laserwash m5 loses position passenger rear

[washup]

Hello

As our wash rotates counter clockwise its losing its position at passenger side rear of the wash (always same spot)


all the rollers are new, everything moves freely, tires are inflated, all ultrasonics calibrate fine, arch rotates fine.... Im stumped.
we can do 1000 washes and nothing and then a couple of abort washes good for a few 100 and now today 5 in a row.

bridge tracks straight,

- havent replaced the trolley proximity sensors but why would they work fine for 1000 washes and then randomly go? also during our top package after the 3x is applied the wash sequence is clockwise. So when the trolley is at the front of the car for the last three rinses/application the trolley moves left to right (same direction as the back of car going counterclockwise) with no problems ever.

So whats happening at the entrance passenger side rear of our wash that causes it to shut down?

appreciate any ideas

 

[mrfixit]

I've had a similar problem. If it's what I'm thinking, it's the sensor at the point it stops. Go to the trolley turn it to the sensor it stops on, then wiggle the wire off the sensor and you'll see the light go off.. Or I've seen them get water in them around the wire. Also a damaged wire or bad connection to the sensor somewhere.

 

[washup]

Thanks

I dont think its the prox sensors as they work so consistently when things are going smooth, and they come on/off as they should currently.
the one thing Ive never had a straight answer from PDQ on is:
- our trolley prox sensors for left and right extents actually hit and touch the trolley extent flags. previous owners said the rep set it up this way as a fail safe so if the 1/4" to 1/8" prox setting was off, at least it would be sure to approach the flag and trip the sensor. I find this approach wrong personally, nothing should ever "hit" something, either it works or doesnt work. We have our front car and back car trolley speeds very low so its not like its speeding along the front/back of the car at speed=9 and then has to come to complete stop, we use speed=1.

Even at this speed there are still "clean fresh rubbed metal" on the flags where the sensor comes in contact, the sensor goes off/trips when it sees the beginning of the flag but by the time the trolley stops it does touch the flag.
Anyone else run there machines like this? basically the flag is purposely bent by about 1/2" towards the furthest extents (closest tot the wall) with a increasing slight bend so the prox sensor eventually gets closer and closer and then touches.

post from forum on something similar
http://www.autocareforum.com/showthread.php?4157-Laser-4000-goes-wide&highlight=loose+arch

- another thing I noticed during our debugs on washes that fail with the trolley is that the ultrasonics are coming on and off during the wash. Stop sign, back up sign, move etc.... the sign never changes from the X in place park position but could it be one of the ultrasonics is failing? We have calibrated the Ultrasonics, they all come on, they all click audibly, we never have loading problems. When I look at a wash abort debug for a abort wash due to car error (hit bike rack, mirror, water issue etc...) and not a computer/machine error these ultrasonics never come on. Leads me to believe something is wrong

Thanks

 

[gearhead]

Sensors touching flags is not correct. They will soon be ruined. Make sure flags are true/straight. If they don't hit the mid flag make sure they didn't space the left/right extent flags closer to the switches for some reason. The gap between the prox switches and the flags should remain relatively constant until the rollers start to wear. That's when it is important to have a gap. if not you will have hitting issues as time goes on.

 

[pgrzes]

I had a problem on my WW HV that drove us nuts, always the same position on arch prox was not acting properly. Every time we did all our checks it worked fine we could not get it to duplicate the problem, replaced prox's, then I was in the trolley box to replace the prox cable and when trying to get into wego blocks to connect cable I saw the prox flashing. Here the festoon side of the cable that was in the wego block had a little water in it and was corroded and only had 2 or 3 strands left. cleaned re did wire connection and all has been well. I now use lots of die electric grease on any and all connections in the auto bay.

 

[Waxman]

whenever i troubleshoot something like this i go from one end to the other. in other words, swap the prox sensor out for a known good one. does problem persist? if so, check / replace cable end nearest prox. if that doesn't work, replace prox cable. if that doesn't work check relay ( if applicable) for that function. good luck!

 

[washup]

Update just in case anyone else is trolling for answers
In the end we replaced all prox sensors but that wasnt it (prob didnt hurt though)
- all tires were good
- replaced black rollers (drive side) even though they were ok looking

About 4 months ago we replaced the white rollers (non drive side) and figured they were fine so we didnt double check. Finally after checking absolutley everything we figured we'd take one off and sure enough for some reason the entire bridge wasnt tracking perfectly straight and had been putting pressure/friction on the roller (running tight against track) near the front of the bridge. This eventually caused the big 1/4 washer on the outside to start cutting into the white plastic. Its not a standard washer its about 1/4 thick but has an edge that sits against the roller and hollow on the inside... if that makes sense. anyway it had been cutting into the roller for 4 months and caused about 1/2 inch of movement/slop which caused the bridge to loose its position and then error "bridge lost position"

anyway been running fine now for about a month.