Killing the batteries slowly

[Dan Watrous]

CAT0314E KZJT00258
Yesterday I was using the new to me excavator and got a low fuel warning, so travelled back to shop close by, turned it off and added 5 gallons of fuel. It would not restart and has continued to not restart, but it will turn over as I have been wearing out the batteries. It has never given me any trouble starting in our 6 beautiful weeks together.
It gave a screen warning that coolant was low, but it did not give an overheating warning. The temp gauges never changed from their usual 2 bars out of 11 when warmed up, only got a red bar on the fuel gauge.
Today, I added 1 gallon of alternative extended life coolant meeting CAT EC-1 specs to get to the fill line of the reservoir. It would not start but turned over the engine.
I turned off the master electrical switch, waited 5 minutes, turned it on, and it would not start but turned over the engine.
I followed screen prompts to the maintenance schedule and found several overdue items. I reset them and discovered the password is 1234. If they have 0 hours they were reset as over the scheduled limit. Again it turned over without starting.
There are 3 round buttons with the master electrical switch, so I pushed them hoping for a reset, one clicked, but no joy with my tiring out batteries.
I used used jumper cables to charge one of the CAT batteries from my truck for an hour. It didn't help and the turning over was almost gone.
Going to try to find a 24 volt battery charger locally tonight or in am, but that might be an amazon thing.
The screen shots are from after I tried everything today. A red light and beeping are with the key on position.
Any ideas?

 

[Dan Watrous]

2 more shots

 

[Coaldust]

Hmmmm. Ran it low on fuel. Now it doesn’t want to run.

I would drain the water out of the sump.
Next, I would drain the sediment bowl, change the water separator filter and primary fuel filter.

Fill the tank with good fuel and prime the system. Charge the batteries.

Then, give’er and She’ll fire up.

 

[Dan Watrous]

Thanks Coaldust, just was reading about priming the fuel line. With 5000 hours on her it's probably not just air in the fuel line.

 

[Shimmy1]

I believe E models are notorious for high pressure fuel pump failure.

 

[Coaldust]

Yeah, but I didn’t want to scare him, just yet.

 

[Shimmy1]

He's certainly not doing it any good if it has air in the system....

 

[Coaldust]

Or, water, dead elephants, rocks.

Let’s give him a chance. He’s busy trying to locate a 24 volt charger. Hey, it’s cyber Monday. Probably some good deals out there.

Don’t spoil the fun and tell him about charging those batteries in parallel with his 12 volt charger.

 

[Truck Shop]

Need to keep it on the positive side getting negative around here.

 

[Coaldust]

Dan is a nice fella. He’s got the capacitance to appreciate a good joke. But, I agree.

A fresh charge and clean fuel, he will be digging, in no time.

 

[skyking1]

It does not take much of a slug o crap to stop you up. He will find it.

 

[Dan Watrous]

Thanks guys, had to go back to the day job and will be going to Florida on Wednesday, and the machine is 80 min drive away.
So I called a friend of a friend who supplements his earthmoving business with mobile teching. All fluids and filters will be replaced as well as getting the fuel moving.
Wish I had the skills to do it all, but I can keep it full of fuel

 

[heymccall]

First, everyone misses this inline filter.
Secondly, there may be fault codes.
Service menu "9992" IIRC.

 

[Dan Watrous]

Thank you heymccall, so much to learn. Spent 2 years researching excavator and waiting for the right one. Didn't spend an hour on rookie mistakes to prevent.

 

[skyking1]

That is a sneaky filter indeed!
I like that it is there, but not knowing could be a pain in the butt.

I am also sorry, every time I see this thread I hear Roberta Flack singing
"Killing me softly"
'Killing me slowly with his key, killing me slowly, with his key
trying to start me, with bad fuel, killing me slowly, with his key'

 

[Truck Shop]

That is a sneaky filter indeed!
I like that it is there, but not knowing could be a pain in the butt.

It was built by Audi--Audi could hide anything/everything, fuel pump relay--shops spent hours
looking, hidden under top left corner of dash, pull cluster to see it hidden in a maze of wires.

 

[Coaldust]

That is a sneaky filter indeed!
I like that it is there, but not knowing could be a pain in the butt.

I am also sorry, every time I see this thread I hear Roberta Flack singing
"Killing me softly"
'Killing me slowly with his key, killing me slowly, with his key
trying to start me, with bad fuel, killing me slowly, with his key'

I do, too.

 

[Dan Watrous]

Yup, i chose that because of Roberta Flacks song.
Up on the mountain the only radio station in the CAT is a Fresno AM rap music station with a lot of static.
So I got headphones that don't cover the ears and picked out 200 favorite songs on my phone to keep me company killing trees and moving dirt. I am slowly whittling out some of the songs, but hers is a keeper.

 

[skyking1]

I love the solitude of clearing stuff.
One time I went out on a hazmat dispatch at McChord AFB. I had plans to go to a midweek baseball game with the neighbor who worked weekends. Oh well.
I get out there and the site is a future big PX store, and there was a tank farm many years before.
It is covered with 25' fir trees.
I tell everybody to get at least two tree lengths away and best just get in your truck and leave me be.
I get in the 200 Johny and it has a radio in it, and I got to listen to the game while I laid waste to the area in question.