DPF Failure @ 27k Miles

[biodiesel]

I've always heard that you should drive for 45min to an hour on the freeway weekly if your diesel sees a lot of short city trips to clear out the soot.

That's not necessarily true. You can drive around in the city for weeks without having to hit the freeway. Your Jeep will regen even when doing urban driving. You only need to hit the highway if you see the dash message, "80% full, drive on highway". The dash message indicates that the DPF is nearing capacity and there's a need to regen. This happens if you're doing a lot of cold weather operation and the exhaust doesn't get hot enough to regen on its own during city driving.

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[UTDieselRubi]

That's not necessarily true. You can drive around in the city for weeks without having to hit the freeway. Your Jeep will regen even when doing urban driving. You only need to hit the highway if you see the dash message, "80% full, drive on highway". The dash message indicates that the DPF is nearing capacity and there's a need to regen. This happens if you're doing a lot of cold weather operation and the exhaust doesn't get hot enough to regen on its own during city driving.

So 95% of burning off soot levels only occuring during an active regen is normal?

 

[UTDieselRubi]

That is what I see too. If I'm pulling my trailer and drive where my turbo Temps are steadily above 1000 my soot levels are rising, but if I slow down and keep the turbo Temps around 850-900 my soot level slowly decrease. This is NOT what folks say about driving it hard to keep soot levels down.
When unloaded (no trailer), driving 65-70, my soot levels slowly go down.

P.S. When pulling my 3000 lb "tall" cargo trailer I usually find that my soot levels really don't rise quickly by keeping the trans in 7th gear and rpms around 2300-2500.

I agree, it seems different than what you hear most.

 

[biodiesel]

So 95% of burning off soot levels only occuring during an active regen is normal?

I drive 8 miles to work and 8 miles home. I can drive that route every day for many weeks and never see the countdown message. So, I'm saying it's not true "that you should drive for 45min to an hour on the freeway weekly if your diesel sees a lot of short city trips to clear out the soot."

 

[Rusty PW]

Driving on the highway for a length of time. i can see my SL% go down a few % on my iDash gauge.

 

[biodiesel]

Driving on the highway for a length of time. i can see my SL% go down a few % on my iDash gauge.

The Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator have a shorter exhaust system compared to Ram which helps the system reach the required temperatures for a regen. This improves the conditions needed to regen during urban driving.

Likewise, the Jeeps see the same benefits for highway driving. The Gen 2 (2014 - 2019) EcoDiesel in the Ram doesn't experience passive regens unless towing. Passive regens occur when the exhaust gas temperatures are high enough to burn off soot in the DPF. The Jeep can reach those temps without towing, which is nice.

 

[UTDieselRubi]

The Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator have a shorter exhaust system compared to Ram which helps the system reach the required temperatures for a regen. This improves the conditions needed to regen during urban driving.

Likewise, the Jeeps see the same benefits for highway driving. The Gen 2 (2014 - 2019) EcoDiesel in the Ram doesn't experience passive regens unless towing. Passive regens occur when the exhaust gas temperatures are high enough to burn off soot in the DPF. The Jeep can reach those temps without towing, which is nice.

Thats kinda what I was getting at. I should burn a little down on the highway under load I would think, but mine just climbs, rather rapidly going above 70mph. But it may be normal. Seems like I will just need to rely on the frequent active regens.

 

[biodiesel]

Thats kinda what I was getting at. I should burn a little down on the highway under load I would think, but mine just climbs, rather rapidly going above 70mph. But it may be normal. Seems like I will just need to rely on the frequent active regens.

Either way, you shouldn't see this message when cruising down the highway. I don't even see this message with all the in-town driving that I do.

 

[UTDieselRubi]

Either way, you shouldn't see this message when cruising down the highway. I don't even see this message with all the in-town driving that I do.

Ah yeah I get you. I probably didn't clarify well enough. I don't get the dash warning now, I just see my iDash turn the regen status from "off" to "Pass" frequently, but now that I can actually see that, I can ensure it completes so I don't get to the dash warnings. Looking back at what kb5zcr said, I think thats normal. So I think everything is fine. At first I was just confused due to thinking I was supposed to be burning the soot down on the highway without the extra fuel injection process of the active regen. As long as it doesn't matter how many times the truck does that and the soot never gets above 80%, all is well. I'm just glad I can keep an eye on it now. So dumb we can't see that from factory in the dash or console.

 

[biodiesel]

So dumb we can't see that from factory in the dash or console.

I can understand the factory not displaying it. It stresses too many people out. Even you're stressed watching it on the iDash.

 

[CrazyCooter]

I can understand the factory not displaying it. It stresses too many people out. Even you're stressed watching it on the iDash.

I feel like all the info is just giving people anxiety! So many posts where people are freaking out about nothing just because they interpret the info wrong! Then they come to the internet to ask the experts who pile on more anxiety!

I feel like it would be nice to know IF your truck is actively doing a regen so that I might modify my driving routine if possible and if not, I can expect next trip out will probably start a regen and plan for that?

My DPF shit out at 52K miles without warning.......I say that, but I never looked at the tailpipe to see that it was black indicating there was an internal crack.....That would have been first warning before the code popped up.

I was watching my DPF loading on the Fuzion app, but since swapping to the E-Clik shocks, I can't have both plugged into the OBD port at the same time.

 

[biodiesel]

I feel like all the info is just giving people anxiety! So many posts where people are freaking out about nothing just because they interpret the info wrong!

I don't monitor anything except oil temps when I'm towing, otherwise, I just let the truck(s) do their thing. As a matter of fact, I'll be towing through NM, TX, OK, MO, and KS in a few weeks. It's not that I'm disinterested in watching a variety of parameters, I've just learned to prioritize. I think it's more important to become familiar with the known issues (codes) and be able to diagnose the issues in a timely manner.

 

[Treader]

@biodiesel Are you tuned in anyway with the Jeep that you are only driving daily? With my morning commute, I was doing 10 miles with dropping my kids at school and getting to work. Fastest section was 60mph for only a mile. My soot load per ScanGuage would raise around 5% with this drive. I was getting into active regens every other week, which seems WAY too much.

Just seems like TOO many active regens would shorten the life of the DPF. Would that not be the case?

 

[CrazyCooter]

I don't monitor anything except oil temps when I'm towing, otherwise, I just let the truck(s) do their thing. As a matter of fact, I'll be towing through NM, TX, OK, MO, and KS in a few weeks. It's not that I'm disinterested in watching a variety of parameters, I've just learned to prioritize. I think it's more important to become familiar with the known issues (codes) and be able to diagnose the issues in a timely manner.

Pretty much same here now that I can't get data real time.

 

[kb5zcr]

@biodiesel Are you tuned in anyway with the Jeep that you are only driving daily? With my morning commute, I was doing 10 miles with dropping my kids at school and getting to work. Fastest section was 60mph for only a mile. My soot load per ScanGuage would raise around 5% with this drive. I was getting into active regens every other week, which seems WAY too much.

Just seems like TOO many active regens would shorten the life of the DPF. Would that not be the case?

I'm experiencing the same, when I head to the grocery store, or Lowes, or anywhere else in town, my soot load goes up approx 5% per trip. Not a big deal to me as I have an idea when it is due to go into a regen on my next trip and plan for that.
I've actually done a regen at speeds less than 20 mph just keeping it in a low gear for a few miles around my neighborhood until the regen is over (easier than getting on the highway).
Anyone posting here that doesn't have a way of monitoring their soot levels is just guessing on what is happening.
I don't feel that an "active" regen hurts the DPF (but don't know this for sure) so I don't worry about this. What I try to stay away from is any interrupted regens (I'm at 16k miles and have zero so far).

Folks without a way to monitor their soot level have no idea when their engine does the approx 700 mile regen (regardless of soot level) and may interrupt it without even knowing about it (yes, you have a regen approx every 700 miles regardless of current soot load).

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