The mechanical core of a diesel engine, the pistons, valves, and the crankshaft, is what diesel trucks rely on most. Manufacturers have been building diesel engines for over a century. Over the years, they have gotten very good at making metal parts that can withstand enormous pressure, heat, and friction for a very long time. So when a truck experiences diesel emission problems or loses power due to overloading and overheating, there is a high chance it’s not under normal conditions. Over the last 20 years, regulators have required manufacturers to add a lot of equipment to diesel engines to clean up the exhaust. DPF, which traps soot, the EGR system, which sends some exhaust back into the engine to reduce pollutants, and the SCR system, which sprays diesel exhaust fluid to neutralize nitrogen oxides.
And when trucks are overloaded and under so much pressure, the combined loss of efficiency pushes the system past what it can handle. It’s mainly due to thermal and chemical imbalance problems. Let’s know more about it.
The DPF needs exhaust temperatures around 1,000°F to burn off trapped soot during regeneration. If it’s too cold, then the soot won’t burn, and if it’s too hot, the filter itself can melt or crack. The system constantly monitors exhaust temperatures and adjusts fuel injection to hit that narrow window.
Truck relies on:
And each of these systems relies on:
When one of these drifts a little, the system will not break immediately, but it will begin to lose its way towards optimal functioning.
The DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) is a filter whose job is to catch particles. When a filter gets full, you face problems. So most people assume that when the DPPF light comes on, the truck goes into derate; it’s because the filter is packed full of soot. That sounds logical, but that’s not the whole picture.
In reality: