DPF Experiences

Your experience of the Diesel Particulate Filter?

  • Never seen DPF lights, no problems

    Votes: 137 58.3%
  • Seen DPF lights, DPF cleared with no problems

    Votes: 56 23.8%
  • Seen DPF lights, had problems clear DPF

    Votes: 26 11.1%
  • Seen DPF lights, new DPF required covered by warranty

    Votes: 6 2.6%
  • Seen DPF lights, new DPF required NOT covered by warranty

    Votes: 15 6.4%

  • Total voters
    235

laney456

Guest
I voted - Seen light twice and had problems - charged for regeneration
Car Age - 6 months (07 plate)
Milage - 3,500
Driving style - 5 mile commute at around 30mph...but frequent driving at the weekend over 50miles


The DPF on my car is currently doing my nut in.

At approx 2000miles I saw the DPF light come on for the first time. I consulted the manual, took it out for a blast and hey presto....it went out.

More recently (3200miles), the light came on....now being honest it may have been 2-3 days before I carried out the DPF regeneration (due to work commitments)....but when I did, the coil light started flashing, I pulled over to turn the engine off to see if it cleared.
Then when I keyed on, the EM light came on and I lost all power in limp home mode.

Returned the car straight to the dealership, and they basically said my filter required manual regeneration which wasn't covered under warranty.

Obviously I went mad but dealership (LC Charles Crewe) said they wouldn't pay for it and I got charged £109. I basically had no choice because I needed the car the next day.

I have written to SEAT UK about a number of problems I have had with the car (faulty powersteering, ignition shorting out and no engine cover!) in the hope that as a gesture of good will, they would refund me the £109. Got a letter today basically telling me to take a hike!

Not happy at all and I will be taking the matter further.

Thinking of going to the motor industry SMMT in order to raise a complaint.

I just think the whole thing is a joke!
 
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ktron

Guest
And here we go again....I have had the car back 1 week from the dealer - they carried out a service with new recommended oil & cleaned the area around the DPF as advised by Seat technical...this morning the engine management light comes on..from previous experience I know next will be the DPF and then limp mode, back to the dealers I go. This is doing my head in. [:@]

Laney456 - my dealer didn't charge me for regen - its not your fault - I would look at threatening either your dealer or Seat UK with trading standards.
 
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laney456

Guest
Laney456 - my dealer didn't charge me for regen - its not your fault - I would look at threatening either your dealer or Seat UK with trading standards.

I will be taking it further for sure Ktron...the best thing is that the letter Seat UK sent me states that the DPF light should come on until the filter is 55% blocked and the car shouldnt go into limp home mode until the filter reaches 75% blockage.

In my letter to Seat UK I included a service document that said when I took the car in the filter was only 36% full and therefore the DPF warning light shouldn't have ever come on at all!

Maybe other people having similar problems should write off to Seat UK.

The person I am dealing with is:

Kelly Warren
Customer Service Team Manager
SEAT Uk Customer Service Centre.

After this fiasco I would never ever buy another Seat again and I am considering just selling it because if I can't use it to get to work it's useless.
 

leonfr170

Active Member
Jun 16, 2007
126
0
i have some good news at last! Seat UK have finally been in touch and offered me a refund on my regeneration charge. i didn't even have to ask for it, they apologised for taking so long in getting back to me and told me they would refund my money (well, they will authorise my dealer to refund me since i paid them)
although im happy im getting my money back im still more than a little nervous that at some stage my dpf light will come on again and i will be in the same situation. however, once i week i take the car out for a thrash - well, i HAVE to do it for the good of my car, officer:p
 

laney456

Guest
i have some good news at last! Seat UK have finally been in touch and offered me a refund on my regeneration charge. i didn't even have to ask for it, they apologised for taking so long in getting back to me and told me they would refund my money (well, they will authorise my dealer to refund me since i paid them)
although im happy im getting my money back im still more than a little nervous that at some stage my dpf light will come on again and i will be in the same situation. however, once i week i take the car out for a thrash - well, i HAVE to do it for the good of my car, officer:p

Hi Leonfr170, can I ask how you got Seat to refund you the regeneration money?

I got told to get lost lol...just wondering if you had different circumstances?
 

leonfr170

Active Member
Jun 16, 2007
126
0
well, didn't do anything special apart from complain. luckily (or not) my car had a sensor fault the following week and i complained again. thats when i got a call back and they said i would be getting refunded. the dealer had to submit a goodwill claim form 1st though.
 

ktron

Guest
Nice to hear you got your money back leonfr170 (you shouldn't have been billed to start with).

Looks like we both had the same problem - Got my car back yesterday - faulty sensor.

I hope you have the same joy laney456.
 

Simon_Peters

2008 Leon Fr TFSI & 01 R6
Apr 11, 2007
399
0
Weston-Super-Mare
Hi all!

Guess what the light has come on again, this is the 6th time I have seen it now. It clears ok with a good hard drive up the slab but I am starting to think there is something wrong as most of mile 1700 miles on the clock have been on the motorway.

Think I will mention it when I am passing the stealer next.
 

Tam

Santa in disguise :)
Feb 10, 2005
1,777
0
Near Reevo :)
Hi all!

Guess what the light has come on again, this is the 6th time I have seen it now. It clears ok with a good hard drive up the slab but I am starting to think there is something wrong as most of mile 1700 miles on the clock have been on the motorway.

Think I will mention it when I am passing the stealer next.

Motorway = 6th gear less than 2000rpm?
or
Motorway = 4th gear 3,500 rpm?

The DPF only clears when its hot :)
 

Simon_Peters

2008 Leon Fr TFSI & 01 R6
Apr 11, 2007
399
0
Weston-Super-Mare
Motorway = 6th gear less than 2000rpm?
or
Motorway = 4th gear 3,500 rpm?

The DPF only clears when its hot :)

I did read that and I have a mixed driving style really so a mixture of both. But even saying that I thought that if you weren't doing that it changed the mixture or something so it would still work?

Cheers
 

dogmeat

Guest
I'm glad in a way im not the only Leon owner having problems with the DPF filter, Since I bought the car I have been a regular visitor to the dealership basically every other week since March......
Engine warning light then the DPF and finally the coil light and then its in limp mode. I was told it was my driving style (short journeys) what a load of bull, I have put near on 20,000 miles since March and I do most of it on the motorway, they advised me to drive at a constant speed (60mph) in 5th gear for 10-15 mins and the problem would clear itself.......that turned out to be a load of bull.....
 

ktron

Guest
I'm glad in a way im not the only Leon owner having problems with the DPF filter, Since I bought the car I have been a regular visitor to the dealership basically every other week since March......
Engine warning light then the DPF and finally the coil light and then its in limp mode. I was told it was my driving style (short journeys) what a load of bull, I have put near on 20,000 miles since March and I do most of it on the motorway, they advised me to drive at a constant speed (60mph) in 5th gear for 10-15 mins and the problem would clear itself.......that turned out to be a load of bull.....

Dogmeat - from the description you give this is exactly the same situation as I had. In my case it turned out to be a broken sensor on the DPF. In my case it took 3 attempts for the garage to eventually find it, firstly telling me bad driving stye (same as you), then engine oil change to a new type recommended by Seat before finding the faulty sensor - mind you im only 2 weeks down the line with no light - good luck.
 

safcnige

Guest
dpf problem

I have had problems with the dpf since new and the car spends most of its time on the motorway and has covered 22000 miles, the light came on this morning and wouldnt go off. After following the manuals instructions with no joy (usually it does clear after a while) then i had loss of power with two warning lights coming on, i then took it to the garage and complained to seat customer service who contacted the garage and they rang me back to confirm that the garage would not be charging me for clearing the dpf as it was not under warranty which i find completely disgusting and was told i should have been notified about this when i got the car which i was not. The car was registered in august 06 is driven hard every day and has had a total of 4 turbo solenoids a constantly reoccuring 'phantom misfire' i.e engine rocks when at idle this happens roughly every 300 miles, the airbag light has come on once, different rattles and most probably more to come oh and i almost forgot the dealer left a can of aerosol in the engine bay after a service great eh.
Has anyone else suffered these problems?
Also can you dissconnect the dpf with an aftermarket exhaust?
 

cuprascott

Leon FR DSG 150 Tdi
Nov 28, 2006
238
0
YES Milltek do a downpipe which replaces the DPF. I'm told all the original sensors etc fit the replacement part so the ECU doesn't need re-programming. They have tested this for some time on a Golf.
Approx £295 +VAT

I am very tempted even though I have had no problems with my DPF, should enable me to get a decent remap though.

http://www.millteksport.com/exhaust.products.cfm?variantid=264

Would it pass an MOT without it though?
 

FRTDI Edinburgh

Guest
V. Unhappy with SEAT

Problems with my DPF....

DPF blocked light first came on at 3000miles, I drove on for a further 30mins at speeds around 60mph on open rural roads (Using the gears - not just staying in 6th), then the glow plug light came on and the engine went into limp home mode, so I "limped" 10 miles back home.

The car was recovered to the SEAT garage, they manually re-activated the filter and this solved the problem. The dealer told me they would have to charge me as the dpf is not covered by warranty and the problems were down to "driver error". As the car is leased (inc. maintenance), the leasing company would have had to pay. The leasing company spoke to someone higher up in SEAT and eventually SEAT agreed to cover the cost. I have no doubt that without the intervention of the Leasing company, I would have had to pay.

SEAT explained to me that there is a procedure that must be followed to allow the dpf to clean itself, if this is not followed, the dpf will choke & you will be charged, the "complex" procedure is as follows;:think:

If the DPF choked light comes on, drive at speeds over 40mph for 10mins

OR as the owners manual says "occassionally drive at speeds of over 60km/h"

Apparently, according to SEAT, follow these instructions and there wont be any problems - NOT IN MY EXPERIENCE [:@]

My car has done 3000 miles in the 5 weeks since I got it, 600miles a week, this would be impossible if I didn't regularly drive at speeds of over 60km/h. I do a 100mile round trip on dual carriageway 2/3 times a week, 30mile dual carriageway round trip every other day and would say less than 10% of my driving is done in town or at less than 30mph.

When the dpf blocked light first came on, I was about 1 hour into a drive on open, rural roads, :D (WAS having a great time!), no amount of "enthuthiastic" driving was able to get the light to go out [:@]

I would DEFINITELY not buy one of these cars if I was going to be responsible for maintenance costs myself - £100 to clean the dpf every 3000miles!!!!!!

A shame that SEAT's poor service lets down an otherwise fantastic car :cry:
 
Jul 10, 2007
1,267
0
Leeds
I found a leaflet in my Cupra about the SMMT New Car Code of Practice.

If any of you are still having problems with the dealer and after going to SEAT themselves, it may be worth getting SMMT to intervene.

http://www.smmt.co.uk/consumeradvice/

If anyone wants me to scan the leaflet in, just send me a PM and I'll try and sort something out.
 

cuprascott

Leon FR DSG 150 Tdi
Nov 28, 2006
238
0
Problems with my DPF....

DPF blocked light first came on at 3000miles, I drove on for a further 30mins at speeds around 60mph on open rural roads (Using the gears - not just staying in 6th), then the glow plug light came on and the engine went into limp home mode, so I "limped" 10 miles back home.

The car was recovered to the SEAT garage, they manually re-activated the filter and this solved the problem. The dealer told me they would have to charge me as the dpf is not covered by warranty and the problems were down to "driver error". As the car is leased (inc. maintenance), the leasing company would have had to pay. The leasing company spoke to someone higher up in SEAT and eventually SEAT agreed to cover the cost. I have no doubt that without the intervention of the Leasing company, I would have had to pay.

SEAT explained to me that there is a procedure that must be followed to allow the dpf to clean itself, if this is not followed, the dpf will choke & you will be charged, the "complex" procedure is as follows;:think:

If the DPF choked light comes on, drive at speeds over 40mph for 10mins

OR as the owners manual says "occassionally drive at speeds of over 60km/h"

Apparently, according to SEAT, follow these instructions and there wont be any problems - NOT IN MY EXPERIENCE [:@]

My car has done 3000 miles in the 5 weeks since I got it, 600miles a week, this would be impossible if I didn't regularly drive at speeds of over 60km/h. I do a 100mile round trip on dual carriageway 2/3 times a week, 30mile dual carriageway round trip every other day and would say less than 10% of my driving is done in town or at less than 30mph.

When the dpf blocked light first came on, I was about 1 hour into a drive on open, rural roads, :D (WAS having a great time!), no amount of "enthuthiastic" driving was able to get the light to go out [:@]

I would DEFINITELY not buy one of these cars if I was going to be responsible for maintenance costs myself - £100 to clean the dpf every 3000miles!!!!!!

A shame that SEAT's poor service lets down an otherwise fantastic car :cry:

I use these guys for all my warrenty and serviceing

http://seat.rutherford.co.uk/

Speak to Brian who is the service manager - he'll sort you out. Top Bloke small family garage excellent customer service. i wouldnt take my car anywhere else.
 
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