2014 Navion iQ View 24V Maintenance Questions-time sensitive

[Pooolboy]

I have three maintenance questions for those of you with technical skills:

1. Dometic Midi Heki skylight electronic MDHDOM 1370XXXX-does not open. Makes a noise like the gearing is stripped. I found a gearing mechanism complete for roughly $160 from leisure Shop Direct in England. Has anybody done that repair themselves? The shop wants to charge a fortune and replace electrics, controller, gears etc. Seems like gold plating to me.

2. Light over the sink in the bathroom-has begun to flicker like it is beginning to short out. Has anybody replaced a light? How is it done? I pulled a bit on the cover but did not feel comfortable that I was going about it the right way.

3. shock absorbers-I have 36K miles and I am not happy with our ride or handling. How many miles should I expect off original shocks? (We travel about 1000 pounds below GVWR, we do not tow, we do not go off road, we do get to drive on some lousy road surfaces like the Florida turnpike and I 95 in south Carolina! on occasion.)

4. Finally, I sure would appreciate a quick response as I take it back to the shop tomorrow (took it to M Benz a while back to fix a wheel speed sensor and one of their guys bashed in/ dented 3 panels on the left side!) so figured I would get the panels repaired and maybe do the work above.

[luvlabs]

1. Gear box replacement is unlikely to fix your problem. The skylight uses a very odd drive system that includes both the gears and flexible push rods. Be prepared to replace the whole thing if you want it to operate.

2. It's not shorting, the LED bulb is failing. Either replace the bulb or the fixture. You can get the OEM part from Winnebago if you can't find a suitable replacement.

3. It might not be a bad idea to change your shocks. Bilsteins are a viable option. However, the shocks aren't going to help with lousy road surfaces unless you are dodging expansion joints and potholes.

4. How bad did the guys bash your left side panels? Might have to get replacements from Winnebago and repaint. Could take awhile.

[Pooolboy]

luvlabs-always great advice from you! Thanks. Took the vehicle to Winnebago place in Port St Lucie, FL. based on your sage advice--

1. Skylight-asked them to price the repair on that seriously over priced, highly non functional Midi Heki and to quote replacement of whole thing with a simple, you crank it skylight.

2. The LED bulb over bathroom sink-I asked them to sell me the bulb and I will figure out how the fittings are removed. If there is a trick to it, please advise before I damage something.

3. I decided to defer shock absorber replacement until next year.

4. How bad did they bash the basement panels? about $7000 bad and 6 weeks wait for the panels from Winnebago.

5. Wheel speed sensor-As I wrote before I went into Mercedes Benz to replace a right rear wheel speed sensor and to figure out why my DEF light comes on all the time and why the DEF boils over. They "fixed" those items and crunched my basement panels in. So they comped me the repairs. In the course of looking at wheel speed sensors, I found out that MBenz has known this was a design defect for years but has recently started a program of recording these problems. I said "fixed" in ironic quotes above because as I drove the RV down to Port St. Lucie FL...the darned DEF light came on again! So the "fix" (a new temp sensor) was not the "fix."

6. Thanks for all your help since I bought this hummer!