GM 2.8 Diesel Canyon MIL: p244c and p24a0

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Ambient temp is about -20f and our check engine light is on now with these two codes. Some googling shows that this is related to the dpf Regen not making sufficient progress. Is this normal due to the temps or is something actually wrong with the truck? In 1500 approx miles on our trip it's done at least two passive regens (you can hear the noise and mpg goes down) but no active regens (will display message in truck). Thanks all for your input.
 
I remember when those came out in 2015 they had issues. I was working at a Chevy dealer down in Burlingame and first Colorado diesel we got in BROKE DOWN during a test drive on the 101 lol


Turned out to be a bad fuel injector



And no the guy didn't buy it HA

Dave
 
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Ok, so after clearing the codes they came back about 20 mins later.
Went in to a Chevy dealer and they said the def is too cold so it's injecting a bunch of diesel to try to warm up the dpf.
They suggested trying to get temps up by driving in lower gear. We tried that and while our coolant temp went from about 165 to 175 the egts wouldn't increase. Would covering part of the grille help in any way? We've been averaging 165 coolant temp and to me that seems odd, my gassers usually hover at 195.
 
Your coolant temp and oil temp are probably way too cool, but at those ambient temps, it's hard to keep an engine at optimal operating temp. Yes, it would almost certainly help to restrict the airflow into the grill. I don't know what your grill looks like, but black duct tape works really well in a pinch. DO NOT over restrict and DO NOT directly cover the radiator. I do tape off the grill on my Durango, else the oil temp never gets above 160F, which causes the oil pump to stay in the high pressure mode. Start with about 50% of the grill taped and work from there. Cruising down the interstate at 70MPH and a outside temp of -15F I can cover all of the upper and lower grill, except a square about 8" and the water and oil temp will run about 175F.
 
Originally Posted by wwillson
Your coolant temp and oil temp are probably way too cool, but at those ambient temps, it's hard to keep an engine at optimal operating temp. Yes, it would almost certainly help to restrict the airflow into the grill. I don't know what your grill looks like, but black duct tape works really well in a pinch. DO NOT over restrict and DO NOT directly cover the radiator. I do tape off the grill on my Durango, else the oil temp never gets above 160F, which causes the oil pump to stay in the high pressure mode. Start with about 50% of the grill taped and work from there. Cruising down the interstate at 70MPH and a outside temp of -15F I can cover all of the upper and lower grill, except a square about 8" and the water and oil temp will run about 175F.


Now we have P244A and "reduced engine power"

We're going to cover the grille and clear the codes and go from there. Thank you!
 
Can you get some insulation around the DEF tank, even some fibreglass pink If you can tape it on with electrical tape or duc tape. They might have small amounts at a building store. Watson Lake is -50 F tonight but it's all starting to warm up this week. Not sure where you are but holding up at a hotel for a day or two might make a difference.

Failure is not an option.
shocked2.gif
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Your charge air is also way too cold. Diesels smoke white from incomplete combustion when the intake air temp is cold, your temps are extremely cold. Partially covering your grill will also increase your charge air temp, which will give more complete combustion and decrease the fill rate of your DPF. You're fighting the effects of extreme cold and hopefully you be able to burn the soot out of the DPF before you go into limp mode. Once in limp mode, at those temperatures, you are in a corner you just can't get out of.
 
Wrapping the exhaust piping and DPF with high temp insulation would help. As well as using a fuel additive to help the fuel burn would reduce soot loading.

I also recommended that you insulate or heat the DEF tank in the other thread.

If your DPF gets plugged that's it. End of the road as they say...
 
All my diesels have their winter fronts on when it hits 0°F. I can run down the highway at 60 mph in -40 and my coolant temps hang out at 192-195°F
 
Thanks all for your input.

My friend who owns this truck did a bunch of research. Checked online to see what other owners of diesel Colorado/Canyon owned were experiencing, and nobody else had trouble with cold temps. That's why I disregarded some of the advice in the other thread regarding the DEF freezing.

We also saw plenty of trucks like ours... Easily identifiable by the little Duramax Diesel badge. None of these had those grille covers or anything. And I doubt all these people are driving around with check engine lights.

After we zip tied cardboard to the grille and romped on it a little bit, and were able to keep the coolant temps about 10 degrees higher than before, we cleared the codes. It seemed to be attempting a regen at that point (EGTs about 800 and 15mpg instant fuel economy). Unfortunately about 30 miles later the check engine light came back and we have the P244C and P24A0 codes. However, the P244A code that was resulting in reduced engine power didn't come back, which was nice.

If I understand correctly, if the truck can't regen the DPF will get clogged. And the truck won't work anymore!? Sounds like it's time to take it to a dealer because this truck is under warranty and we can't have it suddenly stop driving in these temps.

We called a Chevy dealer and told them the codes and what was happening and the service guy straight up said "you should call GMC roadside assistance because it's their problem, not yours" sounds like he was right. We'll call GM when my friend wakes up.

PS: In the meantime this just looks ridiculous! I feel like my 300K mile Suburban would have handled this trip better than this fancy truck LOL.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
 
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Don't worry. You'd fit right in if you drove through Saskatchewan. Good idea on the roadside assistance. Take a day or two off. It's only getting warmer.

Go into a Canadian Tire and see if they have a decent looking front cover. Keep us posted. Can you see if your DEF is frozen? Snag.
 
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"We called a Chevy dealer and told them the codes and what was happening and the service guy straight up said "you should call GMC roadside assistance because it's their problem, not yours" sounds like he was right. We'll call GM when my friend wakes up. "



That's a big facepalm 🤦â€â™‚ï¸ moment. Hope you get taken care of.
 
Where are you guys at? I see it hit -48C(-54F) in Watson this morning. Dease was -41C and here in Telegraph we're only at -39(-38F). Looking at environment canadas site it looks like -40 temperatures extend all the way down to Prince George. I have a friend and neighbour here in Telegraph Creek that had the colorado 2.8 duramax truck for a couple of years. One of the reasons he got rid of it was cold weather issues. Last winter the truck completely shut down on him when the def tank and lines froze up solid. GM wound up hauling the truck out to the nearest dealer(750 km south of us in Terrace) on there dime to fix it.
Took quite quite while to get it back as the def lines had split when they froze and there were none available anywhere.
Hope you have better luck.
 
Originally Posted by shakescreek
Where are you guys at? I see it hit -48C(-54F) in Watson this morning. Dease was -41C and here in Telegraph we're only at -39(-38F). Looking at environment canadas site it looks like -40 temperatures extend all the way down to Prince George. I have a friend and neighbour here in Telegraph Creek that had the colorado 2.8 duramax truck for a couple of years. One of the reasons he got rid of it was cold weather issues. Last winter the truck completely shut down on him when the def tank and lines froze up solid. GM wound up hauling the truck out to the nearest dealer(750 km south of us in Terrace) on there dime to fix it.
Took quite quite while to get it back as the def lines had split when they froze and there were none available anywhere.
Hope you have better luck.

Currently in Fort St. John at the GM dealer. Trying to get a rental car from Enterprise. I'm disappointed in this truck.
 
My friend seemed to like his truck, and apart form the urea system freezing it was trouble free. I think if I had one of those I'd just do a dpf and urea system delete and probably egr delete as well.
Clearly GM did a poor job of engineering the def system on those for cold weather.
 
I think the new 1500 with the 3.0 Duramax would be better in extreme cold because all the emissions stuff is under the hood where it stays warm. It's similar to the VW TDI and Cruze diesel component arrangement.

The 2.8 has a "truck" like DPF and SCR arrangement, where they are long and laid out in the truck frame. The 2.8 is also very efficient so not much heat is generated with the stock tuning.

A 2.8 w/ a VW tune or Delete tune would be best for an adventure vehicle.
 
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