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Friday, March 4, 2011

Norcold Refridgerator Recall Done and More Tire Information

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING to all you ladies out there.  This is going to be another technical post.  However, in the spirit of making our blog interesting to all genders, let me start out with something you'll enjoy.



Okay, now that's we've covered that, lets move on.  The Norcold Refrigerator recall was completed on the Journey at no cost to me.  Here is the before picture:



And here is the after picture:


Can you see the changes?  Here is the first part, a relay to shut down the refrigerator if it has gone into a failure causing an overheating condition.  The relay is in the top of the picture, the control box is under it.


Over on the other side, on the burner chimney is a heat sensor.  A little piece of insulation was cut out, the sensor is attached to the chimney and then new insulation is put over it.


To finish it up, a tag was attached showing the recall was completed.


So what is the reason for the recall?  There is a potential design flaw in the Norcold refrigerator cooling unit.  The fridge can be operated on either electricity or propane gas.  There have been instances where some of the tubing in the cooling unit has a failure at one of the welds and while operating on propane the unit overheats and catches fire.  There have been a bunch of RV fires caused by this failure.  The recall prevents it from catching fire.  Unfortunately, if the thermal switch has shut off the fridge, the cooling unit it toast and has to be replaced.  For most of us, this will never happen, but better safe than sorry.

Now, on to the tires.  Our Journey has the original tires on it.  The tread, after 32 thousand miles looks brand new.  The tires are wearing well.


I had posted previously that I noted some minor cracking along the sidewall of the front tires.


According to the Michelin RV Tire Maintenance Guide, the cracks are OK, but the tire should be replaced if it is more than 7 years old.  So how do you know your tire's age?  On the sidewall, you'll find a 4 digit number molded into the tire.  You might have to look on both sides to find it.


The number on my tires is 4106, which means they were made the 41st week of 2006.  So I'm well withing the 7 year window. 

I brought the Journey home from the dealer this afternoon, tomorrow Marti and I are going to take it for a spin to make sure all systems are go because next Friday night, we're leaving for a week in Florida at Disney World.  :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

9 comments:

  1. You may find this to be a surprise, but some of us ladies enjoy the technical part better than the picture of a baby! :)

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  2. Glad you have all the safety issues taken care of.

    Now go have a great time in Disney World and don't forget to take us along ;o)

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  3. That was a bit of a sexist remark at the beginning but we know you and your sense of humor. It's ok. As Judy said, some of us ladies enjoy your technical posts more than the baby pics.
    Put some covers on your tires when you're not rollin' and you should be fine for a while. Enjoy Disney!
    Syl

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  5. I guess he put the baby pic up for ME! LOL ~Marti

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  6. Marti, ban Paul from the blog if he's gonna post pictures of wire guts. I'd rather see a picture of G-Pa's dirty depends ;)

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  7. Like the tech stuff and I'm with Syl. Clean up your act. We may gang up on you at the rally for this :-)

    ASSUMING you have granddaughters they might grow up to be mechancis!!

    Sherry
    www.directionofourdreams.blogspot.com

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  8. Why couldn't they fix the design flaw instead of installing a thingy that toasts your fridge if the welds fail? Seems wrong to me... (But I am only a lowly woman...)

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  9. So that's where I look for the when the tires were made .. everybody says they can't be more than 7 years old .. but nobody tells you how to tell the age. Thanks for the post!

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