Expletives have been modified or removed for your protection.
Unloaded my CASE TR320 from the trailer after the drivemotor/hydraulic hose repair, hooked up the bucket and parked it last week. It's been sitting there ever since. The total cost for the repair including the service tech call and towing of the dead machine... a shade over $7k.
This afternoon I walk out to the shop and hear the hydraulic cooling fan on the engine lid of my
CASE TR320 CTL running. Since it rained last night, I thought that maybe the connector at the fan motor had gotten wet. When I opened the cab door I found the HVAC motor running and smelled burning electrical. At that moment smoke started pouring from behind the cup holder! I grabbed my fire extinguisher from the shop and shot it in there and removed the cup holder panel. The smoke was coming from the front (accessory) fuse/relay distribution block. When I removed the cover
flames started coming out of the distribution block!
While I'm trying to pull out the burning relays, my wife's grandfather was trying to get the positive battery cable unhooked. After burning the heck out of my fingers removing the relays and dosing the area with fire extinguisher contents, he gets the battery disconnected and I get the fire under control.
#1 My fuse blocks are both mounted upside down, so it took me awhile to figure out which relays had fried. Turns out it was the EH (electric/hydraulic) Control Module relay and Option Relay. In the upside down configuration, the relays are mounted directly underneath the door seal.
#2 The accessory fuse box melted. The dealer tells me that to repair it they have to replace the entire harness, which includes removing the engine. $5000 minimum for the repair!!
I'm so ******* ****** off right now I could eat bricks! My lungs are full of fire extinguisher crud and smoke. If it was water that shorted something out, wouldn't a fuse blow? What about all of the machines without a cab? Those fuse boxes have no protection at all from the elements. Did the dealer pinch off wires somewhere when they had the cab up for two weeks? And just how do I prove that?
I'll call CASE once again to start an incident number, but them saying that they will help out is very unlikely. From my prior conversations with them they're about as helpful as **** on a ****.
This is a freaking 2012 machine with less than 850 hrs on it! One drivemotor/final and two electrical panel replacements under warranty...Now a blown hydraulic hose to the drivemotor, one more drivemotor/final drive replaced AND an electrical fire!
Sorry...had to vent.
I'm a one man show with a New Holland tractor and a CASE CTL, and I've been a faithful CNH customer since they became CNH. Ford before that. The expenses I've incurred to repair my CASE machine have already put my plans for building a new home for my family on hold. If they don't step up to the plate this time...they will have lost me as a customer forever. Whatever the outcome, I will document it right here.
Edited to add: The only reason I was near my CASE today is because I was going to take photos of the paint for another thread here I have here on TBN. If I hadn't gone out there right then...this could have been a major disaster for me and my family. The machine is parked less than 5 feet from my shop and less than 10 feet from our PROPANE TANK!
