Are steering wheel holders getting dumber? Is that even possible? A manager from one of our customers phoned and said they were having a truck towed to our shop there is something wrong with the engine. Its a late 2000's Navistar 4000 series with a Maxxfarce 7 the small V8. The tow truck driver told me he had to start it to move it to hook up the tow truck. He said "Its really loud". I had the tow truck driver back the truck into the shop. I slid under the truck and from the engine back everything is black covered in carbon. Poking around I found the tube that connects the right exhaust manifold to the turbo had broken off at the manifold creating a major exhaust leak. The bolts in the back of the manifold were seized and I managed to break one so I said F-It a new manifold.
While under the truck I noticed there was a leak from the firewall on the driver's side. The sniff test identified it as brake fluid. The right door and fender and fuel tank were also black with carbon so this didn't just happen. The cab stunk of exhaust. I took a paper towel and wiped the inside of the windshield and it was covered in black. I'm wondering if the driver was poisoned by the exhaust and died so they had to have it towed.
I found the pre-trip book in the cab and the driver never made any entries about the exhaust leak or the brake fluid leak. He did note that there were a couple chips in the windshield and the windshield washer was not working.
I wonder why the windshield washer doesn't work?
The truck has Meritor Wabco full pressure brakes and the fluid was leaking from the switch at the bottom of the master cylinder at the mounting flange. I believe the brake light switch. So the master cylinder seals are likely the culprit. There was a four litre container of brake fluid in the cab that was half full. so I suspect it had been leaking for a while. Here in Canada any brake fluid leak put the truck out of service.
We share the roads with thses people. A scary thought.
