HUGE SUCCESS!!! Aftertreatment cleaning on Freightliner Columbia/Mercedes MBE4000

OK, guys, I was the person who asked about "DPF Full of Soot". Thanks to your incredibly helpful advice, I am here to report a huge success and my experience.

To recap, I have a 2009 Freightliner Columbia/Mercedes MBE4000. 350,000 miles. The truck was shutting off and giving "dpf full of soot" error and had no power. Regens would fail.

We decided, based on advice received, to take apart and clean the filters (DOC and DPF). First we blew it with compressed air, but not much came out, just a small amount of soot.

Then we did it with a heated power washer. Something interesting was that there was comparatively little black soot. However, there was a lot of ASH. It was caked like clay inside. It came out with powerwashing as a stream of red-mud-colored water. The mud had red colored solid particles that I could squish in my hand and they would behave like clay particles and become mud when squished.

Interesting also, it took a long time to wash it out. We even soaked these parts in a barrel of water overnight. Power washed about 4 times overall. After everything, red mud stopped and water was clean. We let the filters dry out for a day.

We also bought all new temp sensors and all new pressure sensors. Put everything together.

My driver drove this truck (it is his truck) and he says that the power is AMAZING and that it runs like new and very strong, accelerates like a sports car when bobtailed and has strong pulling power when loaded. At first, regen and red STOP ENGINE light lit up but then they stopped appearing.

So, again, thanks to all for advice and guidance.

My last questions are,

1) Do we need to do anything else like reset filter life in the computer?

2) How do we know that regens work (little soot suggests that they do work).

3) How do we know if the DOC and DPF are still functional? Maybe we damaged the platinum when the head gasket blew or when the EGR valve failed?

4) Would it be a good idea to invite a mechanic over with a Detroit computer to analyze the engine?

Thanks again.

 

ok, great, thanks. I guess if the truck is not constantly asked for regens I should be OK. I am not a trucking company, I am a rigger/machinery mover and only drive my trucks to job sites and such. Overall the truck sees perhaps 20,000 miles per year driven in suburban service. It goes someplace almost every day, but usually not more than 30 miles away.

How often would regens "normally" be required?

We do not generally idle this truck a lot, however in winter we take time to warm it up, like 20 minutes of high idle.

 

What liability are you referring to?