New DPF 1200 quid?

Travelled 160 miles recently on the motorway only to have a sudden loss of power and a bloody big sign appear on the dash: Engine Failure! I dipped the clutch and listened for anything nasty but couldn't hear anything so decided to risk it and get off the motorway at the next service station which was thankfully only a mile away. Funny thing loose change fell out of my pocket at this juncture making me think the bloody engine was falling apart. Coasted to the car park where I switched everything off and then checked oils etc. All appeared fine.

The above occured whilst driving a 58 Fiat Doblo 1.9d with only 37,000 miles on the clock aquired recently by my girlfriend. I was on my own still 100 miles from her house at this time. As luck would have it the owner's manual was in the car so I read up on what the problem could be as I had noticed a warning light was now permanently on. The warning light was the EOBD failure light - Engine Control System Failure light. Apparently you could drive slowly to get to your destination without wrecking the engine ... so I did but not so slowly.

And on we go ...

A mechanic friend plugged his doohicky device into the Fiat's intestines and diagonised a 2002 fault which confirmed our thoughts on what the problem was - a clogged DPF.

Googling the fault resulted in some very expensive horror stories with the worse scenario costing 1500 smackers. Apparently soot builds up in the exhaust thingie which is normally burnt off on long journeys but requires revs to be quite high. No bloody good with the way I drive as to do so would mean around 85 mph in top gear. So much for driving economically and sticking to the speed limits. Anyhoo over a period of 2-3 days I learnt all I could about this problem and eventually came across a reference to Wynn's DPF Diesel Particulate Filter Cleaner 325ml (read the reviews).

We took 2 journeys with a bottle of this stuff in the tank of around 8 miles and for part of the journey (a few minutes at a time) I kept the revs up in 3rd gear to over 3000. Blow me on starting up after the 2nd journey the light went out!

So you diesel users consider using a bottle of this stuff every now and then as short journeys are a real problem for any car fitted with a DPF apparently and if you attempt to 'fix' it in any other way you might find the problem never goes away however much dosh you throw at it.

Cost of a bottle? Under a tenner.

Re: New DPF 1200 quid?

What a frustrating journey Mark.
Perhaps in a way though, it was a good job it was you rather than your ladyfriend who got caught on her own?

Re: New DPF 1200 quid?

We love our ageing diesel VW Golf which has no DPF, but have been advised by everyone not to get a newer diesel because we mostly do short journeys.

Our new campervan is diesel, but it is used almost exclusively for longer trips, so I'm hoping it will be OK. I'm also wondering that since it is based on a commercial vehicle, this may not be such a problem.

Anyway, good to hear that you got the problem sorted. Do you think it was the additive that helped, or simply the run at high revs?

Re: New DPF 1200 quid?

Definitely the additive I would have thought as you can do a 'forced regen' using diagnostic equipment and my understanding of this is the car first of all revs up to around 2000 for a few minutes and then 3000 for a lot longer. Terrific waste of fuel it looks to me. The type of journeys I carried out 3000 revs was only held for a minute or 2 at a time.

I should add that you can drive the car with a clogged DPF but the car might add extra fuel to something or other in an attempt to burn the soot off which can result in contaminated oil. You have to have an oil change if this occurs as you could obviously damage your engine if you continue to use the car. You can check for this by paying attention to the oil level on the dipstick (probably by smelling it too?) .

Forced regen on a Fiat Doblo ...



Or what about this on a Peugeot 307?



Horrendous .

Re: New DPF 1200 quid?

Sure was. It made me very aware how I wasn't prepared for such an occurance: my mobile phone battery was flat for one thing and not being a member of the AA or RAC meant what I wonder? What the heck would have happened if I had been forced off the motorway onto the hard shoulder? Dunno, but I bet it would have been expensive.

Re: New DPF 1200 quid?

I have heard about the filter problem occurring on a number of diesel cars, it has been widely publicised on the radio.
I will pass on your recommendations Mark thank you

Re: New DPF 1200 quid?

S*** the bloody light came back on last night .

Might be the filter is too caked by now but you can get a new DPF filter off Ebay for around £180. If the light stays on then it might be a replacement for the Doblo. New DPF plus fluid in the tank might prevent it building up again.

Watch this space to see if the light goes off again .

Re: New DPF 1200 quid?

Plan 2 today - a forced manual regeneration. Apparently you can force a Doblo to carry out this horrible procedure by starting the car with both brake and accelerator held down for 10 secs (in neutral) when thoroughly warm. Needs to be done somewhere quiet as the car will go mental for a while by revving up. The heat generated is supposed to burn the accumulation of soot that has collected in the DPF. Other than this you are supposed to go along some road for 15-20 mins with the revs above 3000 which I can't be arsed to do.

Re: New DPF 1200 quid?

It seems it is cured!

I connected a laptop to the cars CPU that has a program called Fiatecuscan (managed to get a FREE version) (latest version is called 'Multiecuscan') installed and deleted the error code. Oh, by the way, the scan then told of a blockage over 100%!

Bought this version of the DPF cleaner - Professional Version ...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_fr...28392&_sacat=0

which apparently is used in the trade.

After adding it to a tank of diesel I drove another 160 miles on the motorway with a good 20-25 mins with the revs around 3500. Since the motorway journey the car has only been used on short hops. The reading today was only 59% blocked which is apparently quite normal .

Sorted .

Re: New DPF 1200 quid?

They seem to come up with more and more stupid ideas to cost us money. I have a diesel Mondeo and not sure about this filter, but it does get a bash down the A1M several times a week. Had a cam belt break earlier in the year cost me £5000 for a short engine, not supposed to need changing until 120 000 miles, at the time car had only done 70 000.