Can you help me understand my engine Idle and Drive hours? Numbers don't make sense. EDITED initial IDLE & DRIVE HOURS 1/13/22 5:44pm

JTonietto · Jan 10, 2022

Truck is a 2018 RAM 1500 Express, bought used with 4200 miles on it in September 2018.

I never pay any attention to the Engine Hours display, but now that I am looking to upgrade to a 7" EVIC, I checked the Hours display to get ready for the swap.

EDIT January 13 - I reversed the IDLE and DRIVE hours when I posted them. These are the correct numbers.

The Hours display currently reads:

IDLE: 151
DRIVE: 74

Current mileage is 41,600.

Those numbers just don't make any sense.
To have travelled 41,600 miles in 151 hours of driving, my average speed would have been 275.5 MPH.

I would guess that the correct DRIVE number should be between 1200 and 1500 hours.
What could cause the Drive number to be so ridiculously low?

In searching for similar issues, I saw a comment about random DRIVE hour resets to "0".
Is there any way to verify if that has happened and/or what the correct DRIVE hours are?
Thanks
Joe

PoMansRam · Jan 10, 2022

The drive time hours likely reset itself. The same phenomena happened to my 2017 Ram 1500 express. My total miles was about the same as yours. ~40K ish and I believe I had like ~900 drive hours on it, then one day, P00F! It reset to zero, but left the idle hours alone. Kind of disturbing because no work had been done to the truck. Battery wasn't touched, etc.

Like you say, there's no way the vehicle has only accumulated 151hrs in 41600 miles.

I'm waiting for the same thing to happen to my 2019 classic. I'm at 46K miles and my hour meters are ~72 idle and over 900 drive time.

I would think there's a way to track the real hours with a scan tool. Not positive though.

JHoward · Jan 10, 2022

My 2017 HEMI idle hours are 327 and engine run time is 246 @ 40,628 miles.

I've had excellent service with this HEMI so far and I'm not really concerned about the idle/mileage indicator's log.

Fwiw, I've performed regular oci's since it was new @ 2500-3000 miles using Pennzoil Platinum 5w/20 for winter and 5w/30 for summer and an stock MOPAR/PUROLATOR BOSS oil filter(s) until recently, I changed over to 5w/30 Red Line @ 39,000 miles back in late August because of the good reports I've read here in the FORUM by alot of knowledgeable folks.

I'm not aware of the idle hours/road hour mileage resetting? ... I'm not of any help for you there.

I'm just going to keep right on trucking on keeping the engine maintenance regular and hope that that this HEMI will last me for awhile.

JHoward

GeometryFletch · Jan 10, 2022

My 2020 Tradesman idle hours practically match the drive hours. lol. I work 3 miles away and I need to remote start every morning cause it's 10 degrees. lol

HEMIMANN · Jan 10, 2022

My EVIC does not reset engine run time hours.

@JTonietto - % engine hours @ idle = idle hours divided by total hours times 100. Yours is 74 / 225 x 100 = 33%, or 1/3. This is a high amount of idling. You should cut that back by a third to reduce change of wiping out your lifters and camshaft.

Your EVIC must have a software error in it that reset it - or somebody cleared it with an update or adding a tuner.

HEMIMANN · Jan 10, 2022

GeometryFletch said:
My 2020 Tradesman idle hours practically match the drive hours. lol. I work 3 miles away and I need to remote start every morning cause it's 10 degrees. lol

Maybe consider getting a little commuter-mobile? Used? I would.

HDGoose · Jan 10, 2022

HEMIMANN said:
My EVIC does not reset engine run time hours.

@JTonietto - % engine hours @ idle = idle hours divided by total hours times 100. Yours is 74 / 225 x 100 = 33%, or 1/3. This is a high amount of idling. You should cut that back by a third to reduce change of wiping out your lifters and camshaft.

Your EVIC must have a software error in it that reset it - or somebody cleared it with an update or adding a tuner.

What is your point??

HEMIMANN · Jan 10, 2022

HDGoose said:
What is your point??

re-read OP post

BadHemi2014 · Jan 10, 2022

I have also read of several members having their truck reset drive hours to zero, I would guess that's what happened to yours. Why, how, I don't know, I'm not sure if the actual hours are stored in the vehicle computer somewhere or not. Anybody know?

JTonietto · Jan 10, 2022

I continued searching for answers to this little mystery and found this thread on the Cummins forum:
https://www.cumminsforum.com/threads/hour-meter-reset-itself.2470949/

This appears to be a fairly common occurrence. The Drive hours reset to 0, but the idle hours don't change.
I'll ask the dealer to check for the correct numbers (from the PCM or wherever this data resides) if I ever take it in.

Thanks for all the replies.

JHoward · Jan 10, 2022

HDGoose said:
What is your point??

My take on @HEMIMANN's point is without directly referring to HEMI tick is to have the least amount of idle time as possible as it is considered a bad thing to idle lower than 1000 rpms. as this could create the possible cam/lifter failure due to oil not getting up into the lifters due to poor engine design.

His opinion is very worthy and it's apparent after viewing alot of his post(s) comments he is very knowledgeable. With noted mention @Burla and a few others. jm2¢.

HDGoose · Jan 10, 2022

JHoward said:
My take on @HEMIMANN's point is without directly referring to HEMI tick is to have the least amount of idle time as possible as it is considered a bad thing to idle lower than 1000 rpms. as this could create the possible cam/lifter failure due to oil not getting up into the lifters due to poor engine design.

His opinion is very worthy and it's apparent after viewing alot of his post(s) comments he is very knowledgeable. With noted mention @Burla and a few others. jm2¢.

So idle hours is not just counted idle time, but a derivative of run time?

JHoward · Jan 10, 2022

HDGoose said:
So ideo hours is not just counted idle time, but a derivative of run time?

Yes, that's my take on this in reading in these forums on the this topic ... however folks have to take into consideration that stop and go traffic affects idle/drive time.

RPG4U · Jan 13, 2022

The truck I just got have numbers that don’t make any sense either 252 idle and 510 driving with a total of 64515 miles 2019 qc

HEMIMANN · Jan 13, 2022

More software patches are needed on top of the software patches that don't work!

Just ask Sun Country Airlines.

MudSkipper · Jan 13, 2022

its in the PCM, if the PCM would get reset you could lose those values. They aren't controlled like Mileage I bet by law. Call up and ask the dealer?

JTonietto · Jan 13, 2022

I just edited my initial post.
I realized that I had reversed the IDLE and DRIVE hours in my original post.
The display actually reads:

IDLE 151
DRIVE 74

To drive 41,600 miles in 74 hours, my average speed has been over 561 MPH!

Haven't gone to the dealer yet, but I will post an update after I hear what they have to say.

Mister Luck · Jan 13, 2022

In always thought it was regarding service intervals you reset the oil change and voila “magic”

Murphy Slaw · Jan 14, 2022

You need to SLOW YOUR *** DOWN...

PoMansRam · Jan 14, 2022

RPG4U said:
The truck I just got have numbers that don’t make any sense either 252 idle and 510 driving with a total of 64515 miles 2019 qc

On my 2017, the drive time hours reset around 1000hrs with about 40K miles on the truck.

I'd guess that your truck actually has about 1500 drive hours on it @ 64515 miles, which would be perfectly normal.

What I'm getting at is, just add ~1000 to the drive hours.

This really is weird. You wonder if these resets are supposed to happen of if it is indeed a glitch. You'd think if it was a glitch, the idle time would reset as well, as would other things.

Can you help me understand my engine Idle and Drive hours? Numbers don't make sense. EDITED initial IDLE & DRIVE HOURS 1/13/22 5:44pm

Junior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Junior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Junior Member

Senior Member

Member

Junior Member

cassis tutissima virtus

Senior Member

Senior Member

Similar threads

Forum statistics

Share this page