FYI Good article on DEF head failures

[redbaron]

The theory that I have seen others discussing is that temp has nothing to do with the real issue. Instead, the amonia created by temp is causing the shaw (and other) sensors glue to fail, allowing the sensor to become compromised. The failure is the sensor assembly itself, causing the sensor to fail. Once the sensor fails, the report will be one of the data points reported by the sensor, or all of them...temp, quality, quantity. This will cause a derate.

Replacing the sensor, and making no other changes will resolve the issue. No need to regen. No need to drain/fill. No need to do anything other than send good signals.

 

["EZ"]

I wander if the military diesel vehicles are under the same EPA air pollution rules like the civilian ones? It will make them less reliable in combat if they are using the same DEF equipment.

They are exempt. Or at least they were.............

 

[Rich-MLsRV]

RVtravel.com posted an update - Stranded due to DEF head? New developments and a possible workaround.

 

[Neal]

Interesting revision. I don't think getting some EPA approval and a bypass is the long term fix, or any fix for that matter. This sounds like an engineering and design problem for those experiencing this more than others. "Crane Man" in the 2-3 paragraphs outlined some probable causes which I hope will gain attention that this could be a problem caused by a poor design by a vendor instead of the system itself.

 

[Sonic]

I would classify a valve that’s “prone to stick” as a substandard implementation of the Cummins design. Asking Cummins to develop a software patch and install it on potentially hundreds of thousands of vehicles isn’t the right approach, and I can’t blame them for resisting. It sounds like chassis manufacturers need to pressure their vendors to implement more robust solutions, then issue a recall to replace these potentially problematic units.
Interestingly I read a comment from the CEO of NIRVC who did a parts search across all of his service departments nationwide, and found 65 DEF Head assemblies ordered over an 18 month period. 64 were for Spartan chassis, 1 for Freightliner (they use different vendors for their DEF head assemblies)
That’s just one data point but it would be interesting to see if it would hold up across all service centers.

 

[sanda]

Cummins can pass the buck all they want saying that they don't produce the DEF parts so it isn't their problem but here's the bottom line.............Since 2010 emissions laws were passed Cummins (and every other diesel engine manufacturer) can not sell their engines unless their engines pass the 2010 emissions. This means that without the DEF (or some other emissions solution) Cummins could NOT sell their engines. So, unless Cummins wants to stop selling
On-Hwy diesel engines they are responsible to make sure that the DEF system is working. BTW..........Caterpiller chose the wrong technology and couldn't meet 2010 emissions so they DID have to stop selling On-Hwy diesel engines. I can't see how Cummins can say this isn't their problem with a straight face. The Federal Government says differently. Also, if this isn't Cummins issue then why did they spends hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the DEF system so their engines would meet the new 2010 emissions? It wasn't Spartan that spent the research and development money it was Cummins.

Cat decided it wasn't worth the hassle to deal with the new emission problems. They do well without the on road headaches.

 

["EZ"]

Cat decided it wasn't worth the hassle to deal with the new emission problems. They do well without the on road headaches.

Back when the 2003 emissions were passed Cat decided to use EGR as the method to lower the carbon output in their engines. The ran a tube from the muffler back to the combustion chamber to re-burn the exhaust again. Everyone else like Cummins, International, MANN, Volvo, Detroit, etc) went with the catalytic converter that would burn the pollutants out of the trap as the method to deal with the carbon. By the time 2007 emissions came around Cat was billions of dollars in research and technology down the wrong road and had to use "credits" to even get their engines certified. By 2010 when the HUGE drop in emissions were mandated by the Government, Cat was toast. They threw in the towel and went away. MANN and International Engines as the worlds largest manufacturer of diesel engines also screwed up around 2008. They didn't jump on the DEF bandwagon and it almost bankrupted the company. I know lots of salesmen that left International dealers to go sell another product because International couldn't get their engines certified. Now the DEF engines are all having issues that nobody seems to know how to fix. It's been a real mess! I know our environment needed to be cleaned up but the Government didn't give adequate time for these companies to work out all the bugs before mandating the changes. Now us consumers are paying the price.

 

[Buly]

Cummins DEF software parch available

Cummins comes through: A DEF sensor software patch now available

By Russ and Tiña De Maris While the shortage of microchips has turned auto manufacturing upside down, RVers, too have been hit. If you’ve been following our

www.rvtravel.com