XR4155 Won't Stay Running

[Cycledude]

I get razed about waiting the recommended time so throttle up and shut down but do it religiously. Hope that prevents a costly repair. Only 330 hours on my machine. Run it at minimum 1700 rpm even when doing light work.

I am also a very firm believer in following the Warm up and cool down time instructions, shutting it off without allowing for the cool down time won’t take long to take out turbo seals.

 

[Snowman87]

I get razed about waiting the recommended time so throttle up and shut down but do it religiously. Hope that prevents a costly repair. Only 330 hours on my machine. Run it at minimum 1700 rpm even when doing light work.

I usually ran a minimum of 2,000 rpm regardless of what I was doing (after letting it warm up) and never let it sit idling for extended periods of time. I got that advice when I bought it due to emissions.

I've logged many hours at ~2,500 rpm running a finish mower to hit PTO speed and moving dirt for ground speed purposes in mid range.

I also only saw regen's every 50 hours as anticipated, one would think I would have seen shorter times if the DPF filter was causing a pressure delta from soot load.

 

[ruffdog]

How much oil was it using and did it emit blue smoke?

 

[Snowman87]

How much oil was it using and did it emit blue smoke?

No noticeable smoke or perceived loss of power, crazy I know... Should feel like a completely new tractor when it's all done.

I pulled my dipstick just for fun. Oil level looks great, but my records show I changed it in November so not many hours. I change the fuel filter and oil every fall, same with my Duramax trying to prep for winter.

 

[Snowman87]

I took some time Friday evening to clean up the DPF and pipe that mates it to the turbo. I watched several YouTube videos and decided I was going to take a 2-step cleaning approach - degrease then acid wash. I decided against using my pressure washer, lots of people doing it but I didn't want to risk damaging my DPF.

For the degreasing I used Super Clean, diluted down 3:1 like a parts washer. I let it soak for 10 minutes flushed with my garden hose on jet setting, and then repeated. It cut the grease really well and brought out quite a bit of the red colored ash as shown in one of the pictures.

For the acid wash I used muriatic acid, diluted down to 7% acid content. I followed the same cleaning approach, soak for 10 minutes, flush, and repeat. It really shined up the DPF housing

I used compressed air ~60 PSI to blow out between cleaning processes and afterwards to dry. I've been rotating leaving it under a fan and pushing compressed air through it again daily to thoroughly dry things before reinstallation.

I haven't heard back from the dealer yet, hoping the turbo is in by Friday. Bonus picture of my turbo cleaned up, it will make for some nice wall art in the shop.

 

[ruffdog]

Keep us up to date on this.

 

[Snowman87]

Well, good news and bad news today...

Good news is it was the first time I've heard my tractor run in a while, bad news is there's still more work to do and parts to install.

I got everything put back together and ready for the dealer tech to come by today. New turbo is a Borg Warner brand with better construction which I was happy to see, though still made in Korea. I'm attaching several pictures of general construction, BW P/N, and dealer P/N. Dealer tech noted we weren't going to do an update because the only thing it changed was a warm up time, and it's a bit of a process to get it done. Need Wifi, a one time access code w/ serial #, etc.

Got the turbo installed and it cranked for a bit before starting. It idled for a minute or so before starting to choke itself out again... This time it threw an EGR code (I wasn't able to write it down). The EGR valve was difficult to remove and when pulled we could see it wasn't actuating as commanded by the dealer software. I didn't get a picture of it but the EGR valve cavity was really gummed up. I cleaned it up and tried soaking the where the valve moves in some penetrating oil, and using my thumb to assist when it was trying to be commanded in but we couldn't get it to stroke fully open or close up all the way. Interesting thing is that he tested it on the original work day and it appeared to be moving so not exactly sure what happened. Definitely lots of crud in the cross over tube, inside the EGR valve, etc. I worked on pulling things down and cleaning things up.

The tech noted they aren't able to get the EGR valve only from LS anymore, they have to do an intake/EGR kit upgrade which I was assuming would be expensive. I was able to find several places with the EGR valve for $550-600, but asked him to check out the kit for me too. He called when he was back at the shop and noted that the new kit is $665 (no P/N yet) and includes everything - intake manifold, EGR valve, crossover pipe, wire harness, etc. My guess is they are selling these at cost to help their customers out on something that was a bad design.

I'm going that route since I have things torn down so far anyway, good to have a better design. I'll grab the parts some night after work when they come in to do the install to save some labor, then have the tech come down again because this does require a programming update.

While I had things apart I decided to also pull and clean the EGR cooler. I was able to get some junk out of that too. Found an old brush I was able to chuck up in a drill to clean out the small tubes. Figured it would be good to have that freshened up and fill up with some fresh antifreeze.

More to come...

 

[ruffdog]

Very interesting thread. Those dirty carbon jobs make it almost impossible to get your hands clean too.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Jees, what a mess for 500 hours. Was the EGR the catalyst for everything else taking a crap?

 

[Snowman87]

Very interesting thread. Those dirty carbon jobs make it almost impossible to get your hands clean too.

My hands and forearms are stained to say the least

 

[Cycledude]

Looks like you are making some good progress, hopefully everything turns out well.

Only about 50 hours to go until my XR4155 reaches 515 hours hopefully mine won’t run into the same very expensive trouble ! So far it’s been trouble free.

 

[Snowman87]

Jees, what a mess for 500 hours. Was the EGR the catalyst for everything else taking a crap?

I agree. I really thought we were going to find a simpler issue like the metering valve, either in the actuator itself or that the fine screen around it was clogged.

Couple other thoughts:

I'm still surprised the tractor wasn't smoking, I didn't notice a significant loss of power, and that there weren't any codes thrown till today really. I'm a pretty technical guy with a decent amount of operating/wrenching, all I can do is shrug my shoulders. While I don't enjoy spending this kind of money, I sure have learned a lot about how things work on this tractor, it will help me in future troubleshooting/wrenching.

Outside of this experience the tractor has been reasonably reliable. I'm coming up on 8 years now and it's been to the shop twice (separate instances with a couple year gap early on) under warranty to replace the front wheel bearings, sounded like another common design issue. I've used my tractor for a lot of front end loader work, but have my rear tires loaded and I always run something on the rear 3 point (box blade, landscape rake, or finish mower). Outside of that it's been 1 battery and fluids/filters. When I was purchasing this tractor the price-point gap was large between this and some of the mainstream brands, not to mention that the comparable New Holland used the LS chassis/engine with their own loaded.

I continue to learn over-and-over not to buy the first year (or maybe 2 years in this case) model. Product launches need to happen at some point to get miles, hours, etc. on to generate revenue and learn what needs to be improved. Sounds like what I'm installing is on the newer model tractors, telling me they've learned where there common failures were. I honestly think both were issues - turbo seals and EGR valve. The more I talk to the tech it seems like both are relatively common failures on the early model 41XX tractors...

 

[Snowman87]

Weekend update:

• Got the EGR cooler re-installed
• Waiting to re-install the turbo until I get the new crossover pipe so I have the most working room
• Pulled the intake off, it was pretty slimy... Thinking more and more this was all due to a faulty EGR valve like CloverKnollFarms thought
• Got everything cleaned up and seems like I'll be ready for the intake kit when it shows up
• Also pulled apart the EGR valve to see how it was made - the small motor spun freely and I could actuate the valve using a screwdriver to move the gear. I didn't try hooking the motor up to power but guessing it was too weak...

I'm going to swing by the dealer some time this week to grab the intake kit.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Ive never read a good thing about EGRs. God bless these engineers, but somehow TYM makes diesels without all that stuff, and basically never regen.

 

[Snowman87]

Well, I was able to pick up the update kit from the dealer and get some time in the shop last night. Overall it was a really easy install with the directions, though the pictures weren't always the best.

Attached are pictures of some part numbers (kit and EGR valve) as well as some component comparisons. Kit came with a new intake manifold, EGR cross over tube, EGR valve, intake tube, intake boot, fuel filter bracket, wire harness and extension, misc. gaskets, misc. hardware, and instructions.

The dealer tech is scheduled to come out again this Friday, hoping it's just a quick programming trip this time around!

 

[Snowman87]

The little blueberry lives!

Tech came out again last Friday and was able to get things up and running again.

Notes:

• Tech input information into his software and had to wait for a one time use code from an LS corporate rep. Had to wait about 30 minutes.
• Tractor did smoke a some and didn't run smooth immediately, had an injector that was being difficult. The tech said that sometimes these tractors are difficult to start up after removing the fuel rail, which had to be done to install the intake manifold. Guessing it was due to air in the lines as we didn't bleed it because it fired right up on the first round of cranking.
• Tech did do a regen and things looked really good. Showed zero soot load and zero pressure loss across the DPF. Happy to see this wasn't ruined!
• While I was at it I flushed my coolant. I used distilled water (takes a little under 2 gallons) - filled, ran to temp, and drained 4 times before filling with fresh coolant.
• While my tractor was down I was also able to fab up a more robust mounting setup for my Larsen LED lights. They are heavy! The rear mounting was strong enough, but front mounting is just a rivnut into the roof. I lost a little bit of the mirror safety swing feature but I'm not worried for my use. These new lights are awesome, I can't believe I waited so long to buy these.

I don't have a final bill yet but guessing I'm in the upper $3k territory after parts and labor/travel, I'll respond once I know for reference. Put ~4 hours on the tractor this weekend and everything is running great!

 

[Cycledude]

Any updates since your XR4155 has been repaired ?