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Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF's)

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Vlad

MB Enthusiast
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Reading, England
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Various Mercs come and go
Just been thinking about the issues that are associated with DPF's and it would appear that some manufacturers have better successes than others when it comes to reliabilty of the DPF's they fit.

For example the 1.6HDi engine fitted to Citroen, Peugeot and Ford seems to suffer badly from DPF problems as do Vauxhall/Alfa/Fiat with the 1.9Cdti engine and VAG seems to suffer from DPF problems on the V6 diesels.

Mazda has problems with its 2.0 diesel engine but then I don't seem to hear of other Japanese manufacturers having problems.

So, I would be interested in hearing from real life experiences and would be interested in hearing which manufacturers are having less of a problem with DPF's compared to the others out there.

I've not heard much about Mercedes having a problem, but have heard that BMW suffer....
 
I dont know of any manufacturer that has it right including MB they all kill a cars performance, cause nothing but trouble and fail prematurely.
 
Had problems with mine after I bought it,was doing the clean cycle often and showing diag faults.got oil changed to correct spec and no problems in last 3 years. Am sure that p.o. or supplying garage didn't use low ash oil,hence the problems at first. I wonder how many other DPF faults could be traced to penny pinching when doing an oil change???
 
+1 for correct oil grade. And what I've heard many DPF failures are due to some other 'peliminary' fault like turbo issues were DPF is getting so much stuff inside that it is clogged. Then also sensor failures get the regeneration cycle misbehaving. But many many troubles have occurred when removal of the DPF has not been done completely or properly (or is it just bad karma?)...
 
I'm collecting my 1st diesel mb saturday,other than regular(scheduled) servicing/oil changes what else do i need to do/know about dpf please?
 
Make sure every few hundred miles you give the car some pretty spirited hard driving to regenerate/clear out the dpf or use the gears in manual mode to be travelling for a few miles at high revs.

I use a diesel additive in mine (millers) to help keep the injectors etc as clean as they can be, does make a little difference to mpg but not massive, feels a bit more responsive and quieter.
 
Dr-Nab said:
Make sure every few hundred miles you give the car some pretty spirited hard driving to regenerate/clear out the dpf or use the gears in manual mode to be travelling for a few miles at high revs.

I use a diesel additive in mine (millers) to help keep the injectors etc as clean as they can be, does make a little difference to mpg but not massive, feels a bit more responsive and quieter.
Click to expand...
^Thanks for the heads up-i was told the same thing on another thread here re holding the gears at higher revs in manual mode as the car i'm collecting is delivery mileage only(e350cdi sport saloon).
 
At work i use BMW 530 and we have one 60 plate (last of old 5 series) and a couple of 61 plates (new ones). We have had no problem with the newer ones but the 60 plate has been a pain since day one. If i park up with the engine still running for any length of time (say more than 15 mins) it would start smoking and smelling, then when you set off would leave a cloud of smoke behind.

Anyway one day (Saturday i think) a warning came on the screen about the DPF and to get it to a dealers, i rang our work shops and they said would be ok to drive until Monday. Later the same day i had been parked and running for no more than 5 mins when it started to smoke realy badly (it was filling the street with smoke) so i though ooops best take the car back in. As i set off and looked in the mirror it was like a firework display behind me. Obviously the DPF had collapsed completely and was getting spat out the exhaust, it was all very exciting.
 
Carrsey said:
At work i use BMW 530 and we have one 60 plate (last of old 5 series) and a couple of 61 plates (new ones). We have had no problem with the newer ones but the 60 plate has been a pain since day one. If i park up with the engine still running for any length of time (say more than 15 mins) it would start smoking and smelling, then when you set off would leave a cloud of smoke behind.

Anyway one day (Saturday i think) a warning came on the screen about the DPF and to get it to a dealers, i rang our work shops and they said would be ok to drive until Monday. Later the same day i had been parked and running for no more than 5 mins when it started to smoke realy badly (it was filling the street with smoke) so i though ooops best take the car back in. As i set off and looked in the mirror it was like a firework display behind me. Obviously the DPF had collapsed completely and was getting spat out the exhaust, it was all very exciting.
Click to expand...
Out of interest why would you leave the car running 15+ minutes parked?
 
Dr-Nab said:
Make sure every few hundred miles you give the car some pretty spirited hard driving to regenerate/clear out the dpf or use the gears in manual mode to be travelling for a few miles at high revs.

I use a diesel additive in mine (millers) to help keep the injectors etc as clean as they can be, does make a little difference to mpg but not massive, feels a bit more responsive and quieter.
Click to expand...

As Dr-Nab says DPF's have to go into regen at regular intervals short journeys when the exhaust system doesn't get to full operating temp it can lead to the filter clogging. The management system is continually running its diagnostic (Checking pressures across the filter, they also work off mileage accumulation) seeing the filter is getting blocked it requests a regen dumping fuel into the filter to burn off the soot. If the filter temp isn't high enough it compounds the issue (when in traffic this can be the horrible smell you sometimes get coming into the car). I wouldn't advise buying a diesel if it was mainly to run short journeys and not have a regular high speed burn off.
 
Beno said:
I wouldn't advise buying a diesel if it was mainly to run short journeys and not have a regular high speed burn off.
Click to expand...

Agree with this, however is there any consensus on how regularly this should be done?
 
When we are testing we tend to force a regen every 200km (probably not as often in the real world)
 
Any thoughts on whether any one or more manufacturers do DPF's better than others?
 
A-AvantGarde said:
Agree with this, however is there any consensus on how regularly this should be done?
Click to expand...

Best thing you can do is run it on decent fuel, ie V-Power, which burns cleaner in the first place.

I've used it in our V70 for the seven years we've had it since new, it spends most of it's time going five miles forwards and backwards into town and gets an hour and a half run every couple of months. It doesn't smoke at all, I've never noticed it try to recycle and the performance is spot on.

Although people don't recommend diesels for short trips, usually because they don't get hot enough to do the mileage claims rather than the dpf issue, what is often overlooked is they don't suffer anything like the cold running damage that petrol engines suffer from due to the lubrication from the diesel.
 
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