3.0 Duramax

[Htown_LTZ]

I owned the first generation of the 1500 duramax and loved it. It wasn't my daily driver, so I kept getting a check engine light. My guess is and from what the dealership told me, is that I didn't drive it enough to have the soot burn off. I don't currently own the truck anymore, but I am thinking of getting another one after my lease ends. My question is, how often and how long does the engine have to run for the system to do its thing? One service tech told me to turn it on daily for and let it run for about 20 minutes. Any info would be greatly appreciated. 

[Jay P]

idling a modern diesel is a bad idea (builds soot really fast). If you drive the 3.0l around town it will regen more often but the 3.0l is less sensitive to non-highway/light load than the 6.6l is. A normal regen takes about 10 min on the highway. If you drive at highway speeds or loaded it will likely regen based on mileage or time and not soot level. One of 3 things will trigger a normal regen on a GM. Time, miles since last regen or soot level. Just an FYI but the GM diesels will stop a normal regen when the engine is idled in park and restart when in drive and moving again.

Edited 1 hour ago by Jay P