I'm sure this is has been covered somewhere but I don't remember half of what I read anymore. I took a 500 mile trip Tuesday, 250 each way. On the way up my truck went into regen mode and on the way back it also did. That seems a little often to me. My simple way of understanding it is the particulate filter gets clogged with something which triggers a high heat process to burn it off, I think. I wouldn't think it would clog fast enough to have 2 regens in 500 miles. I don't know if it has anything to do with it but I have driven the truck very little since October. It has sat 3 or 4 weeks at a time without being started. It just went over 12K miles on this trip.

 

Every trucks gonna be a bit different. What year is it ?

 

2020, see my signature line.

 

Ok I'm going to be a bit nerdy with this post.

I have a 2020 F-450 that I haul a truck camper with and drive empty back and forth to work, mostly highway. (regen frequency is dictated by many factors such as idle time)

Ford max has been stated to be 500 miles in between regens. I have been getting 496 miles on average between regens over the course of 11,000 miles. I track that with a Torque Pro app on my phone and a bluetooth dongle.

Conversely my brother's truck regens every 200 miles because he idles his all the time.

 

Read the half of the owner's manual where it says NORMAL is 100-500 miles. Short stop-and-go, low speed city driving: 100 mile regens. Pulling heavy in the mountains: 500 mile regens.

 

Ok, so it sounds normal. I will start using it more to pull my boat and fifth wheel as the weather warms, I hope.

 

regen is driven by soot accumulation

factors include but not limited to, incomplete combustion, low BTU fuel (b5 thru b20), dirty oil, air entrapment (throws off injector control), etc

a sensor measure back pressure caused by the restriction as soot builds up

there are different types of regens

passive - a ford theoretical concept in which a given type of driving condition will heat up the dpf to the 800 degrees needed to burn soot. typically dpf temps are below 500. in contradiction....heavy towing for example, which would generate a lot of exhaust heat, also generates a lot of soot.

operator commanded - the driver initiates a regen

active - the computer generates a regen based on dpf back pressure

?&%$#! - call it what you wish, a ford theoretical regen that occurs at a secret sauce ford mileage interval if none of the above conditions are met

instead of trying to figure out how to extend the interval between regens...its easier to talk about how to increase the regen frequency...you can then judge your driving habits.

how to have lots of regens 101

a. lots of idle time
b. lots of stop and go (city traffic red lights, etc)
c. keep your tank low on fuel (this cuases lots of foam and air entrapment)
d. very dirty oil (trying to save 60 bucks by running oil until the engine starts to sqeak)
e. very thin oil (if you tow you need XW40 not 10W30, if you start with 5W40, check often for possible fuel dilution)
f. use b5 thru b20 fuel (this fuel has a lower btu and runs about 100 degrees cooler)
g. high oil levels (gets sucked into case vent and into turbo )
k. not using a cetane boost (helps with a, b, and f above)
l. having a tar'ed up intake manifold (from egt process, case vent oil, etc)

do DPF cleaners work...yes and no...if you use a cetane boost you probably will not benefit using DPF cleaners, check oil level frequently.



other issues are cumulative incomplete regens ( seems like regens never clean to 100% any way)

so you can infer from the above, use an heavy duty oil change schedule, use xW40 when you are supposed to, keep your tanks full to reduce air entrapment, plan routes with less stop and go, dont buy gadgets to lower block temps (like 180 degree thermostats), use a cetane boost if you run b5 thru b20.