ANY WAY TO FORCE A REGENERATION?

Here in California and other states I assume, we're required to have bi-annual smog checks no matter how new or old for diesel engines of recent mfg. My wife took the van down the highway to get everything up to temp, close sensors etc, then drove right to the smog check shop. It didn't take 5 mins to fail!
The tech asked if we had disconnected the battery recently, which we did when we replaced it. It wipes out the history so the test fails. They suggested driving 200+ miles or force a.regeneration at the dealer. Is it possible to do it myself?

I think next time I'll parallel the battery.

Many areas do not do smog or OBD testing.

Just drive it ( but it might take more than 200 miles) and retest. Obviously the CEL must be off and if it comes on at anytime it will not pass for the CEL plus the readiness monitors will be failed or incomplete.

It’s far more than just running a regen . The entire Emissions system just pass all the self tests. Depends on how you drive so to close or complete all the readiness monitors (tests) it can take much longer than 200 miles. Vary your driving and include highway and city driving.

A decent DIY scan tool can check the readiness test status.


Generic explanation of the readiness monitors:

https://www.obdautodoctor.com/scantool-garage/obd-readiness-monitors-explained

What smog check has to do with regeneration?
You need to get your car "smog ready" although California does allow 1 or 2 items not to be ready, so you might want to check what applies to your MY.
About $5 buys you Bluetooth plug, who with Torque app will display what items are still not ready.
Typical overlooked is idling the car for couple of minutes after cold morning start.

Thanks for the very informative reply, I should have realized it couldn't be that simple. I was going by what the smog tech told me over the phone and I forgot to mention it here. He said that the three items in the exhaust failed: the NOx sensor, catalytic (?) and particulate sensor. I was told to pass, only one of the three had to work, with the NOx probably being the easiest, why he didn't say. Then he said the forced regeneration would do the job. Should have known better.
The article on the sensors explained it in easy to understand text..thanks!

Steve

You have no excuse to not have your own scanner and see with your own eyes.

Kajtec 1, I don't know what they mean other than what I mentioned here but I assumed the cleaning of the particulate filter is part of the emissions system.

Could you elaborate on the App a little more please, thanks.
Steve

https://www.amazon.com/abbort-Bluet...th&qid=1575601045&sprefix=OBD+,aps,252&sr=8-1 here is the plug and all you need to make it working is download Torque app on your android and pair them on your car/van.
$5 will get you Torque Pro with lot of live data.
Now if you care about your vehicle, get ScanGauge, who will monitor your sot % and will show you when regeneration is pending, so you can avoid trouble by aborting it when not knowing.

Inspector said:

Here in California and other states I assume, we're required to have bi-annual smog checks no matter how new or old for diesel engines of recent mfg. My wife took the van down the highway to get everything up to temp, close sensors etc, then drove right to the smog check shop. It didn't take 5 mins to fail!
The tech asked if we had disconnected the battery recently, which we did when we replaced it. It wipes out the history so the test fails. They suggested driving 200+ miles or force a.regeneration at the dealer. Is it possible to do it myself?

I think next time I'll parallel the battery.

Click to expand...

Yes... You can do a forced regeneration yourself if you had the a proper diagnostic tool. The cheapest scanners that can do that is the Icarsoft MBII or the Icarsoft MB V2.

An automatic regeneration is triggered when soot level has reached 8 grams per liter 8 g/l.

You do not need to force a regneration. That's a silly suggestion by someone who doesn't have a clue. I believe your 2012 is roughly the same as my 2013. There are several things called "monitors" which - strangely enough - monitor different things related to emissions. To make their measurements reliably, the monitors need to monitor the engine over a range of conditions. Until that range of conditions have been monitored, the monitor is called "open", meaning a specific operation condition (things like steady-state cruise, acceleration from a stop, acceleration from a low speed, cold start, hot start, and many others that are not documented) has not been observed. Once all of the relevant conditions have been observed, the monitor is "closed".

Monitors get reset to an "open" state whenever you clear the codes on your car. Disconnecting the battery can also reset the monitors to open.

To pass a smog check in CA, only two of the monitors can be open. (In newer model years that's now zero.) There are other things checked, of course, but the monitors are the main part of the computerized check.

Many car makers publish a "drive cycle" - a list of things to do that will close the emissions monitors. Mercedes, of course, does not. There are multiple suggestions for drive cycles for our Sprinters posted on these forums. I can definitively say that the ones I have tried don't work. It took me about 1000 miles of driving to get down to two open monitors so I could pass a smog check. I honestly cannot tell you what I did to get from 5 open monitors to 2. But they all closed at roughly the same time. I was checking the monitors with a scan tool almost every time I drove the van.

The best I can say is drive under as many different conditions as you can. A bit of idling is likely one thing needed, so include that - both hot and after a cold start. Two or three minutes is likely sufficient - you certainly don't need long idle times of 30 minutes or more.

The only other comment I can make is be sure to pay the registration on or before the due date even if you haven't passed a smog check. Your registration will not be valid until you get the smog check, but you will avoid the penalties for paying your registration late.

Thank you for the great information on the scan tool and APPS, I'm not so sure I understand some of the pairing and etc. My major obstacle is my disability that makes it so I have to rely on others, hence the reason my,wife has to take the van in to wherever it has to go for service. We have the van to transport me. The scenario that the van has to see a multitude of different driving cycles really makes sense, just as M-B won't publish the driving cycle. The 1,000 miles will be a problem, our 2012 has 15000 miles in 7-1/2 yrs

Steve

Strangely enough one of the things that causes problems on sprinters is not driving them enough.

ptheland is correct - you failed only because you had effectively just reset your fault codes. This could allow a polluting vehicle to pass. What makes the system normal again I don’t know specifically, and it’s likely proprietary, but it is generally a range of operation and key on/off cycles. I doubt regen is a factor and I also doubt it requires as many as 200 miles. I wouldn’t do anything other than drive a few weeks - some city, some highway - then retest.

Than again - why act blindfolded, when $5 spend on scanner will give you the knowledge.
You can also buy Bluetooth plug with on/off switch, who can be left on the van permanently and only switched when needed.
I love when my wife drives and I can watch live engine data from back seat.

Inspector said:

Here in California and other states I assume, we're required to have bi-annual smog checks no matter how new or old for diesel engines of recent mfg. My wife took the van down the highway to get everything up to temp, close sensors etc, then drove right to the smog check shop. It didn't take 5 mins to fail!
The tech asked if we had disconnected the battery recently, which we did when we replaced it. It wipes out the history so the test fails. They suggested driving 200+ miles or force a regeneration at the dealer. Is it possible to do it myself?

I think next time I'll parallel the battery.

Click to expand...

I would avoid that test center.

Inspector said:

Thank you for the great information on the scan tool and APPS, I'm not so sure I understand some of the pairing and etc.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure I'd waste spend money on those really cheap scan tool apps. They can't do much more than read codes - and many can't even read all of the codes on a Sprinter. They often read only the codes that set a check engine light. If you want a scanner, get a decent one. There's a sub-forum here dedicated to scanners. I'd definitey read and ask questions there before buying any scanner.

The benefit of a scanner in your situation would be to check and see if the monitors are closed so you can head to a smog check station for an inspection. A friendly mechanic or neighbor might be willing to check those monitors for you once a week or so and let you know when you can head to the smog check station. In fighting my van, I visited my smog check station enough times that they would drag out a scanner to check for me before starting the official inspection.

My major obstacle is my disability that makes it so I have to rely on others, hence the reason my,wife has to take the van in to wherever it has to go for service.

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Plugging in a scanner can probably be done from a wheelchair, as long as you have enough trunk mobility and strength to lean forward a bit. The scanner port will be at about eye level while seated next to the driver's door with the door open. It requires no tools other than your hands. Your wife could likely plug it in, if needed.

The 1,000 miles will be a problem, our 2012 has 15000 miles in 7-1/2 yrs

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The 1000 miles was my particular issue and driving habits. Someone with different habits and different constraints might get the monitors to close in much fewer miles. Others have reported seeing monitors close in as little as 50 - 100 miles. The actual mileage driven isn't the issue, it's hitting all of the necessary operating conditions.

If I were to hazard a wild guess at the operating conditions, they would include things like hard acceleration from a standstill to 40 or 50 MPH, hard acceleration from 10-20 MPH to those speeds, light acceleration from both of those starting conditions, some coasting (say from 50 MPH or more down to 20 MPH or less). Each of those might need 3 or 4 repetitions. I'd also guess that a cold start and a warm start would be in there - maybe twice each. And I'd guess that some idling is needed - both cold and warm - for something like 2 to 5 minutes. Finally, some steady state driving - a few miles at something like 30 MPH and some more at 50 or 60. Maybe 5 or 10 miles of that higher speed and fewer at the low speed.

But this is all conjecture. I know each of those conditions will generate different amounts of possible pollutants in the exhaust. The monitors will want to see most of those conditions to make sure that the exhaust stream is within it's specified parameters under varying conditions. Whether that is all (or close enough to all) of the necessary conditions to close the monitors in your Sprinter is anyone's guess. So all you really have here is my guess.

ptheland said:

I'm not sure I'd waste spend money on those really cheap scan tool apps. They can't do much more than read codes - and many can't even read all of the codes on a Sprinter. They often read only the codes that set a check engine light.

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The $5 set will display all the smog readiness OP need at this time + Pro app will give him about 50 live data.
Sure not good setup to compare to $1000 Chinese clones of SD, but it will get the job done for this time.
BTW I am using Torque for my mountain climbing since it is using GPS for elevations.

My 11$ obd scanner picked up a lot more info on my van last night than my maxi ap200 can. As far as stored codes. Not sure why maybe I’m using it wrong. So, imo, 5$ isn’t wasted it’s a good cross reference sometimes.

Gabe Athouse said:

My 11$ obd scanner picked up a lot more info on my van last night than my maxi ap200 can.

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Was that through the 'BENZ-Sprinter' selection or the OBDII default menu?

I also thought an AP200 could force a regen if you access through the correct menu.

Keith.

I will ignore trying to force a regeneration, after reading the posts here, it doesn't seem to be part of the problem. What is frustrating is the fact I didn't realize that changing the battery would cause this problem. Seems there should be some built in protection because there are lot better of times power can be interrupted. Ptheland, I appreciate the tips on a possible driving cycle, it sure couldn't hurt.

Is there any way to prevent this in the future?

Steve