It “Coalesced” For Us

Monday, June 3
On GA-97 En Route to Appling, GA

We have a longer than usual drive today to our next campground.  What better way to spend a portion of that time than to write about a bit of maintenance Mui did on the Phaeton a few days ago.

Thanks go to Steve (of GoneByRV) for posting about this and alerting us to the Cummins requirement to replace the coalescing filter every 60,000 miles or 24 months (for our ISC07 360 engine).

At first we thought this bit of maintenance would have been included in either the M2 or M3 service that annually takes the Phaeton to an authorized Cummins service center.  Once we read that the filter is located on top of the engine, we knew that couldn’t have been the case.

You see, Mui was the first to open the engine hatch, which is located on the floor between the closet and the bed.  We know this how?  Because none of the service techs have ever gone into the bedroom to access the compartment.  And also because of how difficult it was to find and open the well-hidden and tightly-secured hatch cover the first time around when he installed the self-deploying fire extinguisher in the engine compartment.

Alrighty then!  This is a 2009 coach and that means it’s been far more than the recommended 24 months since the original filter was installed!  Time to remedy the oversight.

After verifying the correct part number, Mui ordered it online from FilterBarn.  Shipping was prompt and we received the filter shortly before we left the Maxwell-Gunter Rec Area in Niceville, Florida.  Mui postponed installing it until we were at the Eastbank COE so that the work wouldn’t interfere with his last few days of enjoying the sugar-white beaches of the Gulf ;-)

Our brand new coalescing filter fresh out of the box!  Look at how clean that white
filter is … keep that in mind for comparison after Mui removes the existing filter.

As Steve noted in his post — and the subsequent “how-to” he posted on the TRVN forum — the replacement process was easy.  (For those not in the know, TRVN stands for the Tiffin RV Network, which is a community of Tiffin owners.)  You can access the post and document in question from this link.  Be aware, however, that if you don’t already have login credentials, you will need to set them up first — well worth it in our opinion.

Once the engine hatch cover is removed, next step is to find the filter.  Easy enough … it’s under a red metal cover right on top of the engine.

Tip: have a plastic-lined bin handy so you can throw the old filter into it after removal; ours was quite dirty … perhaps because it’s been some 48-60 months since it was installed.  (On the other hand, we only have 17,100 miles on the odometer at the time of this writing, so perhaps it wasn’t so bad after all.)

The filter is under the red cover embossed with the Cummins name.
Mui cleaned the cover so that readers could easily see it in the photos :-))

Using a lug-nut wrench, Mui removed the bolts holding the cover in place.
I didn’t count how many bolts there were, but Steve’s how-to photo has 11 of them circled,

With very little torque required to remove (and later, to tighten) the bolts,
the cover comes off easily enough to reveal the coalescing filter.

By the way, the bolts were permanently secured to the cover, so no danger of
dropping them into the engine compartment … might not be the case for others.

What a difference a used well-used filter makes.
The filter is filthy … refer back to the photo of the new filter if you don’t believe me.

The new filter goes in … and it’s a wrap once the cover is bolted back on.
(again, very little torque is needed to tighten the bolts).

Mui made a calendar appointment — with himself — to replace the filter in 24 months or so.  Now that we know of the requirement, he will stay on top of this maintenance task in the future.

(Though this is not a mod per se, I am posting it on the Phaeton Mods page for future reference.)