molgrips – Member

For all those ‘what’s the point in diesel’ folk, I drove Cardiff to Farnborough on Monday at 70mph and got 66mpg in my auto Passat. And it’s not even a bluemotion.

Even better if you can get one with automatic gear that can get rid of the clutch problem but make sure you avoid those fancy automatic gear systems. Yes, fuel consumption might be slightly high but one less problem. 😀

Cars with DPFs do need to be thrashed occasionally. The odd tootle arrond at 2k rpm will not get the temperatures in the exhaust system needed to burn off all the crap. Diesel is a filthy fuel and all the crap in it that is not burned in the combustion process collects on the DPF. I don’t know if it is possible to clear out the DPF once the light has come on I.e. if it is really goosed, however taking it out for a good thrashing before you bend over and let Audi give you a good rodgering is worth a go. Don’t worry about thrashing your car, these days with rev limiters and other things engines are well protected from any damage, it’s impossible to properly thrash them. If you’re exhaust manifold is not glowing cherry red then you’re not thrashing hard enough.

I think the MOT on cars with DPF’s require the car to be revved on the red line for something like five minutes before taking the emissions reading – something like that anyway. Sounds horrible but the engines are designed to take it.

170k TDCi Mondeo here, & runs great. I put it down to the 40mile motorway ragging it gets off the Wife every day. They need a caning to clear them out.

OP here.

repair came back at just over £1200, they said they found a cheaper part.

engine management light still on but they said this was just the exhaust gas re-circ valve and wouldn’t cause any driving problems. They quoted £433 for that so I am going to get an independent quote.

Add to that the 45mpg that it gives me no matter how I drive it despite being the size of the QE2 and I’d really struggle to find a petrol car that would be cheaper.

A bit late to answer, but I got the Honda Jazz over the Civic because it was so much cheaper to run and had the same amount of storage space inside. 1.4 petrol, 45mpg+ etc. Fantastic car – I would struggle to want anything other than a Honda now that I’ve got one.

I thought the DPF light came on when it was approx 80% blocked. A good thrashing didn’t sort mine so I had it taken out and the car remapped to remove regeneration process, no extra hp. It passed mot test at Kwik Fit.

Car has also had an egr replacement since i’ve had it (under warranty). I had to replace this on my previous petrol a3 so they might be made of cheese.

OP here.

repair came back at just over £1200, they said they found a cheaper part.

engine management light still on but they said this was just the exhaust gas re-circ valve and wouldn’t cause any driving problems. They quoted £433 for that so I am going to get an independent quote.

What! Didn’t you put the car in to have the problem solved? 🙄

Had similar indication problems for DPF on a 58 plate Octavia VRS. Local garage reset after apparently running a regeneration following the engine going into limp mode. I thought the problem had been solved but after about 300 miles of motorway and A road driving, the warning lights came on and engine management went straight to limp mode.

Scared myself silly by looking at DPF prices online (similar to OP’s quotes) but was recommended an auto electrical specialist by local garage in Urmston.

The problem was resolved the following day at cost of about £170.00. It was purely indication error caused by a faulty pressure sensor.

Get to a good electrical specialist.

Hope this helps.