They’re not Acrobatic?

Badum-tish 🙂

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.

Say what? If you knew it was happening with a light to tell you, the car would go through exactly the same motions and nothing would change. Possibly in your head you’d tame your driving style in an effort to save fuel, but this – for example tendling around at 1500 reves in 6th gear) won’t help the process and will perhaps just lead to the next regen happening slightly earlier.

My Honda doesn’t have a DPF but in the Halfords oil flipcard thing there is a listing for a DPF model with a different oil…a low soot variant to avoid clogging the DPF.

And this is where some of the issue stems from…who services your car, and are they using the correct oil, or have they just got a big drum of 5w30 that does the job whether it be a 10 year old Transit, a 5yr old Petrol city car, or a 3yr old modern diesel with DPF?

My dad’s Fiat had constant problems and needed yearly forced regens…I’m convinced it’s due to going to a cheap backstreet garage. They didn’t even know how to reset the flashing oil light (service indicator), Google knows it’s just a sequence of button presses to reset without a computer.

From what I’ve been told (& my recent experience with a 1.2 petrol Seat Leon) the modern petrol engines have exactly the same issues.

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.

I’d like a light to say the dpf regen is due in x number of miles, and then the option to self-initiate it within that period. My drives are a mix of short local trips and longer ones on duel carriageways etc, yet the regen invariably starts when I’m nearing home, requiring another wasteful 15minute drive.

Kryton, look at it the other way. If you’ve not seen a light, then maybe you’d razz it to initiatiate a regen and save yourself the cost of fixing a knackered DPF?

A light comes to tell me to top up the windscreen wash but not to ‘clean’ the DPF. It’s crazy.

On my Kuga there’s a light at the top of the instrument cluster that occasionally blinks furiously for about 2 minutes. Nothing in the manual and the Kuga forums don’t know what it is.

Perhaps it’s morse code for “you need to do something about your DPF now”

My golf has a DPF and if i’ve not been on the motorway for a bit it does regen itself and keeps the fans running when I turn the car off because it’s heated itself up for the regen.

Not had an issue in the 2.5 years I’ve had the car and thats nearly 60’000 miles now. Wouldn’t fancy owning it after the warranty period though if the DPF goes and needs replacing.

I jumped into a vw caddy at work the other day. There’s a sticker in the top corner of the windscreen saying that occasionally a ‘regen’ light will come on and to ignore it and continue driving.

I’m hoping that my new automatic 3l diesel engine sorts itself out as without cruising at 95mph, you can’t actually maintain 2000rpm. It just changes upto 8th at about 55 and bumbles along at 1200rpm using the torque to shift it. Non selective automatic as well so nothing you can do.

Another dpf delete advocate of a professional reprogramme and removal. That £800 cost would have easily covered it.

Switch it off through software, knock the insides out of the filter and replace on the car.

Its less restrictive, uses less fuel
Doesn’t regen where it puts more fuel in to burn residues, uses less fuel
Won’t need a special trip on the motorway for 20 mins to clean it up
Won’t block and cost loads to replace

Deliberately buying an older non dpf car has its upsides.

cost loads to replace

…when you fail your MoT. Don’t have it removed; it’s there for a reason.

MOT is a visual inspection only Rio….nothing is taken apart…

I reasoned it was causing more problems, so it had to go.

At some point, MOT testing will catch up with technology, and scanning the car for faults will be required, but VOSA isn’t exactly quick to introduce new things, so it’ll be a good few years yet.

On Euro 5 and above lorries/buses, all emission related fault codes have to be stored for over a year, even after being cleared. They also track and log lots of other variables, so it only takes a matter of minutes to find out if anything has been tampered with, or if there’s any on going problems.
I’d imagine something similar will be in cars before long, as enforcement of emission standards is pretty high on the EU’s hit list.

A DPF is only one part of the complexities of a modern diesel engine, and in the grand scheme of things, is pretty reliable. Early ones did have a few issues, which quite often a software update would help, but it’s now a reasonably mature technology. Provided you’re not continually doddering around town only doing a couple miles a time, the engine management does a pretty good job of keeping them clean without you ever realising.

I’ve got to deal with far more other issues than anything DPF specific. I don’t think I’ve replaced any DPFs this year, but I’ve done several additional fuel injectors/glowplugs on Transits for the DPF regen, a couple EGR valves on Transporters, a Caddy marked beyond economical repair for the turbo actuator failing, a couple injectors on 1.7cdti Astras, along with seemingly endless blocked fuel filters.
The fleet of Merc Sprinters seem to of gotten past all the boost pressure leak problems from last year, although had to do one turbo and a full set of injectors recently, but that’s a fleet with the average mileage now reaching 200k, with some reaching 600k.

So MC if you were buying a new (ish) car would you buy a diesel?

As above, MoT will soon catch up through fault code scanning or a more stringent emissions test. Also worth noting that it’s an offence to drive a vehicle with the DPF removed.

Rio – Member
As above, MoT will soon catch up through fault code scanning or a more stringent emissions test. Also worth noting that it’s an offence to drive a vehicle with the DPF removed.

This is true – they are policing this and EGR blanking although I don’t know the detail. If you remove your DPF or drill the core you could be in for a failed MOT and nasty financial bill to get your car back on the road.

So MC if you were buying a new (ish) car would you buy a diesel?

As long as I was still doing the mileage to justify it, but the economics of it are getting lower. However, I’ve got the benefit of being able to fix things myself, and not running the risk of being fleeced by a dealer should things go wrong.

I don’t think there’s any dealer within a couple miles radius of my work that hasn’t been pulled up by their relevant manufacturer over questionable work they’ve tried to bill us for – any queries, we send them to our HQ, who send them across to the relevant manufacturer, which usually results in a phone call direct from the manufacturer asking for details, as they won’t risk losing national contracts because of poor dealers.

Personally, I can see why leasing is becoming so popular. You pay a fixed amount, and if it breaks, it’s not your problem, and you don’t run the risk of garages trying to sell you something you don’t need.

Listening to R4 this morning the world is finally catching up with the environmental problems of diesel cars. How they ever became known as ‘environmentally friendly’ is one of the biggest cons of our time. The problem now is that air quality in big towns and cities has become a significant cause of death largely attributed to the rise of diesel powered cars – not the only cause of polution, but a significant one.

jimjam – Member

So MC if you were buying a new (ish) car would you buy a diesel?

I’m getting a sort of divide by zero error at the idea of MC buying a new car tbh.

Anything current-ish from the Honda diesel line up has a DPF. Over on the Honda forums there are a lot of people with DPF issues (although that’s probably true for many marques). However there is remarkably little chat over on the Mercedes forum about DPF. Make of that what you want.

We have a petrol Honda that we use for running around locally and the Mercedes diesel gets used for longer runs. We’ve not had any DPF issues on this Mercedes or the previous one and I’ve probably put 120K onto the last two cars.

I’m getting a sort of divide by zero error at the idea of MC buying a new car tbh.

🙂

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?

The particles are soot, ie carbon. The filter traps them, and (when it’s time for regen) coupled with a catalyst in the filter the excess heat of regen oxidises the carbon into CO2 which is of course gaseous. It’s a tiny amount of CO2 to the amount you’ll be producing from your engine. So the particles are no more.

I’d like to know who’s switched from typical diesel to say, a VAG TFSI engine, and how MPG compares between the two with the same driver and driving patterns.

I’m getting a sort of divide by zero error at the idea of MC buying a new car tbh.

The car is currently in bits, so the pre-abused combo is now on the road.

So from what I have read diesel is very dirty and we can expect massive price hikes due to increased demand and a limited supply chain as refineries have been closed and we rely more on fuel from Russia etc.

So for the driver who bought a diesel thinking it was kind to the environment and encouraged to buy it but the idiots in whitehall, it would seem he and 60% of his fellow drivers are doomed to pay more? IMO the idiots in power should do something about this after all they encouraged us to buy the bloody things!

Diesel is dead.
I love my old school mechanical 200tdi Landrover engine because of its simplicity, but I hate the TDCI in my Transit – it works okay but I always have a constant fear of something diesel related going expensively wrong.

But to be honest I would quite happily rip both engines of the vehicles and replace with a Tesla motor and battery pack if they were available second hand/used.
The transit is perfect for electricying.