[applegrew]

In 2nd week of April I completed a nice road trip from Hyderabad to Coorg via Bangalore. The trip went without a hitch except when I was back to Bangalore from Coorg the DEF warning came up. The DEF level was 50% at that time.

Since I was scheduled to leave for Hyderabad the next day hence I bought DEF cans from nearby Shell fuel station [more info (Recommended AdBlue brands for BS6 Diesel cars)]. I bought two 5L cans. The Shell personnel emptied out the first can and while pouring the 2nd can it spilled out a little. The 2nd can still has around 25% DEF left in it.

The issue is since filling the DEF to 100% last time, I have driven back to Hyderabad from Bangalore and drove the car here everyday but still the car shows 100% DEF level!

At the start of March the service centre had last refilled DEF to 100%. I painstakingly jotted down every distance travelled by the car from the Jeep Life app since then till today and cross checked that against Google Maps Timeline data.

The 50% warning came after driving for 2112km. So that means for every 42.24km travel 1% DEF consumption should be shown. I understand that the car might not show consumption of every 1%. After refilling to 100% last time, the car has travelled 971km. That means 23% DEF should have been consumed by now. However, the car still shows 100% DEF (see the picture taken yesterday night)! I remember the DEF level in car gradually went to 50% not directly to 50% from 100%.

I am very apprehensive about the reading in my car, since in few days I will be going on another long road trip.

[dhanushs]

Originally Posted by applegrew

I am very apprehensive about the reading in my car, since in few days I will be going on another long road trip.

Just like Fuel Consumption, DEF Consumption also depends on the usage pattern. The interval of refilling fuel is 10 or more times more freequent than DEF, and hence you can correlate between consumption figures and drive patterns. Your current drive may not have required that much DEF.

I dont think there is a cause to worry herel, especially you can still drive with low DEF. Worst case, you get the recommended grade in all Fuel Stations. Get a 5L can, for that just in case times.

[sameerpatel90]

Originally Posted by applegrew

I am very apprehensive about the reading in my car, since in few days I will be going on another long road trip.

Attachment 2603226

I would like to draw your attention to the following: Please consider visiting the dealership for any available PCM updates. Alternatively, you can contact JEEP ASS over the telephone. By providing your VIN NO, they can confirm the availability of updates. This will help save a significant amount of your time.

Additionally, the consumption of DEF depends largely on driving styles and conditions. Even in city driving on a daily basis, the consumption can be comparable to that of fuel.

[applegrew]

Originally Posted by dhanushs

Just like Fuel Consumption, DEF Consumption also depends on the usage pattern. The interval of refilling fuel is 10 or more times more freequent than DEF, and hence you can correlate between consumption figures and drive patterns. Your current drive may not have required that much DEF.

I dont think there is a cause to worry herel, especially you can still drive with low DEF. Worst case, you get the recommended grade in all Fuel Stations. Get a 5L can, for that just in case times.

I just calculated the fuel consumption pattern. So as per my estimate I had burned 221 litres of diesel before I had hit the 50% DEF warning. After refilling that to 100%, I have now burnt off around 76 litres of diesel.

One additional point

I had mentioned in my original post that when the DEF was being refilled it had spilled out. That was not wiped clean. Later I noticed that those had crystallised into white particles. Not sure if that has any role to play in my issue. I was going through another forum on similar issue in Jeep. There the members were discussing the possibility of these white crystal blocking the sensor.

[lurker]

Long distance highway driving is very frugal on DEF, if you run above 100 km/h for long distances, then DEF hardly ever gets consumed irrespective of your fuel refills. So fuel refill is not most reliable correlation to DEF consumption.

My gut feeling about DEF is that it gets consumed lots more in ghat road driving, start stop traffic and idle engine.

[Sedate driver]

In my Hector too, I have noticed this low DEF consumption pattern. The DEF was refilled only once at around 30000 kms and now the mileage stands at 42500 but no sign of DEF low warning so far. The car is run 90% on highways and I presume highway running consumes less DEF. However there is no indicator for DEF level and the service advisor said when the warning comes you can still drive 2000 kms.

[applegrew]

Update: Issue resolved

We have a long trip coming up shortly, so was growing apprehensive. Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and took it to the service centre. They mentioned that probably the sensor is not able to work correctly with the given DEF but they have not come across such issue before. OBD checks revealed no malfunctions. Their recommendation was to drain the current DEF and refill with recommended one.

The work involves removing a wheel to access the DEF tank. The DEF tank is behind the driver side rear wheel and has a metal protective cover bolted around it. So all those had to be unbolted. After taking out the tank they drained it and the connecting pipe. Even after emptying out, the gauge was still showing 100%. However after filling in 5L of the Velvex DEF the gauge updated to show 50%. As the tank was being filled more, I could see the gauge move up in realtime all the way to 100%. After driving to home the gauge now shows less than 100% now.

So one thing to note is that even when the tank has 13L capacity, the gauge shows 100% at 10L. Let's do some math. Previously the service centre had filled just upto 10L. I am sure about that now, since at that time too the gauge dipped below 100% the very next day. So it took 2112km of travel to consume 5L of DEF which is 424.4km per L of DEF. So for 971km it must have used around 2.3L of DEF. In reality the consumption would had been less than that since the 2112km part including driving on Coorg hills. At Shell they had filled over the brim so that means the car still had 10.7L of DEF left in it. Since the car drove well so I think there was no problem at all to begin with. I overreacted and the service centre cashed in (knowingly or due to ignorance). I just had to wait a little longer.

Overall this gain in knowledge that the gauge considers 10L as 100% costed me around 7k (of which around 1k is the cost of 10L Velvex DEF). Hope this helps other confused souls.

[Omkar]

Originally Posted by applegrew

Update: Issue resolved

We have a long trip coming up shortly, so was growing apprehensive. Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and took it to the service centre. They mentioned that probably the sensor is not able to work correctly with the given DEF but they have not come across such issue before. OBD checks revealed no malfunctions. Their recommendation was to drain the current DEF and refill with recommended one.

Glad that the issue was resolved. Jeep is extremely particular with the brand of DEF being used in their cars.

Reminds me of the issue Axe77 had with his Jeep Meridian where a different brand DEF was filled and the car refused to start - Related Thread

[careind]

Originally Posted by applegrew

Update: Issue resolved
Overall this gain in knowledge that the gauge considers 10L as 100% costed me around 7k (of which around 1k is the cost of 10L Velvex DEF). Hope this helps other confused souls.

Thanks for sharing this nugget.
I think this should hold good for the other brands as well.
We have to be aware of when it reaches 100% as against the total volume of the DEF tank.

[sameerpatel90]

Originally Posted by applegrew

Update: Issue resolved
Overall this gain in knowledge that the gauge considers 10L as 100% costed me around 7k (of which around 1k is the cost of 10L Velvex DEF). Hope this helps other confused souls.

Good to hear this, the repair job didn't cost you big sum apart from the DEF.

1.)What I recommend to all the BSVI automobile owners is that when you purchase DEF Oil it is good to have 5L cans purchased rather than 10L one's. Partially used cans when exposed to environment may start forming into crystals and may cause blocking of DEF lines, pumps and injectors subsequently affecting the DPF unit as well.

2.) Always refill a 5L can only after it is below 50% this will allow the user from overfilling (like it is usually done with fuel) and carrying a spare can for longer distances shall keep you out of the anxiety when it is low.

3.) There are many companies manufacturing DEF oil but IMHO, always use the company recommended AdBlue as they vary in concentrations of UREA.