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Yesterday I rented a Merc Sprinter CDI fitted with a dpf. 135,000km on the clock. Had to drive from central coast to wagga wagga and back (In a day!).. thats a round trip of 1070km.
Anyway, when I drove out the driveway of the hire place the thing was not impressing me - no power at all and made a terrible loud vibration type noise like the engine was choking over about 3400rpm. I figured it was a rental so its typical.
Anyway, after doing the 522km to the east side of Wagga I filled her up with some nice diesel from a big servo after having chewed through 55L on the trip down. We drove to the other side of Wagga, loaded her up with about a tonne of cargo, and turned back towards home up the Hume.
After about another 150km (trip distance now up to about 650km) i can swear that its pulling more strongly and humming along more easily, despite the extra load - and, every time the admittedly stupid auto kicked it down a gear, the horrible choking roar was gone.
By the time we were going through Sydney, the Sprinter was clearly performing far better than when I'd picked it up and I had kind of 'fallen' for the big 3.0m tall Van, which sat easily on 110 with a full load and after having almost completed my 1000km round trip, felt comfortable and easy to manage.
Anway, before I returned it this morning I filled it with 49.8L (the van has a digital fuel guage with 10 bars.... at Wagga we were down to 2 bars when I filled, and this morning it was only down to 3). So, despite the fact that the van was loaded up and I had my 'get the heck home' goggles on last night, we had used significantly less fuel on the overall longer return trip.
So, all I wanted to say was this - if your dpf is blocking up, maybe its going to take a longer than 15 minute drive to really free it up
**EDIT** by far the most disconcerting thing about the vehicle - NO TEMP GAUGE - WTF?
Anyway, when I drove out the driveway of the hire place the thing was not impressing me - no power at all and made a terrible loud vibration type noise like the engine was choking over about 3400rpm. I figured it was a rental so its typical.
Anyway, after doing the 522km to the east side of Wagga I filled her up with some nice diesel from a big servo after having chewed through 55L on the trip down. We drove to the other side of Wagga, loaded her up with about a tonne of cargo, and turned back towards home up the Hume.
After about another 150km (trip distance now up to about 650km) i can swear that its pulling more strongly and humming along more easily, despite the extra load - and, every time the admittedly stupid auto kicked it down a gear, the horrible choking roar was gone.
By the time we were going through Sydney, the Sprinter was clearly performing far better than when I'd picked it up and I had kind of 'fallen' for the big 3.0m tall Van, which sat easily on 110 with a full load and after having almost completed my 1000km round trip, felt comfortable and easy to manage.
Anway, before I returned it this morning I filled it with 49.8L (the van has a digital fuel guage with 10 bars.... at Wagga we were down to 2 bars when I filled, and this morning it was only down to 3). So, despite the fact that the van was loaded up and I had my 'get the heck home' goggles on last night, we had used significantly less fuel on the overall longer return trip.
So, all I wanted to say was this - if your dpf is blocking up, maybe its going to take a longer than 15 minute drive to really free it up
**EDIT** by far the most disconcerting thing about the vehicle - NO TEMP GAUGE - WTF?
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