[Warning Light] Risk of filter clogging

[Luis Rosa]

Hi , sorry for the late reply.

Thanks jj9 for the very helpful explanation of the regen process.

Ron, A light would be a great idea.

Luis Rosa. Thanks, that sounds just like my problem.

Cheers

Billy

The solution to this problem will be, of course, to get a new DPF installed. Don´t go for the cheaper Cordierite ones, make sure you instal a SiC (silica carbide) one. It costs more (200€ and 400€ respectively here in Germany), but lasts at least the same as the original one. Walker (exhaust) brand is what I plan to get in the near future.

[billym]

Hi again,
Had the car at dealers, 100% ash in filter.

DPF replaced.... no hot meals for me for a while.

[ron]

Hi again,
Had the car at dealers, 100% ash in filter.

DPF replaced.... no hot meals for me for a while.

May I ask how much it costs?Just so I'm prepared if needed.

[billym]

Hi Ron,
£375.00 for the filter
£135 labour
+vat =£600
I had to use the main dealer as I couldn't get any other garages to do it on the day that suited me but I don't think they would have been much cheaper.

[polar]

Hi Ron,
£375.00 for the filter
£135 labour
+vat =£600
I had to use the main dealer as I couldn't get any other garages to do it on the day that suited me but I don't think they would have been much cheaper.

Thats a good price - sometimes dealers are cheaper than independents.

Citroen Birmingham used to be good back when you could talk to the guys on the service desk. Unfortunately you can no longer do this and go though to a booking/call centre who haven't a clue how much things will cost unless its on their set repairs list they are reading off the computer screen. Pity as the service guys were really good at their job and were always spot on with costing.

[Ikanpaul]

I'm no expert on DPF filters as I've avoided owning a vehicle that has one fitted, but your problem does sound like the DPF may be partially blocked, maybe it has reached the end of it's life?

There's a lot of mis information out there relating to DPF's and one of them is to drive the car in a low gear to keep the revs up so the DPF will perform a regeneration process.
In order for a regen to take place there are a few criteria that have to be met, the vehicle has to have been travelling over a certain speed for a set period of time, the oil / coolant temperature has to be over a set level and most importantly the DPF soot level needs to be over a set level.

If the soot level isn't over the set level a regen won't take place no matter how you drive.

There is also a set number of times that the system will attempt to perform a regen if the regen has been interrupted, for example the system could be calling for a regen and all of the criteria has been met so one is started, then you slow down (traffic) so the regen is halted, there are only so many attempts made before the system locks out and the only way to do a regen is a forced regen by having the vehicle plugged in to a diagnostic machine.  

That's my understanding of how the systems work but I stand to be corrected on some or all of it as the systems are changing all of the time.

Hopefully someone will advise that has had the same problem.


.

Far better to re-gen with a core drill and long arbor and only needs doing once.

[GraemeT]

Hi - you can't use the long drill scenario on these as the inlet/outlet pipes are 90 degress to the cat/dpf.

If you have the original one fitted then the cat/dpf are held together by a V band - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv01BlfqXoY for a video (the first couple of seconds shows you the layout of the components - he goes on to clean the cat & dpf but the first couple of seconds are enough).

Some after market ones come in one piece (like what we have on ours) so you cannot split the two unless you are happy to cut and weld and fail the MoT if the inspector notices. The one piece ones are cheap and I'm interested to see how long to one on the Mini lasts (paperwork says 11,000 miles on it so far).....

[cancunia]

Hi - you can't use the long drill scenario on these as the inlet/outlet pipes are 90 degress to the cat/dpf.

If you have the original one fitted then the cat/dpf are held together by a V band - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv01BlfqXoY for a video (the first couple of seconds shows you the layout of the components - he goes on to clean the cat & dpf but the first couple of seconds are enough).

Some after market ones come in one piece (like what we have on ours) so you cannot split the two unless you are happy to cut and weld and fail the MoT if the inspector notices. The one piece ones are cheap and I'm interested to see how long to one on the Mini lasts (paperwork says 11,000 miles on it so far).....

At one point last year I nearly bought a B9 with DPF and looked at the possibility of splitting the DPF as it was a high mileage motor, I wondered if there were options rather than buying a new DPF. As Graeme says, the original item is help together with a steel band so can in theory be split for cleaning. It would be interesting to know anyone's experience on this.