on it to test it.

You may want to drop by Gaffney SC to have the alignment checked. Probably not a bad idea to have them give it the once over.

lajuene · 08-06-2011, 03:24 PM

Resqguy - Gaffney SC keeps popping up. It seems to be a MUST on a lot of peoples to-do list. After we launch next year we will definitely do what you suggest. So far 3/4 of the problems we find are our own doing. Still learning the systems and reading reading reading all those manuals. I'll keep an an eye out for the slide seal. where did the water leak come in? front, rear of slide? did it only leak when the slide was out or when in too?

Phelpo · 08-06-2011, 07:34 PM

congrats on a great unit, I should know....we replaced both tv's and
gained a ton of space, plus lost a bunch of weight. Pulling to the
tight, check your a arms, this unit might have been towed improperly
and bent an arm. Mine was.

Phelpo

lajuene · 08-06-2011, 08:36 PM

I'll add that to my list of to-do's for this winter when it goes to my rv guy to check. Thanks for the heads up!
Eric

Kablewizard · 08-06-2011, 08:37 PM

Cograts on the new rig. We were camping inCA last week and I was woke up by our fridge beeping in the middle of the night with the "CO " code. Wasn't sure what it ment, but I turned it off and then back on to AC and it was OK. The book said it ment it wasn't getting cold. And after reading further I found it was my mistake I had put 10 bottles of water not refrigerated in the freezer to freeze before we went to the zoo, 12 pack of none cold soda and more water in the fridge. The freezer is where I was told the cold starts then moves to the fridge anything you put in the freezed should be frozen or cold also over loading the fridge with none cold items like a 12 pack of soda or Items from the cabinet that get refridgerated after opening dont help it took about 12 hours before it was getting cold and in 2 days I had to change the temp to keep from freezing the fridge in the back. You can also look at the flame to be sure its the right color and hitting right it show in the book if you have one.

Good luck and have fun.

lajuene · 08-06-2011, 08:46 PM

Thanks Kablewizard. I got it to work just fine on AC only. I have a nice blue flame but it wont cool on LP. Since it has a recall on an unrelated item I'm just going to let the rv guy look at it this winter when it goes in to be checked stem to stern for our full time launch next spring-early summer. I don't want to have to stay in a motel during repairs after we sell the house in april so I'm having it all checked out this winter. It makes sense what you say about overloading it with a lot of warm stuff. We have a basement refer/freezer and we pre-chill stuff there before putting in the main fridge.
Thanks

phredsee · 08-10-2011, 01:01 AM

lajuene, wish you all the best with your Vectra and like us, having ours for a couple of months, I'm sure certain things will need to be addressed being on o4 model.

We do have a leak in the BR slide, as mentioned by resqguy above, floor level, near the closet. Called WB customer service and talked to Jay who said this was a common problem and there is a service bulletin but not a recall.

The fix has been done to the newer Tour models and this is what is used to correct the leak. I'm not exactly sure what is required but I'm having the work done now and when it's complete, can let you know.

Another suggestion is to check the roof for proper sealants as we had an issue with that and some of the windows leak. Our coach came out of Las Vegas area and basically baked so we do have some maintenance problems to deal with.

Good luck with your coach and let us know how your full timing goes for the first few months, you sure have the right coach for it!

Mike and Pat · 08-10-2011, 07:14 PM

Hi, The problemwith the leaking slide is the trim gasket at the bottom of the slide. This is an easy fix and it can be done if you are handy. I had the problem on my 04 meridian 39k and a member of our WIT club had it with his 04 Vectra. We both picked up the new gasket and replaced then ourselves and never had another leak.

lajuene · 08-11-2011, 02:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike and Pat

Hi, The problemwith the leaking slide is the trim gasket at the bottom of the slide. This is an easy fix and it can be done if you are handy. I had the problem on my 04 meridian 39k and a member of our WIT club had it with his 04 Vectra. We both picked up the new gasket and replaced then ourselves and never had another leak.

Do you remember the part number for the trim gasket you changed out?

lajuene · 08-11-2011, 07:13 PM

[QUOTE=phredsee;926843]lajuene, wish you all the best with your Vectra and like us, having ours for a couple of months, I'm sure certain things will need to be addressed being on o4 model.

We have noticed a very tiny water leak at the floor of the BR slide near closet so we will have them run the service bulletin this winter when it goes in. Our coach was in Florida all the time since new so the "Baking" was done here too. I'm waiting for the rain to stop here so I can check things on the roof. Thanks for the heads up. Let me know about that service bulletin on the leak.

I fixed our central vaccum system. It was just an open pipe in the ent. ctr. in the curb side bay. Now it really sucks...... in a good way though.

I ordered a replacement computer board for the Norcold fridge. This one allows the noco reset from the operating keypad panel.

lajuene · 08-11-2011, 07:15 PM

Just put the dinosaur board in last night and so far so good. seems to be working fine. I want to see it work on a hot day however. Thats the final test. Dinosaur board was easy to install. Just photograph the setup before disconnecting wires and label all wires before pulling.

lajuene · 08-12-2011, 08:04 AM

Today I will install 2 vent covers over the fans. I want to be able to keep the vents open in the rain like we did on our TT. The vents were hard to open at first but now they open fine. I think since this rig has always been in Florida that the vents were never opened, just AC running evey day. The air horn will be next. From posts here I know to check the solenoid first. Hope it's another easy fix. so far I've been able to fix almost every issue. No major system problems other than the fridge but I think the new board fixed that.

I did a stupid thing and maybe someone can comment. I was filling the fresh water by flipping the water cabinet lever to "fill tank" and it started to fill. This is on the driver side. I walked away and it overfilled....oops. wont do that again. But the problem was that the overfill water came running down into the curb side storage bin above the entertainment center and the speakers started smoking.... yeah, smoking. I started shutting down and pulling wires off the speakers and the radio. Water was coming from above the ent. ctr.. I know the tanks are there but I thought the overfill or air vent for the tank would be out the water cabinet somewhere like my TT was.

Anyone know where the water overflow is located?

DAN L · 08-13-2011, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lajuene

Today I will install 2 vent covers over the fans. I want to be able to keep the vents open in the rain like we did on our TT. The vents were hard to open at first but now they open fine. I think since this rig has always been in Florida that the vents were never opened, just AC running evey day. The air horn will be next. From posts here I know to check the solenoid first. Hope it's another easy fix. so far I've been able to fix almost every issue. No major system problems other than the fridge but I think the new board fixed that.

I did a stupid thing and maybe someone can comment. I was filling the fresh water by flipping the water cabinet lever to "fill tank" and it started to fill. This is on the driver side. I walked away and it overfilled....oops. wont do that again. But the problem was that the overfill water came running down into the curb side storage bin above the entertainment center and the speakers started smoking.... yeah, smoking. I started shutting down and pulling wires off the speakers and the radio. Water was coming from above the ent. ctr.. I know the tanks are there but I thought the overfill or air vent for the tank would be out the water cabinet somewhere like my TT was.

Anyone know where the water overflow is located?

do you have a gravity fill port covered by a flapper door?
on my moho, when overfilled, the tank overflow line will start draining underneath the moho.
after a while the small overflow line is overwhelmed by the quantity of water and backs up to the gravity fill port. if the gravity fill door is closed, the water goes into the storage compartment where i store my tools.

lajuene · 08-13-2011, 08:01 PM

Dan L - THAT has to be it! I was looking at the plumbing schematics and couldn't make heads or tails of it. Thanks. I love this forum, how did we do anything before the internet?

emiddleb · 08-13-2011, 08:43 PM

+1 on what Dan told you. Had it happen exactly that way to me, no guessing... overfilling the water tank, flowed out the gravity fill and soaked the passenger side bays, especially down around the entertainment center.

lajuene · 08-14-2011, 07:06 AM

emiddleb - Thanks. I'm glad I now know what happened. Now, I can't find the inline fuses for the ent. ctr. on the wiring diagrams. Nothing works after it all dried out so I don't know if the radio is shot or did it blow a fuse. Still looking...... Anyone know where to look?

emiddleb · 08-14-2011, 05:22 PM

Are you sure it's dried completely?

When mine flooded I needed to remove the bottom screws that hold the panel for the radio, tv cable, power etc. As I recall (it's been a couple years) removing the screws across the bottom and perhaps on the front side let me bend the panel down... water had puddled in the "floor" of the panel underneath the radio, and the wires were laying in the water.

Once I drained that water out, dried things etc the radio started working again.