ready to start on my bus

[Jimot]

Greetings fellow bus nuts!! (Hope I'm saying this right!)
I am gathering resources to start my build in the spring. I have a '07 Setra S417. I am seeking manuals and hoping to connect with anyone with a similar project. I am located in Ga. outside of atlanta. I have been pulling together resources and tools for most of the year as well as building out my shop and extending my driveway. That being said I am hoping to make some contacts with others in a similar situation. I love to design and build and hope to be bringing some useful ideas to the table. Does anyone know where I could locate manuals for my bus? The club doesn't offer them.

[Utahclaimjumper]

I would surely hate to have to buy that windshield .!!>>>Dan

[Jimot]

2-piece not so bad. worth it!

[Melbo]

Check with Busted Knuckle.  He worked with setras and may have some good information for you.

Good Luck

Keep it fun and drive it often.

Melbo

[Jimot]

Thank you really appreciate the help!

[chessie4905]

make sure to get a low deductible for your glass coverage.

[buswarrior]

x2 Busted Knuckle, he ran Setras in commercial service.

I do not recall anyone else steady on here with a Setra?

You need SOLID information, many busnuts in unmoderated places on the internet type with emphasis, backed by inexperience...

Keep the build driveable, and drive it often, it's the only thing to lift your spirits out of the doldrums, as the project stalls.

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

[Busted Knuckle]

First off; EXCELLENT choice of bus! (IMHO!)
Second; Be very careful of wiring as you remove/modify the interior! Those Setra 417's use a CAN bus wiring system and IT WILL DISABLE the whole bus if you cut the wrong wires accidentally!
Third; You can most likely score manuals from Setra/MCI parts dept in Louisville, KY. (but if you can give me just a little time, I might actually have some in storage. (but I need time to verify that!)
Fourth; I absolutely LOVED Setra's for a long time and still do, but once they merged with MCI and let MCI take over the USA operations they went to hell in a hand basket as far as parts, service and tech support goes! They are a wonderful riding, driving looking bus. But they have some issues too!
One is the whole bus is controlled by a module built into the dash cluster called a DEMOX! It controls the 5 other computers on the bus that control everything else! WHEN it goes bad (and it WILL GO BAD!), it costs $3500 for the dash cluster (or as Setra calls it the "DEMOX") and about another  $1500 for Setra to reprogram it/yer bus for it all to work together again! Setra (or someone with a STAR machine, which is Setra's own diagnostics scanner program system that nobody else has duplicated) You can't just buy a new DEMOX (or used either) and just put it in and make it work without it all being reprogrammed to play nice together!
The A/C in those is a different animal also. It runs a "chiller" much like a large commercial chiller system on a much smaller scale. It uses the engine coolant to operate which requires 55 gallons of coolant to fill the radiator, hoses, pipes and exchangers through out the bus. ALWAYS make sure you have a good coolant mixture in the system or you will end up with a 55 gallon slushie, or worse!
I may have few extra parts, and specialty tools in storage also, but again I need time to go to the storage unit and go through it. But the good thing is that fall weather is here and it's perfect for doing just that.
  BK 

[Busted Knuckle]

2-piece not so bad. worth it!

Yeah it's been a while since I had one replaced, but if I remember correctly back around 2010 the windshields were about $1300 each and the local glass shop charged $350 to install one or $500 to do both. (I gladly payed the glass shop to do it, because if they broke it, they had to buy the replacement. Which did happen once!)
  BK 

[chessie4905]

WOW!😳

[windtrader]

wow x 2. quite sobering thoughts before getting too pumped up on converting a newer bus. I suspect the less old the bus, the more service and parts in general cost due increaseed technical complexity. Then again, it might be far easier to diagnose problems and preventative warnings heading off pending issues with so many computers onboard monitoring and tracking bus performance.