2013 Ram, high hours idling

[TCDiesel]

I wouldn't be overly concern with the idle hrs, its going to ramp to 1000RPMs in the cold, (Unless the owner/driver in the truck touching the brake) Like GSB stated the dealers in most cases will FUBAR if you let them, generally its the sensor(s) or harness, Bad DEF is like a hurricane in MN ,dealers use this to drain your wallet $$$.

My 2013.14.15 all have been flawless to date.... I don't let anyone do any repairs on My trucks, even if its warranty I stand over and watch and oversee everything, in some cases the dealer just gives Me the parts and I do it, and sign the warranty paper(s) for the dealer to send to RAM. I'm a PITR and they know it so they let me have My way, I am tactful and kind so that helps a lot.

I also do NOT allow any recalls on witch require things like the steering wheel to be dismantle or the cab disassembly, BC 1 Person IN CA (air bag) went off and put a bump on their nose ( Only in CA) never happens in MN heeeeHeeeee.

 

[Newsa]

I don't know this for a fact. But I suspect something in the engine parameters programmed into the ECM may have been fouling SCR's in 2013 models.

Something in the exhaust perhaps? Or maybe the cattalyst itself was bad?


I haven't recently had any CEL's. But they used to come & go on their own. Yes, sometimes my engine would hiccup and throw a code or 2 and later down the road would clear it's own code. Or it might take a week to clear. Normally, i wouldn't be alarmed with the idle time. But if 2013 SCR's are going bad at a faster rate than expected, i might be worried that they didn't update the RRT's like RAM required. Maybe Bob4x4 or Sag2 can comment?

 

[Newsa]

I'm actually tempted to start buying mopar brand DEF

 

[TCDiesel]

Just to test the weather You received more CEL, heck I dump in deionized Water only in Summer months. IMO the concentrate of UREA and deionized water is to High on the UREA side,its the UREA that FUBAR everything ,H2o will evaporate the UREA turns to solid mater and sticks to hard material, plastic, steel you name it.

 

[Berrigan]

I'm actually tempted to start buying mopar brand DEF

I do. It costs more but if I only use Mopar products and have any problems it should not cost me anything. Unless they claim contaminated DEF. I sure wish there was a aftermarket locking mechanism for the fuel fill and DEF fill, or a descent weather sealed lockable fuel door. Genos lockable fuel doors don't have rubber seals like oem. With the cap less fuel fill I think the sealed door is important.

 

[Newsa]

Just to test the weather You received more CEL, heck I dump in deionized Water only in Summer months. IMO the concentrate of UREA and deionized water is to High on the UREA side,its the UREA that FUBAR everything ,H2o will evaporate the UREA turns to solid mater and sticks to hard material, plastic, steel you name it.

The def sits in my tank long enough to degrade into low concentration def. I won't add deionized water.
I will continue to add DEF from sealed containers. But will likely begin buying MOPAR branded. If they sell me bad DEF, it should be covered?

 

[TCDiesel]

How is buying Mopar label DEF going to differ problems? You can show all the receipt you want Ram will still claim bad DEF....You could take all the DEF brands in the world and Have them tested they all will be the same if Retail produce 33% Urea and 67% Deionized water, that's the only requirement 2 blends I would be shock to ever find DEF of by 1 or 2%, its that easy to make.

I have been using Urea in our chemical clean business for 3 Decades I know all it properties , If you buy DEF look into the container if its cloudy or has material suspended its bad BC of storing in swing temps, it gets bad in tanks for same reason, generally keeping your DEF tank full will stop most of the storing problems, when you leave your tank get empty and the heater kicks on it raise the temps this also effect the life of DEF, also the element trend to burn out in the tank in some vehicles.

There a lot of misleading info on the net on DEF it all leads to the same source , putting faith in things that have limited resources and Knowledge, I'm sure we all can agree Ram knows how to manufacture vehicles its fixing them is there short coming BC everything is setup for designing and producing units at a profit.

 

[Berrigan]

The def sits in my tank long enough to degrade into low concentration def. I won't add deionized water.
I will continue to add DEF from sealed containers. But will likely begin buying MOPAR branded. If they sell me bad DEF, it should be covered?

Every bottle of Mopar DEF I have purchased has had a manufactured date and a use by date. the use by dates are usually about 2 years in the future.

 

[DonFitzwater]

Ramdriver, you only have three choices in my opinion.

1. Drive the truck and accept that Ram/Cummins have no real fix for this EPA derived problem. It will likely run well but the light will be on.

2. Delete and become your own warranty station (I do not recommend this route)

3. Fight the dealer, Ram and the EPA and see what happens.

They could never make my trucks random emissions system dtc's stop so I traded in on a new Hemi. I miss the diesel but not the damn headaches it gave me. My truck never left me stranded or even ran bad......but I knew I couldn't get rid of it when the time came if it were deleted or plagued with multiple check engine lights. Let's face it,these trucks are ungodly expensive and having to take a beating at sale time along with the depreciation just doesn't make sense.

 

[gsbrockman]

I'm actually tempted to start buying mopar brand DEF

#ad

DEF = DEF = DEF = DEF

 

[Newsa]

#ad

DEF = DEF = DEF = DEF

Well, I have been buying mopar filters. I guess that's really when they hooked me. Sigh.

 

[pcdavis]

I believe it was sometime early last year that I got the recall for the reversed harness connectors on the temp sensors for the DPF. It seems to me that the regens are much less often since they got that corrected in my truck, 2013. Now, something that's concerned me about this though is just how much damage might have been done to the DPF and/or the SCR before that got corrected. I'll bet the temps during regen were all screwed up until the sensors were feeding the correct data back to the ECM. I'm just throwing this in the mix because of mention of more SCR's being replaced in the '13s.

 

[AH64ID]

I actually wasn't doubting the truth of what you said. I was just commenting that that was not in the diesel supplement a few years ago. I hadn't read it anywhere, but thought it should be somewhere between 300 & 500 hours

If you download the Diesel Supplement for 2013 it is in there.

 

[Newsa]

If you download the Diesel Supplement for 2013 it is in there.

Interesting! Thanks for doing that research. I was just looking at my hard copy.

I wonder if they know some 2013's don't count hours correctly?

 

[RamDriver]

I just got a voicemail from the dealer, that they're going to replace the dpf. We'll see how that goes. Might have to wait over the weekend for parts.

 

[RamDriver]

Things seem okay since the DPF replacement. Haven't gotten an engine light yet. I did notice a vibration on deceleration. Do other pickups have this issue? Going 45, let off the throttle, and there's a fairly strong vibration. The steering wheel shakes visibly. I noticed it before, at lower speeds, turning a corner at intersections. It doesn't matter if the exhaust brake (which is so useless it's silly) is on or off, and it's not the brakes. Any ideas what that's about?

 

[RamDriver]

Correction: they replaced the SCR. I was told on the phone that they were doing the DPF, but the receipt says catalytic converter, which makes a lot more sense.

 

[Newsa]

Things seem okay since the DPF replacement. Haven't gotten an engine light yet. I did notice a vibration on deceleration. Do other pickups have this issue? Going 45, let off the throttle, and there's a fairly strong vibration. The steering wheel shakes visibly. I noticed it before, at lower speeds, turning a corner at intersections. It doesn't matter if the exhaust brake (which is so useless it's silly) is on or off, and it's not the brakes. Any ideas what that's about?

Did you tell them your exhaust brake isn't working? If you get another CEL/MIL your turbo might be sooty? Or not actuating
properly for the exhaust brake. I suggest running exhaust brake all the time. See if it gets better. What boost can you ramp up on your turbo screen?

 

[RamDriver]

It seems like the exhaust brake functions physically, but the programming prevents it from actuating when I could actually use it. For example, if I'm going downhill with it off, the torque converter locks and I get some compression braking. The second I push the exhaust brake button, the torque converter seems to unlock, revs drop to idle, and the pickup coasts - no exhaust brake. Anywhere below 50 mph, it doesn't hold a gear and give some braking effect, unless I do something drastic, like stomping on the throttle (exactly what you do when you want to slow down), so it downshifts, or pushing the - button on the column shifter until it finally downshifts. It usually take three pushes to downshift from 6th to 5th. When I last took it in, the dealer tech noted that he verified that it has the latest programming. Anyway, the exhaust brake physically works. It comes on at idle in warm up mode, and works on the highway, if you need to slow from 70 to 55, more if you make it downshift and lock up.
Here's the other thing. It has bigger tires. They're 18's instead of 17's, that's all. Slightly bigger wheels and tires from a '14 RAM. The dealer swapped the whole set, rather than just replacing one mismatched rim when I bought it, which turned into a real pain in the neck. They actually swapped crappy tires onto it, after I bought it. I was livid, and they put new tires on it, but insisted that they were the same tires that were on it. There's just no way they fit 17 inch tires on 18 inch rims. Then the TPMS sensors didn't compute. '13 and '14 aren't compatible. They swapped those'too, but the speedo's still off 6%. I read a post on here about a guy who put bigger tires on his rig, and hit the same issue. Maybe inputting the right tire size would solve it. It might just be that the computer's not getting the results it expects, so it cuts it loose.

 

[Newsa]

I bought some 18 inch tires/rims off of Ebay to replace my 17". My Ebrake still works down to 5 mph + 6%.