"Regeneration"?

[JimSpy]

Hi, gang. We have a Gemini 23TR on a Ford Transit with diesel. Right now it's in for service, with a Check Engine light. The codes come up P204f and P20ba. Both indicate trouble in the exhaust reduction system. The service guy is saying something about having to get the system "regenerated" every so often, something that has to be done at a dealership? At first they thought it was just a bad sensor, then they came up with this. Anyone familiar with "regeneration"?

[Bob Denman]

Nothing is impossible...
But my "Spydie-Sense" sure is tingling...
I'd call Ford directly///
Good luck!

[The Gritz Carlton]

The DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) cleaning process is fully automated...as you drive along. If most of your trips are short, the cleaning process sometimes may not have time to complete it's cycle and soot will back up, requiring an occasional manual "regeneration". Normally you will get a light on the dash indicating this. Your DEF can get old as well, preventing full cleaning...but, you should get a message that the fluid quality is bad prior to having any issues. Not sure of the year model or mileage on your unit but what they are telling you is suspect. What do the codes you mentioned indicate?

[Bob Denman]

Perhaps he just needs fresher pee in his DEF tank...

https://www.thorforums.com/forums/at...1&d=1619116964

[Judge]

Would not surprise me if the dealer finds there is a ECM flash update for this issue.

Regeneration is the process of burning off the accumulated soot from the exhaust filter. This is done either passively (from the engine's exhaust heat in normal operation or by adding a catalyst to the filter) or actively introducing very high heat into the exhaust system.

That being said, my Magnitude on the F550 diplays a message on the dash when it is going through the Diesel Exhaust Filter Regeneration. It is important to keep driving until this process is complete.

Not sure how the Transit is doing the regen but if it is not displaying this message, then you could be stopping and shutting off the engine when it is going through the regeneration without you knowing it and it could be causing a problem from not allowing all of the soot to completely burn off.

I have a 2018 GMC Canyon with the 2.8L Duramax Diesel and it does not display the message from the factory. I installed an aftermarket tune and one of the features it added was now displaying the message when it is going through the regeneration process.

[jeanluc001]

As time goes on and miles build up the dpf (diesel particulate filter) will require regeneration more often.Because with each cycle there is always some soot that does not burn off and is left in filter.eventually filter must be replaced.very costly.there is a company that will cut open the filter and clean it and then weld it back together. much cheaper than replacement. many trucking companies do this to save money.

[yukongrant]

Our Compass is built on a 2018 Ford Transit. We received a recall to fix a problem with the Emissions Control System. We live in Canada so this may be country specific.
The fix is to reprogram the Powertrain Control Module - which should take less than a couple of hours. They say our diagnostic system may not be detecting problems.
I'm not at all sure if this is the same problem you are having. But it is something you may want to look at. It's called Emission Recall 21E01.
I have not had it done yet. Still waiting for the snow to go away. Just don't feel like shoveling more snow this winter.

[EA37TS]

On my rig as long as I drive highway speeds the majority of the time no problem. If a regen light comes on I have a switch on the dash which allows me to perform a manual regen. 8000 miles and regents have all happened between 60 and 65 mph.

Switch on lower left is regen.

[Beau388]

On a VW diesel, when regeneration occurs the idle is boosted from 800 to 1600 rpm and the engine sprays a extra shot of fuel into the exhaust when the exhaust valve is open. This lights-off the particulate filter and the filter burns at 1,500 F degrees for a few minutes. Then all returns to normal. If at speed, you never know it is happening. The only prohibition is stay of dead grass fields.

[JimSpy]

Originally Posted by The Gritz Carlton

The DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) cleaning process is fully automated...as you drive along. If most of your trips are short, the cleaning process sometimes may not have time to complete it's cycle and soot will back up, requiring an occasional manual "regeneration". Normally you will get a light on the dash indicating this. Your DEF can get old as well, preventing full cleaning...but, you should get a message that the fluid quality is bad prior to having any issues. Not sure of the year model or mileage on your unit but what they are telling you is suspect. What do the codes you mentioned indicate?

That is consistent with what they told me. These guys are pretty stand-up. They said they don't do the regen there, they don't have the equipment, so they weren't trying to sell me anything. And they only charged me $135 to flush the pink stuff out of all my pipes, and do a top-down inspection of the coach and chassis.

The codes are:
P204F
P20BA

OBD-codes.com says something about the PCM finding a malfunction in the SCR system, and all mimsy are my borogoves, and my mome raths are outgrabe, doo-dah, doo-dah, God save the Queen, and cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Maybe it makes sense to you?

[JimSpy]

Originally Posted by Bob Denman

Perhaps he just needs fresher pee in his DEF tank...

https://www.thorforums.com/forums/at...1&d=1619116964

So, all this time, I've been peeing in the wrong tank?

[JimSpy]

Originally Posted by EA37TS

On my rig as long as I drive highway speeds the majority of the time no problem. If a regen light comes on I have a switch on the dash which allows me to perform a manual regen. 8000 miles and regents have all happened between 60 and 65 mph.

Switch on lower left is regen.

Attachment 29926

I have neither a regen light nor a manual switch.

I have been doing a little off-highway driving, but not that much.

[Judge]

Originally Posted by JimSpy

And they only charged me $135 to flush the pink stuff out of all my pipes, and do a top-down inspection of the coach and chassis.

So here's your first mistake...... you don't go to the RV dealer for chassis / engine problems. They are defintely not qualified to diagnois this issue. They may have a code reader but they know little to nothing about a Ford diesel emmission system. They also won't know about Ford TSB's.

Uness your RV dealer is also a Ford authroized service center, you need to go to your local Ford dealer... I assumed that is who you were dealing with for this issue and not an RV dealer.

Never use an RV dealer for anything other than an oil change when it comes to the engine or chassis.

[Coveman2]

During a cross country trip the regen light came on but did not do a regen, called Ford and they said take it to a Ford dealer ASAP, we were fortunate to be near Lloydminster
Alberta and the dealer (Boundary Ford) could get us in right away. We did lose power
but kept the speed at 70 kms as it would not go any faster. The tech did a manual regen and told me that because the vehicle was so new they sometime have to do that, to as he put it wake up the process. Have not had a problem since.
Coveman2

[The_Breeze]

Originally Posted by Judge

So here's your first mistake...... you don't go to the RV dealer for chassis / engine problems. They are defintely not qualified to diagnois this issue. They may have a code reader but they know little to nothing about a Ford diesel emmission system. They also won't know about Ford TSB's.

Uness your RV dealer is also a Ford authroized service center, you need to go to your local Ford dealer... I assumed that is who you were dealing with for this issue and not an RV dealer.

Never use an RV dealer for anything other than an oil change when it comes to the engine or chassis.

Don't stop at engine and chassis. Some don't know which end of an RV is the front

[Judge]

Originally Posted by The_Breeze

Don't stop at engine and chassis. Some don't know which end of an RV is the front

Touché my friend!

[JimSpy]

Originally Posted by Judge

So here's your first mistake...... you don't go to the RV dealer for chassis / engine problems. They are defintely not qualified to diagnois this issue. They may have a code reader but they know little to nothing about a Ford diesel emmission system. They also won't know about Ford TSB's.

Uness your RV dealer is also a Ford authroized service center, you need to go to your local Ford dealer... I assumed that is who you were dealing with for this issue and not an RV dealer.

Never use an RV dealer for anything other than an oil change when it comes to the engine or chassis.

Well, this particular place just hired a certified Ford mechanic, and it is he who advised me on this issue - without selling me anything - and apparently described it properly, according to what I've learned both on OBD-Codes.com and here. I was using a local RV dealer for coach-related stuff, and a Ford dealer for engine/chassis stuff, so I am hip to what you say. But I switched to this RV dealer because of very high marks from everyone, and because of their newly-hired Ford tech. So right back atcha! But generally, yes, that's good advice. I only checked with y'all to make sure that the real experts here were in agreement with what I was hearing. Due diligence!

[JimSpy]

Originally Posted by Coveman2

During a cross country trip the regen light came on but did not do a regen, called Ford and they said take it to a Ford dealer ASAP, we were fortunate to be near Lloydminster
Alberta and the dealer (Boundary Ford) could get us in right away. We did lose power
but kept the speed at 70 kms as it would not go any faster. The tech did a manual regen and told me that because the vehicle was so new they sometime have to do that, to as he put it wake up the process. Have not had a problem since.
Coveman2

So what you're saying is, this is actually a high priority, do-not-plan-a-cross-country-trip situation.

Thanks. We were planning a cross-country trip. Will take care of this toot-sweet.

[Judge]

Originally Posted by JimSpy

Well, this particular place just hired a certified Ford mechanic, and it is he who advised me on this issue - without selling me anything - and apparently described it properly, according to what I've learned both on OBD-Codes.com and here. I was using a local RV dealer for coach-related stuff, and a Ford dealer for engine/chassis stuff, so I am hip to what you say. But I switched to this RV dealer because of very high marks from everyone, and because of their newly-hired Ford tech. So right back atcha! But generally, yes, that's good advice. I only checked with y'all to make sure that the real experts here were in agreement with what I was hearing. Due diligence!

Hiring a “certified” Ford mechanic is all well and good but it doesn’t make the RV dealership qualified to fully diagnosis.... or even provide authorized Ford warranty service.... unless it is an actual Ford dealership.

I have a sofisticated scanner and often pull up codes to help point me in the right direction if I’m trying to solve an issue myself... so sure... an RV dealer can do the same thing. So if they were doing it as a courtesy, that’s certainly fine and helpful.

In the end, the RV dealer doesn’t have access to TSB’s, Recalls, etc. that would be used to further diagnose and potentially correct an issue like the one you reported. If it was me, I would be contacting my Ford dealer to get it into them as soon as possible whether the dealer was reading the code ls for you or not.... especially if it is under warranty.

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by JimSpy

Well, this particular place just hired a certified Ford mechanic, and it is he who advised me on this issue - without selling me anything - and apparently described it properly, according to what I've learned both on OBD-Codes.com and here. I was using a local RV dealer for coach-related stuff, and a Ford dealer for engine/chassis stuff, so I am hip to what you say. But I switched to this RV dealer because of very high marks from everyone, and because of their newly-hired Ford tech. So right back atcha! But generally, yes, that's good advice. I only checked with y'all to make sure that the real experts here were in agreement with what I was hearing. Due diligence!

And why is it that a certified Ford Mechanic would want to work at an RV dealership? Why isn't that mechanic working at the Ford dealership if they are truly certified?

As Judge pointed out, unless that dealer is a Ford Authorized Service Center they cannot perform and bill warranty work. You might get stuck with the check if the work was not pre authorized.