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

hundleton1

Active Member
Nov 10, 2007
109
0
Pembrokesihre, Wales
The way I see it is it’s not the filter that is the real problem
under Passive regeneration the filter should burn off the soot with normal driving, however if your driving style does not allow for hot exhaust temperatures then the active regeneration should kick in, this evolves the ECU telling the engine to inject more fuel causing higher exhaust temperature, this process take time to complete (approximately 20 minutes) if the active regeneration does not solve the problem the filter becomes blocked.

The filter is not the problem. It is the item that gets damaged but It gets blocked because the active regeneration is ether not working at all or not staying on for long enough. This is either a software fault not telling the active regeneration to kick in or it’s a sensor in the DPF not detecting when it needs to start active regeneration, either way it’s a design fault and must be covered under warranty,

Seat would not stand a chance in court with this
 

BanziBarn

FR TDI & Type-R
Jun 5, 2003
358
0
Greater London
Visit site
Can someone explain why increasing engine power via a remap will cause problems>

Once school of thought - more power = more heat so the soot will get burned off quicker.

Other school of though - Perhaps its simply down to flow rate and with a remap, even if the dpf is working perfectly it can't burn the soot quick enough?
 

cuprascott

Leon FR DSG 150 Tdi
Nov 28, 2006
238
0
Can someone explain why increasing engine power via a remap will cause problems>

Once school of thought - more power = more heat so the soot will get burned off quicker.

Other school of though - Perhaps its simply down to flow rate and with a remap, even if the dpf is working perfectly it can't burn the soot quick enough?

More power more fuel burnt = more soot.

But yeah more heat more burn off so dunno?
 

sm_allen

Guest
Should I cancel my order for the FR TDI, or am being over concerned?

My normal commute is 30 miles with approx 50% being dual carriageway, and my annual mileage is approx 14,000 miles.
 
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P0LKR

Full Member
Nov 13, 2005
929
2
Newton Mortgage, Glasgow
If you are doing over 12k a year keep with the TDi and give it some beans regularly. If under 12k go for the TFSI man/dsg or Cupra. I have the petrol now having tried diesel for a while. THe petrol is much more fun.
 

s3atl3onFR

Active Member
Jul 14, 2007
54
0
If you do a lot of long driving and don't drive within the city, stay with the TDI. Otherwise expect to give it a good running every 300-500 miles in accordance to the user manual (hence expect your lovely mileage go out the window). Otherwise you're going to have a lot of fun with the TDI.
 

pocket

Active Member
Sep 11, 2007
51
0
Glasgow
hello there, ive just placed an order for an FR tdi so i hope im not tempting fate but,

you have to remember that people very rarely go onto the internet and say, "mine works fine, "it does what its meant to do". they go onto foums mainly because they have a problem so all you see is negative things about it.

I remember a few years ago i had a problem with a PC gfx card. there was thousands of folk complaining making it seem like id made a mistake buying it. But these people only represented a small minority of he owners.

altho' a problem with the DPF shouldnt be happening. it just depends how common a problem it actually is.
 

s3atl3onFR

Active Member
Jul 14, 2007
54
0
Thats a fair comment, though from experience the DPF problem does seem a more general problem than one that happens to a minority. Only reason I say this is because the Show room which looked at mine has told me so, though they did try blame it on the driving style. Trouble looks to be one of design limiting the driving style of the car. I mean this car has 6 gears and I'm paranoid to use 6th gear on motorway now. Totally understand however that motorway commuters might never ever experience the problems that are affecting some here though, at least you've got the forsight to do something about it now rather than regret it later.
 

leonfr170

Active Member
Jun 16, 2007
126
0
well, i got my car back today and am now £150 poorer[:@]
can't fault the dealer but having spoke with Seat UK at length and it seems as an end user im getting screwed. they say i should follow the guidlines laid out in the manual and the car will be fine. i am driving 110 miles a day and regularly rev i high so it shouldn't be hapening. anyway, in Seat's unique customer service world they will only make outging calls twice a day in one hour slots so still waiting to hear back from a manager. i think that maybe selling my car now to aviod future problems is the besr way forward - i love the car but the customer service from Seat UK is non existant and this particulate problem in my book should be covered under warranty.
let me know what you guys think as i am thinking about taking this further - its not so much as i don't want to pay but feel if this is a known problem then Seat should at least look after its customer base
 

JonoUK

Active Member
Apr 29, 2007
385
0
North Yorkshire
well, i got my car back today and am now £150 poorer[:@]
can't fault the dealer but having spoke with Seat UK at length and it seems as an end user im getting screwed. they say i should follow the guidlines laid out in the manual and the car will be fine. i am driving 110 miles a day and regularly rev i high so it shouldn't be hapening. anyway, in Seat's unique customer service world they will only make outging calls twice a day in one hour slots so still waiting to hear back from a manager. i think that maybe selling my car now to aviod future problems is the besr way forward - i love the car but the customer service from Seat UK is non existant and this particulate problem in my book should be covered under warranty.
let me know what you guys think as i am thinking about taking this further - its not so much as i don't want to pay but feel if this is a known problem then Seat should at least look after its customer base

So um, what's actually been claimed that's wrong with it. Sensor/DPF/Other?

The light came on so you took it to a dealer? Was it just the "drive me harder" dpf light or also the engine/coil light too? Had you seen the DPF light on its own before this?

Sorry if I'm missing something.
 

leonfr170

Active Member
Jun 16, 2007
126
0
i got the dpf light on tuesday and was told my dealer what to do to try and clear it. drove it in 4th on the motorway for 5 min and it went out. on wednesday it came back on with coil light and went into a limp mode so i took it to the dealer where its been until today.
they say that as the 2nd light came on its out of warranty and charged me £152.94 to do a dpf regeneration (basically 2hrs labour charge) to clear it.
can't say i'm happy about it but Seat don't want to know it seems and the dealer tells me its the 4th car this month they have seen with the same problem.
 

JonoUK

Active Member
Apr 29, 2007
385
0
North Yorkshire
Hmmm that doesn't sound right at all.... bad form, Seat.
On the "plus" side... least it wasn't £1500.
I think my car will have to have some "fun" on the way home/weekend now :(
 

alnsaz

Active Member
Dec 7, 2005
138
9
West of Scotland
I voted - No problems.
Car Age - 10 months, mine from new Jan 07 '56' plate
Mileage - 10,500 miles
Driving style - Very mixed, commuting 15 miles to work and back 5-days a week on A roads and in jams. Lots of fast runs on motorway 70+ and spirited driving most of the time

The poll speaks for itself so far - minimal problems to a minority and usually fixed quickly by RTFM!!
 

AttyNW

Active Member
Aug 28, 2006
46
0
Warrington, Cheshire
I voted - No problems.
Car Age - 12 months - 56plate (owned by me from new)
Mileage - 12500 miles
Driving style - Mainly commuting 18 miles each way, up and down the M62 to work and back. Short runs to the shops, school and the odd trip down the A50 to Leicester.
 

s3atl3onFR

Active Member
Jul 14, 2007
54
0
They should only charge if they have to replace the DPF filter... i.e. if it goes into limp mode, stop driving it and get it towed back to garage or else you risk killing the DPF.

I voted Had problems clearing as I went into limp mode on the latter occassion but have had DPF light 5 times.

Car age - 2300 on the clock practically new

Driving style - hard when i can but unfortunately I have nursery runs which are short and trips into London that contains stop/starts otherwise trips up motorway (1 month at least) with frequent A road trips which I can drive it harder.