Help Needed – NH L216 “Active Regen” not really active

Background: NH L216 skid has required a force regen by dealer 3x within 50 hours (machine only has ~200hrs). Each time they have done a forced regen it takes 6+ hours to clear the DPF (this seems excessive). The machine is set up to automatically run regen during normal operation…“Active Regen” displays on the console and it beeps during this process. Even with auto regen enabled, at a certain point the machine signals to “Park Regen.” Following the manual's procedure and display instructions the machine is put into “Active Regen” (shows on the display and beeps when all conditions are met). Even though the display shows “Active Regen” (passive or manually induced) it does not seem the machine is actually regen’ing…it’s not getting hotter than normal in engine compartment, no change in RPM ("park regen"), and no smell from a soot burn off.

Note: Machine is strategically run at 90%-100% RPM for minimum 2 hrs/work session to avoid DPF issues.

Question: If the dealer can successfully “force regen” to clear the DPF what would stop the machine from doing this successfully on its own (passive or manual)…since it can be forced doesn’t this mean the DPF, burner, glow plug, etc. are working? Of course, this assumes a 6+ hr forced regen is normal. Would this likely be more of an issue with Software and/or ECU? I’d like it to get it fixed this time v. just forced regen’d again (x3) so your inputs on a possible root-cause would be much appreciated.

It sounds like the machine is not going into regen at all. What brand or make is the machine?

That's not normal at all. Sounds like your dealer needs to quit screwing around and find the problem. machine make, model and engine would be helpful.

John C. said:

It sounds like the machine is not going into regen at all. What brand or make is the machine?

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Hey John, thanks for replying. It's a New Holland L216.

Paul Council said:

That's not normal at all. Sounds like your dealer needs to quit screwing around and find the problem. machine make, model and engine would be helpful.

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Hello Paul, thanks for replying. It's a New Holland L216 with ISM / N844LT. I spoke to the tech this morning and he said he is going to order a new burner. He believes the burner is intermittent..."the catalyst might be damaged." The internals of the burner is out of my league and maybe this item could cause an intermittency but generally, electrical interfaces come to my mind when there is a intermittent issue with equipment. Do you think the burner catalyst could cause an intermittent problem?

That can cause a problem. I don't know about new Holland but other machines I have worked on threw codes for exhaust temperature to rise to the proper level. but a burner not working properly will cause it to regen for a long period. 6 hours is pretty excessive.

Paul Council said:

That can cause a problem. I don't know about new Holland but other machines I have worked on threw codes for exhaust temperature to rise to the proper level. but a burner not working properly will cause it to regen for a long period. 6 hours is pretty excessive.

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Thanks Paul. Good to know the extended forced regen time is consistent with this item failing. Now I'm wondering why his service tool software was not alerting him there was a problem with temperature sometime during the 6+ hours of force regen. The part is supposed to be in next week so we'll see. What is the longest regen you've experienced? This is my first skid so I have no reference but a maintenance manual I found online indicated 30-40 minutes for a Park Regen.

1 hour tops. I had a few that took longer but that was before I knew to reset the soot load and get it out of derate, so that I could warm the engine faster.

Update: Tech came out today and replaced the burner assembly. When he turned the machine back on it went immediately into active regen. He hooked up the computer and the DPF was at 143% soot level. He monitored the temperature and soot level on his computer and everything was working on it's own, he never had to do a force regen as he did the previous times. It went from 143% to 66% in about 15-20 minutes (this took hours before)! A few moments later the RPMs returned to max (2810) at full throttle on its own (it was in limp mode around 1900 rpm @ full throttle going into this servicing). After a few minutes more it hit ~50% soot level and the Regen completed its cycle. Also different from the previous times...the machine wasn't constantly beeping during this entire process. He told me the machine did everything on its own and did not require interaction from the service software other than to monitor. It's storming today so I can't get out and put it through its paces but the immediate change in regen behavior gives me a good amount of hope all will work as designed.