Saw an 18 wheeler overheating today, he just kept going!!!

[Vern_in_IL]

LOL, my Brother in Law is a Diesel mechanic, one time a Driver pulled in saying his rear end was making noises. My Brother checked it out, the pinion was very sloppy, fluid leaking everywhere, needed a total rebuild. His coworkers were shocked to see something like this still working, it was going to blow... By the time my Brother went into the office with the estimate, the Driver already took off! He knew something was severe.
Wonder how far down the road he got?

 

[oldhp]

Probably got fired for not making it to California from New York in 12 hours.............................and just didn't care anymore.

 

[nate379]

Why??? The engine was pouring antifreeze out on the ground, saw this huge cloud of white smoke a few miles back thinking it was a typical late model diesel with a blown egr cooler or something, nope I think it was just flat out overheating. Caught up to him at the light, he had it revved to the moon to keep the engine fan running as fast as possible. It was way too loud for me to say anything unfortunatly, but he knew. You're looking at like 15k to rebuild that thing.....and I could by way off on that number. I think 15k is very conservative.

15k... more like double that

 

[nate379]

Shutting it off is always the best thing to do. Although I did have an automotive teacher in college say that you can keep driving it if you think you can get it cooled back down, because shutting it will make it get even hotter for a short time. lmao I still roll my eyes about what he said years later. I suppose if it's a busted cooling fan and you're about to pull out onto the freeway, but imo it's either overheating or it's not.

Yes, that's correct.

 

[Owen Lucas]

The driver was told by the company to limp it home and the result was a bunch of dead bodies and jail time for the driver and a company exec.

This sounds like an interesting story, was there a news article or a company name that I can Google?

 

[ripcord]

This sounds like an interesting story, was there a news article or a company name that I can Google?

I never tried to look for it online but it happened in the Redmond, WA area, right in front of the Theno's dairy.

 

[Owen Lucas]

I never tried to look for it online but it happened in the Redmond, WA area, right in front of the Theno's dairy.

Thank you, I'll try to look it up and I'll let you know if I find anything.

 

[ripcord]

Thank you, I'll try to look it up and I'll let you know if I find anything.

Now that I think about it, I was living in the area in the mid nineties so it was a 'bit' more than 20 years ago. My age is showing, LOL.

 

[Kurtatron]

If it were my vehicle I would turn it off as soon as it were safe, then I would let it cool off for an hour or two, then turn it back on, and drive as long as it could until overheating. Rinse and repeat until I got to a nearest area to r&r.

This exact thing I did when a coolant hose ruptured on my vehicle. Vehicle lived a happy life years after that happened.

 

[Jetronic]

He should have shut if off. I wouldn't trust a limp mode on a high dollar vehicle like a diesel truck or even a an old car. Extremly high heat will destroy an engine quickly. Those engines are so expensive and run forever if kept up.

Depends where you are. I will always try to get the vehicle somewhere it isn't a hazard and doesn't put any recovery people in harms way.

 

[Jetronic]

We had an incident like that close to where I lived about 20 years ago. Unfortunately it was brakes, not the cooling system. The driver was told by the company to limp it home and the result was a bunch of dead bodies and jail time for the driver and a company exec.

Sadly it's always the driver that bares the final responsibility. It's not always easy to basically tell your boss to go **** himself when he orders you to do stupid stuff. And if nobody gets hurt, you were always too cautious.....

 

[4WD]

He should have shut if off. I wouldn't trust a limp mode on a high dollar vehicle like a diesel truck or even a an old car. Extremly high heat will destroy an engine quickly. Those engines are so expensive and run forever if kept up.

Even in a small town we have two heavy wrecker services and one has a big/new repair facility - plus hotels a few feet away …

 

[KrisZ]

That’s what happens when you turn off your brain and follow orders. Which is the most likely what happened.

He will likely get fired anyway for being a good obeying employee.

 

[TimeFlies]

Deleted.

 

[JHZR2]

IIRC tractor trailer tow prices are obscene.

That factors in Im sure, especially if the rig is at eol or anticipated a rebuild anyway. Maybe it’s a 900k mile truck?

 

[dumkid]

I don't drive a car if it gets much higher than it's normal cruising temperature. Some people don't care until the needles in the red. 230f is too hot if it's avoidable IMO.

Also some bmws run at 235f normally. I don't like that.

 

[dnewton3]

Highly doubt the driver was an owner/operator; no one would treat their own equipment like that. More likely, as many have said, he was a driver-for-hire paid by the hour, and even the dispatcher told him "bring it home" (the dispatcher who also knows zilch about the costs of engine overhauls and only cares about the on-time stats).

The fleet maintenance manager? He probably suffered an aneurysm when it finally showed up.

 

[Exhaustgases]

Maybe it was on the list for a repower with a newer emission compliant engine, and trying to get to where ever was cheaper than a $5,000. tow. I'm guessing at that cost, I bet I'm close. If I owned one of those million plus dollar tow trucks I sure wouldn't want to be doing it for free.

 

[The motor guy]

IIRC tractor trailer tow prices are obscene.

That factors in Im sure, especially if the rig is at eol or anticipated a rebuild anyway. Maybe it’s a 900k mile truck?

Maybe it was on the list for a repower with a newer emission compliant engine, and trying to get to where ever was cheaper than a $5,000. tow. I'm guessing at that cost, I bet I'm close. If I owned one of those million plus dollar tow trucks I sure wouldn't want to be doing it for free.

I didn't see anything unusual coming out the stacks when he pulled onto the feeder, so the engine was still good at that point. Probably an 05 model is my guess. It did have soot on the stacks so i'd imagine it was either pre dpf or it was removed at some point.

 

[nthach]

It was an older truck, probably didn't have such a thing. He clearly had a busted hose somewhere

I recall being on a bus to get on a train - it was Cummins-powered. It was cruising down the freeway, and the driver’s instrument panel started to beep. There was a red light, driver tried to hit the stop engine overrride switch to get some time to pull over. Barely made it off the freeway. Bus lost all of its coolant and the ECM thought it wasn’t a good idea to allow the engine to run for 30 more seconds without coolant.