Dreaded Re-Gen Thing

[DirtyHarry]

Ok am back after a long time being away. Used to have lots of problems with my 2007 6.7 and solved most of them right here on this forum. NOW, i have changed trucks and this is a 2020 Ram Tradesman 3500 6.7L diesel and having lots of issues with it. It has 250K miles on it. All issues are centered around the regen process, i think. Bought this truck in 2024 and right away it was a headache. Engine light was on and message that DPF was Full see dealer. Did that and paid an outrageous DIAGNOSTIC fee which yielded nothing except head scratching at the stealership. Their take was, DPF needed replacing for sure. Maybe it needs a new PCM aka ECM. Then lots of sensors are or could be bad. All this? another several hundred dollars to analyze it. it all added up to way more than the truck is worth. So got a DPF off marketplace for $300 put it on and that bad message went away. Engine light still on BC the message was air leak between MAF and MAP which i nor the dealer can find. So drove it just like that.
Then at exactly 6000 miles after new DPF the regen started. It said ExHAUST FILTER NEARLY FULL DRIVE AT CONSISTANT SPEED TO CLEAR. I did do that for about 125 miles, light stayed on. Kept driving and pretty soon a new message popped up and it said: EXHAUST FILTER FULL SEE DEALER. The next day it said NO STORED MESSAGES.
The next day it said EXHAUST FILTER FULL SEE DEALER.
Drove it like that this past weekend and this morning it went back to EXHAUST FILTER NEARLY FULL DRIVE AT CONSISTANE SPEED.. where it has been the same now for past three days.
I hope some one out there can solve this mystery for me as its driving me crazy.
All comments and suggestion are welcome as am at end of my rope. Thanks to all who read this post.

 

[Dean2]

So I take it you just show up when you need help; helping others isn't part of the equation?

My suggestion, delete the truck or sell it and get a new one.

 

[Dennis Shellito]

Welcome to trying to mollify the EPA. People wonder why so many of us 6.7L Ram diesel owners let so many of these parts fall off of our trucks. In a nut shell, these systems are bound to fail. Yes I know there are a few of them on the roads that have been trouble free but they are the exception to the rule.

 

[DirtyHarry]

Thats right on that delete thing. Its probably the way out but can get expensive. There is a mechanic here in Houston area who was doing deletes and got caught. Last i heard he is behind bars after paying heavy fine too. Rumor is,federal prison is not a friendly place to live. I am not a mechanic and at 83 probably would not be that good at it anyway. If there is a solution to this very unusual problem it would help countless others to isolate, locate and fix. Anyway, thanks to those who have made reasonable suggestions without trite remarks.
In the meantime if i find out anything i will post for those having similar issues.

 

[crash68]

Then at exactly 6000 miles after new DPF the regen started. It said ExHAUST FILTER NEARLY FULL DRIVE AT CONSISTANT SPEED TO CLEAR. I did do that for about 125 miles, light stayed on. Kept driving and pretty soon a new message popped up and it said: EXHAUST FILTER FULL SEE DEALER. The next day it said NO STORED MESSAGES.
The next day it said EXHAUST FILTER FULL SEE DEALER.

It's possible the DPF differential pressure sensor is faulty, although I question the cheap DPF off marketplace, hopefully was a DPF removal in good condition.

There is a mechanic here in Houston area who was doing deletes and got caught. Last i heard he is behind bars after paying heavy fine too.

Doubtful on the prison time but the EPA probably did stick to him good in the fine department. There was a diesel shop here in Michigan that was busted for thousands of "defeat devices" and they were just hammered with fines.

 

[DirtyHarry]

crash68 , thanks for the reply. Yes it was from a 2020 that had very low mileage on it. The inside was still bright and shiney. It came with all the hardware attached and all looked like new so i just left them in place. Not sure why it happened at 6000 miles as that is nowhere close to 24 hours running time? If you drive for 24 hours at 60 MPH then that would be the 24 hour mark? That would take you about 1500 miles. So one would have to drive 100 hours at 60 MPH to go 6000 miles. Maybe that 24 hour thing is wrong. Just guessing.
Anyway, i will look at that pressure sensor you mentioned as that is a good place to start. I have already replaced the MAF, MAP and the EGR valve along with the Throttle Body. All are OEM as the imports are cheap and will fail.
Thanks for the input.

 

[nlambert182]

It happens every 24 hrs regardless. An active regen that pops up on the EVIC outside of that 24 hr period is a forced regen due to the sensor telling the computer that the DPF is full. If you've replaced it with a verified good one, it could very well be that the sensor is bad.

250k miles on the emissions system is still a LOT of miles for any of it. Unfortunately, if a delete isn't in the cards, there's a good chance you'll nickel and dime that thing until you replace all of the emissions parts with brand new parts.

 

[DirtyHarry]

nlambert182, thanks for the lead. Do you have a name for that sensor? Not sure about which one it is and where i can find it on the truck. Not beyond me to crawl around under that truck but it just takes me longer to do that. My guess is it has to be attached to the truck somewhere BC the DPF came with all the sensors on it and i just installed it as it was. I am now hot on the trail of that differential pressure sensor mentioned in an earlier post.
Also, i now understand the sequence of the regen thing. If i understand you correctly i will never know when it goes into regen as there is no message that tells me when it is happening. Only has message when there is trouble with the system. So that 6000 mile thing was just a freak incidence.
Yes on the nickle and dime stuff. Its really a nice truck and still very solid even at 250K miles. So i kinda hate to give up on it.
Thanks for that info.

 

[nlambert182]

It's very possible that @crash68 and I are talking about the same sensor.

It's located on the heat shield on top of the DPF.

 

[mtnrider]

Couple of things here, first off you replaced the DPF with a "unknown" used DPF so no telling what condition it was in.
Second, you can't just replace the DPF without performing a DPF replace function on the computer which resets the differential pressure tables that have been stored. You can do this with the AlfaOBD app or if you know someone that has a high end scan tool that has that capibility. Dealer might do it but obviously they are going to charge you for it. Still may not fix it as it could be the used DPF is clogged or you have a bad sensor somewhere/


.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Welcome to trying to mollify the EPA. People wonder why so many of us 6.7L Ram diesel owners let so many of these parts fall off of our trucks. In a nut shell, these systems are bound to fail. Yes I know there are a few of them on the roads that have been trouble free but they are the exception to the rule.

Well that is far from the truth. There are millions upon millions of these trucks out there that people just drive and put fuel in them and take them to the dealer for routine maintenance. A very small percentage of them modify their trucks by deleting. Many states make that practice illegal anyway.

 

[Gr8bawana]

To the OP. Unfortunately your mistake was buying a truck with a check engine light on. If you bought it from a dealer you should have had them fix whatever was wrong BEFORE purchasing.
If you bought from a private sell it was on you to investigate what the check engine light was about.
Either way you may be stuck with with somebody else's headache.

 

[nlambert182]

Well that is far from the truth. There are million upon million of these trucks out there that people just drive and put fuel in them and take them to the dealer for routine maintenance. A very small percentage of them modify their trucks by deleting. Many states make that practice illegal anyway.

Drive the truck long enough and it will see an emissions failure. If you haven't yet, you're lucky. It is almost as certain as death and taxes. The DPF system are wear components just like everything else and they take a beating.

 

[DirtyHarry]

About that pressure sensor that was mentioned in a couple of posts. It was on that "new" DPF i put on. I did have help when installing this thing by a professional Mercedes Mechanic, a friend i know. Yes he did indeed have one of those scanners and did indeed do all that was necessary to make it like new. Cleared all the stored codes and whatever else he had to do. It did run very well for the 6000 miles and apparently did the regen thing , but somewhere along the way something went haywire and it started all this nonsense. It does not go into limp mode and certainly has neverr limited any top speed. Still can run down road at any speed and beyond.
I just bought that ALFAOBD APP and gonna play with that for awhile before giving up. Looking to find a list of all the sensors on that beast and determine which one might be the culprit.
The vehicle was bought at auction for less than half price of a bad used one and that is why it sits in my driveway. Use it everyday and it just keeps running. Not everybody has the cash to just go out and lay out $100 grand on one. So will drive it and hope i find the real cause of the failures. Limp mode? Never done that so far and still has power of the 6.7. Just annoying message that stays on the dash screen. No bells or whistles.
If it breaks down and stops running then i have my 07 as a backup.
Thanks to all those who ideas on solution of fixes. The manufacturers should be forced to put in programs that can identify the failure of every sensor on any vehicle. Can you see that happen? lol

 

[crash68]

The manufacturers should be forced to put in programs that can identify the failure of every sensor on any vehicle. Can you see that happen?

Unfortunately there is only so many parameters that you can utilize to determine a good from bad sensor. They kicker part is when the sensor is "out of calibration" but still within an acceptable operational range. Especially when there is not other sensors that can be utilized to verify the first sensor.

 

[mtnrider]

About that pressure sensor that was mentioned in a couple of posts. It was on that "new" DPF i put on. I did have help when installing this thing by a professional Mercedes Mechanic, a friend i know. Yes he did indeed have one of those scanners and did indeed do all that was necessary to make it like new. Cleared all the stored codes and whatever else he had to do. It did run very well for the 6000 miles and apparently did the regen thing , but somewhere along the way something went haywire and it started all this nonsense. It does not go into limp mode and certainly has neverr limited any top speed. Still can run down road at any speed and beyond.
I just bought that ALFAOBD APP and gonna play with that for awhile before giving up. Looking to find a list of all the sensors on that beast and determine which one might be the culprit.
The vehicle was bought at auction for less than half price of a bad used one and that is why it sits in my driveway. Use it everyday and it just keeps running. Not everybody has the cash to just go out and lay out $100 grand on one. So will drive it and hope i find the real cause of the failures. Limp mode? Never done that so far and still has power of the 6.7. Just annoying message that stays on the dash screen. No bells or whistles.
If it breaks down and stops running then i have my 07 as a backup.
Thanks to all those who ideas on solution of fixes. The manufacturers should be forced to put in programs that can identify the failure of every sensor on any vehicle. Can you see that happen? lol

I would be surprised if your friend knows about the DPF replace function that needs to be run? He probably just cleared the faults would be my guess.

Since you have AlfaOBD now I would start with a forced regen, then run the DPF replace function and see where that gets you.

.

 

[DirtyHarry]

I would be surprised if your friend knows about the DPF replace function that needs to be run? He probably just cleared the faults would be my guess.

Since you have AlfaOBD now I would start with a forced regen, then run the DPF replace function and see where that gets you.

.

Good idea. I will ask him about that and i will certainly do that on my new app. Thanks.

 

[06 Dodge]

Good idea. I will ask him about that and i will certainly do that on my new app. Thanks.

BTW did you also buy a security bypass cable like this one: https://www.kaodtech.com/product-page/security-module-bypass

 

[tcass]

i have a 22 1500 echo-diesel rebel. i had a check engine light a year ago, related to EGR. they replaced the filter. it happened again about 6 months ago, P002, EGR related. it happened again a month ago at 30000. they replaced the egr filter at 2500 bucks. waiting to see if it happens again.

 

[David Oakes]

i have a 22 1500 echo-diesel rebel. i had a check engine light a year ago, related to EGR. they replaced the filter. it happened again about 6 months ago, P002, EGR related. it happened again a month ago at 30000. they replaced the egr filter at 2500 bucks. waiting to see if it happens again.

Sounds to me like you might not be working your truck enough. The dpf/egr system requires more than just daily driver use. Long runs on the road of 50 plus miles on an at least weekly basis should be enough.

I used to own a 2016 eco diesel 1500. Loved the truck, but I didn't have the time available to give it long drives all the time. Eventually sold it when the long keep driving regens were starting to happen twice a week.

Now I don't have that worry, usually driving 4000 miles every two weeks and keeping my 2024 3500 drw with 6.7 diesel extremely happy.