Regen And High Idle...confused

So when my regen light comes on, I am typically at an appropriate location where I can spend the 40 min. or so to let it do it's thing. No problem. I have three questions I would appreciate help with.

1. If I can't do the regen where i am, can I (and how far) travel before it's a problem?

2. I thought I read somewhere...or was told... that it should regen while I am driving over a certain speed for certain amount of time. If that's the case, how frequently should I expect the process to alert me while idling?

3.Even when It's not showing an alert to regen while idling for a long period, my idle will crawl up from 600 rpm to 1100 rpm for several or more minutes. What is going on when this happens?

btw...2016 FL cascadia.

Thanks for any insight!

It's my understanding that you can drive when the regen light comes on but I'm not sure how far but it will eventually shut down your power and you're forced to pull over and do a parked regen. In our International's the regen light will come on in a different color depending on how much build up there is in the system. If it's not bad enough to require a parked regen and it does it while driving you don't even notice it really. That increased idle you hear ( I hear mine mainly at night ) is the truck doing a self regen basically just burning off some of the build up.

Wanda wants me to do a regen about every 5 or 8 long-period idles... she is older and has more miles, don't know if that makes a difference. It never takes more than 15 mins. I wouldn't travel if it comes on... I don't think the increased rpm noise is loud enough to upset anyone.

If the buildup isn't too bad and you're running up hills you can sometimes skip the regen and let the engine burn off the accumulation with normal driving. You can drive for hours if the regen light is the only dash warning.

Things get serious when the lowest yellow check engine light comes on (outline of an engine with no text). This means that the buildup is bad enough that you need to perform a regen and normal driving isn't going to make the regen light go away. At that point the clock is ticking towards an engine derate. How many minutes you have will vary depending on the amount of buildup, humidity, outside temperature and a number of other conditions but you'll generally have more than an hour. Once the check engine light with the word, "CHECK" comes on you only have a few minutes until your engine derates and your parking options are what you can coast your truck to.

btw...2016 FL cascadia.

May God have mercy on your soul!

Regen Info Sheet Freightliner/Detroit - Gives info on lights and regens

Regen's are supposed to happen automatically at highway speeds/normal operating temps. Make sure you are not parked over grass or flammable materials when doing a parked regen - it makes A LOT OF HEAT and can set surrounding flammables on fire.

Usually, your idle may rise (when not doing a regen) when consuming a lot of power (inverter), or when cycling Air Conditioning, or when the coolant temp rises and needs a little more fan speed to bring it down. You'll see this a lot in hotter ambient temps (because you aren't forcing air through the radiator like you do when moving).

If you're idling a lot, you will be doing more regens - if you don't idle a lot and are forced to do regens a lot, might be time to have the DPF filter cleaned (which is basically, using chemicals, pressure, air and heat in a DPF machine, to scrub the filter).

Rick

You guys are the best! Parrothead, Pete, CWS and Rick (congrats on your new title and promotion here) have given me exactly what I needed in response to my question. That's one reason, and there are many, why I love this site and forum. Good honest answers in a non-judgemental atmosphere.

Thanks again so very much.

Duck

My truck was doing regens more frequently (while driving) and it was really affecting fuel mileage, not to mention pulling power.

Our shop manager said normally a dpf filter doesn't have to be cleaned out til about 500k miles. They didn't clean it and not exactly sure what they did, but it finally stopped doing all that. I've got a 2016 Cascadia also. Mine has about 315k miles on it now.

Susan: My truck has 312,600 ...so we are almost twinsies! I'll def ask the shop next time I roll through a terminal.

Yeah I'm really not sure what they did. My company's shop is a Freightliner Service Point and when a tech suggested the dpf filter cleaning, our shop manager immediately said no.. didn't need it lol. Whatever he told the new tech to do worked but since I'm no mechanic, just thanked them for the fix. Sorry I couldn't she'd more light in it.

They did hook up my truck to a laptop, which is how they knew it had been regenning all the time. I had come in and let them know my mileage was way down and the truck wasn't running as well as it should have been. I think they may have tweaked the programming a bit.

Another 2016 Cascadia here. As far as how far you can drive it. If it doesn't regen by itself, first the regen light will come on. Maybe a couple hours later it will start blinking. An hour or so later the check engine light should come on. An hour or so later this ominous looking red warning light comes on and tells you to STOP!

Don't ask me how I know. LOL!

JJ