I’ve done a bit of searching on Google and there is mention of same model cars with and without DPFs being taxed differently. This would around be when they first came to cars and you could get them as an option e.g.

Take my car. MK4 Ford Mondeo 2L TDCi. Road tax is £50 cheaper for the same model with a DPF – £115 vs £165 I pay.

Link

Yes, good point….

I was actually regurgitating information gained from a well known broad sheet motoring expert.

This is definitely a grey area. There are loads of places offering DPF removal, who will all say it’s fine. But cars are ‘type approved’ to meet certain emission requirements, this does include particulate size I believe.

It really is a minefield for those of us with DPFs!

If you consider the removal route then consider this first:

It is illegal remove the DPF under EC Type Approval and Emissions regulations because it modifies the car not to meet its certified emissions. This is basis on which it is taxed.

VOSA does not currently enforce this in the MoT, but this does not mean that it will not in the future. Also you could be stopped in a roadside VOSA check and have your car taken off the road
for not complying.

You would need to declare to your insurer that you car is a modified car, after removing DPF. The car’s manufacturer warranty may also be affected (ECU normally needs to be reprogrammed).

Also you could possibly be pursued for tax evasion by HMRC (unlikely but in theory possible) You pay tax based on emissions, higher emissions higher tax, therefore lower tax rate when your actual emission are higher due to removing DPF could be seen as tax evasion.

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2012-12-13-042[/url] by danmorton_uk[/url], on Flickr

Another pic of mine, mudguarded up, with double and bash and with a stupidly long stem (for bar width)… reverted back to 70mm after one ride

Which forks are on this?

Also what stems and bars are people running? I built my bike from a frame and not 100% happy with the bar, could do with being a tad higher.

I’ve got Answer 720 AM, 1″ rise (uncut) and Raceface Ride stem 70mm

Hora – That would match with what I currently set, about 160psi for 160 lbs

…but I did run it at lower psi previously with more sag and it never bottomed out

What sort of pressures are people running in the rear shock? The correct amount of sag is 10mm or so isn’t it?

I weigh about 11.5st/73kg and the shock is a Fox RP2

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2012-08-01-142[/url] by danmorton_uk[/url], on Flickr

P.S it used to be an Orange Crush…

A Pinot Noir from Central Otago, NZ.

Screwfix £6

Staffie’s are lovely dogs. Banning them will only cause chavs etc. to move onto and ruin another breed.

My girlfriend is T1 and has major frustration with getting the correct information from medical professionals and/or getting to see the right person. She once was referred to a “specialist” nurse…. who had a Diabetes for Dummies book on her bookshelf behind her, and was pretty useless! Also apparently in her experience Scotland seem to do it better than England overall care wise.

You guys got any tips I can pass on? Who have you got the best care/advice from?

Also has regular exercise improved your control? If so what sort?

The laptop may not have the correct driver for the display installed on it. Unusual but maybe that’s it. A side by side comparison in the shop is a good idea

Steeper head tube angle?

The Reaction is 73 deg where as other Cube 29er HT like the Analog and LTD are slacker at 70 deg

29ers are versatile, but I don’t know if a steeper or slacker head angle makes them more versatile to you. Personally I’d go slacker as like riding downhill, but maybe you’re a racer who wants steeper?

Is there supposed to be a link?

Best way is to have them gutted and the DPF deleted from the ECU’s software.

In an ideal world yes. But it’s technically illegal and in the future a missing DPF could result in MOT failure.

Also you have to make sure you get a decent remap so the car doesn’t flag up phantom DPF errors

Currently awaiting the fate of my car today… I think I could be looking at £1500+ for a new DPF :(

Burning oil might be it…

That’s a bit disingenuous. It’s relatively new tech in passenger cars, and it’s got teething problems.

Is it fair to have the teething problems thrust on car owners and cause them to lose money? They could subsidise replacement units, but they don’t. (It does look like the systems on newer cars are a lot better, granted)

The average life of a VAG DPF is 115k-120k miles. A car at that mileage could be worth £5k max, DPF is £1500-£2000. Quite a big hit to take

dmorts, what kind of driving have you been doing then? Town stuff?

No, my commute is 18 miles on motorway/A roads. This issue occurred after a long motorway trip too. Therefore I think there is more to it than ‘driving style’. There maybe another fault with the car….

The EU regulation that made the manufacturers need to use things like DPFs will turn the cars that have them into scrap after 5 years/100,000 miles.

Fingers crossed for the cleaning :)

Highly sceptical of dealers telling you DPFs have ‘gone’.

What’s to go wrong? It’s just a filter matrix. It can be cleaned out. I’d love to know.

Further to my reply…

I believe the ash level in my DPF is ok, the problem is that there is too much soot for it to safely regenerate normally, therefore they’ve recommended the cleaner.

Highly sceptical of dealers telling you DPFs have ‘gone’.

What’s to go wrong? It’s just a filter matrix. It can be cleaned out. I’d love to know.

I’m not dealing with a dealer, my car is with an independent specialist. DPFs do have a finite life, they will need changing at some point. The VAG (Volkswagen) DPFs (and probably all others) collect the soot, then burn this off to a smaller amount of ash. This ash remains in the filter and cannot be removed. (Some other manufacturers DPFs you can clean this ash out but not VAG ones). Therefore once the max ash level is reached the DPF has to be replaced. The garage are going to try a specialist cleaner first, but I will obviously only pay them for it if it works!

Speedo reading would not be used for MPG calculations would it if you’re doing it manually surely? You just need miles travelled and fuel used. The odometer should be more accurate than speedo. It needs to show the true number of miles the car has done. Speedo’s over reading are to help you avoid speeding fines, according to Honest John from Daily Telegraph.

Bearing in mind your speedo isn’t accurate, your figures won’t be either….

The mileometer is accurate, it has to be by law. The speedo doesn’t have to be as accurate though. They’re generally set to over read. Therefore the figures based on mileometer will be fairly accurate.

Watch out for Diesel Particulate Filters. Mine went yesterday and needs replacing on my Seat Leon TDI. It will cost £1700, that’s over a third of the value of the car. That’s an independents price too, dealer would be over £2k :(

Do you have it in a case? That can affect antenna performance. Remove the case and see if it makes any difference.

It could also be dropping the calls when switching from 3G to 2G. You could be in an area that has good 2G and poor 3G. The phone might try to switch mid call because is sees a 3G signal but then cause a drop because the 3G signal is poor.

Changing the setting on the phone so it only connects to 2G networks would be the answer there…. however I think the 4S doesn’t have that option! Android and Windows Phones seem to though.

It’s not unlikely that the old Nokia had better performance as it might have only been using 2G.

My advice would be to get back to 02 and get a different phone or switch networks. You can test out other networks by getting hold of some free pay and go SIMs (note that T-Mobile and Orange are the same network now essentially)

I had a similar problem when I got a Commencal Meta 55. Found this was saddle position. I went from almost all the way back to all the way forward, took a bit of time to work it out though.

Could also be a muscle imbalance problem that the Yeti has highlighted. (I’m not a physio though!) I think squats are the answer, knees inline, but see a physio, ideally a private sports one.

Ha! Definitely not buying any now. I also hope that you had these tyres for sale at £29.99 for 28 days before cutting the price to £19.99 (or as of now £24.99). From the email I got it seems these were only launched on the 20th June…..

Legal stuff

My 2 cents…

So, ripped my 29er front tyre last week and also saw that these On One tyres had come out at £19.99. Bargain! However I put off buying one until today (not had time, plus wanted to check in the shed for any other bits I need)…. and now £24.99 has put me off completely, mainly because if I look at CRC and even at other tyres on On One at similar prices, the Smorgasbord no longer stands out due to the new price…. If the £19.99 price had remained I’d have bought other things (inner tubes, cables etc) to put the price over £20, always in need of bike bits. Now a proper Maxxis tyre from CRC looks a better option plus they’re tried and tested, with reviews readily available.

I was really hoping to try these out and if they’re any good get them for my Meta too. I’ve spent far too much money on tyres I end not getting on with. That extra £5 might not actually be much but last week for £25 I could have got a tyre and an inner tube or two