Hi. Have a Trane XE 80 with a model number on the panel of :TDD060C936B1

Lately we have noticed that sometime the heat will not come out of the vents and we will work the thermostat inside the house on and off and it will eventually come on and we have heat. Well now that no longer makes it work.

So what I have had to do is go follow the procedure for starting the system...removing power and then restoring power and then turning the temp up so the sequence begins and it starts working......I am down in the crawl space while the someone else turns the thermostat on inside the house and I witness the furnace flame up and start working. All is fine.


Come back home from work and the house is cold and not working. I check the red led and it is flashing slow.

I do this all over again and it works. I know it is a matter of time before it stops working totally and now it will not stay on very long. Not sure because it works over night and we go to work but when back home we are welcomed by a cold house.

I am not getting any trouble codes and I am not familiar with this type of furnace. I am hoping to hear from some of you guys with experience on what you think.
Looking forward to hearing from you guys. My goal is to be able to fix this myself so we do not have to pay all that labor for someone else.

Thanks.

 

remove the rubber tub(s) do one at a time.... note where they came from and go back to... going to the pressure switch that is mounted on the panel below the ID motor..even the switch itself making sure here is no moisture or bugs webs and such.when your stat calls for heat that ID motor is the fisrt to run and needs to proff that pressure switch and stay closed during the heating cycle.afterthe proff the ignition/spark and the main burner. see that sensor right above the black gas line into the burner that is your roll out switch...when the burner runs make sure the flame is solid like a jet engine running blowing solid.if you catch it when the supply fan starts with the main burner running NOTE... any wave or flutter in the burner flame and a color change.if nothing changes OK but if it bounces when that fan comes on your Heat X might be cracked. that fans air pressure blowing out the flame coming in could make that roll out switch pick up the heat and trip you out.....that is a latching fault that makes you reset the power to get to run again....back on that pressure switch the tube goes into the ID fan housing so it can pick up proof the ID is running...blow lightly into the tube connected to the pressure switch (in place) and you'll hear a clicking make sure with repeated clicks hat is responds to that air into it.

 

Wow. . Thank you but I am not following what you are telling me. I am not sure about all the tubes and honestly I don't understand your train of thought.
I am technically oriented but I just don't understand. I certainly appreciate the time you ate taking to help.
Update. ..I have had time to slow down and have read your reply several times and now am better able to understand what you are saying now.
I will try to f
ollow the progression of the systems operations later. I am at another house tonight and look forward to figuring this thing out.
Thanks again.
Additionally if anyone else had any thoughts about this feel free to comment. I am going to take a video at some point. Sorry for any typos using smartphone.

 

Trane XE 80 Furnace - YouTube

recorded in High Definition so Choose "HD" for best viewing experience....

 

After going back to the device again last night and looking at my photos I have to say I don't understand what rubber tubs or tubes you are taking about or anything you described. Please watch my video...

 

that round pressure switch has to sense the ID fan air when it comes on check the tube connection to it..maybe behind it all I see is wires...burner looks solid even when the fan comes on....

 

This morning the system was still working fine. Later on when she gets home from work and if it is not working again like it has the last two days ...I will then go check the LED and see if it is flashing any codes or what. Up to this point I have not been paying attention to the LED BEFORE I START TO WORK ON IT...only after I have turned the thermostat in the house down to 43 and gone through the process of interrupting power to the device to start it up again.

Like I said...the next time it goes out I am going to FIRST check the LED status and go from there.

Thank you for your time. It will be 25 degrees tonight in Raleigh, NC. You are helping my ex-wife and her two children......THANK YOU AGAIN. I cant say that enough how appreciative I am.

I will follow up with update when I find more out....

 

After running fine for 2 or 3 days the system is back to failing to produce heat again.....
I guess this time I will go to her townhome and see what the status led is indicating on the control board at the furnace down in the crawlspace.

At this point I don't know what to do other than hopefully I will catch the LED's indicating a code other than call for heat or no call for heat. Since it had been running for several days I was hoping that it was all fine and it had got in some weird mode that if finally woke out of but apparently not.

 

Cleaning the inside of the barbed connector to your pressure switch, cleaning your flame sensor and cleaning your ground connections, including the one at the incoming power junction box, are part of normal maintenance and would be a great idea at this point. Turn off power first.



Turn off power, unplug the flame sensor, remove the 1/4 " hex screw and remove the flame sensor to allow you to polish it with some fine steel wool. Avoid the HSI, it is easily broken.


Looks like you found your LED codes...

 

Thank you for the immediate help. I will try what you are talking about and post updates.

thanks again !!

 

You filming a high definition recording of your furnace helps.
Those are screen shots of your recording and they are very clear.

 

I have not had a chance to perform the cleaning described previously however I did get a call this morning from her stating the heat is off again. This time I had her look at the LED blinking sequence and tell me what it is doing. She said it is 2 quick blinks and it repeats 2 quick blinks over and over.
I am at work and have not had a chance to see what that indicates and wanted to post it here first to see what you think.
Back to work and thank you all for helping us.

 

it's hard to read on my phone screen but I think it says two flashes is a pressure switch problem.
I recommend cleaning the Barbed connector to the pressure switch .

 

I have gotten home and looked at the guide and see that 2 Flashes indicate:
System Lockout (Retries or Recycles exceeded).

Ok having said that ....are you still in agreement that cleaning the barbed connector that the hose affixes to is the way to go? Is this hose like the hoses that are in vehicles that break down over the years and need to be replaced because they leak and/or loose the ability to provide a sealed connection?

I just want to be prepared when I go down there and clean it then I find the hose to be so dry rotted that it crumbles in my hand. I assume it is connecting to an equivalent connector on the other end.

What are some of the tools and or items I should take with me.

 

A 1/4 inch nut driver, some fine steel wool to clean the flame sensor.
A small wire brush to clean some ground connections.
A straightened paper clip to clean out the inside of the barbed connector (furnace side).

 

Got it...Thank you.

Crossing my fingers....I will update after doing this...

 

I went over to her house again this evening. I interrupted power to the house via main breaker. Turned gas off first...

anyway I took all the pieces apart and cleaned them. I do not feel there was any issues with the connectors...they were shiny clean and I cleaned them even more.

I removed the hose and checked passage ways and all way very clear with no obstruction at all. The integrity of the hose seemed very good and soft ...not dry rotted or brittle...clear plastic tube.

I noticed the pressure switch has a diaphragm inside of it. I do not have a vacuum tester and used to have one when working on vehicles years ago.
Anyway I had no way of testing it.

I put all back together and restored power. The glow plugs worked and I heard a click and expected the gas to come on but it did not. I had her turn the thermostat on inside the house and I checked my wires to make sure I did not connect something backwards. All the wires were exactly the way they were before so I had her turn the heat on at the thermostat inside the house.

This time the glow plugs heated up and then I heard the click and then the gas fired up just fine. The unit ran for a minute or so and then the gas shut off....and no heat again. I think I heard it click before the flame went out.

I had her turn the unit off at the thermostat and left it for another day.

I just don't know what is wrong. I think I noticed the led flashing constantly kind of fast during all of this. I think at one point when I was in the middle of it not working tonight I saw a sequence of 4 quick flashes but that was only once and like I said I was in the middle of it and I am not sure of the number of flashes or recall at what point they blinked the code.


I am frustrated and all my years of working on things have taught me that when I feel like this I put it down and come back later and that is what I am going to do.

Any thoughts??? I am stumped at this point.

 

I was looking over the instructions again posted previous on cleaning connectors,etc and it just dawned on me that I never cleaned the flame sensor properly.
What I mean is that I ONLY took off the electrical connector and cleaned those contacts however I never removed the screw to take the sensor out and clean the other side. I have 000 wool but never used it on the side that contacts the flame. So I am thinking that I did that wrong and need to go back and clean that sensor.

The system works for a little while..maybe thirty minutes or less and then fails and the 2 blinks code saying the system is locked out cause it failed to start properly after 3 times.

Anyway....just curious what kind of things would happen to my system if everything else was okay but the flame sensor was dirty???

Thanks again....

 

Tonight I removed the flame sensor and cleaned it with some 0000 Steel Wool.
Long story short....the unit worked for an hour maybe and then no flame again unit locked out.

Attached is a photo of the flame sensor before I cleaned it. I did not take a picture of it after I cleaned it. I do not think the flame sensor has ever been replaced in this unit. Approx. 15 years old.

I am researching how much a new one cost so I can put it in and want to ask a question here.....thermal protection...what does "Thermal Protection Open" mean?
Is that saying a defective thermal protection sensor?

I thought I saw 4 flashes of the led a couple of nights during one of the episodes and AM NOT sure....I thought it flashed 4 times during one of the restarts and the glow plug was engaged but no gas flowed so the until clicked off and went into lockout....I was wondering if it would have been normal for the 4 blinks (Thermal Protection Open) to flash when the glow plug is glowing and no gas comes on and the system goes into lockout.

 

Well..... I was hoping for some replies to the questions I have been asking in the last few post so feel free to answer them.

I want to update and say that a professional was called and he ended up replacing the gas valve.

All is fine now at least for the last 12 hours....

The tech did say that he found the coil to be real dirty and he cleaned that at no charge.....he said to my ex that I would not have known the coil was there because it was embedded behind stuff and I would not see it unless I dug deep in the system behind what I was seeing and he did it as a favor to her and thought it was fixed and left......... 30 minutes later no heat again......he came back and then he said he finally found the problem to be the gas valve.
I am assuming he is talking about the one that one flips clockwise to turn off and counter clockwise to turn on...not the MAIN SHUT OFF.
I did not get a chance to talk to this guy because I was at work and relied on the ex's telling me what he did.
Anyway sounds like an honest person helped her and only charged her for the gas valve.
I am glad to be done with this. I realize my limitations and have no problem asking for help.

I would like to thank this forum for all the help. Everything that happened here was part of the process and I am glad to have been apart of it as I learned a lot.

Thanks again!!



Anyway 12 hours later and all is still fine.......

 

Are you getting your trouble code definitions from the White Rodgers control board in this furnace or from some other location?

Trane gives multiple definitions for the same code. It is best to read the definition from the control board in the furnace that you are servicing.

The symptoms that you describe in post 19 points to the gas valve but the code does not.
Seems like you should have gotten ignition failure lock outs.

 

I don't know if this will help but I have an XE 90 that was limiting out due to overheating ( 4 flashes) What I found after 2 years of messing around is the noise dampeners that surround the fan had worked lose from the glue and were being sucked into the squirrel cage causing suffocation of my air flow thus overheating and making my furnace shut down. Stupid design. Hope this helps.

 

That information does help very much. Even though her problem is fixed you have provided great information and something for me to check.

Thank you for taking the time to post .
Merry Christmas

Sam