New 6.7 owner here with 250 miles on my truck and first diesel ever.


Thanks to this excellent forum, I asked my dealer for and received the DPF % full screen # 3 and ability to manually regen. This was part of the deal, and the dealer did it no questions asked. There is a blank screen # 4 that I believe will come to life when the regen is going on or maybe when I initiate the manual regen. I asked for the ability to manually regen, but am not really sure if I've got it. The dealers diesel tech was not at work the day I picked up my truck so I could not verify manual regen was really installed.


1) There is continuous soot burning above some preset exhaust system temperature which I'm guessing is just driving with automatic injection of DEF. Correct?


2) There is automatic regen when the DPF% full indication gets to 100%. The engine runs hotter on the driver side bank to generate the heat necessary to burn the soot in the DPF. Correct?


Can any of you elaborate on this process? I gather during an automatic regen, you can watch the DPF % Full screen clock down in 5% increments as the soot is burned.


What is a dealer initiated manual regen? Is it done with the truck stationary as some high RPM? Or is it turned on by the dealer, and then you drive the truck to clean the DPF in the manual regen mode?


Say I am 50 miles from home, am at 80% soot level, and want to initiate a manual regen to avoid the "drive to clean" warning when I'm just entering my driveway. Do I initiate manual regen on screen # 4? Right now, screen # 4 is blank!


My truck was built in early June of this year if that makes any difference.


If this is redundant to another post(s), just pass on the post name and I'll search for it.

 

OK, I just found descriptions of active and passive regeneration in page 81 of coffee table book. But I still don't understand manual regen at dealer. Is that done stationary? Or does dealer initate and the owner "drives to clean"?

 

Tom,


I'm sure smarter guys will give a more detailed response. The manual re-gen is a stationary process, and only really necessary if you use a PTO accessory with your truck. In my experience, re-gens are really a non-issue if you drive your truck for more than to the grocery store and back. The engine needs to get up to temp, and get out on the highway. The DPF% gauge will countdown during a regen. Soot burning while not in re-gen is referred to as a "passive re-gen", and occurs at temps above 700 or so. That is easily achieved while towing a heavy trailer, but otherwise not. Even if getting passive regeneration, the truck will still do a commanded regen about every 500 miles regardless of DPF%.


I've owned a 2011 6.7L, and now the 2016, and have never had an issue with the re-gen process.


Other items to be picky on:
- only put diesel fuel in fuel tank. I personally don't let anyone else fuel the truck. Gasoline, or DEF in the fuel tank can be an extremely costly mistake
- When adding DEF, do NOT be distracted. Guys get busy talking on phone, etc, and have poured it into the fuel tank instead of the DEF tank. IF this occurs to you, do NOT turn the key at all, in fact some will pull the fuse to the frame mounted fuel pump so that it wont get pumped up through the fuel system.


Both of these items can be a $10K or more problem.


Other than that, just drive it!

 

The manual regen is stationary. Certain parameters have to be met before it cna be initiated. You may or may not have the actual ability to perform a manual regen. XL and XLT trucks may have the ability if the option for Operator Commanded Regen was configured at the time of build. Can this be added, I have not clue. I know with my Lariat, I have the screen but can not perform a manual regen.

You should have the new regen strategy that dumps fuel into both left and right cylinders.

My suggestion to you is to stop reading the forums and drive the truck. You are worrying over nothing at this point in time. If you do have a problem, your truck came with free towing to the nearest Ford dealer and a 3yr/36000 warranty.

 

The truck was designed for you to not worry about the REGEN process and if there is a problem you will get the drive to clean message. For 99% of us, it works just fine and we don't see the message. Even when I had short trips, non-towing I never saw the message. If I did, I would have - driven on the highway to clean.

Only time I would worry about it is if I was idling the truck for hours on end... Even high idling. Then a manual regen might be handy. Think construction, PTO operation type environment. Is this you?

Awhile ago, after wanting a manual regen capability, I realized that I never have 'needed' it. On a first build, 2011, I saw that message once...

Now, enthusiasts as we mostly are on this forum like more information. The 4th screen wil always be blank until another gauge is made/found out about. If you like knowing everything get Torque Pro or an Edge CTS monitor and have at it. (I have Torque Pro and a tablet)

 

Use the best fuel in the area, this will help with regen.

 

Thanks for some great responses. Going into intense time at work. Will revive this thread in a few weeks with more comments and questions.

 

OK, back from a few intense weeks of work. My main interest in regen as a new diesel owner will be towing at elevation. Daughter in LA, son in Salt Lake City. So we will be pulling a 12,000 lb load at elevation camping with them. Seems like there are issues for all brands of diesels at high elevation. Thus my desire to be prepared when in the western high hinterlands.

At this point I am thinking I will tour CA thoroughly with exhaust intact, then do a delete before the second trip to other west and Midwestern states, spring and fall, as a new retiree. Is there risk of running deleted without warranty, sure. I see more long term damage/cost/risk in not deleting long term. Especially towing at elevation with complicated exhaust system that evidently just does not prove reliable towing at high elevations. The guys that post on this forum are just proving to me that these systems work better on the level but when you go high, reliability goes down, and dealers and even Ford cannot find a root cause they are open with us about. Am happy I got an end of year 2016 so many of the tweaks to the exhaust tuning are incorporated. But I'm getting Torque Pro, Forscan, and will be watching closely how things run at elevation.

 

A related question for those with the Edge: this allows you to initiate a regen, but is it the same as the dealer regen? That is, stationary and running at 2000 RPM with the hood up or whatever?

I would like to be able to initiate a regen while driving when I know it will be convenient and run to completion. Most of the time let it do it's thing, but when you see the PDF load near the top and know you will have to stop when it's going on, it would be nice to start it a bit early.

 

My50F1, with less oxygen at higher elevations it will take more fuel and make more soot requiring regens more often with less hp.

 

I have a 2012 Lariat and had the dealer activate the DPF screen. The other day I pulled into my driveway with the filter at 90%. After putting the truck in park and taking my foot off the brake I got the hit "ok" to start a regen. Sure enough, it goes to fast idle and starts a regen. So, to make it work I think you have to be over 90%, in park, off the brake and the truck warmed up.

 

So you didn't get the normal regen screen warning you it was going to start? When I go to the DPF screen, it just says 90% or whatever, nothing to push anywhere. Did you see the normal screen but it had an "OK" button?

I've not tried looking at that screen when over 90% and stopped in park.

 

If it goes in to active regen, you get the short message. To activate it manually you have to be warmed up (a few miles) over 90%, in park, foot off the brake. That is how it works for me.

 

Did you have the have the park brake set?

 

Gonna try this...