The dpf has many enemies , all too often the shorter journeys get the blame .
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The dpf has many enemies , all too often the shorter journeys get the blame .
My car regens for a hobby. I can come off a 200 mile motorway run at 75mph and as I get on the drive it starts to regen FFS. This will be my last diesel car.
It also uses almost as much AdBlue as diesel!! In 8k miles I've just topped up with 10l again meaning I've put in 30l so far!!
We had a diesel Fiat 500 ten years ago - our first diesel with a DPF, and before I became aware of the risks inherent with DPFs on short journeys. We bought it to commute 1.5 miles to work and then home again each day.
We needed a new engine at 6,500 miles. Even then, we weren't told why (it was diesel contamination of the oil) and I don't think the dealership even knew what was going on.
The second engine started to fail at 9,000 miles and by then we knew what the problem was so the dealership bought it back off us at a very generous PX against another Fiat 500 with a petrol engine. Shame, it was a lovely diesel and super economical. A friend of my brother saw off two engines in his jaguar doing exactly the same thing - both well within the warranty. Jaguar bought his car back off him, too.
Does anyone know how to tell when the DPF is regenerating. If we knew, we could drive for a bit longer. I was thinking of attaching a light to the power supply that triggers the regen but don't know which wire from the diagnostics port.
You've hit the nail on the head there considering the diagnostic capability there's no info for the car to tell you dpf regeneration is taking place .
Thanks Gazworld but there must be a way of linking a wire to the dpf. Crasher, any idea?
The only visual sign you get while the car is running is that the idle speed rises slightly when it is doing a regen. On my car it goes from roughly 800rpm to just under 1000
Thanks john. what engine do you have. after 7 years of driving, I have not noticed my revs go up. I am determined to find a better way. may be a trigger from the cooling fan or EGR which I think switches off when the regen occurs. Need to read lots.
OK so on my BiTdi I can tell if it's doing a regen whilst I'm driving.
- Car starts to hold lower gears e.g. BiTdi should drop into 8th at 60mph on modest throttle, it'll stick in 7th Also apparent in lower gears if you learn what gear it SHOULD be in at what speed (e.g. 30 mph should be 5th but it will stay in 4th)
- I also notice that the exhaust is more noisy... this may just be the lower gears being used.
- And if you have the lap timer enabled via VCDS you can see oil temp, that's a real giveaway as it will be significantly higher. Normal driving at this time of year my oil temp is in the mid 80C range, when a regen is occurring it will be up into low 90s normally 92 / 93C
Not sure if they are injecting diesel into the exhaust manifold to burn off the DPF contents (it's one common approach) but my guess is that they are and the exhaust manifold is getting hot and generally heating up the engine so oil temp climbs.
I've had the car nearly 5 years so I know how it should behave.... now I can tell every time when it's doing a regen and if I arrive home whilst it's doing it I'l take it straight back out, in sports mode (higher revs, more turbo boost / fuel / heat to help regen) and drive until I see oil temp drop below 90. Then stick it in normal gearbox and see if 60mph gives me 8th. If so go home.
You also notice that fuel consumption is markedly increased during a regen. e.g. remaining range of 150 miles and you see it drop to 140 in 5 miles.