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Stop sale on new diesels in cold climates? DEF freezing

OldJeepsNewTrucks said:
-30 to -45 C is VERY cold though, hell the wrong type of diesel will freeze in that.
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Yes fuel could gel but still why are we forced to have DEF if it can not be trusted in our climate
 
jebruns said:
They tried what? Non-freezing DEF?
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No they tried the reprograming it does not work i had that flash last year after the first freeze up it still froze and gave me limp mode 2 more times….

The Chemical composition of DEF does not allow them to use any kind of antifreeze to prevent freeze up. They could install a complementary wabasco or esbar heating system that doubles as a block heater that would thaw the DEF in a very short period of time.
 
Glad I no longer live where this is a concern. So what is an owner suppose to do in cold climates? Long idle times before starting out, to give the DEF tank heater time to work? I don't read a lot about this issue on newer trucks here on the forums. Does it only effect some CTD trucks?
 
jebruns said:
Glad I no longer live where this is a concern. So what is an owner suppose to do in cold climates? Long idle times before starting out, to give the DEF tank heater time to work? I don't read a lot about this issue on newer trucks here on the forums. Does it only effect some CTD trucks?
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While not ideal, you could always install electric heating pads/blankets on the DEF tank. These have been available for many years now. Again, Ram should fix the issue, but I'd rather do that than to routinely go into limp mode.
 
jebruns said:
Glad I no longer live where this is a concern. So what is an owner suppose to do in cold climates? Long idle times before starting out, to give the DEF tank heater time to work? I don't read a lot about this issue on newer trucks here on the forums. Does it only effect some CTD trucks?
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My issue wasn't the Def freezing/thawing. My issue was that the sonar based level sensor got confused once it did freeze and refused to reset after it was thawed and filled up. In my limited reading up on it, that's the main issue everyone seems to have although some did have some crystallization issues. I don't usually deal with super cold temps, but I'll be looking for a jacket heater to tie into one of my aux switches or something for those rare times I do run into it.
 
Had my '15 DEF freeze once and started throwing codes. Biggest problem was I started the truck (it was only in the teens) and started driving almost immediately. Snow/salt covered road started throwing extremely cold slush/ice all under the truck freezing everything. I got to where I was going, shut the truck off for hours, plugged my scanner in and reset the codes. Threw codes once or twice more and reset them. Added new DEF, began starting the truck and setting to high idle to warm the truck and get the DEF heater up to temp before driving anywhere. Never happened after that (using new process). I'm sure YMMV in colder temps.
 
I lived in Maine for 4 years, was never an issue so not sure why it is becoming one now. That was my 2015
jebruns said:
Glad I no longer live where this is a concern. So what is an owner suppose to do in cold climates? Long idle times before starting out, to give the DEF tank heater time to work? I don't read a lot about this issue on newer trucks here on the forums. Does it only effect some CTD trucks?
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jebruns said:
Glad I no longer live where this is a concern. So what is an owner suppose to do in cold climates? Long idle times before starting out, to give the DEF tank heater time to work? I don't read a lot about this issue on newer trucks here on the forums. Does it only effect some CTD trucks?
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Nothing you can really do…. Except delete it like it should come from the factory!
 
H3LZSN1P3R said:
No they tried the reprograming it does not work i had that flash last year after the first freeze up it still froze and gave me limp mode 2 more times….

The Chemical composition of DEF does not allow them to use any kind of antifreeze to prevent freeze up. They could install a complementary wabasco or esbar heating system that doubles as a block heater that would thaw the DEF in a very short period of time.
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Love my gasser ;);):p:p:p
 
cj8rockcrawler said:
I understand the engines are completely different. From what I understood though, the DEF tank system, heater and injector are similar designs.
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No they changed a bunch of things on the 19+ trucks vs the older ones they are kind of similar but not the same.
 
H3LZSN1P3R said:
No they changed a bunch of things on the 19+ trucks vs the older ones they are kind of similar but not the same.
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Interesting. It doesn't seem like changes for the better either. I'll be really annoyed if I have to drive the 04 CTD because the 22 has frozen DEF.
 
H3LZSN1P3R said:
Nothing you can really do…. Except delete it like it should come from the factory!
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So you're saying that anyone living in cold climates are going to have issues with this? If that's the case, you'd think forums like this would be flooded with folks complaining about it. I'm just not seeing anything like that, and I've been following various Ram forums for a few years now. A few, sure. But not huge numbers.

Deleting is obviously not an option for anyone that would like to protect their full factory warranty.
 
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jebruns said:
So you're saying that anyone living in cold climates are going to have issues with this? If that's the case, you'd think forums like this would be flooded with folks complaining about it. I'm just not seeing anything like that, and I've been following various Ram forums for a few years now. A few, sure. But not huge numbers.

Deleting is obviously not an option for anyone that would like to protect their full factory warranty.
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There is only a small portion of people who use forums. And it was obviously a big enough issue that FCA came out with a TSB for it… and its more the extreme cold climates
 
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