"Unclogging" DPF

[Inego]

OK, took the car to the dealer yesterday to have the warning light checked, and they did the "1,500km service" as well.

End result - the car's clean, next regular service is next Feb. But the light's still on - their advice "8kmh+ for at least 15mins on a regular basis".

I was speaking to a friend last night (GTI owner) - he nows a GTd owner (that was the sports diesel wasn't it?) who wrecked their DPF ($3k replacement cost) beacuse they "didn't drive it hard enough".

It's a pity that VAG doesn't seem to publicise enough the need to get the regen working.....

Kent

[STV4SYT]

I used ot do regular short trips in mine, and i found that the best way to keep it rom unclogging was to knock it back into "S" and give it some beans thru the back streets on the way home from work 1 or 2 nights a week.

Dealer advice is to just go to a decent stretch of road and manully hold the car in 3rd or 4th.


Ive only had the light come on twice in 25000km

[Inego]

Dealer advice is to just go to a decent stretch of road and manully hold the car in 3rd or 4th.

I suppose my issue is that VAG ought to be providing very clear advice, and not only in the manual about the issue (and I haven't found anything in the manual. All it says about the DPF is contact the dealer if the light comes on). Equally, dealers should be mentioning it at pickup, given, at best, it will mean an early return for many inner-city owners....

What do people who don't cruise net forums do about this sort of stuf??

Kent

[Greg Roles]

They pay for it at the dealers sadly. I have found that keeping the car out of "lag" range, that is sub 1800 rpm, and I don't get obvious auto regens more than once a month. If I just drive "normally" around town, it happens almost weekly. I spend a lot more time in 3rd at 60kph than usual.

It's a good excuse to install either a boost guage, an EGT guage, or just get a Scan guage II, which does all this and more. Search on here, Polar did a good writeup about it. Mid $200US too from memory.

[gldgti]

I used ot do regular short trips in mine, and i found that the best way to keep it rom unclogging was to knock it back into "S" and give it some beans thru the back streets on the way home from work 1 or 2 nights a week.

that seems a sensible thing to do really. Another thing that i reckon a lot of new diesel owners might not realise off the bat, is that the diesel wont chew the fuel when you get up it. People with only petrol car experience coming to the TDI fold likely are fairly conservative drivers (why else would you buy a normal TDI but for the great car and fuel economy, right?) but if you havnt hada diesel before its not obvious that making it work hard doesnt hurt your fuel economy much.

The best i've ever got from my mk3 diesel is 922km/tank, and the worst is 760km/tank. my normal fillup is about 45-46 liters..... thats not really a lot of variance.

[Inego]

I was heading to the motorway yesterday for a decent run to get a regen. happening - and the bloody thing went into limp mode (which mainly seems to cut the turbo) on the way there.

So, back to the dealer tomorrow - and I'll be asking about the ECU thing Poyta mentioned, as this will be ridiculous if it keeps happening.....

Kent

[dazag]

Inego, has anyone mentioned that you may have gotten a bad batch of diesel fuel and it's causing your DPF to become clogged a whole lot quicker.
Had you filled up recently?? Did you notice your fuel consumption go up after last filling up.

Problem is if you get a bad batch you wont notice with a DPF system, but with normal diesel exhausts you will see a lot of extra soot coming out the back, and your fuel consumption goes up. Kind of like if you had a blocked air filter

I've had bad batches before - not in my current vehicle but in previous diesel's I've owned

You might want to grab an additive to slip into the fuel tank to help improve the quality of the fuel.

And of course, like everyone else has mentioned, give it a good run. I sometimes use the Manual/Paddles side of the DSG when in traffic, just to keep the revs up a little

[Inego]

Thanks for the suggestion re. the fuel - but it was at least several days, up to a week before the DPF light came on. I'm frustrated the dealer didn't force a regen, and now I've got the hassle of going back.

Wife has concluded this AM that, with the DPF, we've bought exactly the wrong engine for the type of running we mostly do.....

Kent

PS. 6-speed manual (Skoda Octavia Scout), so looks like we'll stick with 2nd gear under 60kmh to try and get things happening.

PPS. It's interesting driving in limp mode - as I mentioned earlier, it seems to have just cut the turbo, so the power is low in a narrow band - a lot like old-time diesels.

[Inego]

Boring I know, but felt I needed to update. Car is about to spend its second night at the dealers - apparently Skoda didn't get back to them particularly quickly, so now they're pushing to get it sorted.

This is my first car in 20 years that's been overnight for servicing - not impressive at 6 weeks old.....

[gldgti]

Boring I know, but felt I needed to update. Car is about to spend its second night at the dealers - apparently Skoda didn't get back to them particularly quickly, so now they're pushing to get it sorted.

This is my first car in 20 years that's been overnight for servicing - not impressive at 6 weeks old.....

Unlucky mate.

Could still be a bad fuel thing - I think the point is that with a DPF, you might not realise you've had bad fuel through it until its too late, what with theDPF doing its job trapping all the soot.

Best wishes to you that its sorted out quickly

[Inego]

Got the car back yesterday - apprently the DPF went from 54% to 100% between the Weds and the Sat, so I am going to investigate the bad fuel issue.

And make sure that, if we haven't had a decent run for while the DPF light means "do something NOW!", not as soon as you have a chance.

Thanks for the advice

Kent

[Greg Roles]

and stick to busy urban main brand servo's with the latest diesel, like BP and Caltex.

[hoi polloi]

Got the car back yesterday - apprently the DPF went from 54% to 100% between the Weds and the Sat...

Wow, that does seem excessively quick - approximately how many km of driving did you do in this time?

Regards,
- Anthony.

[Inego]

Wow, that does seem excessively quick - approximately how many km of driving did you do in this time?

15-20km before limp mode. Probably the same when in limp mode, just to get it home and then to the dealer - and I suspect trying to keep it moving in limp mode probably did the final clogging.

[gldgti]

we all promise not to say - "we told you so" - where did you last fill up? (im just curious - its not really about brand names to me, more about how much fuel any station turns over)