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Engine light

20K views 47 replies 20 participants last post by  lqdchkn 
#1 ·
I have a little over 1,200 miles on my Colorado diesel and everything has been fine till yesterday. I was driving through town when all of the sudden I had three warning lights come on and reduced power to limp home mode. The TPM, Stability Track and engine lights were on. I limped into a parking lot and activated OnStar to see if they could do a diagnostic. For some reason they couldn't but did connect me to the closest dealer (not where I bought the truck). In the mean time I tried starting the truck again and this time only the check engine light was on. Talked to the dealership and they said bring it in but they were about 10 miles away so I told them I'd need a tow. I tried starting it once more and this time no warning lights and full Power. I drove to the dealership with no problems. They scanned the fault codes and found it had to do with excessive temp in the diesel particulate filter. They said not to drive it so gave me a new Equinox to drive. Naturally this was on a Friday of a three day weekend so they can't do anything till next Tuesday.:frown2:
 
#3 ·
What does a normal day of driving consist of for you? How many miles, each way? What kind of roads, what kind of speeds. You do need to get these on a continous mile trip on the open non congested highway or freeway for at least a good 20 minutes to a half hour, at least 2x a tank full of fuel. This is to do a proper burn off of particulates collected in the diesel particulate filter. It's kind of like starting up a charcoal briquette BBQ, you need to get everything burning all off all at once.
 
#4 ·
I live about 10 miles from town so I have 20 miles or so of 40-60 and do take it out on the freeway at least once a week or so. I wondered if it it had something to do with a regen but I did not see the increased rpm, hot smell or any message saying to keep driving so I'm not sure it had anything to do with a regen.
 
#5 · (Edited)
A 30 minute drive in 5th or 6th gear the whole drive usually completes a DPF cleansing "burn off". Just so you know. Or get a Scan Gauge II and program in the proper sequence for "X-Files" for "BSCS 1" which is usually the temp sensor for your DPF filter. If the temp gets up over 1090F, while driving down the highway or freeway, time it and see how long the temperature stays elevated that high. My TDI Touareg ususally sits between 1100 and 1165F for 10 to 12 minutes... YMMV on your Duramax. Could be longer, could be less time. I like to slow down to 55 mph when it starts occuring, driving hard and fast during a regen kills my MPG's per tank, just blowing heat out the tail pipe. I want it just hot enough to burn, but not going too fast that I am blowing more fuel out the tail pipe on the exhaust stroke of the piston to keep the DPF hot... as all that heat goes out the tail pipe, instead of into burning inside the engine where it produces forward motion instead.

I don't think that with warm up, for you 10 miles is enough to complete a regen. Take a 25 or 30 mile trip on highway or country roads where you can do at least 40-45mph continuously.

Go pick your truck up today, and take it on a little road trip. I bet the problem gets resolved. You have too much soot in the DPF, you need to do that road trip and burn it all off.
10 miles to work, each way, you should consider an electric car or truck, instead.

Also, buy a good name brand of diesel fuel... i don't at all like truck stop diesel fuel in these smaller motor diesels, I always try to buy good name brand automobile diesel fuel, something like 76, Conoco Phillips, Sinclair, Chevron, etc. The fuel I absolutely avoid here in California is the lousy fuel like Shell, Arco and Valero. Those two brands of fuel cost me 7 to 10% MPG per fill up, in my logs, consistently. For what ever reason, the times I've used the last two brands of fuel, I have been dissappointed, and this has been over the last 12 years here in California. A good brand of diesel fuel makes your regenerations easier to occur, and more complete.

You have a 35000-$45000 truck with an additional $4000 premium diesel motor option. Don't feed it's injection system cheap fuel. Find and run the good stuff.
 
#7 ·
I am a 2.8 owner & have 5000 miles on my Colorado, also I have been in the wholesale petroleum fuel business in California since 1978. All retail Diesel is manufactured to a US Federal specification and is check regularly, all retail operations no matter how they are branded at times are selling their branded competitors product, i.e. Chevron shuts down for a "Turn Around" to rebuild their refinery so they borrow from Shell or Valero or Exxon or whoever has the capacity & in turn when Exxon or Shell or Valero is/are down for their yearly maintenance they trade back with their opposite. My opinion is that I want to buy my Diesel from anyone who has a large monthly volume so I don't get some fuel that has been in storage for a considerable amount of time or exposed to moisture. I have had Diesel trucks since 1985 and never once gotten any BAD DIESEL, got some BAD GAS more than once but never Diesel. btw the joke in our industry are the "bath tub refining" operations making "bio diesel" that i would stay away from as far as possible or only is absolute emergency.
 
#8 · (Edited)
It' is supposed to be made to a specification, but how often do they check or test in the field if lubricity or Cetane ratings are being met, in the field, at the retail pump. I am sorry, but my fuel logs don't lie. The brands I have mentioned above, in my logs, are consistently better in the MPG's than the other brands I mentioned. It's true, when refineries are having maintenance work done, you may get someone elses branded fuel, but when their refineries are up and running, you are getting their branded fuel the whole rest of the time.

I can tell you looking at all the statistics on TDI club for High Pressure Fuel Pump failures in Southern and Western states, where ambient air temperatures are the highest, that Valero and Shell brand fuels tend to cause more Bosch CP 4.1 High pressure fuel pump failures than all the other brands. That's in raw data alone. I don't think Shell sells more diesel fuel than the other brands, they are far from the cheapest in price per gallon, compared to Sinclair or Conoco- Phillips, or Standard, or Exxon / Mobil.

There are vendors and suppliers that make diesel fuel product that is better than the Federal standard. CA South Coast Air Quality Management District pretty much requires diesel fuel to be in excess of 48 Cetane rating. Most of the 76 Conoco in this area is refined to a 53 cetane rating. All the way from Los Angeles down to San Diego and the Inland Empire. It starts up and burns with very little soot or particulate matter when under heavy acceleration in city traffic. This fuel is a pollution requirement in the areas it is sold in. Much less soot than the 40 cetane fuel I got in Kansas City, MO, that ran rough on a cold start up, and the fuel itself was stinky smelly beyond belief in aromatics still left in the fuel, when doing that fillup.
 
#12 ·
I agree. I'm anxious to hear from the dealer what they find next week. Unfortunately mine is the first diesel Colorado they have seen so that makes me a little nervous but they have done a great job maintaining my last two gas Silvarado's. There was absolutely no indication it was going through a regen and even if it was why would it show TPM, Stabil Trac and Engine warning lights and immediately go into reduced power mode? Obviously it didn't want me to keep driving to finish a regen. Possibly a faulty EGT sensor?
 
#13 · (Edited)
Gee, i have been driving diesels since I bought my 1981 VW Jetta Coupe 2 door diesel, all over the West, to the Rockies and back, logged 1.3 million miles. Almost always fill up with Automobile diesel fuel, a good brand, and I've never had a bad tank of fuel, or found water in my fuel filter. Truck stops and high turnover are a myth. What isn't a myth is a station that services the filters regularly, and picks up diesel fuel off the surface of the tank, not the bottom, where the water is, since water is more dense and heavier than diesel fuel.

It's a non issue.... keep the diesel turnover in your truck diesel tank high, run a little bit of Power Service white bottle to keep your fuel dry every 3 or 4 tanks, and you should have no problem with it out west here. I can't speak for midwest, tornado, or Hurircane and flood water type country where it's very easy to get water into the storage tanks where you buy your fuel. I suggest topping off BEFORE the bad wet flooding weather hits, and risks contaminating all the fuel stations fuel with water.

West of the Rockies, we just don't see much water in diesel fuel, except perhaps maybe in the North West states, WA and OR.

As for DPF's, I own a Passat and 2 Touaregs with DPFs. I've frequented many a Bulletin Board, and it's generally, n most cases, city folks that buy diesels and drive them short distances, not far enough for a full warm up and enough distance for a full burn off of the DPF.

They will either find a bad sensor for temperature readings, if that's what your dash says, or they will have to perform a manual burn off of your DPF. VW has to do the same thing, rarely, when Grannies buy TDI's and use them to run 3 or 4 miles to get groceries or to go play Bingo at the senior center.

Buy a Scan Gauge, and program it and know when you are coming up on a DPF burn off, so you can help it along with a little bit longer drive. http://www.scangauge.com/support/user-manuals/scangaugeii-user-manuals/

Someone might want to try this coding and see if on one of these trucks, this X gauge programming works to determine and give a read out of SOOT LOAD on the DPF... Get back to us if you try it. http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=4801460&postcount=8
 
#19 · (Edited)
I Had the same thing happen to me while pulling a trailer. The TPM, Stability Track and engine lights were on. I limped into a parking lot. Was able to get home but stopped from lack of power. unhooked trailer wiring and cycled engine which gave me my power back with reduced power.
I called on-star and they checked out on on-star. After restarting several times while talking with on-star the warnings went away except the check engine light stayed on. I drove for a few miles with no problem for approx 5 miles then reduced power again.Parked and called on-star again they setup local dealer to checkout Monday morning.I drove to Church this morning and after church no warning light . Drives great no problem . I will see what they find out in the morning.

By the way truck is completely stock no programmer.
Approx 2500 miles.
On-star is great
I also have never noticed a dpf re-gen.Is there anyway to tell if this has occurred?
 
#22 · (Edited)
Why don''t you pull that Scan Gauge out of your MB, put it in the Duramax, and program the "X gauge" feature from TDI club in there and see what your soot load is. See the link above to TDI club on how to program in the "X gauge" code to get the soot load reading for DPF as a %.

Lower right is my soot load % on my Scan Gauge for the DPF.



Anyway, here is the coding for VW/Audi/ Porsche TDI's:
DPF Load (%)


TXD: 07E0018B
RXF: 0541068B0000
RXD: 4008
MTH: 006400FF0000
NAM: DPF

Corrected values for the Canyon /Colorado:

DPF Level % full (%)


TXD: 07DF018B
RXF: 0541068B0000
RXD: 4008
MTH: 006400FF0000
NAM: DPF

They are identical to VW Audi Porsche coding.
 
#24 ·
A scan gauge will tell you when a regeneration is coming up shortly, and will also tell you when it's happening... the DPF will read 100% and your CAT temps will jump up, well in VW's in my case, to over 1050F, usually 1090 to 1165F is what I usually see during DPF regens.
 
#26 ·
You get what you pay for. Spend a little more and get good fuel and good MPG's. You spent an additional $4000 for a diesel motor. Find some Sinclair, or 76 or Unocal or Conoco or some Phillips 66 on sale. All of those in NV, ID, UT, WY and MT, in my experience, are high quality fuels.
 
#30 ·
This "church mouse" is busy dong a lot of things besides monitoring this site. Talked to the dealer today and the problem turned out o be a bad nox sensor. They said they have had a lot of problems with the nox sensors on all the full size diesels as well but after changing them out haven't had any more problems with the same vehicle. I'll have my truck back tomorrow. Its amazing that even though you don't own a diesel Colorado or Canyon, NinerBikes, you have all this time to spend pontificating on this site! Good night NinerBikes.
 
#31 ·
Awesome Rogue...:smile2:
The #1 failure on DEF equipped trucks Ford/Fiat/GM seems to be the Nox sensor. It will trip all different kinds of fault codes, and can me more misleading than helpful in diagnostics of the DEF issues. Several Nox sensor failures have caused "Poor DEF Quality messages, sending dealers on a wild goose chase, flushing DEF tanks, replacing DEF pumps , blaming owners for using " improper DEF", only to end up being a bad Nox sensor. Our dealer keeps them in stock for the 6.6L due to finicky sensors.
 
#37 · (Edited)
I didn't read the whole thread because, to be honest, I don't understand most of it as I've never had a diesel. I was going to order one for my estimating/ work Truck for my company which means I'm going to run the crap of it in all seasons. Am I going to have to worry about checking this and that at fill up intervals or oil changes? Or do I ha e to baby it out hot days or something?
 
#39 ·
OP have you had anymore issues? I bought my canyon diesel yesterday and today with 190 miles on the odometer, the exact same thing you described happened.

My truck was idling in a parking lot as I was putting some stuff in the back seat and the same lights came on for service stabilitrac, reduced power, so I limped it home while calling OnStar. I relay the codes that OnStar gave me to the dealer service manager over the phone.

I get home, turn off the truck as the dealer is sending me a truck to drive and picking mine up. Then I think it would be easier for them to load up if I moved it to the street so I start it up and all the lights were gone except the check engine light. So, I drove it for a few miles and seemed to have full power but the check engine light is still on.

I called back and they decided to have me drive it in tomorrow instead of sending the wrecker so I've got an hour drive early in the morning to the dealer. (If it doesn't reduce power again.)

So, have you had anymore issues? Have you put many miles on it since the repair? I'll definitely share your experience and fix with them.
 
#40 ·
Joe-Lee..that is exactly what happened to my diesel Colorado at about 500 miles or so (don't remember the exact mileage) suddenly several warning lights including check engine and Stabil Trac and limp home mode. After shutting it down and waiting several minutes it started right up with full power and no warning lights. Drove it to the dealer where they later checked the nox sensors and found one that tested bad. The diesel tech at the dealer (who is very experienced with GM diesels) said they had a lot of problems with previous nox sensors on the big diesels and eventually got new sensors that had not had any problems. My Colorado now had 2,800 miles and has been flawless since.
 
#41 ·
Thank you for update.

I got my truck back today, they found a main ground terminal loose enough to move by hand. It was of course repaired and the truck is doing good for now. If it does it again, I will try to insist that they test nox sensors. I did mention it to them but they felt like the ground was most likely the issue. There is no doubt that it was "an" issue but only time will tell of it was "the" issue.
 
#43 ·
I've been going through this thread as my brand new diesel Colorado just experienced this same thing-T/C, Stabilitrak & Check engine lights came on followed by limp mode. OnStar said it was showing a P200C code. Took it to the dealer and they said it's not the NOx sensor but the reductant injector. I'm nervous that they don't have it right. I even shared this tread with them. Any thoughts?
 
#44 · (Edited)
DTC*P200C Diesel*Particulate*Filter*(DPF)*High*Temperature

The*following*conditions*can*also*cause*the*DTC*to*set:
-Faulty*or*plugged*exhaust*system,*such*as*plugged*diesel*particulate*filter
-Damaged*turbocharger
-Inefficient*diesel*oxidation*catalyst
-Engine*misfire*with*excessive*oil*consumption
-Leaking*fuel*injectors
-Incorrect*fuel*rail*pressure
-Leaks*in*the*intake*system*and*charge*air*system
Not sure how the Urea injector could contribute to the high exhaust temp into the DPF but the manual does state (bold and italics above) that if there is an issue with the DOC (that is the catalyst that the urea (DEF) system injects into) being clogged that, that could be a cause of it. Again that's not the DEF injector being clogged but the catalyst itself being clogged.
 
#45 ·
On my way home from the dealer (65 miles from home) with my "new" truck, the CEL came on. The next day, it wouldn't run until it warmed up. Popped all sorts of codes, seemingly unrelated. I left the truck at the local Chevy dealer. They tracked the problem down to a loose cam lock connector at the ECU. The plug and wires were fine. But the cam lock didn't hold it tight enough to maintain a solid connection. They replaced just the cam portion of the connector, and all is well.
 
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