Excessive Regens

[East0352]

Hello all,

I have a 2021 Ram 2500 with the Cummins. It is emissions intact. Recently, I’ve noticed that the truck is going into regen mode nearly all the time. It’s been doing it for several months at least. It does it bout every 50 miles. I drive about 30 minutes to work on a highway at about 55. Other than that, I'm on the interstate with very little city stop and go driving. At 70 mph, I can literally watch my DPF gauge climb while driving. 30 miles of driving, 30 miles of regen almost like clockwork. At <68 or >72mph the DPF doesnt appear to climb. But when I start the truck, I will see about a 10% jump and it will stay there until the next time I start the truck. I’ve tried several different air filters with no improvement. From MOPAR, Doc’s, and K&N. K&N is giving me 75 miles between regens at least.

Contacted several dealers and they all want me to drop the truck off for several weeks (before they even diagnose the problem) and rent a car. RAMcare says they will reimburse me, but I’m trying to see if anyone has had this problem and a solution before I take it to the dealer. I can’t really afford to rent a car for several months and pay the truck note. Just moved for a new job and there been one problem after another and my account is cleaned out for a while.

 

[Billet Bee]

When you say its regenerating, are you
1: watching your regen/ soot level gauge on evic screen and it pops up and says regeneration in process, or
2: your watching your main evic screen (speedometer or whatever) and a warning pops up to continue driving at Hwy speeds until regeneration is complete.
#1 happens pretty frequently to me and there is no worry about shutting truck off at night and resuming tomorrow on your way you work. Normally lasts for 15-30 minutes
#2 rarely happens to me and you should follow the advice and continue driving at Hwy speeds until it says it's complete. Can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 2.5 hrs depending on how backed up the filter is but I find 45 minutes to be the average.

 

[East0352]

I’ve been watching the EVIC screen where it shows the percentage of clog in the DPF filter. Takes about 30 miles to finish.

 

[Billet Bee]

I’ve been watching the EVIC screen where it shows the percentage of clog in the DPF filter. Takes about 30 miles to finish.

Ok, I wouldn't pay to much attention to that even if it was mine because that's not the important regen mode. Yes 30 miles sounds a bit excessive to me but honestly not many folks watch that %% gauge and then they wonder if there truck is ever going to do a regeneration. So we really only ever know when it regenerates when we're driving and watching the speedometer on evic and a warning pops up to continue driving at Hwy speeds untill complete. The warning will pop up once it gets to around 70% - 100% full, so with a good working system that's operating behind the scenes like yours and mine is, we'll rarely have to do a extended driving regen.

 

[06 Dodge]

Yesterday I had a message pop up for my first regen (2250 total miles), took it out to hwy got up to 55 then dropped the trans in to 5th and ran it at about 1700 RPM after about 20 minutes it sounded normal again messed with EVIC regen message disappeared so I made a turn to drive back home, I can say I was surprised how bad it sounded during the regen as it started as I was leaving in the hospital covered garage at first thought fan clutch went into full time engage do to ac being on. After I got home it hit me that on Thursday Dodge had my truck to do recalls for 3 hours, I asked why they had it sitting with engine running, I was told it had to have it running to do part of the update to software, best I can tell they had it running for 30+ minutes based on the current idle time when I looked at home. Also based on dash DTE estimate the regen used around 1.5 to 2 gallons of diesel seems stupid to use that much fuel and then claim it some how helps keel the air clean....

 

[East0352]

My concern comes mainly from a sudden decrease in MPG and oil analysis coming back with double the normal amount of diesel in only 1/3 the normal change interval. So possibly as much as three times the diesel it should have. I know the regen cycle causes the engine to spray oil on the exhaust stroke to increase egt’s to burn of particulates in the filter.

 

[East0352]

Yesterday I had a message pop up for my first regen (2250 total miles), took it out to why got up to 55 then dropped the trans in to 5th and ran it at about 1700 RPM after about 20 minutes it sounded normal again messed with EVIC regen message disappeared so I made a turn to drive back home, I can say I was surprised how bad it sounded during the regen as it started as I was leaving in the hospital covered garage at first thought fan clutch went into full time engage do to ac being on. After I got home it hit me that on Thursday Dodge had my truck to do recalls for 3 hours, I asked why they had it sitting with engine running, I was told it had to have it running to do part of the update to software, best I can tell they had it running for 30+ minutes based on the current idle time when I looked at home. Also based on dash DTE estimate the regen used around 1.5 to 2 gallons of diesel seems stupid to use that much fuel and then claim it some how helps keel the air clean....

I agree 100% that using fuel to burn of fuel residue sounds backwards. Almost as backwards as recirculating dirty air into the intake with all that air they spent so much time cleaning before sucking it in (EGR).

 

[06 Dodge]

I plan to do first oil change at 3K and now plan after reading your post to do UOA, normally I wait to do one at the 2nd oil change.

 

[jejb]

These threads are so strange to me. I've had my 18 RAM CTD for over 2 years now and put about 25K on it. I have never seen a regen message of any kind and the truck has never felt like it was running odd, which would indicate a regen. I guess the difference is mine is not a commuter/daily driver and almost always has a trailer behind it when in use? I should pull up the DPF screen sometime and watch, I guess.

 

[East0352]

When I pull a trailer, the gauge actually goes back down to 0% on its own as long as I keep it above 1700 RPM. It climbs if not under load. Just doesn’t make sense to me. I understand start and stop, without emissions, you can see the soot shoot out of an exhaust every time someone takes off. I’m not in stop and go, I have two stop signs in 20 miles of driving. I’ve seen my DPF gauge climb while driving down the interstate at 70mph.