[sammyfar]

Exhaust particulate filter (EPF).
I'm unclear what happens if you are unable to complete the regeneration of the EPF. The dealer and GMs customer service claim that when the "Cleaning Exhaust Filter Continue Driving” appears on DIC, "you must" continue driving until the regeneration cycle is complete or a Diagnostic Trouble Code will be created, requiring service at the dealer to remedy. My reply was let's get this straight -- a regeneration starts 5 minutes before I arrive at work and GM expects me to continue driving for 20-30 minutes to complete the regeneration. GMs reply is yes the regeneration must be completed. I've come across some wording on a mechanics reference document that says if the first regeneration is interrupted a second warning will appear on the DIC after restart, stating, "Cleaning Exhaust Filter Must Continue Driving” message is displayed, and that if the regeneration is not allowed to complete after this notice a Diagnostic trouble code will then be created. I would appreciate some clarification from owners. Has anyone failed to complete the first regen announcement or both and what are the ramifications. Thank you.

01--17-2017
So I guess nothing has changed in the 20 plus years since I've owned a GM product. The manual that describes the 2.8 and its operation is worthless. Owners are not having the regeneration warnings displayed on the DIC, as described, and "Customer Service" can only repeat the apparent misinformation in the Duramax Supplement. CS is offshore and its been difficult getting them to understand the questions I have about the 2.8 let alone provide an answer. They have given me completely different answers to the same question in different phone calls, and refuse to provide a link to substantiate their answers. As I've told CS, I don't expect you to have the answers to my questions, but I do expect you to forward the questions to an appropriate department in GM and then provide an answer. They refuse or are unable to reach out within the corporation for answers to question that should be addressed in the manual. So my best option is reach out to owners of the 2.8.
Below, if you are further interested are excerpts from the Duramax supplement provided with the vehicle, describing what should happen when a regeneration is taking place.

Cleaning the DPF (Exhaust Filter) (From pg. 6 of Duramax Diesel supplement that comes w the vehicle.)
While the DPF cleaning is automatically controlled by the engine computer, the vehicle will need to operate continuously until the message is no longer displayed.

The engine computer has been designed to continuously monitor the condition of the DPF. When the engine computer detects that the DPF is nearly full of particulates and that the vehicle is not being operated in a manner that would allow effective automatic DPF cleaning, the Driver Information Center (DIC) will display a message. (Pg. 7)

Diesel Particulate Filter
Messages (from pg. 23)
CLEANING EXHAUST FILTER CONTINUE DRIVING (4-Cylinder Pickups and Uplevel 8-Cylinder Pickups) or DIESEL PARTIC FILTER IS FULL CONTINUE DRIVING (Base Level 8-Cylinder Pickups) or CLEANING EXHAUST FILTER KEEP DRIVING UNTIL MESSAGE IS CLEARED (Vans)
This message will appear on the DIC when an exhaust particulate filter cleaning is required. To clean the filter, drive the vehicle above 50 km/h (30 mph) until the warning message goes off. This will take about 30 minutes.
If the filter is not cleaned, the malfunction indicator lamp will come on and the ENGINE POWER IS REDUCED message will be displayed. Vehicle performance will be limited. See Diesel Particulate Filter 0 38.

 

[Sappergod]

I have never seen anything in my DIC about regeneration what-so-ever and I have over 21,000 miles.

 

[RMneanCA]

Same there in not an indication of Regenmode besides higher idle / TERRIBLE MPGs / smell
I am above 14K miles

 

[mrbones]

I had never experienced a warning or anything whenever I was experiencing a regen cycle and I have shut it off before whenever I noticed it going through a cycle and it just started right back up whenever I got back in.

 

[Vincent907]

I am also in the boat of "I have not seen any warnings." I have about 1800 miles on the truck. Had it for about 2 months. The only time I notice the regen is on hwy where the MPG is at mid-teens. And maybe once in a while, smell.

 

[Gary]

Mines come on. Its just a warning. If you interupt it like arriving at work, dont worry about it. It will continue when you het back in. Just point and let her rip for 20 min. It wont go into limp mode unless ignored for awhile.

 

[Gary]

P.s. If most miles are highway youll never see it. Idling and stop and go traffic will trigger it. I let mine idle a lot because I hate the cold.

 

[456tool]

new member traveling from ontario to florida had( cleaning exhaust filter must continue driving) come on , on I75 at 70mph for past 6 hrs called ts and was told to keep driving don,t worry going through smoky mts reduced power came on and the big truck behind me was not happy when i slowed down on long hill because truck had no power called ts and they found nearest dealer they tried to regen by letting run at high rpm for 30 min with no success computer said customer fault not covered by warranty they did not know what to do ,it was 5pm told to drive to knoxville with reduced power .find a motel and go to reeder chev at 7am and hope they will look at it as they have a diesel shop after pleading my case they regen it two times and said it,s fixed now 10am but not bad , about half way to atlanta engine light came on called ts on onstar told to keep driving and take to dealer in next 7 days ,went to chevrolet center inc in winterhaven fl on fri they could not look at it till mon, called me at 10am mon said needed part sensor no. 55590140 available in michigen took to friday to get it had to go back to ont on monday missed trip to keys and cannot figure out why it takes 5 days to get small part from mich to fl truck had 7000km on when i left now has 11000 got home no problem also not sure why tech computer said no warrianty as they did not know what to bill me for and did not make up a work order

 

[Gary]

Wow sorry to here that. Definatly not supossed to do that. Read there was faulty part which is what I was thinking before I read that far. Unfortunatly dealers dont seem to be up to speed on these yet. Hopefully nothing like that happens again but sensors do fail. I have a bad nox sensor on my big truck, 900$ sensor. Oh yay !

 

[Gary]

For my nox. Probably comes on if I fart with the windows up.

 

[Gary]

Cant do much if a sensor failes. For future maintanence which may help you not see certian problems is: When your mileage gets up there say 80000km or so. Remove egr valve and clean it. Also doser valve and any upstream sensors including MAS. They all work together and a day and a case of beer will save future headaches.

 

[Gary]

As far as manual saying keep driving-Thats if possible. Its not always possible to keep driving. It will restart cleaning on next drive. Of course when working properly.

 

[FLColorado]

7000 miles, I've never noticed a thing, warning, smell...nothing. Most of my miles are highway, understand that makes a difference. But I never noticed it in my Silverado 3500 either

 

[Rockcrawlerdude]

I've never had a message to keep driving but I did one time to finish a regen. Not sure if it was necessary but I hope to never take my truck back to the dealership.

As I was getting home one evening the idle was higher and I turned off the truck and it had a bad smell, I figured it was doing a regen. I knew I had to make several short trips the next day, so I left about 45 minutes early and cruised around until it was complete, using mpgs as my indication of the cycle finishing.

 

[RMneanCA]

For my nox. Probably comes on if I fart with the windows up.

What are you driving?
You seem to have a different vehicle than the res of us.
We are all talking about the 2016/17 GM's Chevrolet Colorado 2.8l Duramax & GMC Canyon 2.8l Duramax
(Babymax I prefer - There is also Littlemax and Minimax)

 

[Gary]

Yes thats what I have. But if you re-read what I posted you will see I refered to my big truck for the bad sensor. Have been dealing with def for some time.

 

[Gary]

I have smelled my colorado at times also. Once it goes into clean mode it gets really hot. I assumed it was the underspray I had done. Just guessing though. To lazy to look.

 

[Shaun Harrison]

There are 2 different types of regen. 1 is a passive regen. You will not get any display when it is doing a passive regen, this will occur every 200-350mi. Passive regen will only work if you do not do a lot of short trips, people that do a longer commute or frequent highway driving may never see the message..."Cleaning exhaust filter continue driving " If you do a lot of short trips, the truck will go into an active regen, this is when you will see the message.
I do a lot of short trip with my truck... It went into active regen at approximately 3200 miles, fortunately I am self employed and was able to drive the truck until the message went off.

 

[456tool]

I had the (cleaning exhaust filter must continue driving) come on after 4hr straight driving, continued driving for another 2hrs , till reduced power sign came on. First dealer tried to regen with no success,second dealer regen 2 times second time it worked . After driving another 2hrs engine light came on,drove another 6hrs to third dealer were exhaust filter sensor replaced.It looks like you can drive about 10hrs after a regen before you get reduced power if your sensor shorts out. I was driving from ontario to florida all at 125km(70mile) on i75. My diesel fuel filter went from 85%to 35%on this trip and i wonder if i got into bad fuel and this may have caused my problem with sensor? any thoughts

 

[Backwoodssob]

mine now hasat 5000 miles. I took mine in for the first service. They told me they had to order a part and to bring the truck back a week later. Turns out the damn thing hasn't been regenerating since it left the assembly line! Which threw of the air fuel ratio from running what "they set up as a dirty exhaust detection sensor" of sorts. So now that hopefully they have put on a part worth a crap to control the other hippy crap placed on the emissions that effect the air fuel ratio, I might see what this other guys are seeing for economy. Might want to get yours checked. And like 456tool it took them a week to get the part. The device manager said they have a message about this only they can see, but that steered him in the right direction based on my exhaust smelling complaint. Love the little bastard but it is starting to get a little frustrating.