Last week i arrived at one of my drops, as i got out i could hear i had an air leak. On closer inspection i soon realised i had a kink in the red airline & it was split resulting in total loss of air pressure. I had a spare airline so thought i’d change it myself. I had to swap the connections from the old line onto the new line & the only thing i couldnt do was seal the joins so when it was fitted there was still a very,& i mean very slight leak still. I rang my company & told them it should be ok to enable me to finish my drops & return to base. They said to carry on.
Anyway on monday i received a letter saying they was taking disiplinary action against me as changing an airline was against company procedure…Now thats not my main concern. The main concern is what was to follow. They went on to tell me that the lead had been fitted wrong 
( i know it wasn’t) & as a result had knocked all the fuses out, damaged the starter moter & caused transmission faults causing £100’s of damage ( its a daf cf auto if that makes a difference). What i would like to know is is this possible Because i didnt think the airlines etc etc had nothing to do with the electrical fuses. It was fine with me for the rest of the day, showed no dash warnings of any kind, Think we all know what dafs are like for showing warnings. Also the air pressure guage was reading correct pressure while engine running & when ignition off moved down extremely slowly.
Any opinions welcomed thanks in advance
In a nutshell,
You are right, they are wrong.
the air system has nothing to do with the electrics.
Get confirmation that this is the case from a main dealer not the one you use, if need be phone DAF UK at Thame and ask if it’s remotely possible and evidence to this effect, and when you have your disciplinary tell them you will appeal it throwing in the technical reports.
There are various sensors fitted to the air system to moniter pressure etc, but certainly not the starter motor, some of the auto box is air operated, but a loss of airpressure is not going to damage it, unless you tried driving it with very low pressure…
I would now phone a DAF dealership in some other part of the Country, and ask the question, ‘what would happen if’ and see what they say…
Could poss be the company it looking at getting rid of a driver and saving on paying redundency…
Lol, how can changing a red airline blow the fuses? 
I hope your letter says about the fuse blowing etc as if you have that in writing your halfway to winning any future battles.
How to get an air line to BLOW the fuses…
Build up air pressure to maximum, connect very long air line, snip off end so it has good air pressure coming out, open fuse cover, aim air line at close range to fuses - there you have it, fuses blown by air line… sorted 
lesson learnt next time phone your company tell them the problem sit back and watch some tv or read a book, seems to me your being shafted so instead of trying to help and solve things let the [zb] in the office earn there wage and get it fixed, you get paid to drive my friend and fuses are there for the electrics am sure the airline has nothink to do with it but with todays tech everythink is electrical so am not sure
A airleak would not cause fuses to be blown, the only warning that would show up on a daf due to a air leak in a line - is a red air pressure warning when the tanks slowly became empty. The rest of the faults are purely coincidence and has nothing to do with this event you described.
Do you have enemies at your depot, is there a driver cull on at the moment ?
Some of these companies really take the biscuit don’t they, you couldn’t make it up. Well they do 
Its highly unlikely. Must be a requirement for office jobs these days to be able to talk out of ones bum and believe what they say too. pmsl.
The strange thing is, you could explain to an office worker why changing a red airline wouldn’t blow the fuses and they still wouldn’t understand it.
I love this site, i explained this to the office staff that the airlines could not cause these probs & they told me that their daf aid had confirmed all the probs were caused due to the red airline. Think im gonna ask for a copy of the report & take it further. Thanks for ur replies so far im so glad i’m not cracking up afterall
I think it’s time to start looking for another job. Even in this current economic climate, there must be oppertuneties for drivers who can use their initiative.
Oh and as has already been said a red airline doesn’t affect the electrics in any way.
Next time you get an air leak, and i mean a very small air leak, don’t do a thing except call office and tell them you have broken down and cant move.
I’d call another DAF dealer, anywhere in country will do, and get a second opinion.
as been said … phone them up and then get on the bunk … then they cant blame you for any faults…
reminds of a couple of years back… was on a trunk run back from Lymm … stopped at Southwaite for a quick loo break and came back out to an air leak… thought thats all i need … its friday nite and i want to get back home quick style … didnt want to wait around for some spanner monkey to come a few hours later… so got one of me work gloves and wrapped it round the leak and then got a few zip tie’s and hey presto . built the air pressure back up and got on my merry way back to the depot… then took my repair off then Defected the motor… 
… home in time for some cider…
Yea, that’s the problem Tyler, you’re “old-school”. You’re not supposed to change a red airline any more, you are supposed to give Daf/Volvo/Scania £300 to do it for you.
Why? No idea!
My friend works for Daf , so I’ll call him tomorrow and see what the horses mouth has to say !!!
i had unusual problem after snagging red line in France
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i had to buy the storeman in the factory i was at a croisant and coffee
whilst he rooted thru his odds and sods box for some olives
it didnt affect the leccy side of things
Seems to me that somebodys screwed up at Dafs and now they trying to lay the blame on you, hope you get it sorted and the next time somthing breaks just ring up the office and get them to deal with it
People laugh and pour scorn at those who defect a truck for just having a bulb out but when you see what happens when you try get the job done you can see why they do it.
what i would do is ask your firm too put it all in writing, once it in writing go along to your local daf dealer and show the head engineer the letter and ask for his written assesment on the problem, keep a copy of the letter, give one copy to your company and if they do sack you then you will have a strong case for unfair dissmissal. btw i have done this and as soon as the letter hit the desk of the manager he went as nice as sixpence as he knew i was gonna fight it
Next time you have a problem phone it in but just say you don’t know what is wrong it is just broken, but think it might be all the fuses and the gearbox, or an air leak, but you can’t put your finger on the fault…You obviously didn’t notice them this time and mistakenly repaired an air line thinking nothing else was wrong 
Some bosses just don’t deserve helpful drivers