First Regen? New diesel owner

[JKSchnoo]

Hi Everyone-

Just got a 2023 2500 CTD two days ago. I absolutely love this truck. Have about 300 miles on it mixed highway and in town. Today while I was driving, I felt like the engine got a tad quiet, lost a bit of power, and my mpg dropped from 16.5 to about 13-14.

I took it to the dealership and they initially said it might sound a bit quiet, but was normal after checking everything out and test driving.

After driving for a while more on highway home the engine’s sound came back closer to normal, but still seems a tiny amount quieter than driving it off the lot. MPG hasn’t come back to what it was yet.

Was this the truck trying to go through regen? I didn’t see any light indicating it.

This truck will be my daily driver, I currently commute to work on highway about 25 miles a day. It will also haul a 30’ TT on some weekends in spring and summer, and take us up to the mountains year round.

Honestly I’ve always wanted an HD diesel and thought I would give it a go. I’ve read a ton of forum posts but want to get some more advice on keeping this truck running well. Prepared to do all the necessary maintenance. I plan to get it going hot on longer highway trips every weekend or so when not towing, take the wife on a day trip or something.

Thanks for the help!

 

[MEGA HO]

You shouldn't see no indication when it starts regen unless you're on the proper (DPF) screen.
Not sure if sound would change if it starts a regen, I'm half deaf so no help here.
One thing you would notice is it will smell hot / burnt around the truck especially a new truck if you stop and walk around.

 

[superjoe83]

If the filter is not loading with excessive soot, they will regen every 24-25 engine run hours. Take a look at your hour meter and see where it's at

 

[wrvond]

Two days and 300 miles seems kind of soon for a regeneration cycle.
My first regen took about 12 miles to complete. Mileage dropped by 0.7 mpg which was probably from turning around and re-entering the highway.
If I hadn’t noticed the alert on the display I’d never known it was happening.

 

[MtnRider]

First off, stop reading all the paranoia on the web/social media, if there is an issue the truck will let you know with a check engine light. I see this all the time, new diesel owners are so freaked out by what they have read on the web that every sound the truck makes sends them off looking for problems.

Just Drive and enjoy it.

 

[AH64ID]

You can monitor the DPF screen if you want, but it seems to cause more paranoia than anything. It should tell you when you’re in an active regen thou.

Mileage does drop a little in regen, but it’s really not too bad unless it’s wet out. I’ve also found the engine gets louder in a regen. The turbo is more open and the timing is more retarded to get the exhaust hotter and my ears pickup on that.

Drive it and enjoy. Use quality fluids and OEM filters, it’ll be a great truck.

 

[JKSchnoo]

First off, stop reading all the paranoia on the web/social media, if there is an issue the truck will let you know with a check engine light. I see this all the time, new diesel owners are so freaked out by what they have read on the web that every sound the truck makes sends them off looking for problems.

Just Drive and enjoy it.

Thank you! I definitely have gone down the rabbit hole with worrying about using my diesel as a daily driver. I see so many people saying it will be fine, just make sure to get it hot on the highway frequently. And then I read the posts that say it’s the end of the world to do so.

 

[JKSchnoo]

You can monitor the DPF screen if you want, but it seems to cause more paranoia than anything. It should tell you when you’re in an active regen thou.

Mileage does drop a little in regen, but it’s really not too bad unless it’s wet out. I’ve also found the engine gets louder in a regen. The turbo is more open and the timing is more retarded to get the exhaust hotter and my ears pickup on that.

Drive it and enjoy. Use quality fluids and OEM filters, it’ll be a great truck.

Appreciate your response! Like I said in my other reply to Mtnrider I’m pretty much worrying myself to death about daily driving my diesel.

 

[techman]

Do yourself a favor and IGNORE the DPF screen. Your truck owning life will improve 1000%.

Don't idle it too long, use good quality diesel, and drive it!

 

[JKSchnoo]

Do yourself a favor and IGNORE the DPF screen. Your truck owning life will improve 1000%.

Don't idle it too long, use good quality diesel, and drive it!

Yeah I need to stop staring at that DPF gauge. How long is too long to idle? Guess I’m not sure what to do in situations where I would normally idle like in heavy traffic, warming up the truck on cold mornings etc..

 

[techman]

I’m not sure what to do in situations where I would normally idle like in heavy traffic

Don't over think it. Idling is completely fine and part of using your truck. Stop and go traffic...no problem. Warming it up on a chilly AM...no problem. Sitting in your running truck watching the sunset for 30 minutes not so much.

Use your best judgement.

 

[JKSchnoo]

Don't over think it. Idling is completely fine and part of using your truck. Stop and go traffic...no problem. Warming it up on a chilly AM...no problem. Sitting in your running truck watching the sunset for 30 minutes not so much.

Use your best judgement.

That makes sense. Any idea why I saw a bit of drop in mpg from 16.5 to 13.5 ?

Also, in about 6 months I won’t be commuting to work anymore. What frequency do I need to get this truck hot on the highway to burn the soot?

 

[John Jensen]

Don't over think it. Idling is completely fine and part of using your truck. Stop and go traffic...no problem. Warming it up on a chilly AM...no problem. Sitting in your running truck watching the sunset for 30 minutes not so much.

Use your best judgement.

Sitting in my brother's running truck watching elk and keeping warm many times for 30-45 minutes has never been a problem.
These trucks are commonly idled for long periods on construction sites or in the oil fields, etc. That said, I agree with you, if used as a daily driver where it doesn't reach operating temps for any length of time, long idle times would not be good.

The OP says he does 25 highway miles a day and tows on weekends, so he should have no problems.

 

[JKSchnoo]

Sitting in my brother's running truck watching elk and keeping warm many times for 30-45 minutes has never been a problem.
These trucks are commonly idled for long periods on construction sites or in the oil fields, etc. That said, I agree with you, if used as a daily driver where it doesn't reach operating temps for any length of time, long idle times would not be good.

The OP says he does 25 highway miles a day and tows on weekends, so he should have no problems.

So currently I commute 25 miles a day, but won’t be commuting in 6 months. I do not have the TT yet so currently I’m not towing anything. When I get the trailer it will probably be 6-8 times a hear.

What should I be doing to keep the truck healthy when not towing?

 

[JKSchnoo]

So here’s the full story: Bought a 3500 gasser, didn’t love the ride and always had the diesel in the back of my mind. Went back and swapped for the 2500 Cummins. Will be purchasing a TT soon to take up to the mountains camping a half a dozen times a year, with a few mor longer trips out of state, in addition to driving the truck empty in the mountains during ski season.

Most of my time with the truck will be as a daily driver. I commute now but that will end in 6 months. As you can see I have a lot of anxiety about keeping the truck healthy when not towing. I know I will need to get some highway miles on it regularly.

Please help me with a plan here. I have a new baby on the way and want to make sure my truck is reliable to carry my family around. My wife is already upset as hell over switching out trucks so fast

 

[phatboy64]

So here’s the full story: Bought a 3500 gasser, didn’t love the ride and always had the diesel in the back of my mind. Went back and swapped for the 2500 Cummins. Will be purchasing a TT soon to take up to the mountains camping half a dozen times a year, in addition to driving the truck empty in the mountains during ski season.

Most of my time with the truck will be as a daily driver. I commute now but that will end in 6 months. As you can see I have a lot of anxiety about keeping the truck healthy when not towing. I know I will need to get some highway miles on it regularly.

Please help me with a plan here. I have a new baby on the way and want to make sure my truck is reliable to carry my family around. My wife is already upset as hell over switching out trucks so fast

I have had many RAM HD diesels (not as many as others) I put over 180K on them before trading them in. The only monitoring I have ever done when it comes DEP/DEF is fulling up the tank when it needs to be filled. I work in the snow sports industry and l spend a lot of time up in the mountains, use my trucks as DD's. long trips, short trips, empty, towing....I idle it for long times (30 min) in the summer to cool my dogs when I have to run into the store, and in the winter to keep them warm (and myself). I guess what I am trying to say is drive it, use it and stop worrying about it, they are made to be worked/used. If you let it sit for a long time put a tender on it. In the winter I would also plug the block heater in. Depending on where you ski and for how long make sure to keep a good HD extension cord in the truck so you can plug it in over night if the temps drop below 10F....Enjoy it!!

 

[JKSchnoo]

Thanks for the info on skiing. I guess my main concern/question is what frequency and length of time do I need to get the truck on the highway to make up for shorter trips during the week, and burn soot?

Plan to do a weekly weekend highway day trip 30-40 min in each direction to get some highway miles when not commuting.

 

[mbarber84]

I wouldn’t normally associate the truck getting “quieter”. Usually the sound of an active regeneration cycle tends to make the truck grumble and grunt a little more than normal. However, the drop in fuel efficiency and slight loss of power could be attributable to an active regeneration cycle running. These trucks will tell you if they are currently conducting an active regeneration cycle. Simply scroll to the DPF screen under the vehicle information page on your EViC. If the truck is running a regeneration cycle, you’ll see a message there that says “automatic exhaust system regeneration in progress”. That message remains there while the cycle is active. When finished, it should disappear and you’ll see the soot load gauge again. You will get an active regeneration anytime the soot load reaches roughly 45-50% on that guage. If the truck runs for a total of about 24 engine hours and has not conducted an active regeneration cycle at that point, the system will trigger one automatically irrespective of how much soot is showing on the gauge. Even if it’s at 0%. The only exception to the message showing is a 2023 or newer truck that has the fully digital instrument cluster. For some reason, that message was not programmed in, or is otherwise unable to display for some reason.

Based on my own personal experiences with my 2022 HO, and a whole lot of my free time devoted to researching, documenting and understanding regeneration and the emissions systems as a whole, my advice to you would be:

Monitor your regenerations.

The whole “don’t worry about it, the truck will let you know if there’s a problem” is a half-truth at best.

It’s good to educate yourself more on how these systems function, how they should work under normal conditions, and what the signs and symptoms are of when they begin to demonstrate flawed performance (long before you get a check engine light)

There are a lot of situations where these trucks may begin to run regeneration cycles more frequently than they necessarily should be, and yet not meet the criteria for setting off a MiL or activating a DTC. They can run regeneration cycles nearly twice or more as often than necessary and still not pop a P2459 code. More frequent regeneration kills your fuel efficiency, burns fuel unnecessarily, and can easily contribute to higher levels of fuel dilution in the engine oil. The more fuel in the oil, the less it lubricated, and the greater your chances are of secondary failures. One of the areas where these Cummins trucks are lacking is in the fuel delivery monitoring side of the system. They don’t necessarily monitor all the fuel moving through the system. A leaky or poorly patterning injector will not necessarily trip a DTC, but it will absolutely fill the crankcase with fuel slowly over a period of time, while at the same time causing more frequent regeneration.

Monitoring your trucks functions is simply good operating procedure. It’s the knowledge and understanding behind the operating principles that helps you determine wether or not what you’re seeing should be classified as “normal”, “concerning”, “serious” etc.

 

[techman]

In the spirit of open friendly dialog, I am going to hijack the thread a bit, but I think it will benefit the OP.

fill the crankcase with fuel slowly over a period of time,

Can you be more specific? A period of time more or less than the factory recommended oil service interval?

begin to demonstrate flawed performance

Again, can you be more specific? If a MIL is not showing, what should we owners consider flawed? Is it a seat of your pants thing?

It’s good to educate yourself more on how these systems function

I personally read the owners manual front to back. Is that a start? Any suggestion on further study?

a whole lot of my free time devoted to researching, documenting and understanding regeneration and the emissions systems

Are you an engineer by trade, because this sounds like an interesting pastime. I personally like to go boating, but to each his own.

 

[mbarber84]

In the spirit of open friendly dialog, I am going to hijack the thread a bit, but I think it will benefit the OP.

Can you be more specific? A period of time more or less than the factory recommended oil service interval?

Depends on how bad the injector is, or how many are bad. I just had someone with a truck that is at 2.67% fuel dilution accumulated over 1,000 miles. Based on the results of oil analysis. 3.5% is usually the maximum amount considered acceptable. Considering the routine change on these trucks is between 10k and 15k, that number is significant. At no point would that trigger a DTC or a check engine light. Only due diligence and oil analysis caught the issue. I’ve seen fuel dilution numbers much higher on these trucks with regeneration frequency issues. My own truck was at 6.5% at 11,000 miles and had only begun having a regen frequency problem within the last 5k of that change interval

Again, can you be more specific? If a MIL is not showing, what should we owners consider flawed? Is it a seat of your pants thing?

“flawed” could be a number of different things. A seat of the pants feel, drop in acceleration performance, noticeable drop in fuel efficiency, etc etc. If you’re operating the truck on the highway at speeds of 70-80mph routinely, for periods of 20-30 minutes or more, that’s sufficient enough time to keep the system relatively clean through passive regeneration. You should be able to achieve 600-1000 miles with unloaded operation at a mixed highway and local driving interval. Closer to 1,000+ if towing moderately or more. A truck that’s regenerating every 300 miles or less has an issue. Either it’s operator error or a mechanical / electrical error

I personally read the owners manual front to back. Is that a start? Any suggestion on further study?

The operators manual will tell you very little on these issues. Trucks built prior to 2022 had diesel supplements that were helpful in explaining some basic tips for better success but not much. If you want to learn how these systems should function, I suggest reading up on technical documents put out by the manufacturer or other diesel-oriented tech authorities, or better yet speak to knowledgeable techs about them in person. There are a lot of people here who are extremely knowledgeable on the subject and regularly provide solid feedback, backed by factual data and information.

Are you an engineer by trade, because this sounds like an interesting pastime. I personally like to go boating, but to each his own.

I’m an agricultural mechanics instructor, a farmer, and a mechanic on the side. I have owned and worked on Dodge / Ram trucks with Cummins engines for over two decades. I am both well-read, and well-experienced on their systems.

Let’s be clear, what I’m telling you is based on my own first hand knowledge and experience, as well as a ton of my own free time devoted to understanding the regeneration frequency issues (among other issues this current generation of trucks has). Ask me about the K1 snap ring failures in the Aisin Transmissions.

I don’t chime in unless I am certain what I’m contributing is both factual and accurate.

My advice remains unchanged. Monitor your regen cycles like you monitor your other critical truck functions.