Mine usually go 18 miles and usually at around 500 mile intervals. But my last one did go 26 miles.

 

My experience has been that if you run a lot of short trips with an empty truck, and have frequent conditions where you shut the engine off prior to the completion of an ongoing regen cycle, then a regen will run the entire 40 minute cycle if that much driving time is available. A cycle that long will consume about 2 1/2 gallons of extra fuel based on my real time observations of engine run time and fuel consumed.

 

I can't believe how much fuel is wasted in a regen process. And it happens quite regularly by the sound of things. How bout the production of the DEF Fluid. What is made from? Is it an expensive process? I'm not feeling too bad here lol.

 

I just read the DEF Contaminated thread. Geez what a hassle. Just think of all the expense being dumped into TRYING to make system good?! Just another example of.......you know what I mean lol. I love my truck, just regular maintenance. I never go to the dealer for these kinds of issues.

 

I haven’t yet discussed this here but I deleted mine in July this year so I’ll add some details. I have not had great success with truck stability since early 2017. For the emissions related items, I paid to have the DEF heater/sender assembly replaced (88,700 mi) and then had to have the DEF injector replaced (I learned these are expensive) early this year because it was pouring smoke during active regeneration, even at 35 MPH. It started as an issue on occasion several months prior, then increased to nearly every active regen and it smelled terrible. I wouldn’t have guessed the DEF injector was the cause of the excessive smoke (not soot) but the non-Ford tech proved it by replacing so he must have known. Then in April while towing, the truck struggled to pull a grade in 3rd and that’s when I discovered the EGR cooler was clogged with the P0401 DTC (no CEL). I drove it with restricted power for two months without towing while I decided what to do long term. After eight years and not for the lack of attempting, I had reached my tolerance of issues that I could resolve differently and made the decision to tune, disable the now clogged EGR cooler and drop the DPF (keeping the stock exhaust pipe). The truck runs great now. I was fine with the stock truck, it did what I needed it to do when it was working. If it would have remained healthy, it would still be stock even though I don’t like the uncontrollable active regeneration process. I can’t remember what performance was like new but it’s great now. Possibly I had the issues resolved for the remaining life of the truck or possibly the DPF was due to be the fourth expensive item to give me grief soon. I can’t say. I had considered a new truck but made the decision to keep mine and resolve the issues. I shouldn’t have these many issues with an eight year old HD pickup at 107,000 miles.

The ECM tune is a 0 HP increase and TCM is configured to a lower low line pressure. I didn’t want more HP but even with this change, the truck is far more responsive. The max boost I’ve seen is 23 PSI and since I have the 2011 job 1 turbo, I don’t want to push its limited design. EZ LYNK with PPEI tunes. Initial shifting was terrible, I didn’t enjoy driving the truck which was the version available at the time. Over a few weeks I discussed with PPEI and they sent a 0 HP tune with the TCM LLP at their latest version. I am still not completely happy with the shifting but it’s much improved from their older version. Post new solenoid’s OEM shifting was smoother but we also know OEM shifting advances to 6th as quickly as possible. The TC lockup at low RPMs sometimes feels like a half gear change and that’s probably a large part of my complaint currently. For when it does shift well most of the time (especially pulling weight), the shifts are firm and quick (which is fine) and it holds the gear longer than factory which I prefer. The second and minor complaint is from a stop, above 30% engine load, it’ll produce a puff of smoke where I was anticipating none. It doesn’t take much acceleration to reach 30% engine load. However, WOT does not smoke at all which is great. In fact, I can WOT once already rolling with a trailer and it doesn’t smoke. If I carefully ease into the throttle, it won’t smoke at all from a stop so I can and typically do keep it from smoking but I have to “think too much” about it instead of just driving. It’s a little noisy on cold mornings but I can hardly hear it from the cab, even towing. The Cooper Discoverer ST MAXX tires are still louder. So far I haven’t had the shift to third gear stumble (still far better than the early 6R140 shift issues) or haven’t had the VGT vanes get stuck closed at random which are two items that have plagued my truck for years but this needs more time before I can say these issues are resolved.

Since I don’t daily drive the truck as often now, I now have enough fuel through it to have helpful details (hand calculated) for 2018. Average before (minor weight loss) without towing was 12.8 MPG. Avg deleted without towing is 14.3 MPG. Avg before with towing was 11.4 MPG. Avg deleted with towing is 13.2 MPG. Most of my towing reasons these days are at least 170 miles, same roads with rolling hills and various speeds up to 60 MPH.

I hope there continues to be innovation with affordable emissions systems without creating a $100,000 ASP diesel pickup. Battery only vehicles (which have their own impact) have a defined purpose but aren’t going to cut it for many needs for a long time, especially for more rural regions. If I purchased a new PSD 6.7L tomorrow, I wouldn’t rush off and get rid of emission hardware. I would probably add the seven-year warranty or whatever the max ESP is today and not think about it until then. If I am unlucky again and cannot maintain reliability, then I’ll re-consider the various options (which encryption is going to limit significantly). I just want a reliable vehicle. I do understand these class pickups have a higher TCO but that shouldn’t be due to a pile of early failing components because that’s wasteful as well.

 

I've been keeping track of all, well most, of my regens and fuel mileage. Most of my regens up to this point have completed except for a handful I would say. I know the trick of putting it in park but have forgotten it a couple times. The next regen I will put on trip odometer and get an idea of how much fuel is used. I'm usually on an expressway that as it heads south, climbs in elevation so temps go high 9s into just over a 1000 degrees.

 

DEF is made from urea and water. I'd say 1/3 urea and 2/3 deionized water. Used to lower NOx emissions in the rocketship under the trucks. No problems as of yet. Goes about 8k miles or so until it hits the 500 mile DEF range and light comes on.

 

Kper, thanks for sharing your story. I don't blame you for deleting with what you spent up to that point and what it would have cost to keep going with the emissions equipment. That's kind of my strategy now as I have an extended warranty on my 16: 7 years or 125k miles. Last I heard, the highest ESP is 8 years or 150k miles. Having my extended warranty, which cost $ to say the least, has me somewhat worried about tuning it when on warranty. But I take care of my truck, perform the maintenance required and I don't beat it. Sounds like Ski has had luck with the 5* and DPTuner tunes.

So you have a 2011 factory turbo still going strong with its ceramic bearings? That's great. If you're going to keep it, you should upgrade to the 15-16 turbo.

But I do agree with you that innovation with emission technologies needs to keep improving as we move into the future. Battery technology needs to keep up as well as I think you will see diesel battery hybrid vehicles in the future.

 

Kper why wasn't the DEF heater/sender assembly under warranty? I just had mine replaced on my 2011 and it was free.

 

For those that don't know, urea is made from sewage. I used urea as Nitrogen fertilizer when I owned a lanscaping company.

 

 

DEF is 67.5% purified/deionized water and 32.5% urea. DEF was a good addition in 2011 to avoid what I assume would have been excessive EGR. It's fairly cheap to purchase but I don't know about the profits after production costs and transport. I would get about 1,000 miles per gallon. I've wondered if DEF wasn't introduced, would there have been double EGR systems in order to reduce NO(x) further reducing the health of the engine? I remember RAM Trucks not agreeing at first but they eventually conformed. I cannot remember what they did to meet emissions in 2011 (2010) when Ford/GM introduced SCR. Or maybe they didn't meet the requirements.

Yes. No current plans to replace it. I guess I'll see if the occasional extra 2 PSI above factory is enough to cause it to fail. With a '15+, I think I'll miss the growl it makes, I kind of like it!

I had mine replaced in January 2017 (it had failed Nov 2016) and Ford didn't announce CSP 18M01 to dealers until April 24, 2018. My dealer did reimburse me in mid-September 2018. I applied that to a failed alternator and cab insulators in October though.

 

It's not quite the same, there are lots of different places to get the sodium needed for saline. Urea only comes from one place. I'm just passing along a fun fact.

 

My mileage has been unchanged stock or tuned. What has improved mileage is Opti-Lube Summer Plus.

 

The high grade environmental urea used in DEF is produced from synthetic ammonia and carbon dioxide. It is not at all commercial grade urea used in fertilize. Not that I have any idea at all what you are putting in your own vehicle.