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DEF??? What gives?

7K views 21 replies 15 participants last post by  Kip 
#1 ·
Ok, so I traded the '05 in February for an '11. Just couldn't pass up the deal.
I have about 2300 miles on it, and I just got a message telling me that I have 800 miles till empty on the DEF tank. I read in owners manual that I should have received a half empty message, and didn't. Also I read that with normal driving and 3.55 gears, I should go between 5000 and 7500 miles on a tank of DEF. Until today, the message center has said that DEF is OK. I've romped on it a few times of course to see what it can do, but haven't towed or hauled, just daily driving to and from work.
Has anybody else had any issues with the DEF?
Any information would be great, thanks guys.

:usflag
OFH
 
#3 ·
That was my first guess too, but the message center has said OK all along. I figure if it were at least above half, that it would last a little longer than this.
Does anybody recommend any DEF? I live north suburbs of Chicago about 15 min from Wi border. There are a few truck stops and Farm stores around.

Thanks again guys
Keep em comin

OFH
:usflag
 
#16 · (Edited)
this is exaclty why i am holding out and keeping my old truck running... $60-90 for an oil change )if you do it yourself, add in def i have seen it $14-30, and then fuel filter that need to be changed atleast every 10k miles at a cost of $80-170 depending where you get them and that is just minor maintenance... oh and the payment in a $60k truck :usflag
 
#5 ·
#9 ·
I recently found DEF at the parts store chains, Oreily and Advanced Auto, to be the best price. About $2 less then the truck stops for the same 2.5 gal bottle.

The cheapest place I have found it to date is the Oasis on the Kansas turnpike, 2.5 gal bottle for $10.65.
 
#7 ·
OK, there's a problem. I was figuring it to be empty, so I bought two 2.5 gallon jugs at NAPA today, $11.99ea. Began to fill the tank when I got home, and just as I was finishing with the FIRST jug, the tank filled and I spilled about a cup out of the filler neck.
Gonna take it to the dealer tomorrow and hope they can fix it. Pisses me off to no end. The engine runs fine, its the stupid tree-hugger crap thats gonna shut my truck down in 745 miles.

:mad::mad::mad:
 
#11 ·
Just an FYI that I had a similiar situation but park my truck on an incline (driveway has a good bit of incline) so the gauge would fool me sometimes as well. It takes a bit for the dash indicator to tell you the truth. I would fill up and it took a drive cycle or two to reset to full. Just throwing it out there in the event you have an odd parking situation as well.
 
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#13 ·
So here goes. Took it to the dealer last Monday. I have been having some odd shifting issues and read in here that there was a new trans flash and wanted to get it. Same time, I told them all about the DEF issue. The service manager looked at me with the deer-in-the-headlights look. He called in his resident 6.7 tech and I explained the problem to him......same look.
They both said they would take a look at it and let me know later in the day what they found.
I called them around 3pm and the service tech told me it would be ready for pickup in 15 min and that it was "all ready". When I got there, service mgr told me that the trans flash also included some sensor re-calibrations and that they should take care of the DEF low level issue.
I don't have any reason to doubt him, but this totally sounds like B.S. to me. Has anybody else had any issue like this? I'm really hoping that the flash took care of it, but only time will tell as I'll need to drive another 2400 miles or so to see if the DEF low indicator comes on again.

Oh, and Zixxer, I was parked on relatively level surfaces all the time, but had not thought of that, thanks.

And Hatya, I saw on Flying J website $2.49/gal for DEF at the pump.

OFH
:usflag
 
#15 ·
I hate my work schedule :bang
Anyway, the truck seems to be running ok now, although I still don't like the shifting. It still seems like it's searching for a gear every now and then and I think it shifts into first way too much when rounding a corner. I think it should only shift into first if the truck stops, or below 5mph in tow/haul mode.
I can only wait to see if the DEF message comes back on in another couple thousand miles.
Thanks guys for all the input.

OFH

:usflag
 
#17 ·
My friend bought one of the early trucks and then decided to drive the truck for a long trip and not knowing about the new exhaust fluid he had the ford store fill it up and the charge was $35.00 for the fluid and labor. when he bought the truck all he knew was he was buying a new ford truck . No knowledge at all but a ford is all he drives.
chevman
 
#19 ·
Premature Def fluid indication.

It certainly sounds like she was never topped off when you took delivery.
Since there is no real way to check the level it without topping it off the dealer most likely never bothered. elmerfudd

I have about 4500 miles on mine and no message.

As long there is no evidence of leakage or CEL it is probably easier to fill it and forget about it. Then at least you will be able to calculate an accurate read.

Over 50K for a truck and you still get crummy service.:bdh
 
#22 ·
What does this have to with anything? Hopefully the dealer just didn't have it filled up for ya.
 
#21 ·
I received the 1/2 full message at about 2500 miles and then an 800 miles warning at about 5,500 miles. Then the warning came up every time I started so when the warning was finally down to about 600 miles, I put in 2.5 gallons of DEF (purchased from Autozone for $11.99), and now it states it is full.
 
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