Hey guys,


I'm new here. I have a 2008 6.4L F-250 diesel truck. Lately, my truck has been cleaning the exhaust filter frequently (every other day). Once the filter starts being cleaned, the truck has a very difficult time accelerating. The RPM's don't go above 2,000. The turbos work just fine. The truck continues having issues accelerating even after the exhaust filter is cleaned. If I turn the truck off and wait an hour or so (after filter gets cleaned), the truck works just fine...up until the truck starts cleaning the filter again.


I took my truck to Ford once before, and it is there now. The first time I took it to Ford for this issue, I was told that there was an issue with the truck's computer, so it was reset. The techs at Ford said that they checked the exhaust filter via computer and it was fine.


Even after it was "fixed", it continues to experience the same symptoms. I took it back a second time, which was a few days ago (it's still at Ford). The techs can't figure out what is wrong with the truck. They keep doing different tests, and the truck passes each test. They drove the truck around up until it started cleaning the filter, and still no issues. The technicians even contacted the engineers of the truck, and even they can't figure out what's up with the truck.


My questions are:
1) Has anyone ever experienced anything like this with their truck?
2) Any idea why it keeps cleaning the filter so frequently?
3) What can be done to it so it doesn't have issues accelerating once the truck starts cleaning the exhaust filter?


Thank you for your time.


- Lil02Ranger

 

The best thing you can do is delete the DPF from your exhaust system and by a nice tuner for it. Watch your oil levels because if it's doing it that much you're probably diluting your motor oil with diesel fuel. And you know what that will do to the life of your engine.

 

How many miles on your pickup? The dpf plug up over time and can no longer be "regened" to keep them cleared out. I believe a sign of this is frequent regen cycles trying to clear it out.

Only solution is to replace it with new one if you live in anti-mod friendly places.

If you live in an area where they don't check then delete this crap off and don't look back. Mine has 123k and would regen every other day or two, no more than 50 miles between regen cycles. I deleted....... Um mean the dpf and egr fell of my pickup one day and it runs great now! Mine would still accelerate ok but smoked something fierce when in regen. When it would start cars that were on my bumper got 1 city block behind me, I could even smell it in the cab. All other times no smoke so I knew engine was sound.

Jeff

 

It really sounds like your DPF is getting plugged up. It happens. Tons of reasons: DPF unfriendly motor oil, excessive idling, running a cold engine all the time, incomplete cleaning cycles, etc. Deposits inside the DPF can become hard lumps with insufficient cleaning and these deposits cannot be removed with passive and active regens. And ... the DPF can get progressively worse over time till your forced to clean it. Also, you don't know the test threshold for testing the DPF ... is 80% clogged ok? In any case, you can pull off the DPF and send it out for cleaning. They will blow it out and bake it out if necessary (hard lumps) till deposits are removed. I don't know of any Ford dealership with the specialized equipment required to clean one. You could also buy another on ebay. You could replace it with a new one. You have options but it definitely sounds like your DPF is not getting cleaned out and even Ford tells you this will happen over time. I've no idea what the warranty on this emission equipment may be but you should look it up and see if your DPF is still covered. Its possible the EPA required some sort of extended warranty on emissions equipment. No idea. More puzzling is why your dealership can't figure this out.


Answers:

(1) yup
(2) cuz active regen can't clean it out sufficiently and its getting progressively more clogged and therefore needs to be cleaned more often. Its just a worsening clog that your truck can't clean. Everybody knows this happens and if you look in your owners manual your going to find something written about the expected life of your DPF ... 80k miles ... 120k miles ... I've forgotten.
(3) I answered above. Clean your DPF or replace it.

 

My truck had 119,265.1 miles on it the second time I took it to Ford.


I live in Florida. From what I heard, they sorta kinda don't care...but if a police officer wants to, they will pull you over if they see black smoke coming out of the exhaust and you'll have to pay a nice fine for it since it's considered a "federal offense".


I really do want to get rid of the filter. It's a pain, and replacing it is expensive. Not to mention, it's causing me all of these issues! I'm usually on the interstate driving, so the majority of the time the truck gets to clean the filter by the time I reach my destination. There have been times where the truck started cleaning the filter a few miles before I reached my destination. Unfortunately, those times I had to stop the truck from cleaning. It would start cleaning the filter when I would drive it again that day or the next day. It's been a couple of times that I had to do this. If I'm not on the interstate driving, then I have to drive around for at least 40 minutes to let the truck clean the filter. How nice that I have to waste diesel, time, and $$$ for it to clean the filter. I know that there are complaints of diesel polluting the air and all that (), which is why they put the filters on the trucks. But has anyone stopped to think of what the white smoke that comes out (when truck is cleaning the filter) is actually doing to everyone and the environment (since you know, we have to be "environmentally friendly") since it gets released into the air and we are breathing that stuff in. I honestly don't think there's a reason why these filters should be on the trucks....just more problems to deal with.

 

If I drive my pickup normal I get zero smoke with out having a DPF or EGR. With that being said if I stomp on the skinny pedal all the way to the floor it will "roll coal" but I have done that one time in 4 months with no DPF. MY chip only shut off the emissions stuff, added no power to engine. My old pickup with a 7.3 and 190 horse pulled our camp trailer just fine, slow but we always got there so my 350 ponies now should have no problem and I didn't want the headache of breaking parts, smoke, ect..... I don't need the biggest or baddest pickup so I went with no power adding chip and have zero regrets about it.

I kept the stock exhaust only removing the DPF and Cat, the only thing you see with out looking under the pickup at the shiny new section of pipe is my tail pipe is now black, not the normal galvanized looking color.

I spent just shy of $800 for the DPF, CAT, and EGR delete/tuner and one new exhaust temp sensor shipped to my house. Took 3 hours to install DPF delete. EGR delete took 5 hours but I also did not cut or damage anything. IF you start cutting the time will come down but I wanted to be able to re-install all parts if needed.

I think a new DPF is around $2500 for the part.

I hear cleaning them out works maybe 50% of the time and cost around $500 to have it done plus the down time on your pickup.

Just my 2 cents, based on my experience. Let us know what you end up doing.

Jeff

 

i just had similar symptoms didn't through any codes got the drive to clean exhaust drove for over an hour and would not go into cleaning exhaust, took it to the dealer they found the EGR valve was sticking, they replaced the EGR valve and did a manual cleaning which took 45 min. to complete truck runs like new