PDQ L360 issues with no Pre Soak

[ScottV]

I have 2 L-360's that are some of the early machines (Serial Number 00015 / 00016) and we have been having an issue with both bays not spraying presoak on the first pass. The arch will go around the vehicle but nothing is coming out. On the 2nd presoak pass there is never an issue. This has been a gremlin for us for over a year now. Our wash techs have been called in on a number of occasions and have changed out check valves, solenoids, injectors, output relay cards, etc. all to no avail. The last fix, which seemed to work for about 6 months was making the first presoak step the LP Wax step in the programming, and wiring the soap solenoid with the LP Wax wiring. It was thought there might be an issue with the PDQ software and this work around solved the problem for a while.

Now we are heading into the busy wash season and on about every 40th vehicle, we get a call that there was no soap on the first pass. It's frustrating because the customer thinks we are trying to skimp on the wash, and that clearly is not the case!

Does anyone have any suggestions on what else to look for? Has anyone had this same issue and found the root cause of the problem. I appreciate any and all replies at this point.

Thanks

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

I know this may be a crazy question but I have a 4000 and had kinda the same issue for about a month I changed danfoss valves,injectors,check valves, foot valves, you name it. My problem came down to my chemicals they where getting so thick when the equipment room got cold it wouldnt suck good being I switched to a ultra concentrate thick soap. I had to go up 2 tip sizes because of the velocity of the chemical is so thick it wouldn't pull enough. It drove me nuts thinking it was my machine the entire time. Have you Tried just switching to the presoak lines in place of the first pass just to see if that eliminates that and switching chemical on that pass. Your delivery pump comes on and air valves etc and the arch goes around the vehicle like it's applying correct and it's trying to suck up presoak it's just not applying to the car. I swear it sounds like you have a bad barrel of presoak and have the foot valves from both machines into 1 big bad barrel of presoak. I don't know. I am just shooting from the hip with a idea.

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

The only reason why I say that the presoak might be the issue is it's happening to both machines on the same pass & identical problem. Good luck I hope it's not the PDQ software maybe someone else will chime in.

 

[pcb]

I've been dealing with this problem since my machine was installed 2.5 years ago. Mine only does it on the top 2 packages with bug prep. My repair tech has tried everything he can think of. He thinks maybe it has something to do with the timing between the bug prep, in place timer, and the machine getting in place. Right now i've turned the bug prep off and it seems that cut the times it does it way down, but I can't seem to come up with a permanent fix.

 

[boywonder]

I believe it is a software problem. We've had something similar. Can you get the lp functions to work manually? If your using the latest greatest software, there is a known software glitch. Try putting a 2 second dwell before the first soap pass. That did fix ours

 

[ScottV]

Thanks for the responses guys. Regarding the "Bad" barrel of presoak, that's certainly a plausible cause but I don't think its our root cause. Our equipment room is heated and the "no soap" issue is intermittent, meaning it can happen to one car and the next 10 are just fine. If it happens to a car, I can put the bay in Maintenance Mode, do a Fluid 1 and the presoak sprays out perfectly. I believe we are using the latest version of software (2.01.00) on both of the L-360's. Haven't tried programming in a 2 second delay, but I'm willing to try anything!

 

[Jeff_L]

I've been having the same issue with my LW360 for a couple of years. I cannot find the common denominator on when it will or will not work. One car it works, next car it may not, next car it works, without doing anything. At first I thought it was a solenoid not opening up, but during the pass, the pump isn't even turning on. I'm thinking it's a software bug. If I could make the problem reoccur on command, I'd have them run a debug on the program to see if they can find any issues. Until then, I'll just keep poking around.

 

[boywonder]

There is a software issue with version 2.01.00. PDQ does know about this issue but for two years haven't done anything to fix it. The current work around is either add a 2 second dwell time before the 1st low pressure soap pass, turn off the front bug prep, or revert to a previous software version. We chose to add the dwell time to the wash, it sucks but right now that how it works.

 

[Waxman]

A 2 second pause is nothing!

add it in there, move on and start washing cars without a headache.