ACW-4 out of service

[Whale of a Wash]

My ACW-4 has the Etowah Mars retrofit, and last night stopped working. After a complete reset it will look normal for 10sec. and then goes to carwash busy please wait, and then goes to out of service. I don't think it's coming from the vector as i can still manually put in a code and wash a car. The mars validator flashes the code offline, so i am not sure if the mars is out and then goes offline and out of service, or something else is giving the signal, and making the mars go offline and displaying out of service on ACW-4. Any ideas.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

In my experience, when you get the "Car wash busy" message, it's external, meaning a problem with the wash and not the ACW. What does the ACW message say when you use the controller buttons to retrieve the failure message?

 

[Randy]

A “Car Wash Busy” error is almost always a bad cycle inhibit relay problem. Replace the relay on the far right side of the relay pan, it should be marked CI. If you’re lucky and the voltage on all your relays is the same you can swap one from one of the 4 wash relays. It could also be in the Wash equipment.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

I replaced the cycle inhibit relay last night and even changed them around with no results. The ACW has worked so flawless after i got the mars for 4 yrs. I can't remember much about it anymore.

 

[MEP001]

Check the voltage on the relays. On the ACW4 the cycle inhibit is usually a different voltage than the rest. It should also be one with an indicator of some sort, either a light or a window with a red flag when it's energized, and it should be energized all the time.

Check the active/passive toggle too - you'll have the same issues if it gets bumped into the wrong position. It can work either way with the Vector depending on how it's wired, but the switch needs to be in the right position for the setup.

 

[Randy]

I replaced the cycle inhibit relay last night and even changed them around with no results. The ACW has worked so flawless after i got the mars for 4 yrs. I can't remember much about it anymore.

Did you ever find out what the problem was?

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

You can take the Mars Validator and hook it up to a change machine to just make sure it works if you have a. Mars in a change machine a quick swap

 

[MEP001]

The Mars validator does not communicate back to the ACW-4 controller in any way. Swapping it would be a complete waste of effort.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

I replaced the bad looking inhibit relay as it was starting to darken, but had to call for repair after i gave up. The vector had lost all info on the computer-Date-time-Etc. It had also changed from (Wash in use- Wash Done) I can't remember which is the right one, but not the one it had switched to. That was why i couldn't get any fault messages out of the ACW

 

[Randy]

It's always a good idea to have a spare Cycle inhibit reply on hand. You never know when one is going to go bad. We had one go bad on a busy Saturday morning.

 

[JIMT]

Whale,
We had similar problem and it was the base that the relay plugs into. We put a new base in and the problem was solved.
JIMT