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To all with excessive regens

609er

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Been watching all these threads since January when I bought a Cummins and was waiting to chime in after my own research. I’ve been a chrysler tech since 03. I have been monitoring my dpf and regens closely since I got the truck in December. 11k on it now and a closer drive home my regens have been getting short lately. Well I finally podded the truck today and monitored things on witech while driving. First 5 miles on a dead cold motor exhaust temps climbed to 600 then the next 5 miles doing 50mph they dropped rapidly to 425. Doc inlet temps were hotter than outlet temps entering dpf. With that being said I’m starting to think this whole issue is in the 19 and up doc/dpf. 18 and under had a different configuration as to where the dpf is and the down pipe off the turbo outlet. I had way more thoughts on this earlier but I’m a slacker lol. But anyway I’m starting to think that the doc design is just pure ****. out of curiosity has anyone experience any coolant loss through your ordeal.
 

AH64ID

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Unless I’m in an active regen DOC inlet is always hotter than DOC outlet/DPF inlet under steady state driving. The same was true on my 2018.
 

mbarber84

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Been watching all these threads since January when I bought a Cummins and was waiting to chime in after my own research. I’ve been a chrysler tech since 03. I have been monitoring my dpf and regens closely since I got the truck in December. 11k on it now and a closer drive home my regens have been getting short lately. Well I finally podded the truck today and monitored things on witech while driving. First 5 miles on a dead cold motor exhaust temps climbed to 600 then the next 5 miles doing 50mph they dropped rapidly to 425. Doc inlet temps were hotter than outlet temps entering dpf. With that being said I’m starting to think this whole issue is in the 19 and up doc/dpf. 18 and under had a different configuration as to where the dpf is and the down pipe off the turbo outlet. I had way more thoughts on this earlier but I’m a slacker lol. But anyway I’m starting to think that the doc design is just pure ****. out of curiosity has anyone experience any coolant loss through your ordeal.
Curious what was the ambient air temp when you first started the truck up? I’ve noticed some surging when the truck is still trying to warm up while driving. Seems to go away once the coolant temp hits 150°F or higher. Was wondering if there’s a warm up strategy in place that’s changing the vane positions intermittently or something else that would generate the surging forward feeling. I’ve also noted that my truck will do a little passive regen very quickly within the first few miles when the truck is cold, but then struggle to do so once things warm up. It passively regenerates much more continuously and effectively in the cooler months. Once spring hits and temps warm up it begins to get worse. Regen frequency gets closer together, the truck will not passive regen as well, soot load builds faster, and returns faster after an active regen finishes.
 

609er

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Curious what was the ambient air temp when you first started the truck up? I’ve noticed some surging when the truck is still trying to warm up while driving. Seems to go away once the coolant temp hits 150°F or higher. Was wondering if there’s a warm up strategy in place that’s changing the vane positions intermittently or something else that would generate the surging forward feeling. I’ve also noted that my truck will do a little passive regen very quickly within the first few miles when the truck is cold, but then struggle to do so once things warm up. It passively regenerates much more continuously and effectively in the cooler months. Once spring hits and temps warm up it begins to get worse. Regen frequency gets closer together, the truck will not passive regen as well, soot load builds faster, and returns faster after an active regen finishes.
70 degrees today and pretty humid after rain. I noticed it made more boost as well first few miles at low throttle when the temps rose rapidly
 

mbarber84

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70 degrees today and pretty humid after rain. I noticed it made more boost as well first few miles at low throttle when the temps rose rapidly
Can you monitor vane position demanded / actual? See if it’s bouncing around.
Someone told me these trucks have a really “dirty warm up strategy” built into them.
 

AH64ID

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Can you monitor vane position demanded / actual? See if it’s bouncing around.
Someone told me these trucks have a really “dirty warm up strategy” built into them.

I wouldn’t call it a dirty warmup strategy, but they do use the VGT to warm up.

The older trucks had a very dirty warmup with the VGT, or exhaust brake on the 5.9, by applying too much back pressure on cold cylinders.

My 22 won’t increase back-pressure with the EB switch on a cold motor, but the 18 would a little thou not nearly as much as the 05.

My 0.02 is that the 19+ trucks do a great job of modulating the VGT to help warmup the motor without pushing soot and exhaust gasses past the rings.

I’ll have to monitor cold boost, but I’ve never noticed anything crazy different on a cold motor.

@609er cold EGTs are higher because the truck has to work harder. The cold engine oil, trans fluid, and gear lube all take a considerable about more power to move so the cold truck means higher EGTs. As things warm up the efficiency improves and EGTs drop
 

Brutal_HO

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My truck went into auto regen today as I pulled out of the drive. Unfortunately, it was only an errand run and needed to make 2 stops to pick up an oil filter and drop off to my son working on my car at his shop so no time to jump on the tollway. I let it idle during the first stop at the parts store, and it completed before I reached the second. Considering the total time was 40 minutes, but only 9 miles, I'm pleased. Soot load was about 35% so I think the (slightly) early regen triggered.

Last regen was 22 hours and 600 miles before back in Dec 23 and took only 17 minutes on the highway. Truck sits a lot during the winter months. There was one airport trip that I can think of where that regen occurred and the rest of the miles/time was around town errands. That 22 hours was 16 drive and (ugh) 6 idle.

Weather today was 70F. Saw the Doc in @702, DOC out @1042, DPF out @1051 during the regen. I normally toot around town in TH but had a thought to turn it off and taking it out of TH during the regen seemed to help drive those temps up. I think I will forego TH around town and just use up the brakes.

I didn't have the tablet in the truck and didn't have IAT gauge setup on the phone so I did not capture that data.
 

mbarber84

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My truck went into auto regen today as I pulled out of the drive. Unfortunately, it was only an errand run and needed to make 2 stops to pick up an oil filter and drop off to my son working on my car at his shop so no time to jump on the tollway. I let it idle during the first stop at the parts store, and it completed before I reached the second. Considering the total time was 40 minutes, but only 9 miles, I'm pleased. Soot load was about 35% so I think the (slightly) early regen triggered.

Last regen was 22 hours and 600 miles before back in Dec 23 and took only 17 minutes on the highway. Truck sits a lot during the winter months. There was one airport trip that I can think of where that regen occurred and the rest of the miles/time was around town errands. That 22 hours was 16 drive and (ugh) 6 idle.

Weather today was 70F. Saw the Doc in @702, DOC out @1042, DPF out @1051 during the regen. I normally toot around town in TH but had a thought to turn it off and taking it out of TH during the regen seemed to help drive those temps up. I think I will forego TH around town and just use up the brakes.

I didn't have the tablet in the truck and didn't have IAT gauge setup on the phone so I did not capture that data.
Now that it’s completed (in a less than ideal scenario) I’d be interested to see how long it takes before you see a reading appear on the DPF gauge again.
 

H3LZSN1P3R

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I think its more isolated to the 22-23 trucks as i have not seen or heard of excessive regen issues in the 19-21 range in the same frequency as the 22+ complaints. My 19 was exceptional for the DPF performance in the 53k km i had the dpf installed the gauge stayed completely empty other than 3 occasions 2 where the gauge went up to 1/8 full and one when it got to 3/8 full
 

609er

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Now that it’s completed (in a less than ideal scenario) I’d be interested to see how long it takes before you see a reading appear on the DPF gauge again.
I ran a stationary desoot when I got to my driveway since I just hit active regen a mile from home when I started this post yesterday. I put 50 miles of around town short trips since then and dpf gauge did not rise yet. I meant to pod the witech and see if anything looks different. I was showing spot load within ten miles after last active regen.
 

mbarber84

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On my way to work this morning:
IMG_6547.jpeg
Exactly 495 miles since the last one.
Last one was 503 miles.
Previous 7 before that were 900-1000 each.
So I’d say whatever is changing is doing so in a manner which cuts the frequency in half. Time will tell. I just filled up last night. The Archoil didn’t arrive in time for this tank, so I tried a bottle of Hotshots extreme this time. Last tank had PowerService silver bottle. The spring / summer weather change clearly has something to do with all of this. Unfortunately I couldn’t let the cycle finish this time, only got about half the time on the cycle before I got to work. We’ll see how it ends, but I’m predicting about 25 minutes total time.
 

oledirteh

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I dont remember what thread it was mentioned on however kinda seeing it now. I never regen except the 24hr regen. winter time i hardly register on the guage. however now that its hot out im consistantly sititng around 20-40% on the guage. if i tow my toy hauler it clears itself out. however i still have yet to go into a regen other then the 24 hour regen.
 

mbarber84

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Has to be an air density issue or something upstream running less efficiently, or it’s some sensor / program issue that isn’t adjusting for the change in climate.
The DPF should be able maintain temperature easier in warm weather than in cold.
 

oledirteh

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im keeping an eye on it mainly cause im close to 100k and the first time it decides to give me issues it wont give me issues again lol
 

kfscoll

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Has to be an air density issue or something upstream running less efficiently, or it’s some sensor / program issue that isn’t adjusting for the change in climate.
The DPF should be able maintain temperature easier in warm weather than in cold.
I've towed a ~3K pound trailer for last 700 miles or so and the DPF gauge has stayed pretty much on zero - it might go up to one segment if I did a bunch of stop/go with the trailer attached, but it'd return to zero after a short highway trip. Anyway, I disconnected the trailer last week, changed the air filter out (I used the correct one), and took it out for a drive last night. The first ~10 miles were relatively low speed driving with a few stops here and there. Sometime during that drive, the DPF gauge went back up one segment. The next 190 miles were all unloaded highway driving at at least 78mph - the only time I slowed down were three times I had to get off the interstate to quickly turn around. During that drive, the DPF gauge went up to a total of three segments in the first ~100 miles then eventually dropped back down to two segments at around the 160 mile mark. That's where it sits right now, but IME with my truck once it gets off of one segment it usually progresses to a regen fairly quickly.

Anyway, the point is this - I don't know if it's the weather or what but it's definitely taking longer for my truck to passively regenerate than it did several months ago. However, now that I think about it, I first started watching this closely back in November. At that time, the DPF would never increase before eventually decreasing during highway drives, and IIRC it'd only take about 50-60 miles to passively regenerate enough for the DPF gauge to drop one segment. I just assumed the truck was getting worse, but the increase in relative soot load does also seem to track with the weather.

I have about 32K miles on the truck right now. However, we're selling our RV and bought a Mazda CX-50 as a daily so the truck will be getting far fewer miles going forward. I hold out hope that RAM gets their arms around this before my emissions warranty is up or, god forbid, real damage starts. I still feel like it's buggy code behind the usually high occurrence of the regeneration issue (aside from those who had "real" hardware failures). If so, that'd actually be pretty awesome - imagine getting your truck's computer flashed by the dealer and never having to look at the DPF gauge again! :)
 
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downsc123

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On my way to work this morning:
View attachment 73018
Exactly 495 miles since the last one.
Last one was 503 miles.
Previous 7 before that were 900-1000 each.
So I’d say whatever is changing is doing so in a manner which cuts the frequency in half. Time will tell. I just filled up last night. The Archoil didn’t arrive in time for this tank, so I tried a bottle of Hotshots extreme this time. Last tank had PowerService silver bottle. The spring / summer weather change clearly has something to do with all of this. Unfortunately I couldn’t let the cycle finish this time, only got about half the time on the cycle before I got to work. We’ll see how it ends, but I’m predicting about 25 minutes total time.
I believe you are using Mobile Synergy diesel like I am - I noticed the same thing as you - as soon as it started getting warmer, my regen frequency went up - my problem is much worse than yours though - in the winter I get about 230 to 250 miles between regens and now am getting 150 to 175 miles. EGTs seem to be lower when warmer so getting less passive regen - on the highway during the winter I get about about 650F - now only about 600F max (these are all non-towing numbers).
 

mbarber84

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I believe you are using Mobile Synergy diesel like I am - I noticed the same thing as you - as soon as it started getting warmer, my regen frequency went up - my problem is much worse than yours though - in the winter I get about 230 to 250 miles between regens and now am getting 150 to 175 miles. EGTs seem to be lower when warmer so getting less passive regen - on the highway during the winter I get about about 650F - now only about 600F max (these are all non-towing numbers).
I’m using fuel from a local chain that used to be BP but has recently rebranded to Amoco. I’m not positive but I don’t believe the fuel has changed at all, aside from the winter to summer blend.
 

mbarber84

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So to update: (I’m commenting in multiple “frequent regen threads)

I added power service silver to the previous tank of fuel once I started seeing the soot load register more. After all the driving and burning down 7/8 of that tank, it doesn’t appear that the power service did anything significant to help passive regeneration or keep soot load down. I was able to make it until this morning, where my truck initiated an active regeneration based on soot, not time. 524 miles and 11 hours since the previous regeneration. Previous regeneration was 502 miles and 14 hours. So I’d call that fairly consistent so far, and nearly half of the 950 or so miles and 24 hours of the preceding 7 regen cycles. I filled my tank the night before the truck went into regeneration. This time, I tried hotshots extreme in the tank. Full bottle dose (treats 40 gallons and I have a 50 gallon tank). Drove the truck home about 15 minutes and then shut it down. The next morning (this morning) it went into regen about 1/4 of the way to work. I was able to let it run for about 14 minutes and then had to park for work. On the way home it completed. 30 minutes worth of regen total between before and after work. All highway speed at 75-77 mph. DPF gauge reading 0% upon completing. I had to make a couple trips this evening so the truck got an additional 58 miles (all at highway speed 70-77mph) and the gauge is still reading “0%”. Some things to point out:

The previous regeneration cycle was completed on the highway, uninterrupted, unloaded, and took 25 minutes to complete. Conditions were 70-75°F and very rainy with high humidity. Soot load reading of 12.5% (one bar on the gauge) returned 31 miles after Regen finished.

Today’s Regen was completed on the highway, but interrupted once. Unloaded, at 70-77mph. Conditions were 60°F for the first 14 minutes this morning and 85°F for the remaining 16 minutes this afternoon, with hot dry conditions. Soot load reading has remained at 0% currently after 58 miles of travel.

Weather conditions during regeneration definitely can impact their effectiveness, as well as alter the overall performance of the truck. Could also be a difference between the Power Service and the Hotshots in terms of performance. Time will tell as I continue through this learning process. Regardless, the one thing I can certainly say is that the overall performance of this system and the truck as a whole, seems to be very consistent. It’s just very interesting how there’s been a roughly 50% reduction in performance in warm weather. We’ll see where the data goes as time moves forward, but two regen cycles back to back at roughly 500 miles each and about the same number of hours tells me that my drive cycles are indeed consistent (as was also demonstrated over the previous 7 months)
 

H3LZSN1P3R

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I am willing to wager simply using kleen flow fuel conditioner would also help with passive regen as it makes a hotter burn we use it in our diesel heater when its really cold to make the heater burn hotter
 
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