Help freightliner m2

Nathanielwg · Oct 23, 2019

Hi I have a 2015 freightliner m2 with a Detroit diesel engine. It has the idle cutoff program where it shuts down after 20 minutes. Usually when it gets to hot out or cold though I've been able to chalk my wheels and turn off the brake and it will keep idling to keep the cabin comfortable. Well now it wont even do that the truck shuts down after about 30 minutes and the check engine light comes on. It starts back up with no problems and will continue to idle for another half hour or so but then does it again. Do any of you guys might know what is going on here? Is it time for a mechanic? Is it time for a new engine?

FlyingVan · Oct 23, 2019

In my opinion, it is time for an APU, or Espar heater and generator and an RV kind of AC.

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Nathanielwg · Oct 23, 2019

Oh it has an apu it hasnt worked since I got in the truck. I should clarify that I do not own this truck the owner hasnt had the $ to fix the apu so I have been having to run the engine to keep comfortable but that doesn't seem like an option anymore.

piper1 · Oct 24, 2019

Sounds like the idle timer is programmed and turned on and working as intended. A new engine may solve the problem.

Moot · Oct 24, 2019

piper1 said:
A new engine may solve the problem.

A new owner would certainly solve the problem.

Hospitus · Oct 26, 2019

I have driven hundreds of thousands of miles in those (Penske Rentals) when I was hauling my own product for my manufacturing company. Long story short, what always worked in every one of the rentals (whether it was too keep the cab comfortable while parked or to keep the battery from dying with extensive lift gate usage during a long unload) was to put the truck in neutral, set the parking brake, throttle the RPM up slightly above normal idle, and set the cruise control. It will keep running until you run out of fuel that way. Each truck seemed to be a little different as to how high you needed to peg the RPM, but it was never much above a normal idle, so you'll need to play with it in your truck. Obviously, it's not ideal for fuel economy, but it is such a minimal spike in RPM that it's not putting a lot of extra strain on the engine and I never had any problems (of course, I did not own these trucks at the time, so the only thing I had to worry about was burning extra fuel. If I owned it, I would look into having the time out feature disabled if possible, but if not, this would be a short term solution you can start doing today if you want.