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Medium Duty Diesel Truck Issues

mrk5

mrk5

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One of our crane units is on a 2017 Freightliner M2 chassis with a 6.7L Cummins. We are constantly getting check engine lights and we have trouble getting it to regen. It's not a huge issue if it's just the CEL, but sometimes we get the other light and the engine derates.

We keep it parked in the shop. Most days it's getting started up to back out of the shop and park outside and then started up again at the end of the day to move back inside for the night. I'm wondering if that's what is causing our issues. Maybe it would be better if we just left it parked outside so it's only getting started up when it's going to be driven to a job. Curious of any thoughts on this.
 
mrk5 said:
One of our crane units is on a 2017 Freightliner M2 chassis with a 6.7L Cummins. We are constantly getting check engine lights and we have trouble getting it to regen. It's not a huge issue if it's just the CEL, but sometimes we get the other light and the engine derates.

We keep it parked in the shop. Most days it's getting started up to back out of the shop and park outside and then started up again at the end of the day to move back inside for the night. I'm wondering if that's what is causing our issues. Maybe it would be better if we just left it parked outside so it's only getting started up when it's going to be driven to a job. Curious of any thoughts on this.
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Are you getting any codes?
There's a cheap scan tool ($400) that you can use to force a regen but usually if you're getting the red light and derating, you should have a code,or more
 
The last time we had an issue we were just getting the one CEL and there were no codes on the dash. @ktmoutfront hooked me up with a code reader but apparently we need a special connector.
 
That’s the worst thing you can do for emissions diesel is just start it and shut it off. They need to be driven and worked hard to burn that DPF and keep the emission system cleaned out or they are nothing but trouble.
 
I bought a Harbor Frieght one for our shop that the guys can take on the road. It can do forced regens on Cummins, Paccar, and Detroit stuff.

I'd wager to say that the on/off for short periods of time withouit it getting up to temp is part of the issue.
 
Could be a lot of things causing your issues. Hard to just guess. Starting it up and running for bit and shutting it off is not great but shouldn't be the real problem. Running in PTO mode is way worse with emissions equipped trucks but there's not much you can do when the truck is built to do that. As long as it gets a good hard long drive once in while it should burn itself out. Short trips over and over don't allow it to build enough heat. I used to try to drive our utility bucket trucks for at least an hour out the highway and back once a week when they were being used in town all week. The 6.7 Cummins has a lot of vgt turbo issues or it could just be a simple bad sensor. You need to get someone to hook up to the engine. The dash usually will not give you engine codes. Any good independent guy should have the right setup if you don't have an actual cummins tech around your area. I have a $10k Snap-On scanner at work that will do all makes plus a laptop with Cat specific software for all my Cat equipment and trucks with Cat engines.
 
swettysblazer said:
I bought a Harbor Frieght one for our shop that the guys can take on the road. It can do forced regens on Cummins, Paccar, and Detroit stuff.

I'd wager to say that the on/off for short periods of time withouit it getting up to temp is part of the issue.
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That's the one I was mentioning.
It was $399 and it covers the Cummins, Detroit and international engines.
 
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