Just got back from a 4200 mile road trip out West with my EcoDiesel

[omgoddard]

Some of you may have seen some of this post on my instagram already (@jeepgladiators) - so if you're reading this again, maybe this will offer some more detail.

2021 3.0 EcoDiesel JT w/ 3" lift and 40's with a previously 21,XXX miles trouble free on the dash.

Day 1 - Drove from Charlotte, NC to Nashville, TN for what was to be a 2 week trip to CO and UT. (6ish hour drive)
Day 2 - Nashville to St. Louis. (5ish hour drive)
Day 3 - I was gonna try to make it to Kansas City/Topeka but decided to push thru to Burlington, Colorado. (10ish hour day)

2 hours outside of Burlington, Colorado, the Gladiator went into limp mode with a "Service Exhaust System, See Dealer" message on the dash.

I stayed in Burlington that night and limped into Limon, CO at a dealership where they took a look at it the next morning.

They said the JT needed a manual regen and that it wouldn't be covered under warranty because I hadn't done proper maintenance of replacing the fuel filter. Once I showed them where I had just replaced the fuel filter before the trip, not even 7 weeks/2,000 miles ago, they covered the manual regen under warranty (but couldn't tell me why they blamed the fuel filter - but also told me they didn't replace it?)

Day 4 - Drove to Denver, CO and stayed the next cpl nights waiting for my GF to fly in. (2ish hours drive)
Day 5 - Denver CO to Beuna Vista to Crested Butte. (3 hours of driving start/stop)
Day 6 - Crested Butte to Ouray. (2ish hours)
Day 7 - Imogene Pass, then Ouray to Moab. (4ish hours on trail, 2ish hours to Moab)
Day 8 - AC breaks first day into a trail in Moab.
Day 9 - 10 - stay in Moab & With no AC and no available dealers to service we scrapped the rest of the trip to Bryce/Zion/St. George to drive home.
Day 11 - Moab to Topeka, broke down around Burlington CO again with a "Service Exhaust System See Dealer" message
Day 12 - Limped the rest of the way home from Topeka to Charlotte.

The truck is at the local dealer now getting the AC and the exhaust looked at. (They said regen's weren't typically covered under warranty if it'll need one and I told them we can burn that bridge when we get there bc I'm not paying for a manual regen on a brand 1 year old truck thats having issues.)

I put the drive times because it seemed like it was after a longer day of driving that the issues came up. IDK, could be a very wrong observation, but it was something that I noticed. I also was running hills and plains for hours on hours end at 70-80mph. I've had some followers on IG try to tell me that flat driving at 80 isn't enough to regen the vehicle....but IDK how me driving locally for the past year and 21k miles has been ok.


I really wanna believe in the ED platform, hell, I was rolling thru Colorado on 40's getting 20-22 MPG. It was pretty amazing while it lasted.


Just my feedback and experience, I'll update you all once the dealer calls back.

Sponsored

 

[Bananaman]

Well that sucks. I'm planning a 2,500 mile trip this August. Let us know what went wrong.

 

[Painkillerspe]

Where you pulling anything?

Wonder if the 40s are limiting the engine from hitting the rpms needed to Regen.

Getting ready to do the same trip from Charlotte.

 

[Rusty PW]

I just did a trip like this. Went from Brownsville Pa, to KC, to Denver, to Lake Powell Utah. Then to Denver, to KC, to home. Put 4,200 miles on. Avg mpg was 26.9 overall. Highest was 30, and the lowest was 20.9 in Kansas. I hate Kansas for fuel mileage. No issues at all.

 

[@californiajeeping]

Where you pulling anything?

Wonder if the 40s are limiting the engine from hitting the rpms needed to Regen.

Getting ready to do the same trip from Charlotte.

it could be Keeping boost pressure down by running too low in the rpm range. Passive regen kicks in when egts get to a certain point. If your lugging the motor it won’t passive regen. Then add a high load and not full 28psi of boost….you spot up the dpf quickly.

you can’t blame the vehicle while Running such large tires for the issues.

I would put it in 6th or 7th and get it hot.

mine can passive regen from 75% to less than 10% in 20 minutes of driving.

 

[PlayfulBird]

You can’t blame the vehicle while running such large tires for the issues.

He kinda can. It does not say in the manual or by Jeep that the Gladiator should not be modified to this degree... heck, they should expect their buyers to do exactly this and account for it in their engineering. If they make it much harder than it already is, they will lose a large customer base.
Even the mall crawler customers hate the diesel as they keep running into the regen issue much more than the people who actually use and run and abuse their trucks.

In Germany, we have had several people return their Gladiators because of regen dpf nonsense and a few because the ad blue system kept making problems and another few because filling up the tank on the diesel kept giving issues. All either explained away by the dealership or going in for weeks, coming out and in a short time the same problem followed by extended stays at the dealer...

 

[Jeep-A-Kneez]

MMM-K, maybe a dumb question on my part, but how are y'all checking the regen status?

I had this same issue once before, at about 1600 miles. At that time truck was bone stock sport s, pulling 5x10 trailer with maybe a 1k load and maybe a couple hundred lbs in the bed. I don't recall truck dipping down into a limp mode, I was still able to run 50 & 60 mph.

I also experienced the dead A/C, new compressor installed a few months ago, so far so good.

Good luck with your truck.

 

[Jefe1018]

MMM-K, maybe a dumb question on my part, but how are y'all checking the regen status?

I had this same issue once before, at about 1600 miles. At that time truck was bone stock sport s, pulling 5x10 trailer with maybe a 1k load and maybe a couple hundred lbs in the bed. I don't recall truck dipping down into a limp mode, I was still able to run 50 & 60 mph.

I also experienced the dead A/C, new compressor installed a few months ago, so far so good.

Good luck with your truck.

There are a number of aftermarket readers that will do it for you. I use a bluetooth reader with the "Car Scanner" app that uses a dashboard built by a member here.

 

[@californiajeeping]

He kinda can. It does not say in the manual or by Jeep that the Gladiator should not be modified to this degree... heck, they should expect their buyers to do exactly this and account for it in their engineering. If they make it much harder than it already is, they will lose a large customer base.
Even the mall crawler customers hate the diesel as they keep running into the regen issue much more than the people who actually use and run and abuse their trucks.

In Germany, we have had several people return their Gladiators because of regen dpf nonsense and a few because the ad blue system kept making problems and another few because filling up the tank on the diesel kept giving issues. All either explained away by the dealership or going in for weeks, coming out and in a short time the same problem followed by extended stays at the dealer...

Vehicle is designed for X rpm at speed and X gearing. It begins a passive regen under these parameters around 75% DPF soot load.

40's are huge and weigh close to 120lbs per with wheels. Even my 38's are very large. You cannot fault a vehicle designed for a 60lbs wheel and tire thats 32" for not completing an emissions regen with radically different gearing and loads.

If the RPM is too low it wont regen due to not getting enough boost to get the EGT's up. Not enough boost = more soot which is counterproductive. So unless he manually holds it in 6th or 7th on the flat at 75mph for extended times it will not passive regen enough to lower the dpf soot load and has to do an active.

If the paramaters are not met it will not active regen and must be forced. Too low of an RPM can create this situation as high load low rpm on the highway will not meet the above parameters.

This is independent of DEF. You can turn off the DEF and this problem will remain as its solely an issue with the DPF filter.

 

[@californiajeeping]

There are a number of aftermarket readers that will do it for you. I use a bluetooth reader with the "Car Scanner" app that uses a dashboard built by a member here.

I use my banks idash and monitor DPF soot load %.

Passive regen seems to work best going up a slight hill under heavy load with around 60-80% constant throttle. The boost goes up to 29-30 and the EGT hits around 1100+ and begins to knock the soot load down. I notice it takes around 45 minutes of similar driving to get it down from 80-10%.

 

[Jefe1018]

I use my banks idash and monitor DPF soot load %.

Passive regen seems to work best going up a slight hill under heavy load with around 60-80% constant throttle. The boost goes up to 29-30 and the EGT hits around 1100+ and begins to knock the soot load down. I notice it takes around 45 minutes of similar driving to get it down from 80-10%.

You keep tempting me with that banks iDash…

 

[@californiajeeping]

You keep tempting me with that banks iDash…

Its pretty cool. Very powerful gauge. I would reccomend the derringer and pedal master all together. I got mine used for around 600. It does add a bit of passing power nothing crazy but the engine response is much better.

If you are in a state where a delete or tune would be a problem this is a fun addition for not much cost all things considered. Im on 38" patagonias with beadlocks and getting 20mpg still in the mountains. It lost some pep but still spins them in 1st with some brake boosting.

 

[PlayfulBird]

Vehicle is designed for X rpm at speed and X gearing. It begins a passive regen under these parameters around 75% DPF soot load.

40's are huge and weigh close to 120lbs per with wheels. Even my 38's are very large. You cannot fault a vehicle designed for a 60lbs wheel and tire thats 32" for not completing an emissions regen with radically different gearing and loads.

If the RPM is too low it wont regen due to not getting enough boost to get the EGT's up. Not enough boost = more soot which is counterproductive. So unless he manually holds it in 6th or 7th on the flat at 75mph for extended times it will not passive regen enough to lower the dpf soot load and has to do an active.

If the paramaters are not met it will not active regen and must be forced. Too low of an RPM can create this situation as high load low rpm on the highway will not meet the above parameters.

This is independent of DEF. You can turn off the DEF and this problem will remain as its solely an issue with the DPF filter.

Pretty sure i don't disagree with the technical aspects, also did not say def and dpf were linked in cause. Just that the systems cause enough issues for a not small number of people to drop the diesel Gladiator (which is the only option here) I still feel Jeep messed up building a system, knowing their customer base, that does not work reliably after mods unless you can delete the whole lot. And well that is illegal in most places.

 

[Deleted member 47279]

Deleting doesnt solve everything. i just did 1100 miles in 2 days with california biodiesel. while going uphill at 8000 feet i started to overheat (ambi 87 degrees). i had to slow down to 55 to keep my temps in a normal range. im on 37s but my normal speed is 80. check engine light came on, but i cleared it at a fuel stop via tazer. seems fine, but the cooling is a big deal.

 

[@californiajeeping]

Deleting doesnt solve everything. i just did 1100 miles in 2 days with california biodiesel. while going uphill at 8000 feet i started to overheat (ambi 87 degrees). i had to slow down to 55 to keep my temps in a normal range. im on 37s but my normal speed is 80. check engine light came on, but i cleared it at a fuel stop via tazer. seems fine, but the cooling is a big deal.

Interesting. Are you going to try an oil cooler upgrade? Maybe the oil cooler housing bypass plate and a full flow cooler? Theres room for a long narrow one under the bottom of the radiator but it will not get much airflow.

Sponsored