Lionel Doodlebug smoke unit

If you purchased the Doodlebug new, send it back to Lionel for repair.  The warranty should cover it.  I have the same Lionel Ma & Pa Doodlebug.  I had to return it to Lionel two times for warranty repair ( within the 1 year warranty period )  The second time was because of a failed smoke unit.  

Might not apply in this situation, but have you tried running it using all control methods - TMCC, Bluetooth, and conventional?  Same behavior with all methods?  I've seen Lionel engines behave differently when powered and operated differently.

I did buy it used for under $250 so I'm not going to send it back because of the smoke issue but I also can't send it in for warranty repair.  I have been running it with the bluetooth but now that I am back home I can try it with TMCC.

I'll disconnect it and check the motor itself before ordering a new motor.  At only around $7.50 it shouldn't break the bank.

Thanks everyone for your help.

I use MTH motors unless the smoke unit needs the Lionel short motor with the diagonal holes and the MTH won't fit.  I've found over the years that the MTH motors are better motors.

Before you do all that, be sure to try a hard reset first. That may fix the problem. Refer to the instruction booklet on how to do that.

Hi Chuck,

It didn't come with the instruction manual but I can probably find it online to do the reset.

Hi John,

Thanks for your usual sage advice.  Hopefully one of these other suggestions will work and I won't have to get a new motor.

I want to thank everyone for their advice.  I had been running it using the Bluetooth App.  I switched over to my TMCC system for it and used that to tell the smoke unit to turn on, which it did.  I still needed to stick the dropper down into the stacks and was able to remove some gummy residue.  It is now smoking quite heavily out of all three stacks.

Glad to hear you got it working.  Did you also do a reset?  Does it now smoke OK when running via the app and conventional?

Since it was running properly, I did not do a reset.  I have not tried running it with the bluetooth app or in conventional mode.  When I put it on the track, I did have a 23 car train sitting there so I hooked it up to that train.  I was surprised that it took off and pulled all 23 cars quite well.  It looked a little silly since they were all beer cars but maybe they were headed to the Super Bowl!