Ok, having just had my wallet lightened to the tune of £800 as a result of my car’s DPF getting clogged and the various attached sensors getting fubarred, what’s the received wisdom on how to keep your DPF happy?

Ford Kuga mkI 2.0TDCi 163 4WD. Daily journey 27 miles each way but none if it on motorway – cross country A & B roads, none of them straight enough & long enough to get my DPF up to temperature, apparently.

Ford dealer suggested a thirty minute run at constant motorway speed once a week should do it…

A regular Italian tune up

Drive a petrol

If we are to believe the media, DPFs are the least of our worries. Either they’ll ban diesels anywhere you might want to go or we’ll run out of diesel.

I tell customers that’s a DPF needs a “good” m/way run every 250 miles.
But it takes way longer to explain my definition of a good run isn’t the same as theirs, I.e 2 junction on the daily rush hour commute in stop start traffic. Unfortunately DPF system isn’t going anywhere and most diesels (euro 6) now have add blue as well. Modern diesels are great but extremely complex and cannot function with being ran at full running temperature. I would consider a petrol or moving further from work.

Maybe leave it in 5th instead of 6th?

From my reading of docs the regen cycle is triggered when then revs >2.5k (number fule system manufacture dependant) for a set period. So running in a lower gear from some time should trigger the regen cycle if you can keep the revs high for 15 min or so.

Stop driving like a total fanny!

Next time you have a clear slip road or stretch of road, get the revs up above 2000rpm and floor it!

Any ideas on whether its worth using the expensive Shell Vpower, BP Ultimate etc to reduce the risk of clogging of the EGR and/or DPF?

next one may well be petrol, as they’re getting much more economical now, but I’ve only had this since January on a three year PCP deal

The roads on my run, while a nice scenic drive, aren’t straight for long enough to get a good 2000rpm or more for a full 15-30 mins. Looks like I may need to take a decent motorway run somewhere once a week. Richmars, that may help too

I’ve been through this on another channel.

Essentially, “premium” fuel more because it contains more detergents that supermarket fuel; “Ultimate” and “Vpower” etc contain cleaners, and a minute extra power gain through added combustion. Normal premium has less “cleaners” but more “keep it clean” so yes its worth using BP / Shell normal vs supermarket fuel which is relatively dirty. Note that an already clean engine will not perform any better with normal premium fuel.

The advice above is correct. The DPF will either passively (by getting heated up during normal driving) or forcibly (the ECU forces fuel to be burned at high temps – known as a regen process) burn off soot to keep the DPF from being clogged. Most modern cars don’t do this (esp. the forced region) until a certain few conditions have been met; The engine must be at optimum temp, the car is driving circa/over 2000 revs. This process normally takes about 10 minutes and in most modern cars is imperceptible. You may feel a loss of power, reluctant accelerations, smell of burning if stationary, lower current MPG, or puff of dirty smoke during acceleration.

The most likely time for this to happen is on a typically motorway journey. Short stop start journeys do not meet the conditions and therefore you will be building up soot throughout the system. So to look after you engine spend a few extra pence on a branded fuel, and take it for a long journey to invoke the DPF regen. Your dealer can forcibly invoke the regen on the ramp via the ECU if necessary.

Get it deleted from the ECU and removed from the exhaust system.

^^^ Which is an MOT fail if they spot it through emissions or visuals.

so yes its worth using BP / Shell normal vs supermarket fuel which is relatively dirty.

It’s all the same fuel the additives are gimmicks to charge you more.

Drive it with later gear changes and it’ll be fine.

It’s all the same fuel the additives are gimmicks to charge you more.

Possibly, but I’m still looking for a reason why my last diesel struggled (rough, smoky and cutting out) for the first cold 30 seconds or so each run when on supermarket stuff, but was absolutely fine on BP/Esso/etc

^ This for me too…my old Freelander was a different car on the good stuff, paid for itself as well with the extra mpg

It’s all the same fuel the additives are gimmicks to charge you more

No it isn’t, there’s a reason its usually cheaper. Its the same base fuel yes, but it has no / less additives in than branded fuel. I’m not suggesting it lives up to the marketing hype, but it is better for your engine.

Ermmm! That’s what I said.

Oh you added a bit. I notice no difference at all when I use it.

Shell nitro plus is the best of all the updated fuels. Never use supermarket fuels and no trying to drive like a 90 year old…3-.3500rpm tends to be max boost engine speed for turbos…..its fitted for efficiency and economy so use the turbo and drive it…..
Failing that flog it for a petrol engine variant if you like the car….way it’s going diesels really going to go through the roof!

What I don’t understand is that if the DPF is there to prevent particles getting into the atmosphere, but cleans itself by burning these particles off – out of the exhaust and into the atmosphere – what’s the bloody point of them in the first place?

Flying ox – I think that by burning off through the DPF higher combustion temperatures (and therefore cleaner burn) can be achieved than in the engine (diesel engines not being that hot, relatively). That or all the nasties are got rid of on motorways and away from urban areas.

DPF problems made me get rid of my Trafic and change to a petrol car, miss my van 🙁

My van is rough as when it starts on tesco diesel, no problem on shell or BP. It’s not the same.

Why don’t the manufacturers include a caption / indicator light to show when the regen is taking place?

Or at the very least a warning when the time since the last regen is becoming excessive?

Or a means of guiding the driver to achieve a regen when driving e.g. hit X revs?

Cars have so many other warnings / guidance (like change gear now, too hot, low oil etc) why not have some for the DPF?

Without information, how are drivers meant to influence something they can’t see?

The manufacturers need to do more to help.

Rant over.

^^^^ Some manufacturers vehicles have stickers or dangly things on mirrors in the car with just that when they are fresh off the transporter or at least a look in the handbook reference.

I suspect many get chucked away before the consumer sees them.

I guess the regen process doesn’t necessarily occur every journey, it allows the DPF to accumulate soot and then kicks in. So drivers have no idea how often the light should come on, if it should come on every journey or if it needs to come on at all. The point is to have a system that works that is invisible to the driver. Too much risk to confuse rather than to comfort.

But it seems to me that the imperceptible approach isn’t working. It’s costing people money because they can’t tell whether they’ve had a regen or not. There needs to be something ‘active’, like the service interval warning or airbag failure light, to get the owners to take action.

The Flying Ox – Member
What I don’t understand is that if the DPF is there to prevent particles getting into the atmosphere, but cleans itself by burning these particles off – out of the exhaust and into the atmosphere – what’s the bloody point of them in the first place?
POSTED 40 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

It works in a similar way to a catalytic converter, once it gets up to temp it can burn these particulates so you don’t get the soot – but unlike a cat that just lets the gases through until it’s warm it get clogged by them. It really doesn’t take much to clear them normally and most cars not have s re-gen map built into the ECU which can make the car run warmer to clear them. They do indeed get clogged if diesels don’t get a nice warm long run now and again – but of course every dealer in the UK no had thier default excuse should anyone ever ask for some warranty work on them.

My understanding is that give it ‘the beans’ now and again isn’t nearly as effective as 20 mins at 70 when the car is fully up to temp.

I’ve got a diesel for company car tax reasons, I only drive 3 miles to work so it should be ****, but my weekly drive to my riding spot down the M-Way means in 40k miles it’s been absolutey fine.

Oh and it runs on that oh so ‘dirty’ super market diesel – none of that snake oil stuff for me.

DPFs typically regen every 300 to 600km going by any I’ve dealt with lately. Some vehicles you’ll never notice, some will hesitate a bit while it’s happening. Most modern DPFs will quite happily regen at not much above idle speed, provided all the required conditions have been met.

Flying Ox, the DPF is basically a ceramic filter, so particles above the filter size never get through it. During a regen the temperature of the ceramic is raised so the built up particles burn of into smaller particles, which can pass through the filter.

to get the owners to take action.

You’ll just have a big queue of people going to their garage to complain that a light’s come on

Buy a diesel Honda as they don’t have, or indeed need, a DPF…

Or buy a petrol car.

Or just use your bike 🙂

Or have an old diesel pre DPF…

Although the baby robins don’t like them

Get it deleted from the ECU and removed from the exhaust system.

Which is the path I chose and I’ve never looked back.

Buy a diesel Honda as they don’t have, or indeed need, a DPF…

And who told you that?
I can assure you Honda diesels have DPFs, as out of the company cars we deal with, Honda DPFs have given us the biggest problems.

Why don’t Honda diesels have or need PDFs?

Different cars have different conditions for the auto regen, worth checking. On my bmw the fuel tank has to be more than half full for the regen to be triggered.

I think that by burning off through the DPF higher combustion temperatures (and therefore cleaner burn) can be achieved than in the engine (diesel engines not being that hot, relatively).

Right and wrong.

Yes, higher temperatures are achieved in the DPF to burn off the soot but this is only as a consequence of the artificially lowered combustion temperature (thank you EGR) in order to lower NOX emissions.

Diesels do run cooler but older diesels were much hotter and consequently generated less soot (in theory).

First gen Honda diesel’s didn’t have DPF’s. Not sure about the new ones.

Why don’t Honda diesels have or need PDFs?

They’re not Acrobatic?