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Does your Cummins regenerate once per tank?

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2500Ram

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I am not complaining just asking: does your Ram regen once per tank? Mine has been doing it one time every fill up. Which is about 600 miles (I believe). Normal? I have not cleaned the EGR cooler and I'm at 74K. Is that needed now?
 
2500Ram said:
I am not complaining just asking: does your Ram regen once per tank? Mine has been doing it one time every fill up. Which is about 600 miles (I believe). Normal? I have not cleaned the EGR cooler and I'm at 74K. Is that needed now?
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Regens are based on either soot loading or hours. Normal would be 24 engine run hours between regens. Anything less that 24 hours is soot based and can indicate a driving style not conducive to passive regen and/or an issue with the engine or emissions a system.
 
AH64ID said:
Regens are based on either soot loading or hours. Normal would be 24 engine run hours between regens. Anything less that 24 hours is soot based and can indicate a driving style not conducive to passive regen and/or an issue with the engine or emissions a system.
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My 2014 doesn't know what a passive regen is. Towing on the highway at 900 F EGT3 and DPF% only increases.

Generally getting a regen every 450-700 miles depending on how the truck is being used. Didn't drive the truck much this winter. Did a regen on Dec 1. Next regen was March 22.
 
johnmyster said:
My 2014 doesn't know what a passive regen is. Towing on the highway at 900 F EGT3 and DPF% only increases.

Generally getting a regen every 450-700 miles depending on how the truck is being used. Didn't drive the truck much this winter. Did a regen on Dec 1. Next regen was March 22.
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DPF % where increases?

How many engine hours between regens? Miles are immaterial to regen frequency.
 
AH64ID said:
DPF % where increases?

How many engine hours between regens? Miles are immaterial to regen frequency.
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iDash shows DPF%. I don't know how it's calculated. It could be strictly hours, delta p, or some combination.

I haven't been tracking hours. I'll have to do that. I assume it's total hours and not "driving".

I'll get a regen tomorrow with the camper in tow. Hope is to make it to the interstate and not do it in the mountain switchbacks, but you can't control what you can't control.
 
johnmyster said:
iDash shows DPF%. I don't know how it's calculated. It could be strictly hours, delta p, or some combination.

I haven't been tracking hours. I'll have to do that. I assume it's total hours and not "driving".

I'll get a regen tomorrow with the camper in tow. Hope is to make it to the interstate and not do it in the mountain switchbacks, but you can't control what you can't control.
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DPF% is a driven off of either soot loading or hours since last regen, whichever is higher. So without another reference it’s not always possible to tell if your truck is passive regening or not based solely on the DPF%. Example, if you’re 12 hours since the last regen and towing the gauge will read 50% and continue to rise 1% every 14.4 minutes even if your EGT3 is at 900°F and you’re getting an effective passive regen.

Track your total run hours between active regens. If you make it to 24 then you are absolutely getting adequate passive regen.

Nothing wrong with mountain switchbacks for an active regen. Had many of them on that style road and it’s not a bad thing at all.
 
AH64ID said:
Example, if you’re 12 hours since the last regen and towing the gauge will read 50% and continue to rise 1% every 14.4 minutes even if your EGT3 is at 900°F and you’re getting an effective passive regen.
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My IDash now shows DPF% at about 49% and it clicks up a notch every so often while driving. Your explanation above makes it clear why thats happening. According to the EVIC hours counter Im about 12 hours since last regen, so your info checks out. However.... I haven't towed a damn thing since last regen, and not much highway driving either.

Any reason I might wanna watch any of the EGR parameters on the IDash? I have it set on "EGR % actual" but I don't know what I'm looking at.
 
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No.
I usually only get the 24 hour regen. Not sure what that comes out to, every 2 to 3 tanks? I'm also one of those guys that fills up at half tank or so. Unless I'm on a road trip.
 
My truck averages 870 miles between active regens (24hr). Depending on driving needs. Comes out an average of every 2-3 tanks of fuel per regen.
 
Are any of you pulling and cleaning the EGR using some purple cleaner and the Mopar gasket kit? I feel like that is vital but I haven't done it yet.
 
AH64ID said:
DPF% is a driven off of either soot loading or hours since last regen, whichever is higher.
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This makes sense. After a regen mine will flip-flop between 22% (apparently, as clean as my unit can get, based on back pressure) or some lower number that is runtime related. Once hours gets to 5 or 6, it increases based on runtime.

Also makes sense why I've never seen the DPF% decrease when I feel like I should be under passive regen conditions...the hours are determining rather than backpressure.

I have no idea what "base backpressure" is typical of a DPF as it moves through its useful life. I'd assume a factory fresh unit would go to 0% after regen, depending on calibration. The guys that report theirs stays at 0% (2019+ DIC readout?) I assume are reading something else.

EDIT: My "dpftim" parameter always seems to stay at 0 and the "dpfdis" is some meaningless number. It stayed at 462 during yesterday's 75 mile tow. (The prior regen was 720 miles.) Apparently these idash parameters don't correlate to anything meaningful in the calibration.
 
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johnmyster said:
This makes sense. After a regen mine will flip-flop between 22% (apparently, as clean as my unit can get, based on back pressure) or some lower number that is runtime related. Once hours gets to 5 or 6, it increases based on runtime.
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Mine jumps around below 12 hours since it’s usually soot based until then. When I start the truck is reads residual soot and then bounces up to 40-50% and stays there most the drive unless hours go over 12 or I’m doing some city driving and soot loading increased. At that point I can see the dash gauge start to rise too.

johnmyster said:
Also makes sense why I've never seen the DPF% decrease when I feel like I should be under passive regen conditions...the hours are determining rather than backpressure.

I have no idea what "base backpressure" is typical of a DPF as it moves through its useful life. I'd assume a factory fresh unit would go to 0% after regen, depending on calibration. The guys that report theirs stays at 0% (2019+ DIC readout?) I assume are reading something else.
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To see your base back pressure you’ll need to shutdown soon after an active regen and let the PID reset with the ignition off for a few minutes. I’ve seen as low as 0.0% after an active regen on the highway with 6400D in the tank. That was with 30K miles on the DPF. This last active regen was after a little commuting to work and it only cleaned to ~16%. When towing it’s not uncommon to see it get down below 5% after an active regen.

When people say their DPF gauge stays on 0% they are referring to the EVIC gauge.
 
AH64ID said:
To see your base back pressure you’ll need to shutdown soon after an active regen and let the PID reset with the ignition off for a few minutes. I’ve seen as low as 0.0% after an active regen on the highway with 6400D in the tank. That was with 30K miles on the DPF. This last active regen was after a little commuting to work and it only cleaned to ~16%. When towing it’s not uncommon to see it get down below 5% after an active regen.
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I too have seen low single digits, but I think the bouncing around behavior is that it takes the computer awhile to figure out what the actual base soot load is, especially at low load, various mass flow rates, temperatures, etc. So for the short time where the hours is less than soot, lots of various readings occur. As you say, due to the engine shurtting down it starts over each time, not necessarily due to active regen.

I would assume that in this time, a new healthy DPF would be 0%, and an aged would would bounce up to some percentage that reflects the non-removable ash deposits.

I experienced this this weekend. Hard mountain pulls on the interstate with camper in tow. (Presumably perfect for passive regen.) As we finished the trip entered and finished a 24hr active regen. Had a few days of putting around town with low loads and presumably no active regen, with DPF% values at various levels between 0% and 22%. As we came home, got to about 5 hours since regen - DPF% was then 22% and steadily increasing time based - despite optimal conditions for active regen in the background for several hours.

EDIT: So we've established that EVIC DPF% (2019+) reflects something different than DPF% via idash, scangauge, etc. Good to know, but wonder what it really reflects then.
 
johnmyster said:
EDIT: So we've established that EVIC DPF% (2019+) reflects something different than DPF% via idash, scangauge, etc. Good to know, but wonder what it really reflects then.
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It’s soot only. ~45% on the dash = 100% on the PID when soot based.
 
My truck went to the dealer over this today 22 33000 on it. Since my post in april about regening 1-2 times a tank it started regenerating about every 65 miles ( minimal idling and minimal short trips. ) and would constantly throw up the message automatic exhaust system regeneration in process continue driving. yes process wasn’t a typo. They called me and said they are replacing the dpf and it is about done but they will finish it tomorrow. I hope this is a fix and not just a bandaid , time will tell.
 
russ2588 said:
My truck went to the dealer over this today 22 33000 on it. Since my post in april about regening 1-2 times a tank it started regenerating about every 65 miles ( minimal idling and minimal short trips. ) and would constantly throw up the message automatic exhaust system regeneration in process continue driving. yes process wasn’t a typo. They called me and said they are replacing the dpf and it is about done but they will finish it tomorrow. I hope this is a fix and not just a bandaid , time will tell.
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Its a bandaid, DPFs clogging or failing is almost always a symptom not the diagnosis. DPFs can fail after long periods but yours is too new for that
 
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