Incorrect Idle Time

[diesel_driver_3500]

I've got just shy of 1500 miles on my 2021 3500 HO. When I looked at the run time and drive time, the truck is showing 4 hours of idle time. I have allowed the truck to idle, at most, 15 minutes since I took delivery. Anyone else experience this?

I have noticed that often when driving, I am applying almost zero pedal pressure to maintain my speed. I drive around 72mph on the highways, and not much in town driving. Most of my highway driving includes a lot of elevation changes, although nothing to high. Maybe 1-2,000 ft. passes on average.

I have not towed anything yet. I will be hooking up my 20' cargo trailer, as soon as I replace a couple of the lights, and work the motor a bit. Also, I will putting another 3,000 miles on it in the next month or so, traveling through Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. That should give it a good workout. In Wyoming, some of the grades are 10%, and I'll be taking it up around 6,500 ft. I know towing heavy would be best for a workout, but this should help.

What concerns me about the reported idle time is if I have any problems that require service. I would think FCA might call that excessive idle time. Any thoughts?

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

I've got just shy of 1500 miles on my 2021 3500 HO. When I looked at the run time and drive time, the truck is showing 4 hours of idle time. I have allowed the truck to idle, at most, 15 minutes since I took delivery. Anyone else experience this?

I have noticed that often when driving, I am applying almost zero pedal pressure to maintain my speed. I drive around 72mph on the highways, and not much in town driving. Most of my highway driving includes a lot of elevation changes, although nothing to high. Maybe 1-2,000 ft. passes on average.

I have not towed anything yet. I will be hooking up my 20' cargo trailer, as soon as I replace a couple of the lights, and work the motor a bit. Also, I will putting another 3,000 miles on it in the next month or so, traveling through Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. That should give it a good workout. In Wyoming, some of the grades are 10%, and I'll be taking it up around 6,500 ft. I know towing heavy would be best for a workout, but this should help.

What concerns me about the reported idle time is if I have any problems that require service. I would think FCA might call that excessive idle time. Any thoughts?

The dealers like to leave vehicles idle im sure the idle time is mostly from them…. I also know some guys who have more idle time than drive time over 600 hrs and no warranty claim issues

 

[whitexc]

Gas engine guy here but scrolling through the vehicle info I saw the same thing. Idle hours seemed excessive for the 1500 miles on the truck. Click to the next screen lol.

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

 

[RV_Goose]

I would like to know what their parameters are for idle time calculation. My 2020 RAM 3500 seems high. And mileage is way down from usual annual mileage.

 

[LateToTheParty]

I had similar concerns with my 4th gen and spent weeks scouring the interwebz for answers. Never did find anything that resembled an official source, but after enough references to 0 MPH with 0 throttle input, I figured that seemed logical. Stoplights, stop and go traffic, etc...

 

[RV_Goose]

I had similar concerns with my 4th gen and spent weeks scouring the interwebz for answers. Never did find anything that resembled an official source, but after enough references to 0 MPH with 0 throttle input, I figured that seemed logical. Stoplights, stop and go traffic, etc...

I had also read that opinion several times. Nothing "official" for documentation.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

I had similar concerns with my 4th gen and spent weeks scouring the interwebz for answers. Never did find anything that resembled an official source, but after enough references to 0 MPH with 0 throttle input, I figured that seemed logical. Stoplights, stop and go traffic, etc...

I have that theory aswell but no evidence to confirm,

 

[Brewbud]

I have always thought it was related to RPMs. It adds up pretty fast. Mine idles for a couple of minutes before I leave in the morning. A minute or so cooling down after highway driving, stoplights, and such throughout the day. I was easily getting 5 minutes a day. That is an hour in 12 days. That is without throwing in the occasional traffic jam.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

I just looked at mine in just over a year i did 153hrs idling and 28500km i idle lots in the cold and plow and some extra idling in the summer when i leave the dog in the truck with the a/c on when i run to a store

 

[Southernspeed]

15 minutes idle equals 5 red lights in Richmond VA. It soon adds up!

 

[diesel_driver_3500]

I had some of the same thoughts. After seeing these responses, I'm confident things like waiting at lights and stop signs, coming down mountain passes, and cruising along flat interstates, are what's causing such high idle times on the hour meter.

Thanks for the responses!

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

gas truck but here are my driving habits
Apparently 17% of my time is idling and
Average speed while moving is 35mph

 

[diesel_driver_3500]

Seems like they could fine tune whatever algorithm they use for this. To me, idle time is letting the truck warm up or cool down for a period of time, uninterrupted. Not like stop and go in traffic or coasting down mountain passes. Some of that could easily be identified by looking at other parameters and parsed out. I guess as long as they don't penalize us in some way when warranty issues pop-up, it's of no real concern.

 

[jeffn]

gas truck but here are my driving habits
Apparently 17% of my time is idling and
Average speed while moving is 35mph
View attachment 17829

same. 3500 is about a year old and I have 380 hours of drive, 65 of idling on 20k miles.

 

[John Jensen]

When warming up the truck I always put it in high idle mode. That increases the rpms to approx 1100 and does not log any idle time. In this mode, you can easily increase the rpms if you need to

 

[MEGA HO]

When warming up the truck I always put it in high idle mode. That increases the rpms to approx 1100 and does not log any idle time. In this mode, you can easily increase the rpms if you need to

How do you increase RPM while idling?
My truck would do so automatically if I don't touch the pedals after a minute or so, maybe it only works in a cold weather, I'm not sure, but would be nice to know how to increase the idle speed when I want it to.

 

[John Jensen]

You have to get it into high idle with the cruise buttons. Here's video description

 

[Brutal_HO]

How do you increase RPM while idling?
My truck would do so automatically if I don't touch the pedals after a minute or so, maybe it only works in a cold weather, I'm not sure, but would be nice to know how to increase the idle speed when I want it to.

Automatic high idle works when it's hot too. Mine did it daily at the lake this week with temps ~100F daily.

 

[Brutal_HO]

When warming up the truck I always put it in high idle mode. That increases the rpms to approx 1100 and does not log any idle time. In this mode, you can easily increase the rpms if you need to

Do you have a source for this?

(I'm going to kick myself if it's in the OM) LOL

 

[MEGA HO]

Do you have a source for this?

(I'm going to kick myself if it's in the OM) LOL

That should be easy to confirm, just scroll it to the hours screen and see which timer changes when it hi-idles.