Bought a '13 f250 6.7 earlier this year and it's been a lot of fun to drive and pulled the TT very well but it's sure been an expensive hobby. I've had to replace the egr cooler, egr valve, CAC hose, vacuum oil lift pump gasket and it looks like the radiator is starting to go. I'm starting to worry about the exhaust system as well now. I"m really frustrated because I'm reading on here how important it is to let regen's finish but there's hardly any warning, if you don't happen to be looking down at the tiny display in the dash you miss the 3-5 second message "cleaning exhaust filter". My truck is an XLT so no fancy screen in the console. Shouldn't there be an audible noise to alert me to the message and that something important is going on and not to shut the truck off until it's finished? I'm worried I'm damaging my exhaust system by shutting it off right in the middle of regens. I've gotten to where I leave the info display to instant mpg because if I'm cruising home at 55 and I look down and see I've only got three bars I assume it's in regen and I've started driving till all 6 or 7(whatever it is) bars comes back up. I would love to get some suggestions on this, maybe I need to add a monitor? Someone said just hit settings and reset and if still in regen it will tell you, that has not been true for my truck it doesn't say squat. Truck is bone stock with no plans to delete as my wife has mild asthma and is very sensitive to NOx fumes.

 

What does the OWNERS MANUAL say about it?

 

Just says it'll take 9-20 minutes depending on conditions and can fluctuate. Also says a little icon will pop up showing like a puff of smoke but that doesn't happen or maybe I just keep missing it, no audible indicator so I tend to be looking at the road while I drive not staring at the dash.

 

See if this helps-

 

A little trick I noticed is under light throttle the boost will spool much faster during a regen. You shouldn't have any exhaust related issues until about 120-150k miles, which is the life expectancy of the DPF. Like you are saying it would be nice to know when a regen completes so we don't shut it down mid cycle. I have a lariat so I have the updated productivity screen which can display the DPF%. I check it regularly and when I get close to 85 90% full I leave that screen enabled. Once I hit 95% I plug in my OBDII adapter and fire up Torque Pro on my phone and monitor for a regen to initiate.

 

 

I ran 150,000 miles on my 2011 truck, Another 100,000 miles on my 2015 truck and now have 33,000 on my 2017.
I don't worry about my Regen. It happens when it happens. It may complete before I shut, It may not. I don't worry about it.

I think you are sweating something that you should not worry about.
Just drive the truck and let the computer worry about regen. If you get the "Drive to Clean" message, Then worry about taking a long drive.

 

The DPF screen is not enabled by default. A dealer can enable it with IDS or you can enable it using forscan. It would be located on the 3rd screen to the right of the oil and trans temp screen if it is enabled on your truck.

 

The trick here is diluted oil from the fuel use during the regen. So monitor the level of your oil.

 

I have a '14 Lariat. With a Windows tablet and Forscan I can do a manual regen sitting in the driveway. Not sure what models you can or can't do a manual regen on though. I also enabled the dpf % screen using Forscan. I just keep the display up all the time. You don't have too look for the cleaning exhaust filter message to flash up. I just watch the percentage increase and when it's in regen the percentage will decrease.

 

You nailed it. People worry about so many things that these trucks become a pain to own. I to used to worry about these things but the more i drive my truck the more i just let it do it's thing. I make sure i only put diesel in the truck change the oil when thew truck says to do it and change the fuel filters according to the manual. Thats it. i love my truck and enjoy driving it.

 

I do agree with you and painted horse to an extent, the truck will take care of itself especially if driving mostly Highway miles. However this is an Enthusiast forum and if we want to get the longest life out of the DPF, get maximum fuel mileage, and reduce fuel dilution in the engine oil regens should be completed especially if it's a daily driver with a lot of short trips.

I tow in the city about 60% of my miles and have UOA done on the oil and I had 2% fuel dilution when regens were not completed consistently. Since I've monitored my regens and completed them, fuel dilution has not returned.

 

My take on this is as Dirthawg mentioned, I'm in the "mostly local" driving camp. Yesterday I happened to notice the message flash up, wound up "taking a ride" until the regen finished. I have Forscan lite on my iPhone with the OBDLink MX WiFi and drive until it's done. I need to break down and buy a PC so that I can enable the %full screen as well as the ability to do a regen in the driveway. I'm going for the Titan 50 gallon tank once my current tank of diesel runs out so going to need to change the "miles to empty" PID to 50 gallon so something needs to happen soon. Went way off topic, if I want to make it to 2000,000 miles I'm going to need to manage my regens, when I used to go into the office and used the truck as a daily driver, didn't worry about it at all.

 

Unless it has just started, I generally try to finish out the regens, because it seems to be more efficient that way. A big part of the cycle is getting the system hot enough to burn off the soot. If you short cycle it, then next time it starts you have to burn the fuel to get back to where you were.