Parked Regens Every Day

Discussion in 'International Forum' started by Bugsy1108, Jan 13, 2020.

  1. Bugsy1108

    Bugsy1108 Light Load Member

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    2014 Prostar with Maxxforce 13

    I started having to do frequent regen Cycles at about 600,000 MI. The truck would periodically put out this dense Ash smoke which the dealership has told me is actually the filter being processed during a regular regen.
    I had what some people call a shake and bake done - the d o c and filter were baked and cleaned.
    Following that, they told me that for some reason there it wasn't consistently getting up the temperatures during a regeneration.
    They ran four Cycles and twice it got to Temp and twice it did not.
    They told me that it might need a new DOC or a new doser.
    At that point I did neither because what they have done so far they charged me $6,000 for and it pretty well drain my account.
    But I noticed that jump from an average of 6 miles to the gallon to almost nine miles to the gallon. It ran better I had more power - everything seemed great for a month or so.
    At that point my mileage started dropping like crazy and I started having parked Regens about every 3 days.
    Recently, I had to replace an intercooler hose after finding a hole in it. My performance improved and I didn't have a regen cycle for a couple weeks. I thought okay maybe that was the issue. It wasn't.
    I'm back to having more frequent regen Cycles. It smokes like mad when it has a regen.
    It hasn't used a drop of coolant or oil.
    The last two days I've had to do three regens and my fuel economy is down to 5.5.
    This is just not sustainable so I've got to figure something out.

    Another shop that I've spoken with said that the DOC idea was ridiculous. Said that if it really needed a doc it wouldn't be half and half it would just not be working.
    That leaves me with the possibility of the doser injector which I understand is usually replaced at 400 or 500 thousand miles and mine is still original.
    Before I drop more money on this Beast can anybody tell me if this sounds like a reasonable conclusion? I appreciate it.
     
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2020
    Reason for edit: Hit the post button before I was ready to.
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  3. Heavyd

    Heavyd Road Train Member

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    Some people do not understand what a DOC is and how it works. It certainly isn't something that either works or it doesn't. DOC do degrade and become weak and will not create enough heat or create heat in some sections and not the other as they start to wear out. If they force a regen and it smokes a bit during temp increase, this is a good sign the DOC is worn out. Doser injectors are a regular maintenance item. So if you have never replaced it, that is a good start. Your performance and fuel economy could be regen related, but also could be from exhaust back pressure valve or turbo wastegate valves sticking or not working properly. You will likely find you have more than one problem. Maxxforce engines are well documented to be hard to work on, hard to diagnose and every expensive for O/O.
     
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  4. Brandt

    Brandt Road Train Member

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    I can't believe a maxxforce made it to 600,000 miles. You know that engine is bad. They don't even make it anymore is was so bad. Plus all the lawsuits they had on that engine
     
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  5. olddog_newtricks

    olddog_newtricks Medium Load Member

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    Isn't the N 13 basically a rebranded Maxxforce with the scr on it ?
     
  6. Army91W

    Army91W Heavy Load Member

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    I’m not a mechanic but from what I understand when I had emissions problems on a truck is that if the doc is getting hotter than your dpf then your doc is bad. If the mechanic did a regen with the cpu hooked up they would know within ten minutes.

    Your dozer sprays diesel into your exhaust down to your doc. If it clogged with carbon than you’re not getting a mist so most or all of your diesel is not igniting during a regen and not cleaning your dpf. This causes the blue smoke during a regen.

    Your doc ignites the fuel from the diesel. If your doc is clogged than the ignited fuel is not cleaning your dpf. Which means your dpf is not being cleaned.

    I understand you baked the doc and dpf but they have a life span and sometimes they need to be replaced like tires and brakes. Good luck.


     
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  7. Brandt

    Brandt Road Train Member

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    I believe so. Their new engine is like A27 or something but it really a MAN engine from Europe, I think
     
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  8. Army91W

    Army91W Heavy Load Member

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    I’m not running out to buy a new International but the first MaxxForce about put them out of business. Is it crazy to think that the A27 is going to be reliable? Two turds in a row? lol

     
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  9. Twista89

    Twista89 Light Load Member

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    The a26 is VW motor and VW knows their diesels
     
  10. Bugsy1108

    Bugsy1108 Light Load Member

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    Yeah I heard all the nightmare stories and talk to a few mechanics and thought I would chance it because of the price of the truck. At first it worked out fairly well. I did have to have the EGR valve and both coolers replaced, but it was still under warranty. The shop told me it would have been over $8,000 to do that had it not been under warranty. That seems pretty #### steep considering you can buy a remanufactured engine for that price. But I found out that the parts only make up a quarter of that, it's mostly labor.

    I've always worked on my own Vehicles including my trucks, less so on this one because everything is so tight and hard to get to.

    Are the doser and accessible for a driver to reasonably replace, or is this one of those things where you have to pull the whole dog house?
    I've looked briefly at the assembly for the exhaust and it basically looks like a big canister with a few clamps.

    Small question that is completely unrelated, the switch clusters on the instrument panel look like they take a tool similar to the din stereo to remove. But the tool for the stereo does not fit. Is there a specialty tool that I can get for those or is there a trick to pulling them out?

    You'll never know how much drivers like me appreciate your responses.
    Some dealerships want to charge you to answer a question.
     
  11. Bugsy1108

    Bugsy1108 Light Load Member

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    It does have some serious design flaws. A lot of that was corrected, but not soon enough to save the engine. The EGR valve itself was redesigned a bit to make it more robust. The original was basically breaking from the vibration of the engine running. The coolers are located on the top of the engine so if you ever have an incident where the coolant is low it can cause an air bubble to form and then the uneven heat can cause stress cracking so that the cooler fails. These engines have to be vacuum filled to avoid those types of problems.
    Honestly when the engine is running probably it does a great job. Right after the emissions pack was cleaned I hauled 45,000 lb over SandStone and only had to grab two gears.
    Not bad for an engine that only makes 450 horse. God I miss my old Detroit 60.
    As for the mileage, a buddy of mine drives with Mercer and has just over 1 million on a maxxforce 13. Of course he bought his new so never had the issues from companies delaying maintenance.
    As I understand it, the maxxforce 13 was basically a Caterpillar engine navstar picked up and added their own parts to to finish out.
    The huge lawsuits were because of the emissions problems. The findings were insufficient testing of faulty designs.
     
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