How many have had the "perform service" reminder go off on your '08 6.7l trucks? Mine went off when I rolled 67,500 miles. I was on the interstate heading out of town so I called my dealer. They told me it was a reminder to bring the truck in for service, but not to worry it won't cause me any problems while on the road. I asked what service and they replied "something to do with the exhaust and emissions, and had to be done to keep the warranty".

Well, after researching a little more, I found the 'service' that is needed consists of maintenance to the DPF system and costs around $1300! WTF??!!! You mean to tell me I bought a $50,000+ truck that has to have service at every 67,500 miles, costs $1300, and has to be done to keep my warranty??? I guess I missed that in the fine print...

This is another reason why I signed up for the class action suit going around. Why should I be forced to pay for a glitch that they know about? Especially if it is an emission issue! Shouldn't this be their problem to fix? Am I the only one po'd over this?

My biggest problem is I can buy a programmer, such a Smarty's, and do away with the DPF completely for a lot less than $1300. Has Dodge finally lost their minds or just resorting to drastic measures since the government bailout is over???

What are most people doing to remedy this? Self maintenance, biting the bullet, ignoring it altogether? I am curious to hear what everyone has to say about their experience with this.

 

Ok back up a second. The 67,500 mile service shouldn't be a surprise, it's in your owner's manual in the maintenance schedule.

What it entails is cleaning the EGR valve, the EGR cooler, and replacing the CCV filter.
Why that totals $1300 is beyond me. The CCV filter you can get at genos garage for $60, and the install of that is literally a 10 minute job. It's located right under the upper valve cover. Cleaning of the EGR valve and cooler is a bigger pain in the bum, and it apparently requires a bundle of gaskets, but the parts and labor I wouldn't think should be anywhere near $1000.

I'm not sure why you heard that the service had something to do with the DPF system, because it doesn't at all.

My local dealership told me they've never sold a CCV filter. Never. I thought that was interesting.

 

I got that price from my local dealership. Maybe they were including a full fluid and filter change while it was in there. Others say it's about $600 for the cleaning. I still say it is bogus to have to pay for this. I have read most people delete the EGR and DPF altogether due to the problems it causes. I know this would def void the warranty, and I'm not fond of doing it, but damn...Maybe I'm just overreacting. I do know the class action suit is based primarily on this issue and the problems associated with the system. Not to mention the recent recall for the tie-rod ends. I have also noticed my turbo is not whining like it used to and my mpg and performance is horrible. Could this be due to a build up of soot? I need to know more about the pros and cons of doing a delete. What happens to the soot if it can't exit through the OEM system? Straight out the exhaust? A lot of people swear by it with better mpg and performance gains. The lack of a warranty that is a pain in the a$$ if you actually had to depend on it is not worth bowing down to this rip off. They will still find a way to argue the coverage, so why even lose sleep over losing it? I'm not hating, just asking...

 

The soot that the DPF collects would just exit out the tailpipe. It wouldn't go back through your intake like it does now, clogging things up. You would need a programmer to get rid of the check engine lights, but in my opinion it's worth the risk.

Do you turn your exhaust brake on all the time? If not, you should. I run mine 24/7 and haven't had any soot buildup issues.

 

Funny you mention the brake and no soot issues. I have never seen my truck enter regen mode. I use my brake all the time and it gets plenty of blowout through interstate use (I'm a boilermaker and travel frequently). I am told I would know it if it enters regen mode by a message on the overhead. I don't know if it is a noticeable change while driving, but I don't think mine has ever done it. I reset the recent perform maintenance msg with the key on-brake-gas-key off method. Should I plan on doing this maintenance or can I just pull the EGR cover and see how much build up I have and go from there? I found out today that I don't qualify for the class-action suit since I haven't needed any repairs to my truck, so I'm back to adding a programmer. If I delete everything and go with a programmer I will probably just do the EGR, add a CAI, and leave the stock exhaust alone. I don't plan to race or abuse my truck, just looking for a little extra performance and better mileage. Would this do it or should I delete the DPF as well? I'm new to diesels so excuse any ignorance I may portray.

 

I've never seen a regen message on my overhead, but then again I only owned it about a week before the DPF went away.

Honestly, you can skip the CAI. If you delete the EGR you'll need a programmer of some sort to keep the ECM from freaking out, or you'll just have to live with the CELs.

The DPF - getting rid of it you might see a little fuel economy increase, but it's not really hard on the engine at all unless you're getting oil dilution with fuel because of regens.

 

How do you "delete" the EGR? Do you remove it? where is it located? I know I need the programmer to help do this and like you Horatio, I am getting rid of the DPF, I can register in a smog exempt county here in CA so I won't have to get inspected. thanks

 

Get a delete kit - or fabricate your own parts. Basically you unbolt the EGR cooler and hardware, bolt a couple of block off plates over the cooler ports in the exhaust manifold and a block off plate over the hole in the intake manifold. The rest is disabled with a programmer. On the 2010+ trucks you can just turn it off in the software, without removing it.

 

Dodge has all you fellows with re-gen systems over a barrel untill your warrenty runs out.

To get rid of the mandate by the EPA to burn the waste and moisture laten stuff created in
the crank case fed thru your injectors will ruin them very quickly.

Might save a lot of being pissed off, screw Dodge (goverment motors) make the changes at
a good after market expert.

In the old days prior to 2005 we had puke tubes which collected this gunk behind the radiator.

 

Yeah, there are a couple of different systems here. The CCV filter is yet another one I'm not keen on. Sure, there's a big filter to suck the gunk up, but like you pointed out all that gunk used to dribble out a tube all over the underside of your motor, not really hurting anything except groundwater, fish, etc. Now it goes through a filter, then it gets sucked back into the intake, goes through the turbo compressor, through your intercooler, and back into your cylinders.

Yours does, mine doesn't.

It doesn't get fed through the injectors though.