I had something new happen today. The driver information screen produced a message that said DRIVE TO CLEAN EXHAUST FILTER and stayed illuminated until I pressed OK. Then it displayed CLEANING EXHAUST FILTER and instead of flashing and disappearing, it stayed up on the screen until I pressed OK again. I wasn't able to continue driving at that moment so when I restarted the truck it took me through the same sequence and went into regen mode as normal.

I drove 10 miles and then the message center popped up DRIVE TO CLEAN EXHAUST FILTER COMPLETED in a nice blue color. It only displayed for few couple of seconds and went away. It was kind of cool. I wish it would do that after a normal regen and not only after an "encouraged" regen.

 

I have not seen that message in my 14000 miles.

 

yeah I had the same thing happen to mine yesterday on the way home from work. This morning it came on while driving and went off a couple miles down the road. I seem to be going through the def really fast. I figure a gallon every 1,500 miles. and below half every 3,000 miles. I drive 100 miles a day towing a 8,000 lb trailer for my job.

 

Me neither, I do agree that it would be nice to have some "closure" on the regen cycle. It's nice not worrying about it and it would be nice to at least be informed.

 

The instant fuel economy seems to drop a little below normal for about 10 minutes after that regen light comes on. I was only able to catch it a couple of times.

F350 ONE

 

I get the same situation every time I idle longer than 6 hours in a sitting.

 

The original estimates were 5-6000 miles per def tank, so you are doing fine.

Sam

 

You haven't gotten that message yet because you have likely been letting the regen complete fully. I've been pulling into the garage just after the regen gets started so I knew this was coming. My grocery-getting-soccer-dad driving style barely lets the truck warm up. That has to be brutal on so many levels with this truck.

Looking forward to driving to Twin Falls, Idaho tomorrow with a nice heavy trailer. Maybe that will begin to restore some of my truck's self-esteem.

 

Very informative. I had the cleaning filter pop up real quick the other day with under 1k on my rig. I have yet to tow as I am WAITING for my 2.5" DT hitch to come in.

 

I have not received this either but I was wondering how the computer handled these messages. At least it's informative.

Epic, I wonder if you need to start locking out 6th to keep your RPM's a little higher on your shorter trips? Although, this may not solve anything if the engine still doesn't get up to operating temps and then clog the DPF even faster.
Maybe some of these other guys can answer this question. I know some recommended to run in T/H mode with the 6.4L since the gear lockout feature wasn't available.

 

Hmmm... good suggestion but I'm trying to figure out how that would help. Higher rpms would indeed just create more soot going into the dpf but it does seem like that would be good for something.

To be completely honest, I am exaggerating a little bit. To say the engine barely gets up to operating temp is overstating my driving style. I do get it out often enough (I think) to scrub the cylinder walls but I definitely don't hook up a trailer as often as I should.

 

i got a little over 8,000 miles out of my tank but they say cab and chassis have a gallon more then a pickup but i have not seen that pop up yet on mine with 11,000 miles

 

Interesting tought, I was kind of thinking just the opposite. I've been using the manual shift quite a lot lately and found that my truck really likes to take off in second gear and the fuel economy seems better. I think this is because it will let me shift to the next higher gear at ~1150RPM (if I try to shift at lower RPM's though, the gear number that I am trying to shift into will flash and not switch until I reach an acceptable RPM). To be clear I only shift at 1150 RPM when I'm driving through the neighborhod, etc... Not when I am in traffic.

This method also gives me more control because it allows me to downshift instead of applying the brakes as much as when in auto. It's just now starting to become second nature, but I haven't gotten to the point where I can tell by the sound of the engine when to shift so I spend a bit more time watching the tach.

So, to the point - the truck usually runs at lower RPM's than when in auto (due to early shifting) and does not seem to regen as frequently as some folks here have mentioned, but until I get through my second tank of DEF I can't be sure. Since MPG is impacted by regens I would expect lower MPG's if it were regening more often. First 2000 miles I was getting 18.3 - 18.7 MPG. So far on the current tank I am at 20.2. There are so many variables that we may never know all of the factors associated with the regens, but it sure is fun experimenting. Epic - hope I didn't get too far out of bounds on your thread.

 

No worries. The standing rule on my threads is pretty much anything goes (contextual contributions are appreciated however).

The intent of the thread was simply to inform others of what was a new experience for me and is a direct result of a short-trip driving style. Its also interesting to hear that others who idle for long periods get the same sequence of messages. It's clear that the regen messages are barely noticeable in the first stage of regen but if neglected, they nag the driver a bit more in the interest of self-preservation. I still wish Ford would provide more information about the status of regen on the awesome information screen. There's plenty of space for it and would help us plan our trips to be more efficient with the regens.

I am curious to try what you described with the manual shifting. It does sound like a lot of work to manually shift like that though.

 

I think there has been a mixture of two separate systems in the later part of this thread. The DEF system and the DPF Cleaning are separate systems. The use of DEF is not related to the DPF cleaning message.