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Is 3.0 ED right for me? Driving Distance Question

Tredsdert

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I've never owned a diesel nor ecodiesel vehicle before, so please forgive me if this is a dumb question. I've been trying to look for this info elsewhere but seem to keep getting overloaded by all the hate on the RAM forums. I understand a lot of that was early issues with a new engine for FCA and am looking for an answer more tailored to me specifically.

TL;DR:. I drive 2.6 miles 1-3 times a week, and 15-200 miles all other times. Will those short distance drives kill my engine, or will I be fine?

LONG VERSION:
Okay, so I live in Collin County, Texas and really, REALLY hate emissions tests. I've had a couple of used vehicles over the years and probably have tripled each of those vehicles initial costs in yearly fixes just to pass inspections. So having an ED seems like a really great fix for me. I will be buying a JL regardless, but am wondering if my driving style/regularity would be a good fit for the ED.

I live in walking distance to my job, the grocery store, basically anything I need. For the most part I like to take a drive at least once a day if I can help it, but will often go 2-3 days without driving. When I do drive, it's usually going upwards of 15-30 miles total, highway and around town. Not really any stop and go traffic where I'm at. Speeds range from 35-70. I drive like an old man, you'll usually find me in the slow lane pacing with that work truck. My biggest concern is that 1-3 times a week I like to stop at McD's and get a Frappe before work. This McD's is maybe 1.3 miles away from my house. On weekends I enjoy going for extensive drives. I'm talking "pick a direction" and drive for 2-4 hours in mostly country roads with mainly higher speeds of 50-75. My wife's Subaru Forester just hit 6700 mi. and we got it with 8 mi. back on Aug 14th.

So I drive a fair bit, I'm wondering if those few short drives will kill the engine for me? Also, does idling the ED harm it? I'm a fan of finding scenic spots for lunch, should I turn off the engine, or is idling okay if it's not all the time?
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AppleJacks23

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I live in Rockwall. PGBT at 60 during rush hour is a sweet spot on mileage for my JLUDR. Not sure escaping emissions testing is reason enough, but it is fun to drive for sure! I wanted the diesel for the torque and mileage given my 40ish mile each way commute.
 

Compression-Ignition

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I would say you will be fine. Problem is, with that sort of use case scenario you are not putting on many miles. My wife only drives our JLURD aprox. 10 miles a day Mon.-Fri. Picked the Jeep up in April, and it's probably approaching 4500 miles right now. No problems to report. Anyone with a similar use case will also have low miles and not be able to give you a good answer as to whether or not you will run into issues in the long term.
 

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First: Not a dumb question.
I would think as long as the system works properly it would be fine = if your short trips load up the particulate filter, the system will just regen. Otherwise, your long drives will keep the system flushed. It's not like there is a sticker on the 3.0 that says "Oh noes if you drive less than 40 miles 1-way the engine will implode"
I assume your wife works? Is her job farther away? If you're that worried about it, you could take the Subi a couple times a week & let her drive the diesel. "Honey you take the Jeep today, make sure you drive it like you stole it." :turkey:

As far as letting modern diesels idle, all the emissions garbage needs heat to work efficiently. Letting it idle a bit would keep the system temps up vs shutting the engine down, system cooling, then having to re-warm up. If it's not for an extended time, I tend to let mine idle. I am sure you would get varying opinions on that tho -
 

WXman

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You won't have any issues. I don't know who started the "you can't drive a diesel short trips" myth but it has swept the internet like a wild fire. You can drive a diesel exactly like you drive a gasoline vehicle. Engineers spent a LOT of time and money designing the equipment on these so that you can do so.

Having said that, from a financial stand point it makes NO sense to buy the diesel for occasional driving.
 

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Sydwaiz

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I agree with everyone that says you'll be fine. I bought my wife's knowing she only drives 8 miles to work but we will be taking longer trips for sure. My 12 Passat TDI was driven daily 10 miles to work and never had a problem until VW wanted to buy it back. (I regret that decision) The Jeep should be fine. If it forces a regen, let it finish. It's designed that way. The only problem I can see is that you'll never get the engine warm enough to turn the heater up!
 

Harrybeerbelly

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Like others I have read everything on the internet about short trips and idling. Was concerned for a while but have gotten over it. Now I just drive it like a normal Jeep. I take short trips to the store, I let it idle when I want. I have had no problems.
 
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Tredsdert

Tredsdert

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Omg, THX ALL OF YOU!!! YOU JUST MADE MY DECADE!!!!!

My wife works in Dallas, so 30 miles or so going 70mph one way. We put 6000 miles on her car in just 3 months, and that's after she told me to stop driving so much :CWL: she's also been furloughed the last 8 months. We tend to put 2000 miles of all of our vehicles religiously every month.

I want the diesel namely for the lack of emissions testing in Texas, but the reason for that stems from the fact whatever vehicle (now a JLUD) I get I will be driving for 10 years and plan on keeping for the rest of my life. My plan is to either engine swap or rebuild whenever my engine dies. That and we do a fair amount of long distance driving too. Since we got my wife's Forester 3 months ago, we've gone to Fredericksburg/San Antonio/Austin ~1000mi round trip, and Gretna Louisiana ~1400mi round trip.

I'm off work today, woke up at 10:30 and already put 20 miles on the Forester taking the wife to her sisters. This evening we're going to Dallas and back, and then tomorrow we are going back to Dallas with the grandchild to see the Christmas lights at night. In a couple hours I'll be heading to Weston, TX for some country driving, and will be out for maybe an hour or two jamming to my bluegrass, doing at least 100+ miles on the car. This weekend if I had to guess, we'll more than likely do 300-400 miles on the car, which is a typical weekend for us.

First weekend I get my Wrangler I will be taking it to the Northwest OHV park in Bridgeport Texas, which is 83 miles from my home.

Again, thanks to all of you for the extremely helpful information! My dream is coming true!
 

Ruby Clatterbox

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The only thing I do different with my diesel compared to my former 3.6 is to let it idle for around 30 seconds before shutting down just to let the turbo cool a little. Other than that, most of my driving is short hops around town. The mileage really suffers if trips are around 3-10 miles as the engine never does get up to working temp. Still better than it's gas counterparts though, and I love the sound!
 

Robbyreneeward

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Omg, THX ALL OF YOU!!! YOU JUST MADE MY DECADE!!!!!

My wife works in Dallas, so 30 miles or so going 70mph one way. We put 6000 miles on her car in just 3 months, and that's after she told me to stop driving so much :CWL: she's also been furloughed the last 8 months. We tend to put 2000 miles of all of our vehicles religiously every month.

I want the diesel namely for the lack of emissions testing in Texas, but the reason for that stems from the fact whatever vehicle (now a JLUD) I get I will be driving for 10 years and plan on keeping for the rest of my life. My plan is to either engine swap or rebuild whenever my engine dies. That and we do a fair amount of long distance driving too. Since we got my wife's Forester 3 months ago, we've gone to Fredericksburg/San Antonio/Austin ~1000mi round trip, and Gretna Louisiana ~1400mi round trip.

I'm off work today, woke up at 10:30 and already put 20 miles on the Forester taking the wife to her sisters. This evening we're going to Dallas and back, and then tomorrow we are going back to Dallas with the grandchild to see the Christmas lights at night. In a couple hours I'll be heading to Weston, TX for some country driving, and will be out for maybe an hour or two jamming to my bluegrass, doing at least 100+ miles on the car. This weekend if I had to guess, we'll more than likely do 300-400 miles on the car, which is a typical weekend for us.

First weekend I get my Wrangler I will be taking it to the Northwest OHV park in Bridgeport Texas, which is 83 miles from my home.

Again, thanks to all of you for the extremely helpful information! My dream is coming true!
DO IT!! You won’t regret it. We drive ours around once a week is all. It’s our toy. 60 miles minimum trip. Not far from you. Up by Mount Pleasant.
 

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Capricorn

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You won't have any issues. I don't know who started the "you can't drive a diesel short trips" myth but it has swept the internet like a wild fire. You can drive a diesel exactly like you drive a gasoline vehicle. Engineers spent a LOT of time and money designing the equipment on these so that you can do so.

Having said that, from a financial stand point it makes NO sense to buy the diesel for occasional driving.
I've never owned a diesel nor ecodiesel vehicle before, so please forgive me if this is a dumb question. I've been trying to look for this info elsewhere but seem to keep getting overloaded by all the hate on the RAM forums. I understand a lot of that was early issues with a new engine for FCA and am looking for an answer more tailored to me specifically.

TL;DR:. I drive 2.6 miles 1-3 times a week, and 15-200 miles all other times. Will those short distance drives kill my engine, or will I be fine?

LONG VERSION:
Okay, so I live in Collin County, Texas and really, REALLY hate emissions tests. I've had a couple of used vehicles over the years and probably have tripled each of those vehicles initial costs in yearly fixes just to pass inspections. So having an ED seems like a really great fix for me. I will be buying a JL regardless, but am wondering if my driving style/regularity would be a good fit for the ED.

I live in walking distance to my job, the grocery store, basically anything I need. For the most part I like to take a drive at least once a day if I can help it, but will often go 2-3 days without driving. When I do drive, it's usually going upwards of 15-30 miles total, highway and around town. Not really any stop and go traffic where I'm at. Speeds range from 35-70. I drive like an old man, you'll usually find me in the slow lane pacing with that work truck. My biggest concern is that 1-3 times a week I like to stop at McD's and get a Frappe before work. This McD's is maybe 1.3 miles away from my house. On weekends I enjoy going for extensive drives. I'm talking "pick a direction" and drive for 2-4 hours in mostly country roads with mainly higher speeds of 50-75. My wife's Subaru Forester just hit 6700 mi. and we got it with 8 mi. back on Aug 14th.

So I drive a fair bit, I'm wondering if those few short drives will kill the engine for me? Also, does idling the ED harm it? I'm a fan of finding scenic spots for lunch, should I turn off the engine, or is idling okay if it's not all the time?
Short trips every day are fine as long as you do some long trips (20-25 miles) every now and then. With a long trip every 2-3 days as you described, you likely won't even see an active regen. A 20 mile trip will probably burn off the soot you accumulated without a need for an active regen IMO.
 
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Tredsdert

Tredsdert

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I put a little more than 200 miles on my girls Forester today. Drove out to Sherman, then over to Bonham, then out to Gordonville, then down to Denton and finally back to Allen, listening to bluegrass the whole way! XD
Jeep Wrangler JL Is 3.0 ED right for me?  Driving Distance  Question Screenshot_20201213-031853
Jeep Wrangler JL Is 3.0 ED right for me?  Driving Distance  Question IMG_20201212_160517235_HDR
 
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WILDDUX

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Short trips every day are fine as long as you do some long trips (20-25 miles) every now and then. With a long trip every 2-3 days as you described, you likely won't even see an active regen. A 20 mile trip will probably burn off the soot you accumulated without a need for an active regen IMO.
That’s not how the emissions system works. The DPF accumulates soot until it reaches its capacity and then performs a regen to burn off the soot. The Eco Diesel typically goes into active regen mode at about 80% Soot percentage and will drop down to 10 or so % after it completes the regen. My ZR2 Bison Duramax goes into regen at 100% DPF capacity so all are different. Point being is that the engine must regen to burn off soot.
 

Compression-Ignition

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That’s not how the emissions system works. The DPF accumulates soot until it reaches its capacity and then performs a regen to burn off the soot. The Eco Diesel typically goes into active regen mode at about 80% Soot percentage and will drop down to 10 or so % after it completes the regen. My ZR2 Bison Duramax goes into regen at 100% DPF capacity so all are different. Point being is that the engine must regen to burn off soot.
You sure? I've seen our STM steadily decline when on the highway. In town it will climb at the normal pace, but that isn't always the case at higher speeds.
 

Gorilla57

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That’s not how the emissions system works. The DPF accumulates soot until it reaches its capacity and then performs a regen to burn off the soot. The Eco Diesel typically goes into active regen mode at about 80% Soot percentage and will drop down to 10 or so % after it completes the regen. My ZR2 Bison Duramax goes into regen at 100% DPF capacity so all are different. Point being is that the engine must regen to burn off soot.
You might want to read on passive regenerations. A passive “regen” is when the DPF burns off soot due to higher engine loads and exhaust temperatures. It requires no intervention from the motor or ECU.

https://www.uti.edu/blog/diesel/diesel-particulate-filters
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