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DEF/UREA Check The Date

durallymax

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By now everybody has heard of DEF/Urea. Its no magical potion, just 32% Urea and the rest is water. While the fluid isnt fancy, it does degrade overtime and the SCR systems are extremely picky about the DEF quality. If its not good enough, your not going anywhere.

DEF has a typical shelf life of 1-2 years depending on hows its stored.

It should be stored below 86* and above 14* and out of sunlight. If it is stored in sunlight or high temperatures its shelf life decreases.

DEFs freezing point is 12-14*, the SCR systems are equipped to handle this and go into a DEF thaw mode. Each engines DEF thaw mode is different but most of them consist of a heating procedure for the DEF and reduced engine power until the DEF is ready to use.


But the main reason for me writing this is that I just put some bad DEF fluid in our tractor and now i gotta drain it and replace it with fresh stuff. Not that much work, but now thats $40 of fluid down the drain plus the tractors downtime. I went and checked the date and its over a year and a half old.

I dont suspect this to be much opf an issue for this year and the next year but I am sure that in the future poor quality DEF will become a rising issue. So just best off to check the date of manufacture before purchasing.
 
Good info Vinny, I still haven't purchased DEF yet for my truck and I'm almost at 1500 miles.
 
AGCO DT275B, theyve had it since 2009 but didnt need it till 2011. Pissed a lot of guys off, but now they have the bugs worked out and the competition doesnnt. CNH is using SCR too, deere and cummins are using EGR systmes,.
 
Was at the dealership about a month a go and the Service Manager was telling me that stuff has a real short shelf life in hot temp. states. Like here in TX when it's 100 degrees he said that stuff only last about 3-4 months. For that reason they only carry a little bit at a time and the best place to get it was at the truck stops.
 
ya once you get over 85* its shelf life drops. After all it is nitrogen and anybody who knows the nitrogen cycle knows why the stuff goes bad so quickly.
 
Its an early SN one so it has its issues, plenty of them, I guess the newer ones have more bugs worked out of them.

When its running, its very nice. But its still no Fendt, but for $50,000 less you get what you pay for.
 
Thats some great info Vinny. Thanks for posting that up. Hopefully this makes its way around before people wind up having situations like yours and dumping money down the drain for expired DEF. How much does that stuff go for by the gallon these days anyway?
 
Its all about who wants to rape you. Auto dealerships are the most expensive.

The biggest difference is quantity, there are huge volume discvounts on the stuff.
 
Has anybody thought of collecting their own urine and mixing it with water? (33% urine and 67% water) That would insure a fresh supply on hand.
 
Vinny,

Did you get the free skid when you bought the tractor/? I would go AGCO anyday. They now use DOC/SCR to meet the regs, others are using EGR- No thanks.
 
Has anybody thought of collecting their own urine and mixing it with water? (33% urine and 67% water) That would insure a fresh supply on hand.

Just get Bubba the pig to ride shotgun and run a catheter up in him and you're good. Plumb it in, etc...
 
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