Trouble seems to follow us...

[ddschuman]

This time it is vehicle problems. I am sure I am not the first but I must say, I absolutely HATE the new DEF exhaust systems they have on newer trucks these days. 2nd truck, same problem...only this year we were stranded in the mountains 100 miles to nearest dealership.

We left central Texas on Friday and headed to Santa Rosa, NM State park for one night. No issues that leg of trip. Got up Saturday morning and headed towards Colorado. Destination was to be Blue Spruce RV Park at Valecito. We got about 30 miles from Chama, NM and vehicle message came on stating "cleaning exhaust filter. Keep driving until message clears". No biggie, this is what it is supposed to do. Unfortunately the process would not complete (apparently filter is clogged or something) so power was severely reduced. When this occurs, we were going up hill. Engine power reduced us to 5mph and there was no shoulder to pull off the road. We managed, thank God, to make it to the top and safely pull off the road. At this point we have no cell phone service but we do have Onstar if needed. Turned truck off for a little bit to see if could reset. It worked! We moved on about 11 more miles and it happened again right at the bottom of another incline so we pulled over. Tried to get to reset but no such luck. We called Onstar who routed us to Chevrolet Roadside Assistance. They tell us they can tow truck but not trailer. I am not leaving trailer on side of road. I call Progressive Roadside Assistance who say they can tow trailer but not truck. Chevrolet calls back and says they will tow both for $1000 but will be towed only to dealership. It is Saturday evening and dealership will not be open until Monday. This would force us to stay in hotel for a couple of days.

Before letting either Chevrolet or Progressive dispatch anyone, a nice man stopped and asked us if we needed help. He advised that he could go get his big rig and pull us up Tia Hill and it was down hill from there all the way to Chama. We had already been on the side of the road for 2 hrs at this point and were open to any suggestions. I didn't really like the idea of being pulled up the hill but said I would agree to it if Chama had an open site for us. I called Sky Mountain RV Resort (we are scheduled to stay here a couple of days next week). They were so nice and said they had a summer seasonal guest that they would ask to come get the trailer and hopefully the truck would make it without the extra weight. Awesome! We made it and are here until at least Monday. The owner here said he personally knows a diesel mechanic in town that works on his truck and has worked on several guest trucks over the years. He said very trustworthy and reasonable and he should be able to fix truck and get us back on the road Monday....we hope anyway. Otherwise, we will need to be towed 100+ miles to be fixed at dealership which will really put a damper on our trip.

From reading the Duramax forum, this is a common problem. The exhaust system cleans filter automatically but occasionally it needs to be taken apart and thoroughly cleaned. Sure wish it would gave happened on flater ground like at home vs on vacation in the mountains pullin a fiver.

Oh well, I refuse to let it ruin my trip! We have beautiful views here, it is a nice park and everyone has been extremely helpful and friendly. We couldn't have had this trouble in a better place. We even had one guest offer to let us use his vehicle to sight see or go to town. Of course we refused the offer but it was certainly a nice gesture. We are on flat ground here and can make it into town and back if need be.

[720Deere]

Seems like a lot of people confuse DEF and DPF. DEF is the fluid that is used to reduce NOX. DPF is the diesel particulate filter in the exhaust system. Its purpose is to trap soot. While both are emissions equipment, they are separate systems.

[is_it_friday_ye]

Mountain Mama wrote:
DH's 2008 Ram 2500 has to be "regenerated" a the time supposedly because he doesn't use it hard enough. It gets to be a pain doing it so frequently.... Have to drive it until it clears & not always at opportune times.
We have a 3500 HD Duramax that uses DEF & so far no problems but only has about 15,000 miles on it. Much easier to add some DEF. occasionally.

I drove my truck hard on purpose and pulled our 33' 5th wheel often. It still didn't regenerate correctly. I deleted it around 65,000 miles when it acted up. Still running strong at 90,000 miles now.

[ddschuman]

nomad297 wrote:
Why didn't you call Good Sam?

Bruce

We never opted for Good Sam's Roadside Assistance. Questioning that decision now but since we didn't have it yesterday, calling them wouldn't have done much good

[Mountain_Mama]

DH's 2008 Ram 2500 has to be "regenerated" a the time supposedly because he doesn't use it hard enough. It gets to be a pain doing it so frequently.... Have to drive it until it clears & not always at opportune times.
We have a 3500 HD Duramax that uses DEF & so far no problems but only has about 15,000 miles on it. Much easier to add some DEF. occasionally.

[is_it_friday_ye]

I had this happen to my '07 Dodge while pulling the 5th wheel. While on the freeway, it lost a lot of power and I had to pull onto the shoulder. I managed to limp to the next exit at a very slow speed where it stalled at the top of the ramp. After about a 1/2 hour, I got it started and safely off the road. Luckily I had some tools with me. I disconnected the exhaust before the Dpf and it started right up. I drove all the way home with the exhaust loose but still connected. This has never happened again since I deleted the Dpf and went with a turbo back exhaust. The emission******on these trucks is the worst idea ever. FYI, my truck doesn't blow black smoke and you wouldn't know it was deleted unless you looked under the truck.

[nomad297]

Why didn't you call Good Sam?

Bruce

[ddschuman]

We have just over 40,000 miles on truck. I too hope it is just a sensor or clogged filter. From what I understand, both are easy fixes which will get us back on the road. Chama is beautiful! This is our first time to visit here

[sdetweil]

ddschuman wrote:
The only thing our dealer ever told us about the DEF is to add when gets low according to message center. We have our truck serviced regularly and add DEF as need be. We added DEF about two weeks before this trip and according to message center, it is GOOD. The dealer advised upon purchase that the filter was self containable. Unfortunately, this is not completely true. Yes, to an extent but according to the Duramax Forum, it does occasionally clog where it can't clean itself. I am just wondering if this should not be on Chevrolets list if things to do at routine service visits to eliminate their customers from being stranded?

I am doing my best to remain positive about the whole thing. After all, I am on vacation and yes, we ended up in a good place with nice people. It could have been much worse. We have definitely been blessed by good Samaritans 🙂

Ford's expected service life for the DPF (diesel exhaust filter is 100,000 miles).. I have never heard of anyone doing a service age replacement..

[GrumpyandGrandm]

Also, GM does not recommend any Bio over 5% so I avoid any Bio since most pumps say it can be as high as 20%.

[ddschuman]

The only thing our dealer ever told us about the DEF is to add when gets low according to message center. We have our truck serviced regularly and add DEF as need be. We added DEF about two weeks before this trip and according to message center, it is GOOD. The dealer advised upon purchase that the filter was self containable. Unfortunately, this is not completely true. Yes, to an extent but according to the Duramax Forum, it does occasionally clog where it can't clean itself. I am just wondering if this should not be on Chevrolets list if things to do at routine service visits to eliminate their customers from being stranded?

I am doing my best to remain positive about the whole thing. After all, I am on vacation and yes, we ended up in a good place with nice people. It could have been much worse. We have definitely been blessed by good Samaritans 🙂

[sdetweil]

ddschuman wrote:
This time it is vehicle problems. I am sure I am not the first but I must say, I absolutely HATE the new DEF exhaust systems they have on newer trucks these days. 2nd truck, same problem...only this year we were stranded in the mountains 100 miles to nearest dealership.

We left central Texas on Friday and headed to Santa Rosa, NM State park for one night. No issues that leg of trip. Got up Saturday morning and headed towards Colorado. Destination was to be Blue Spruce RV Park at Valecito. We got about 30 miles from Chama, NM and vehicle message came on stating "cleaning exhaust filter. Keep driving until message clears". No biggie, this is what it is supposed to do. Unfortunately the process would not complete (apparently filter is clogged or something) so power was severely reduced. When this occurs, we were going up hill. Engine power reduced us to 5mph and there was no shoulder to pull off the road. We managed, thank God, to make it to the top and safely pull off the road. At this point we have no cell phone service but we do have Onstar if needed. Turned truck off for a little bit to see if could reset. It worked! We moved on about 11 more miles and it happened again right at the bottom of another incline so we pulled over. Tried to get to reset but no such luck. We called Onstar who routed us to Chevrolet Roadside Assistance. They tell us they can tow truck but not trailer. I am not leaving trailer on side of road. I call Progressive Roadside Assistance who say they can tow trailer but not truck. Chevrolet calls back and says they will tow both for $1000 but will be towed only to dealership. It is Saturday evening and dealership will not be open until Monday. This would force us to stay in hotel for a couple of days.

Before letting either Chevrolet or Progressive dispatch anyone, a nice man stopped and asked us if we needed help. He advised that he could go get his big rig and pull us up Tia Hill and it was down hill from there all the way to Chama. We had already been on the side of the road for 2 hrs at this point and were open to any suggestions. I didn't really like the idea of being pulled up the hill but said I would agree to it if Chama had an open site for us. I called Sky Mountain RV Resort (we are scheduled to stay here a couple of days next week). They were so nice and said they had a summer seasonal guest that they would ask to come get the trailer and hopefully the truck would make it without the extra weight. Awesome! We made it and are here until at least Monday. The owner here said he personally knows a diesel mechanic in town that works on his truck and has worked on several guest trucks over the years. He said very trustworthy and reasonable and he should be able to fix truck and get us back on the road Monday....we hope anyway. Otherwise, we will need to be towed 100+ miles to be fixed at dealership which will really put a damper on our trip.

From reading the Duramax forum, this is a common problem. The exhaust system cleans filter automatically but occasionally it needs to be taken apart and thoroughly cleaned. Sure wish it would gave happened on flater ground like at home vs on vacation in the mountains pullin a fiver.

Oh well, I refuse to let it ruin my trip! We have beautiful views here, it is a nice park and everyone has been extremely helpful and friendly. We couldn't have had this trouble in a better place. We even had one guest offer to let us use his vehicle to sight see or go to town. Of course we refused the offer but it was certainly a nice gesture. We are on flat ground here and can make it into town and back if need be.

how many miles are on your truck? I have a 2012 ford dually, just over 20,000 miles. Ford has a similar 'Reduced Power' mode, usually when one of the exhaust temp sensors fails (there are 4). I carry 2 extras, tools and a code reader to handle it on my own.. 5 minutes to change one.

here's hoping your problem is just a bad sensor. (seems that way with the cool down time working for you).

[sdetweil]

DutchmenSport wrote:
Thanks for the information. My new truck has a little over 3000 miles on it. I've had to add DEF. Took it to a GM dealer (we were on vacation towing the trailer too). They were nice, got us filled up again. They said when we purchased the truck, the DEF was probably not full, it should go much longer between fill-ups than that.

Anyway, I now carry 2 gallons of DEF all the time. No problem for space with that shell I have on the truck. I have free oil changes and servicing on the truck for a long time. So hopefully, the GM guys will know when and how to service the DEF and the filters and everything on regular intervals. I most definitely will ask them about this the first time I take it in for an oil change. Got the truck in April this year, and really use it only to tow my camper and my utility trailer. So everything about this truck is still new to me. I'll take any tips and warnings anyone can throw at me.

Thanks for the tip!

take note that DEF is temperature sensitive and has a shorter shelf life in heat. (Yeh, I just found that out too!)..

Q. What is the shelf life of DEF?
A. The shelf life of DEF is a function of ambient storage temperature. DEF will degrade over time depending on temperature and exposure to sun light. Expectations for shelf life as defined by ISO Spec22241-3 are the minimum expectations for shelf life when stored at constant temperatures. If stored between 10 and 90 deg F, shelf life will easily be one year. If the maximum temperature does not exceed approximately 75 deg F for an extended period of time, the shelf life will be two years.

my truck bed temps are over 100, I don't have a cap.
the daytime temp here in Austin has been over 100 some 20+ days now.

[Sandia_Man]

Sorry to hear about your truck woes and hope all can be readily dealt with on Monday, but having to stop in beautiful Chama can't be all bad. Stuff happens with every brand of TV and it sounds like you will be on the road soon. Enjoy the views and friendly folks (many from Texas) that spend a chunk of time in Chama yearly. Happy Camping!!!

[DutchmenSport]

Thanks for the information. My new truck has a little over 3000 miles on it. I've had to add DEF. Took it to a GM dealer (we were on vacation towing the trailer too). They were nice, got us filled up again. They said when we purchased the truck, the DEF was probably not full, it should go much longer between fill-ups than that.

Anyway, I now carry 2 gallons of DEF all the time. No problem for space with that shell I have on the truck. I have free oil changes and servicing on the truck for a long time. So hopefully, the GM guys will know when and how to service the DEF and the filters and everything on regular intervals. I most definitely will ask them about this the first time I take it in for an oil change. Got the truck in April this year, and really use it only to tow my camper and my utility trailer. So everything about this truck is still new to me. I'll take any tips and warnings anyone can throw at me.

Thanks for the tip!

[brirene]

Could be much worse, but it sounds like you were fortunate in finding some helping hands. Maybe trouble lost interest in you after messing with your truck!Hopefully you'll be back on the road quickly. Sorry for your troubles.