# 150K Miles in a 2014 Cruze Diesel



## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

So, I have made another major milestone in my 2014 Chevy Cruze Diesel, 150,000 miles. I have previously posted my experience through 50K and 100K

Here: http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/64-c...iscussion/56962-50000-miles-cruze-diesel.html

And Here: http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/64-c...7-100k-miles-2014-chevrolet-cruze-diesel.html

This review will pretty much be from the 100K point to the present. Other than normal maintenance items such as a timing belt and rear brake pads at 145K miles, nothing needed replacing during the period from 100K to 150K miles. It continues to be a reliable, comfortable, fuel efficient and powerful (for what it is) car. It still runs and drives just like the day it did when I picked it up with 55 miles on the clock. The car remains rattle and squeak free, the seats still look new, the suspension is still tight and supple. That being said, the timing belt tensioner (or something in that belt system) did start to whine a couple thousand miles before I had the timing belt replaced, but I do not consider that an “issue” since I went almost 50,000 miles past when I was supposed to change the timing belt.

I did say that nothing needed to be replaced from 100K to 150K but I did have a couple issues, which I file under the “learning experience” category. I am a bit biased on this car admittedly, so there will be some who read what I am about to say and take it more negatively than I did, but I will state the facts, what I learned, and most importantly how others can prevent it from happening to them,

At about 115K and again at 131K, I got a CEL (Check Engine Light) and a message that my DPF was full and to keep driving, immediately followed by a Power Reduced message. I got very lucky in that both times I was able to drive it straight to the dealership for a manual DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) regeneration. After it happened the first time, I got an aftermarket gauge to monitor certain parameters of the car, namely:

“Regen Status” (Indicates when there is a regen of the DPF to burn off accumulated soot)

“Soot Grams” (Indicates how many grams of soot have accumulated in the DPF)

“Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP)” (Indicates turbo boost – or vacuum. 14.0 is the equivalent to zero boost. Anything under that is vacuum).

After I got the monitor (well, two monitors, but we can ignore the first one) - called a Scangauge II (it’s documented thoroughly on this forum) – I thought I was free and clear, but not so much. One day, I observed that my grams of soot were up to 22, higher than the usual 19 grams that trigger a regen, but I thought nothing of it. I also noticed that the MAP had dropped well below 14 before I shut the car off, but the Regen Indicator said there was none in progress. When I shut the car off, the soot grams went from 22 to 35 immediately. When I started the car the next time, I had the dreaded “Power Reduced” message and CEL again. 

Here’s what happens. There’s about a 30 second window in which the car starts gearing up for a regen and this is indicated by MAP below 14, but the Regen Indicator is not on yet. I believe the car has started the process of injecting fuel in to the DPF to heat it up, but it’s not hot enough to start burning the soot off at this point, and as such it gets clogged if you shut the car off during this 30 second (or so) window. The solution is to never shut the car off when both the Regen Indicator is off AND the MAP is below 14. (Or for those of you who prefer to monitor turbo boost – it will turn to a negative number)

Hopefully I haven’t lost you there. The downside to this is that you will need to buy a gauge ($120-ish) to monitor this, and it is considerably cheaper than the cost of one manual regen ($250-ish). Should you have to do this? NO, but it is what it is. Maybe the engineers will figure out a way around this in the next go-around, or at least figure a way to alert the driver.

Odds are pretty good this won’t ever happen to you. It took 115K miles for it to happen to me, and I am glad it did because now I have a clear understanding (I think) of what happened and am able to help others prevent it. If you do have this message, you probably can’t drive much further than 50-100 miles without damaging the DPF. Since then, that particular set of circumstances has not presented itself and all the emissions components have been working well. I am averaging 800-1000 miles in between regen cycles lately.

Now that that’s all out of the way, I can go on raving about the car. I never in a million years imagined I would still have this car after 150K miles and now looking forward to the 200K mark. I love this car as much as I did the day I test drove it, and simply find it very engaging and fun to drive every day. I continue to be thoroughly impressed with the engineering and build quality of this car – all aspects – but especially the powertrain. I am at a point now where I can see this being a good and reliable car for hundreds of thousands of miles. Of course time will tell, but I am still in the game and on my way to 200K as a daily driver and we shall see where it goes from there.


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## mkohan (Dec 19, 2015)

Congrats, enjoy the next 50,000+ Miles and keep us posted


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## Tomko (Jun 1, 2013)

Congratulations young man! May you have many more in good health.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

Wow. 100,000 miles in 10 months. GM marketing should think about this.


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## pacolino (Aug 1, 2015)

Congrats Diesel and many thanks for sharing your insightful long run diesel experience, I take your advice to not shut off the car while map is below 14 and regen off. Do u have any tunes installed in your vehicle?

Sent from my LGMS631 using Tapatalk


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## Snipesy (Dec 7, 2015)

So 999,999 by 2020?

Then you may be back to factory!


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## boneheaddoctor (Dec 10, 2014)

150k on a 2014.....do you ever get OUT of the car? My 2014 has less than 13k. And I thought I drive it a lot. I honestly hope I get to see 150k without any major problems in mine. That would make me really happy.


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## PanJet (Jun 18, 2013)

This is pretty awesome, diesel. Congrats! On to 200,000!!




diesel said:


> I am averaging 800-1000 miles in between regen cycles lately.


I did get the (dreaded? annoying?) P0133 code for a bad O2 sensor at 25k, which they tried to remedy by cleaning it. It came on again at about 30k, so they replaced the sensor. One thing I noticed is that for a few weeks around November, I was building soot really fast, in one case getting less than 100 miles between regens. I attributed it to the bad, wet weather we're having plus lots of short driving, but it seems since they replaced the O2 sensor, my regens have been considerably more spaced. I'm currently at nearly 500 miles of 100% short, city driving, and I'm still only at 18 grams (mine always starts a regen at 22). I wonder if a properly functioning O2 sensor helps contribute to cleaner burning. I have noticed no change in fuel consumption, however.

My driving situation has changed dramatically since getting the car so the car is seeing much shorter daily driving (10 miles one-way to work instead of 53 when I bought it). I'm not sure my long-term experience will be as rosy as yours, but here's to hoping.


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## money_man (Feb 25, 2014)

So I must've missed it but what was your final bill for the timing belt and how many hours did they charge for


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

ChevyGuy said:


> Wow. 100,000 miles in 10 months. GM marketing should think about this.


Not quite! I averaging about 4800 miles per month, roughly 160 per day. 



pacolino said:


> Congrats Diesel and many thanks for sharing your insightful long run diesel experience, I take your advice to not shut off the car while map is below 14 and regen off. Do u have any tunes installed in your vehicle?
> 
> Sent from my LGMS631 using Tapatalk


Factory stock. No mods at all. 



boneheaddoctor said:


> 150k on a 2014.....do you ever get OUT of the car? My 2014 has less than 13k. And I thought I drive it a lot. I honestly hope I get to see 150k without any major problems in mine. That would make me really happy.


It's funny, I don't feel like I drive enough!



money_man said:


> So I must've missed it but what was your final bill for the timing belt and how many hours did they charge for


Off the top of my head I think right in the $700 range, including all the tensioners and stuff. I had them do some other things at the time and it all got lumped together, but that's a pretty good estimate.


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## money_man (Feb 25, 2014)

That's not even unreasonable.


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## Cruzator (Dec 31, 2014)

Diesel, thanks for the nice write up. I have never seen my boost go to negative numbers (not sure it will on my CTS). I haven't monitored the atmospheric pressure. I find it strange that your car goes into regen at 18 grams. Mine, like PanJet's, starts at 22 grams. Any clue why the difference. I was driving mine last night when it rolled over to 22 grams, so I took your advice and continued driving until a regen was initiated and completed. As always, your information is really appreciated !


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## money_man (Feb 25, 2014)

Do you guys all put your scan gauge on top of the column or do they make nice small ones now?


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## oilburner (Jun 13, 2013)

way to go Diesel, that's 240,000 kms. I got 54,000 kms on mine now.
don`t thing I will catch up.
mine is under cover till end of april. driving my old reliable Saturn this winter. ( beater with a heater)


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## GlennGlenn (Nov 27, 2015)

money_man said:


> Do you guys all put your scan gauge on top of the column or do they make nice small ones now?



Its the same Scan Gauge they've been making for years. Just installed mine last week and don't find it obtrusive at all ( the wire is a lil thick though). The Scan Gauge 2 has a special firmware & instructions written just for us CTD owners ( thanks Scan Gauge!!) . I purchased factory direct and am liking it so far.

i am running the following gauges: Soot Mass, distance since last regen, Regen Status , Manifold absolute pressure. ( these are what the oem car should have had all along). 

Thanks for for the write-up @diesel.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

money_man said:


> Do you guys all put your scan gauge on top of the column or do they make nice small ones now?


I do wish they made a round one...I'd grab the ZZP A-pillar pod and pop it in there. The rectangular one looks too "stuck-on" for me. I'd love its functionality, but it'll never look integrated enough until it's round. 

Great seeing 150k on one of yours though @diesel, though. Ours is just shy of 34k miles right now, having had it since May 2014. We were putting a lot more miles on it then, as it was a 100-mile round trip to work every day, and then 70 miles from that house to our house now when moving (and we made a lot of trips). It certainly shows in that we drove the same amount of miles in all of 2015 as we did in 8 months of 2014. 

As far as the tensioner/belt goes, is this all that needs to be replaced at that time (100k?). Wonder how difficult it'll be. I can't really justify paying the dealer $700 to do it, when I'm likely plenty capable to do it myself, unless it's a real pain in the dick.


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## IndyDiesel (May 24, 2015)

Congrats diesel. Appreciate the write up.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

Cruzator said:


> Diesel, thanks for the nice write up. I have never seen my boost go to negative numbers (not sure it will on my CTS). I haven't monitored the atmospheric pressure. I find it strange that your car goes into regen at 18 grams. Mine, like PanJet's, starts at 22 grams. Any clue why the difference. I was driving mine last night when it rolled over to 22 grams, so I took your advice and continued driving until a regen was initiated and completed. As always, your information is really appreciated !


It's very hard to catch. Only lasts for about 30 seconds before regen status goes to 1 and there's no warning when it will happen, BUT, during a regen, the MAP remains below 14 (negative boost) if you are coasting or idling. This gives you more time to see if you get the negative reading. 

I have no idea why mine shows 19 grams. I think my Edge CTS showed that as well so it's not specific to the aftermarket gauge. Could be the car's programming. It has me curious. 



MP81 said:


> I do wish they made a round one...I'd grab the ZZP A-pillar pod and pop it in there. The rectangular one looks too "stuck-on" for me. I'd love its functionality, but it'll never look integrated enough until it's round.
> 
> Great seeing 150k on one of yours though @*diesel*, though. Ours is just shy of 34k miles right now, having had it since May 2014. We were putting a lot more miles on it then, as it was a 100-mile round trip to work every day, and then 70 miles from that house to our house now when moving (and we made a lot of trips). It certainly shows in that we drove the same amount of miles in all of 2015 as we did in 8 months of 2014.
> 
> As far as the tensioner/belt goes, is this all that needs to be replaced at that time (100k?). Wonder how difficult it'll be. I can't really justify paying the dealer $700 to do it, when I'm likely plenty capable to do it myself, unless it's a real pain in the dick.


Just for good measure, i also had the alternator belt and tensioner(s) done at the same time. The dealer showed I think 3 hours labor on the timing belt.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

diesel said:


> Just for good measure, i also had the alternator belt and tensioner(s) done at the same time. The dealer showed I think 3 hours labor on the timing belt.


Oh, okay, that doesn't sound terrible. And it makes sense to have those all done too, considering half of it has to come off anyway.


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## money_man (Feb 25, 2014)

3 hours!? That's legit!


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## Gator (Jul 14, 2013)

Diesel, great write up. I'm closing in on the 100000 mile mark myself. 98000. I'm hoping to have the same luck as you have.
I did see you had to take it to the dealer for a manual regen. Did I read this right, 250.00 to do this? SMH..I drive a semi and they all have factory switch's to do a manual regen. They switch will only work if it calls for a regen. Seems to me that's a high cost for a safety feature. My I ask what does the dealer do for a manual regen?
The reason I'm asking is because my semi , if I do a manual regen just goes into a high idle mode for a set period then finishes . if that is all the dealer does is over ride the computer to do this that is a rip off. 
I understand not letting the customer being able to do this because someone will park it in a garage and do a regen but 250.00, should be one a set period per year at no cost. Well my rant is over on this.
Again great write up again, I'll give one on my 100000 mile mark. Hope to see one at 200000 from you.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

Gator said:


> Diesel, great write up. I'm closing in on the 100000 mile mark myself. 98000. I'm hoping to have the same luck as you have.
> I did see you had to take it to the dealer for a manual regen. Did I read this right, 250.00 to do this? SMH..I drive a semi and they all have factory switch's to do a manual regen. They switch will only work if it calls for a regen. Seems to me that's a high cost for a safety feature. My I ask what does the dealer do for a manual regen?
> The reason I'm asking is because my semi , if I do a manual regen just goes into a high idle mode for a set period then finishes . if that is all the dealer does is over ride the computer to do this that is a rip off.
> I understand not letting the customer being able to do this because someone will park it in a garage and do a regen but 250.00, should be one a set period per year at no cost. Well my rant is over on this.
> Again great write up again, I'll give one on my 100000 mile mark. Hope to see one at 200000 from you.


I fully agree with you on the manual regen. $200+ is a ripoff since I am pretty sure they hook it up to a computer, punch a few keys and then let the car sit until it's done. I think they are charging me because the car is taking up one of the bays and the mechanic is supposedly keeping an eye on it. It wasn't really a huge deal to me because that dealership has always done me right in the service department, but I would much prefer a manual regen option. I am glad it happened though, because I was finally able to figure it out and hopefully help others. I fully intend to drive it as a daily driver to 200K and likely beyond. I would like to see you do a 100K write up once you hit that milestone.


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## Gator (Jul 14, 2013)

I will Diesel. I wonder if a aftermarket regen switch could be added to our CTDs. Something that would be nice added to the scantool


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## money_man (Feb 25, 2014)

Wonder if my new snap on scanner will do the manual regens?


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

money_man said:


> Wonder if my new snap on scanner will do the manual regens?


Let us know if you figure out how to. I would buy one for that.


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## money_man (Feb 25, 2014)

diesel said:


> Let us know if you figure out how to. I would buy one for that.


I'll let you know when I get a chance hopefully this weekend. Just so you know my snap on scanner was $5500 so may not be the kind of thing you want to actually purchase. However I live in Canada so may be a bit cheaper down there.


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## IndyDiesel (May 24, 2015)

I recently puchased a 15 Cruze diesel, it has like 5300 miles on it. Recently purchased the scangauge II, great tool but have a couple questions.

1) if one didn't have a scangauge and have some idea when it is suppose to do a regen, if you turn off your car during a regen what happens?

2) I have 20 grams of soot, does it normally start regen around 22?

3) if one drives more city driving does that generate more soot and shorter regen cycles than highway driving?


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## money_man (Feb 25, 2014)

Wish a scangauge 2 wasn't $350 in Canada


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## IndyDiesel (May 24, 2015)

money_man said:


> Wish a scangauge 2 wasn't $350 in Canada


Send me a private message, I would be happy to get you one and ship it to you. I didn't pay anything close to that. No I am not a dealer, I just buy and sell stuff.


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

IndyDiesel said:


> 3) if one drives more city driving does that generate more soot and shorter regen cycles than highway driving?


100%


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## money_man (Feb 25, 2014)

IndyDiesel said:


> Send me a private message, I would be happy to get you one and ship it to you. I didn't pay anything close to that. No I am not a dealer, I just buy and sell stuff.


In school right now but maybe I'll take you up on that when I get out.


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## GlennGlenn (Nov 27, 2015)

IndyDiesel said:


> I recently puchased a 15 Cruze diesel, it has like 5300 miles on it. Recently purchased the scangauge II, great tool but have a couple questions.
> 
> 1) if one didn't have a scangauge and have some idea when it is suppose to do a regen, if you turn off your car during a regen what happens?
> 
> ...



Ive only had 1 Regen, but from reading it's not a good idea to turn car off during Regen , particularly at the very beginning when MAP goes below 14 ( pre-regen). 

my regen started 7 miles into a soot reading of 22. Except for @diesel, most guys Regen at about 22. This is also my experience. 

Ive noticed more soot build up in city driving than highway on the Scan Gauge. This may also be a function of the B11 I run here in IL though. 

Note, it only took 10 minutes or about 10 miles driving to complete a Regen, so you're better off just letting it finish, even if at idle like the semis do.


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## countryboy90 (Nov 26, 2014)

Nice. I will watch for later updates on this car. One thing I am most interested in is how long before the dpf has to be replaced. With semis they have a limit with miles (iirc MB has the ecm set a code around 400k that the dpf NEEDS to be pulled and cleaned) The soot built up in the dpf will leave behind an ash that after so long plugs it up, as I said tho, on semis we can pull them off and clean them out provided they pass a couple tests. But with automotive they don't make the dpf serviceable, so when the limit is reached you remove it and install a new one. Also, you stated about fuel being injected to get the dpf up to temp, mostly they need exhaust temps to reach a certain level before the fuel will start to be injected.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

countryboy90 said:


> Nice. I will watch for later updates on this car. One thing I am most interested in is how long before the dpf has to be replaced. With semis they have a limit with miles (iirc MB has the ecm set a code around 400k that the dpf NEEDS to be pulled and cleaned) The soot built up in the dpf will leave behind an ash that after so long plugs it up, as I said tho, on semis we can pull them off and clean them out provided they pass a couple tests. But with automotive they don't make the dpf serviceable, so when the limit is reached you remove it and install a new one. Also, you stated about fuel being injected to get the dpf up to temp, mostly they need exhaust temps to reach a certain level before the fuel will start to be injected.


I will probably be the first on this forum to discover how long the DPF lasts, but I can say I still get 900-1000 miles between regens with 153K miles on the car.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

IndyDiesel said:


> I recently puchased a 15 Cruze diesel, it has like 5300 miles on it. Recently purchased the scangauge II, great tool but have a couple questions.
> 
> 1) if one didn't have a scangauge and have some idea when it is suppose to do a regen, if you turn off your car during a regen what happens?
> 
> ...


Others have answered some of your questions, but I will give my 2 cents. I posted a sticky that tells you what happens if you shut your car off during the "pre-regen". Shutting off during the regen won't hurt a thing. I've done it many times. You will hear the car's fans stay on after you shut it off if you interrupt a regen. 

I am not sure why mine regens at 19 and everybody else's does it at 22. It's strange. 

Definitely city driving produces more soot. So does cold start and stop driving.


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## IndyDiesel (May 24, 2015)

Yesterday I had my first regen since having scan gauge and it was a few miles after it 22 grams of soot and had driven like 740 miles since last regen. Well had I not had the scan gauge I would have turned the car off just as the map started to drop and go into regen, I kept driving for several minutes and it completed the regen pretty quickly. I was in town so it had some stop and go involved. I doubt it would have been a major problem but it provided a peace of mind knowing what is happening. 

For part of the regen I was in a parking lot and it appeared the regen stopped briefly because of speed I guess then once I got going again it finished the regen. I assume this is normal?


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## IndyDiesel (May 24, 2015)

diesel said:


> I will probably be the first on this forum to discover how long the DPF lasts, but I can say I still get 900-1000 miles between regens with 153K miles on the car.


Sounds like your regen process is working very well. Any idea what a DPF cost to replace if they do go bad outside of warranty? I looked on a gm parts website and couldn't find the part listed.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

IndyDiesel said:


> Yesterday I had my first regen since having scan gauge and it was a few miles after it 22 grams of soot and had driven like 740 miles since last regen. Well had I not had the scan gauge I would have turned the car off just as the map started to drop and go into regen, I kept driving for several minutes and it completed the regen pretty quickly. I was in town so it had some stop and go involved. I doubt it would have been a major problem but it provided a peace of mind knowing what is happening.
> 
> For part of the regen I was in a parking lot and it appeared the regen stopped briefly because of speed I guess then once I got going again it finished the regen. I assume this is normal?


Don't worry about interrupting the regen when the RGN is 1. You will be safe there. You just don't want to do with with RGN=0 and MAP below 14. And yes. The RGN will go to 0 when you are driving slowly and the temps drop. It will resume once you get the RPMs up again. And come to think of it, probably the only danger area is when the regen first starts. Once it's underway and the RGN goes back to 0, you are likely fine to shut off the car. The only time I ever had a problem was before the RGN ever went to 1.



IndyDiesel said:


> Sounds like your regen process is working very well. Any idea what a DPF cost to replace if they do go bad outside of warranty? I looked on a gm parts website and couldn't find the part listed.


I think the part alone is $1000. Not cheap at all. But I am optimistic it will last indefinitely though.


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## gregbonat (Apr 5, 2014)

FTI. I am at 171000 mi and am now having dpf filter replaced along w some other things. My timing belt was replaced at 100000 for $425 labor 67 parts. They had to order 2/3 special tools to replace it I had thought of replacing it myself until I saw how bad a job it looked to be.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

gregbonat said:


> FTI. I am at 171000 mi and am now having dpf filter replaced along w some other things. My timing belt was replaced at 100000 for $425 labor 67 parts. They had to order 2/3 special tools to replace it I had thought of replacing it myself until I saw how bad a job it looked to be.


Just curious - what led to it needing to be replaced? Failed regens? Persistent CEL emissions codes?


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