DPF won't regenerate Vito 639

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Thunderball

New Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2019
Messages
9
Location
devon
Car
2011 639 Vito 116 sport
Hi all,
I've had 12 months of hell trying to find fault with the dpf system.
As it stands, the vehicle will do about 300 miles, then either the engine symbol will show, or the 'drive at high engine speed' emissions message will show followed by white'ish smoke which will pour from the exhaust.

After spending over £2500, Electro Diesel have drawn a blank.
Mercedes also.
ED Initially installed a new "Walker' dpf(non merc). and then another 'uprated' Walker dpf, on Mercedes recommendation, saying that it's not good enough to work on their van.
All sensors have been replaced with gen parts.
Injectors have been bench tested and passed.
Turbo is ok.
Software hasn't been tinkered with and is up to date.
Associated wiring and connections checked.
I've been assured all avenues have been checked.
Merc say they will not take diagnosis any further until it has a gen merc dpf, which I get, but one I can't quite afford it and two, surely 2 different (albeit non merc)dpfs should work properly?

I recently had this van for sale, with a declaration about the dpf. The moment a potential buyer started asking questions, I couldn't cope with the guilt, so I pulled the ads.
This problem was passed on to me by an A hole commercial dealer, that knew about it but clearly lacked any moral conscience.
Unfortunately I'm stuck with it, so in a long winded way, I'm basically begging for help!

I will glady listen to any ideas or offers of advice. Thanks
 
Last edited:
Hi there, does it keep filling up with soot and then won’t regen? Then throwing the light on? Also what is the ash content?


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Given the sensitivity of all things DPF I can only think a new MB DPF is the way to go.

I had DPF problems on a 639 and had it regenerated on STAR at PCS, strange to stand back and watch a van revving and holding etc. with just a laptop controlling everything.
I was told the regen probably wouldn't last long and it lasted perhaps a few thousand miles and the misbehaved again, but I was 200 miles from home and it was a job very well done to get me out of a hole.
I was all ready to take the plunge on a new DPF at circa £550 just for the part, but instead, had a new pressure sensor (£41 + installation) and all was superb afterwards.

I never experienced any white smoke when I had the DPF problems, though.

I'm no mechanic, but I cant help thinking the way forward is to get a genuine MB DPF and take things from there.

Good luck!
 
^^ this.

At least you will know where you are and can work your way from there.
 
Hi there, does it keep filling up with soot and then won’t regen? Then throwing the light on? Also what is the ash content?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hi Marc, yes, just looking through(piles of) paperwork and can see MB and ED say soot content high, ash content as of last month had increased from 1.5g to 2g
 
Given the sensitivity of all things DPF I can only think a new MB DPF is the way to go.

I had DPF problems on a 639 and had it regenerated on STAR at PCS, strange to stand back and watch a van revving and holding etc. with just a laptop controlling everything.
I was told the regen probably wouldn't last long and it lasted perhaps a few thousand miles and the misbehaved again, but I was 200 miles from home and it was a job very well done to get me out of a hole.
I was all ready to take the plunge on a new DPF at circa £550 just for the part, but instead, had a new pressure sensor (£41 + installation) and all was superb afterwards.

I never experienced any white smoke when I had the DPF problems, though.

I'm no mechanic, but I cant help thinking the way forward is to get a genuine MB DPF and take things from there.

Good luck!
Hi, thanks for response. At £550 I'd bite your arm off! Merc offered a 'deal' at around £1k. They are getting back to me on Monday with possible offer of 0% maintenance deal to supply and fit dpf and diagnose from there if necessary.
 
I was told that the white sweet smelling smoke, was from unburnt diesel used to (normally)heat the dpf when re-generating.
I had considered finding a used dpf from breakers just to cross check but it seems they get stripped quickly, for good money I guess.
 
Hi, thanks for response. At £550 I'd bite your arm off! Merc offered a 'deal' at around £1k. They are getting back to me on Monday with possible offer of 0% maintenance deal to supply and fit dpf and diagnose from there if necessary.

That was around 2014 at a MB commercial dealership, where I suspect the part was possibly? cheaper than a car dealership.
The proviso with buying the DPF from the commercial dealership for them to fit was that if I ordered it, I owned it, regardless of whether it transpired the DPF swap out cured the problem or not, hence my decision to go for the much less expensive pressure sensor option first.
 
In case I missed anyone begging for an update thought I’d mention, that after replacing the entire DPF system with genuine merc parts, I still had same/similar problems as before. The next part of the system being the cat converter was then also replaced with gen part. All seems ok atm but interestingly the cat that was removed was empty!! After almost 2yrs of fault diagnosis and £4k down, it would appear that this was the problem causing the dpf faults, (At least I hope). question I have now is, is it legal to hollow one out? and then sell it, as a commercial trader? I’ve been trying in vain to get a response from trading standards. Ok wake up I’m done☺️
 
I thought your updated was I bought a Toyota. On a serious note 4k is a lot of money to spend in repairs, it is definitely not legal to hollow a cat out but the problem being is trying to prove it after so long.
 
Hi all,
I've had 12 months of hell trying to find fault with the dpf system.
As it stands, the vehicle will do about 300 miles, then either the engine symbol will show, or the 'drive at high engine speed' emissions message will show followed by white'ish smoke which will pour from the exhaust.

After spending over £2500, Electro Diesel have drawn a blank.
Mercedes also.
ED Initially installed a new "Walker' dpf(non merc). and then another 'uprated' Walker dpf, on Mercedes recommendation, saying that it's not good enough to work on their van.
All sensors have been replaced with gen parts.
Injectors have been bench tested and passed.
Turbo is ok.
Software hasn't been tinkered with and is up to date.
Associated wiring and connections checked.
I've been assured all avenues have been checked.
Merc say they will not take diagnosis any further until it has a gen merc dpf, which I get, but one I can't quite afford it and two, surely 2 different (albeit non merc)dpfs should work properly?

I recently had this van for sale, with a declaration about the dpf. The moment a potential buyer started asking questions, I couldn't cope with the guilt, so I pulled the ads.
This problem was passed on to me by an A hole commercial dealer, that knew about it but clearly lacked any moral conscience.
Unfortunately I'm stuck with it, so in a long winded way, I'm basically begging for help!

I will glady listen to any ideas or offers of advice. Thanks
Hi all, I thought I’d update this in case anyone is considering buying a van from a particular commercial dealer in Kidderminster.
All the problems I had with the DPF (detailed here before), were because the owners of the said dealership had apparently hollowed out the catalytic converter and then potentially deleted the software(?) prior to selling to me. I’ve estimated they have cost me around £4500 on top of buying.
Like I say, if you or anyone you know is thinking about buying a van in Kidderminster, I’ll be more than happy to share details.
 
Hi all, I thought I’d update this in case anyone is considering buying a van from a particular commercial dealer in Kidderminster.
All the problems I had with the DPF (detailed here before), were because the owners of the said dealership had apparently hollowed out the catalytic converter and then potentially deleted the software(?) prior to selling to me. I’ve estimated they have cost me around £4500 on top of buying.
Like I say, if you or anyone you know is thinking about buying a van in Kidderminster, I’ll be more than happy to share details.

Sorry to hear about your woes.

But what makes you think that this was done by the trader that you bought the van from? I.e. it may have been done by the previous owner who then traded-in the van.

After all, if various MB dealers over a period of 2 years didn't spot the hollowed-out cat, it's likely that the trader who took the van in as Px didn't spot it either.

Just asking?
 
Hi markjay, that’s a fair question. I should say that it’s an independent commercial seller, not MB.
The van was owned by the company as the ‘runaround’ and long enough to have experienced the problems I encountered at each 2-300 mile interval. I.e. surely it couldn’t have run for a long period of time with an empty cat? The dpf failed me the second day I owned it.
 
Hi markjay, that’s a fair question. I should say that it’s an independent commercial seller, not MB.
The van was owned by the company as the ‘runaround’ and long enough to have experienced the problems I encountered at each 2-300 mile interval. I.e. surely it couldn’t have run for a long period of time with an empty cat? The dpf failed me the second day I owned it.
Adding to this..I’m not making accusations here, just describing my experience for discussion.
 
Hi all, I thought I’d update this in case anyone is considering buying a van from a particular commercial dealer in Kidderminster.
All the problems I had with the DPF (detailed here before), were because the owners of the said dealership had apparently hollowed out the catalytic converter and then potentially deleted the software(?) prior to selling to me. I’ve estimated they have cost me around £4500 on top of buying.
Like I say, if you or anyone you know is thinking about buying a van in Kidderminster, I’ll be more than happy to share details.
Hi buddy, how is your car driving? All sorted? I’m in similar dilemma with my Vito tourer. Just won’t regen, even after a new merc dpf fitted. I’m totally baffled. Including merc Collindale
 

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