Expensive Onan Generator Repair

[whemme]

On the trip out to Mesa, AZ from Iowa this year while enroute I noticed that the exhaust pipe for my Onan generator was hanging down. Investigating I found the exhaust pipe was hanging by a thread of metal where it attaches to the muffler. So bent the exhaust pipe back and forth to completely separate it from the muffler so that if it fell off when driving, I would not run over it and potentially cut one my the rear dual tires.

Of course a new replacement muffler would be required. When I arrived in Mesa and tracked down a generator repair place, they informed me that they would need to cut off the muffler where it attaches to the output of the exhaust manifold because the clamp attaching that joint was completely rusted. Then things go more complicated. Cutting off the muffler from the exhaust manifold also damaged the manifold and it would have to be replaced also. So when they removed the manifold, one of the bolts attaching the manifold to the generator itself twisted off. This required that a hole be drilled into the twisted off bolt so that an easy out could be used to extract the broken bolt. However, there was insufficient space to properly align a drill bit into the broken off bolt. This required the complete removal of the generator from the coach. Labor, labor labor!

Onan generator is a 4.0 KW Emerald BGE model in my 2002 Born Free 26' RSB. For those of you with this same generator, you might want to inspect the muffler mounting and see if where it attaches to the output of the manifold is also completely rusted. The muffler P/N is 155-2086 and when the shop went to order a new one, found that only one muffler existed in Cummins inventory in the US and that was in Salt Lake City. Cost of that muffler was $199 plus freight charges. Total bill including all labor, parts and taxes came to $680.

[Roger H]

Bill, you got off cheap. My last repair on my 2800 in the B-van at Cummins in Cedar Rapids was almost $900!

[whemme]

Roger,

Actually the idependant repair shop (Mesa Precision Motor Repair) probably did me somewhat of a favor on my repair bill. They only billed me for 3.5 hours of labor but I know for a fact, because I was there, that the total labor to complete the repair was actually 6.0 hours. Evidently the extra work caused by the fact that they broke a bolt when removing the exhaust manifold they considered that their mistake and decided to eat the resulting extra labor. I really don't think a Cummins shop would eaten that extra labor.

The posted labor rate at the Cummins shop in Mesa was $128.50/hr whereas the independent shop I used had a labor rate of $100/hr.

So instead of my actual $680 repair bill, it could have been as high as $1,000 at the independent shop or $1,200 at the Cummins shop.

[randallrae]

Cummins waited to properly diagnose my generators bad fuel pump until the warranty expired . Maximum 1hr bill was $522.21. I will never use them again.