DPF Forced Regenerate on 1.6 TDI 90?

[golfed]

We have had a 1.6 TDI 90 for a couple of weeks and have had no problems. However my wife drove it to the shops recently and tells me when she parked it there was a terrible burnng smell and the bonnet was very hot near the windscreen at the drivers side. This has not happened again.

I wonder if this is the DPF doing a forced regenerate (i.e. where the EMC makes it happen). The user manual doesn't mention this at all - it just talks about doing it yourself i.e. driving at high revs for a while.

So I'd like to know if this is normal behaviour for my Golf or suggests something is wrong with it.

[oldnail]

I cannot shed any light on this myself, but my sister had a very similar problem with her Mk6 2.0l (110) TDI a couple of weeks ago where she could smell burning and the area around the engine bay seemed very very hot. She thought that the car had overheated.

She called the dealer (who advised calling the RAC before driving the car). The RAC gave the all clear to drive the car and she left it into the dealers the next day. The dealer spent the day investigating but could find nothing wrong.

I would also like to know if it is the DPF doing a regenerate - does the 2.0l 110 even have a DPF? I know that the 1.6l engine does, but I was looking at golfs recently myself and another dealer pointed me towards a 2.0l 140 rather than a 1.6l or 2.0l 170 saying that, because most of my driving is urban, there could be issues with a car with a DPF. However, if it regenerates itself then I can't see that being a problem.

[dieselduncmk6]

I cannot shed any light on this myself, but my sister had a very similar problem with her Mk6 2.0l (110) TDI a couple of weeks ago where she could smell burning and the area around the engine bay seemed very very hot. She thought that the car had overheated.

She called the dealer (who advised calling the RAC before driving the car). The RAC gave the all clear to drive the car and she left it into the dealers the next day. The dealer spent the day investigating but could find nothing wrong.

I would also like to know if it is the DPF doing a regenerate - does the 2.0l 110 even have a DPF? I know that the 1.6l engine does, but I was looking at golfs recently myself and another dealer pointed me towards a 2.0l 140 rather than a 1.6l or 2.0l 170 saying that, because most of my driving is urban, there could be issues with a car with a DPF. However, if it regenerates itself then I can't see that being a problem.

Errr, that's a bit odd - as both the GT140 and GTD170 have the DFPs.

[oldnail]

Errr, that's a bit odd - as both the GT140 and GTD170 have the DFPs.

Yes, I had originally thought that it was not possible to meet Euro V emissions without a DPF - maybe the dealer had a glut of 140s or something .

[golfed]

I think what is supposed to happen with the DPF is as follows:

Passive regeneration: if you do enough regular miles on motorway (or similar) then the exhaust / DPF will get sufficiently hot that all the soot is burned away with no action required.

Active regeneration: if you do a lot of short stop/start motoring then passive regeneration won't work and the soot builds up. When it gets to a certain level the EMC invokes active regeneration and temporarily meddles with the injection mixture to make the exhaust get really hot and burn off the soot. Have to say that doesn't sound great in terms of engine longevity!

So I'm guessing that we what experienced was active regeneration - but a bit surprised that the bonnet gets that hot - I would have expected something in the handbook about this

[Gilesme]

Not yet got my Golf, but my S-max does this very occasionally - quite amusing to put your hand near the exhause when it is regenning - it's like a hairdryer !

When this happens, I don't leave it to sit and simmer, I take it for a spin around the block slowly - keeps a bit f airflow through the underbonnet area.