How does fliud level check function work on Allison B500?

[belfert]

The Allison B500 has some sort of fluid level check capability built in.  If you hit the downshift and upshift arrows on the pad while in neutral with the engine running, it will show 'O L' and then on mine it slowly counted down from 8 to 1 and then flashed 'O h' on the display.  This fluid level check is supposed to be better than the dipstick.

Any idea how exactly the display is interpreted?  It appears if it counts all the way down to one that I either am 1 quart low and n ot low at all, but I am not sure on that.

BTW, I learned about this from rv.net.  Someone posted that their Class A with a Allison 3000 series tranny had this feature, so I had to try it on my B500.  (Allison 3000 series and the B500 are basically the same tranny.)

Brian Elfert

[TomC]

Brian- as to transmission families- 1000, 2000, 2100, 2200, 2500 are all the small World.  MD3060, MD3560, 3000HS, 3000RDS, 3000MH, 3000TRV, 3200TRV, 3500HS, 3500RDS, B300, B400 are the middle sized World.  HD4060, HD4560, 4000HS, 4000RDS, 4000MH, 4000TRV, 4500HS, 4500RDS, 4700RDS (7speed-6speed with deep first), B500 are the large size World.  Just being picky.  Good Luck, TomC

[belfert]

Ok, well I got my Allison transmission families mixed up.  Regardless, both the B500 and the 3000 series appear to have the fluid level check functionality and I'm trying to learn more about it.

For the heck of it, can someone try holding down the upshift and downshift buttons on a HT series tranny with a touchpad and see if that model displays 'O L' on the LCD display?  (I believe there are HT series trannies with the touchpad.)

Brian Elfert

[H3Jim]

The engine and tranny have to up to operationg temp.  It has to be on regular idle, not fast idle.  I have to go down to the bus to get the manual to tell you more, will do later today.

[prevosman]

As was posted previously, the engine needs to be running in neutral, low idle and the transmission needs to be at normal operating temperature.

Depress both arrows at once. A countdown will begin, and at the end of the countdown the fluid level will be displayed. The display will tell if you are low or if the oil level is  "O  k " Refer to the book to decipher the code shown because it doesn't read intuitively.

[Sammy]

Here's some codes for everyone..........
OL,OK - oil level is OK
OL,LO,01 - oil level is low 1 quart - 02 is 2 quarts,etc.
OL,HI,01 - oil level is high 1 quart - 02 would be high 2 quarts, etc.
0X - settling time too short
50 - Engine rpm too low
59 - Engine rpm too high
65- Neutral must be selected
70 - Sump fluid temp too low
79 - Sump fluid temp too high
89 - output shaft rotation
95 - sensor failure

Here's an example of what you might see if you tried this without warming up your trans oil first - OL,70

Hope this helps 

[belfert]

I am guessing what looks kinda like 'O h' is actually 'O k' since it does not display anything that looks like oil low.

Brian Elfert

[prevosman]

That's correct. The "k" is funky looking.