6.7 hill decent and smell

[built4ford]

im new to the site because i havnt had any problems with my 6L knock on wood but my dad just bought a new 6.7 and i was driving it today with 160 miles on it and the exhaust clean thing came on then turned off not even 5 seconds later... then five minutes later it did it again.. how often is this happening. also it parked it and it seemed to smell and i havnt smelt anything like it beforeso im just assuming it is the new diesel smell. and last but not least. i feel the hill decent is useless if anyone knows any info about it please fill me in. thanks in advanced!

[bgrdnr]

It is normal for the "cleaning exhaust filter" message to only remain on for less than 5 seconds. I usually don't notice it until I check fuel mileage and see the the ~10 minute drop in mileage. It is abnormal however for the message to come back on five minutes later (I have never noticed it anyway). The smell you observed is normal and it is the particulates being combusted in the filter. It reminds me of melting/burning wire insulation, and chemically it isn't dramatically different. It is a little unnerving the first time you smell it, but I was lucky in that I did happen to notice the "cleaning" message just 5 minutes before parking the truck.

For the hill decent operation, were you in 4WD and going less than 20mph? If you are referring to the 'exhaust break' like feature, this isn't it. I haven't completely figured that one out either, but it appears to involve using the cruise control. I would appreciate someone else's suggestions on this as well.

[mor4wd]

Hill Descent works excellent. I've used mine on an old tank test track with 45° slopes on it. Set it at the top at 5 mph and let it go. It immediately began holding back using the anti-lock braking system all the way to the bottom. Very useful.

Exhaust brake works only in Tow Haul Mode or manual mode on the shifter. Tap the brake once to engage it, tap it again to drop a gear and get stronger braking. It is only affective over 2,000 RPM but works best over 3,000. It also works very well in conjunction with the Cruise Control. I can set my speed at 65 mph at the top with 18k behind me and it never gets over 68 mph going down 6%.