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Considering a Diesel in Cold Weather

4K views 23 replies 7 participants last post by  DieselDrax 
#1 ·
Hello everyone,

making my first post as a potential buyer of a diesel colorado.

I live in northern Saskatchewan where temperatures of -35°C are guaranteed and -40°C happens maybe a week or two in February. I drive 8km to work 4 times a day (home for lunches) and travel South to the city (360km one way) maybe once a month and on holidays. I also haul water for my house once a week that’s about 6000lbs total for a distance of 6km.

I am mostly looking for the better fuel mileage and towing of the diesel but I am concerned about the short trips causing emissions issues and cold weather damaging the turbo due to ice build up from the PCV. I’ve read about rerouting the PCV to a drain line from the engine instead of into the intake manifold and that’s something I would be fine with doing. I also have a heated garage I can store the truck in for the winter, and I’m able to leave it plugged in at work all day.

Do any of you have experience with the Diesel in conditions like I have? Any suggestions? Really open to any input here as I’m still considering buying a used diesel colorado. I haven’t lined one up for purchase yet.
 
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#2 ·
I drive 8km to work 4 times a day (home for lunches) and travel South to the city (360km one way) maybe once a month and on holidays.
That is a hard no-go for any modern diesel, unfortunately. The turbo ice issue seems to be limited to people that park outside and don't have a good catch can. I'm at 94k miles and live where it gets below 0F in the winter but I park in the garage that never gets below freezing and haven't had any issues with the cold.

Those short trips are going to mean the DPF reaches 100% full quickly, the DOC will never gets up to full temp, and if a regen were able to start it would have no chance of ever completing because of those extremely short trips and you'd end up in "keep driving" (DPF > 100% full) or limp mode. If you did a longer (50+km) drive every week then you might be able to avoid short-trip issues with the emissions but it's not guaranteed.

The other problem is those short trips are going to create a LOT of condensation and acid in the oil because the oil will never get up to temp often enough to boil them off which means your oil change interval is also going to be very short due to contaminated oil.

That driving routine is going to be hard on any vehicle, but it's going to be extra hard on a modern diesel with a DPF and SCR. I love my truck, but they're not for everyone for one reason or another. Your use case is the perfect example of pretty much the worst thing you could do to just about any vehicle, but especially a diesel.

Sorry!
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the reply!
That’s kind of what I was expecting to hear. No long warm up periods with short distances make for the worst scenarios. I hadn’t considered the oil change interval in the post because I’m used to doing them early on any vehicle up here.
 
#4 ·
The new diesels with DEF really become a problem in the cold. There are heaters to thaw DEF when it is frozen, but when really cold -25c and below the heaters can't keep up. Many,many,many issues up here in Canada with these modern diesels. I keep mine in a heated garage, and don't drive it when below -11c, more of a summer truck for us. I drive an old Toyota pick up with 420,XXX kms, has never let me down, its a shame that my Canyon will never last as long, but Toyota never had a Diesel in the mid size here, so for towing we got the Canyon because it was the only option. For work I have to drive a full size Silverado, it is just too big for off road trails thru the woods, and too big for anything I need around home.
 
#6 ·
Manitoban here. If you're not putting on 30-40k kms/year, or need to tow more than 5000lbs regularly for long distances, this motor will cost you more than the v6. You really have to turn that odometer on these to make it worth while. Oil changes are $150 CAD, delete and tune is $2500, replacement turbo for the cold weather icing is $2500, based on your description of location you're likely dealing with less than ideal fuel and injectors are $1500-3000 depending on the route you go. Very quickly it becomes expensive to save money on fuel.
 
#7 ·
Oil changes are $150 CAD
Oil changes are no more expensive than the V6, if someone is paying someone else $150 to do oil changes then they're getting ripped off. I haven't had to deal with anything else you've listed.
 
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#10 ·
I did T6 changes for a little bit and I'm just not comfortable with the weight/viscosity changes in the long term. I'm on mobil 1 dexos 2 diesel and genuine Ac Delco filters. Also $143CAD (specifically) is $105USD. Since poster is in a similar climate and uses the same currency, I responded with what works for us here.
 
#20 ·
Yup, exactly right. I didn't remove the inner tube from the outer to see if the heated wires are spiral wound around the tube or if they're straight, I was mainly curious about what was inside.
 
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#21 ·
Great.

Did you say your truck is garage kept and heated garage? Somebody living in cold winters said that. I don't have a heated garage.

I'm wondering when the tank and line heaters turn on and if I could pre-warm things. I've had the dreaded mileage countdown situation happen in cold snaps when DEF fluid must have been called but the blue stuff hadn't thawed yet.
 
#22 ·
Great.

Did you say your truck is garage kept and heated garage? Somebody living in cold winters said that. I don't have a heated garage.

I'm wondering when the tank and line heaters turn on and if I could pre-warm things. I've had the dreaded mileage countdown situation happen in cold snaps when DEF fluid must have been called but the blue stuff hadn't thawed yet.
Yeah, my truck is parked in a garage that does have a heater, I'll kick it on if temps out there start to drop into the mid-30s just because we have other stuff out there that can't freeze, too. My DEF supply line heater issue reared its head during the polar vortex last winter when I was shuttling my daughter around to various pet sits/checks as she didn't want to be driving in the snow, so while she took care of the animals (30-45 mins each stop) I'd be parked in the driveway with the manual high idle kicked on (BiScan module for Torque) to run the engine at 1,200RPM and I got the first countdown mileage on the DIC combined with a P20BE DTC for DEF heater circuit "B" which is the DEF supply line after sitting for around 20 minutes as that's about how long it took for the computer to either kick the heater on or maybe that's just when it decided to fail. I suspect the former as parking in the garage for a while and then driving would clear the problem until the truck were out in the cold for a bit again. Eventually the code came and went enough that the computer made it a permanent code and the countdown wouldn't clear. Clearing the DTC didn't clear the countdown, after replacing the DEF supply line I cleared the code again and had to run the reductant tamper test via the Gretio app to clear the countdown. Truck's been fine ever since.
 
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#23 ·
Oof, my truck through that code P20BE code this past winter too. Popped up after a cold snap. I also tried to drive the truck around on warmer days to try to clear it. Last winter the CEL went away when I drove the truck on warmer days on highways but this winter the code wouldn't clear. Even when I tried clearing it through my OBD scanner after long drives. The damn countdown wouldn't go away. So I hauled it into the dealer because I still have extended warranty. The dealer replaced my truckers DEF lines too. Something with these reducdant heaters or the lines must be faulty. Hoping it will last another 5-6 years now. I'm 2nd owner and the truck has always been in Wisconsin so maybe the harsh winters take their toll on those parts.
 
#24 ·
At least the DEF line is cheap and easy to replace, so I'm fine replacing that every few years. :) Fingers crossed the rest of the system behaves.
 
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