I just traded up from my 2016 F-150 gas to a 2018 F-250 Diesel for towing reasons. I am new to the diesel world, and I have a question about the regeneration process. Is this something that usually is taken care of automatically if driven a lot at highway speeds? We do drive around town about 1/2 the time right now. After reading the manual, it sounds like it could be a problem if you drive a lot under 20 miles at a time.

Would it warn me if there is a problem? It also reads that the filter usually lasts about 250,000 miles. Is this the norm? Thank you in advance for any help.

 

Don't worry about it. If you drive for 30 minutes on the highway about once a week you'll be fine. You can use Forscan or ask your dealer to turn on your DPF% screen to monitor the soot levels in the filter, but honestly, just drive it like you would any other truck. It'll take care of everything for you.

 

Tricon, Thank You for responding. I should be fine then!

 

It will take care of itself, if it needs some help from you, it will let you know. As I am a little ocd, I like to monitor mine so that when it is regen time, I let it do a full regen without interuption but its not 100% necessary, thats just me. From my thinking its the best for the truck to let it get a complete regen and that gives you the most time between regens but again is not necessary. P.S., nice to see a fellow Kentuckian on here.

 

Brandon, Always great to hear fro a fellow Kentuckian! How do you know when it is in the process of doing it?

I'm new to this Diesel stuff, and I guess I'm probably over-reacting to this. Sounds like it is something that pretty much takes care of itself.

 

 

 

You will also notice by watching your fuel mileage take a slight hit, %Soot can be set up on your dash, but as noted, it will also regen just cause at 500 miles.

 

That reminds me, I need to add the DPF% screen using ForScan. As said above, I wouldn't worry about it...just drive it. 1-2 highway drives a week and you'll be fine.

 

Thank You to everyone that has replied!

 

I have driven over 500 .jiles without a regen. It's a brand new truck with 1800 .miles. I see the def fluid down a little but never seen it run the regen

 

How do you know it hasn't done a regeneration at 500 miles? If you don't have the DPF feature enabled, you ordinarily wouldn't know it's in regen. It will do an active regen no more than 500 miles from the last regen. This is even if it has done a passive regen such as would occur from a heavy pull. It will just be a very short event if the filter is otherwise clean. The only way it will not do a regeneration is if the engine parameters don't occur in your driving routing, such as very short trips where the engine never warms up. In that regard, you will get a message telling you to drive the truck to do a regeneration.

 

The regen and DEF are different things. DEF is not used during a regen. Diesel fuel is used during the regen. DEF can be used at any time.

 

You have two choices:

1. Drive it and don't worry about it. For most folks, this works fine.
2. Be **** about monitoring and managing it. I fall in that category.

If you're interested in #2, pick up an OBDLink MX Bluetooth dongle (check Amazon - should be around $79 -- yes, there are others, but this is a popular one). Then download the (free) FORScan app for windows AND buy (under $5) the FORScan Lite app for either Android or IOS. Using FORScan for Windows, you can add/change things to your truck's menu and also make many useful changes to the trucks config (e.g., don't allow the transmission to be taking out of gear if the truck is running and the keyfob is not present). Search the forum for FORScan threads.

With FORScan Lite, you can monitor (not program) many of the parameter IDs (PIDs) of the truck. In your case, and relative to THIS issue, is you can not only monitor the status of the regeneration (active or not), but also many other useful PIDs related to DPF regeneration. For example, you aren't sure if your truck regenerated in the past 500 miles. You can monitor PIDs that give you not onlyt he mileage since your last regen, but the mileage between your last and 2nd to last, between the 3rd and 2nd, between the 4th and 3rd and between the 5th and 4th (to establish patterns), the average distance between all regens, etc. You can monitor the EGT (exhaust gas temperatures) at various sensors (11,12,13,14) that will indicate the temps where you can see them go up drastically (e.g., 1100F) during regen.

Again, search these forums for the FORScan threads. Lots of useful info.

Welcome to the diesel world.