DPF When are they going to get it sorted?

[Woodge]

Fed up wish I had never bought the car , spend my wholelife thinking about the DPF. You have no warning that a regen is to start how can you change you route with no warning?. Came of motorway having been driving 30 mins then the ecu tells the car to regen having just left the motoway. Then while the regens are taking place (completing or failing) deisel ends up in the oil, my oil levels rise all the time, Had it analysed and condemned (Too high % of deisel)
This all started in Feb, 3 weeks after I picked my car up, they are taking it in again this month .
When are they going to put their hands up and say they got it wrong!!!!

 

[jc_boc]

I feel for most folk with these diesel engines. If your out of the city and do a lot of longish journeys then yes it works a treat but if your doing short journeys............... It is for this reason that our company has now started buying the transit vans and not the transporters any more because of the DPF issues we had. Also bought only galaxys this year too and not the new sharan. 1500 car order there for ford who are well happy at this point and guess what, no DPF issues.

 

[sly200sx]

I feel for most folk with these diesel engines. If your out of the city and do a lot of longish journeys then yes it works a treat but if your doing short journeys............... It is for this reason that our company has now started buying the transit vans and not the transporters any more because of the DPF issues we had. Also bought only galaxys this year too and not the new sharan. 1500 car order there for ford who are well happy at this point and guess what, no DPF issues.

Wow would like to have see the invoice for that lot....Who bought all them ? Network rail ?

 

[NetworkMan]

My impression is that the troubles are mostly with the 1.6 litre diesel not the 1.2 litre eco diesel or 2 litre FR.

Then again it may be that there are just more 1.6's on this forum!

 

[vRSy]

loads of DPf issues with the 2.0 all over briskoda.

 

[farrar]

The majority of people have no trouble with the DPF. I've done nearly 20k in my 1.6 CR TDI and not had a problem with the DPF to date.

 

[Woodge]

Mine is a 1.2 e eco with active DPF the problem is with the ecu controlling when the regens happen so even if you have done a long motorway journey it makes no difference it will start the regen because you have done so many miles irrellevent of what type of driving you do , and the issue of oil levels and contamination by deisel which can damage the engine.

 

[farrar]

and the issue of oil levels and contamination by deisel which can damage the engine.

What was the percentage of oil to diesel?

 

[Woodge]

5.6% was the result of the oil test I understand oil can cope with a certain amount which i beleive is 4% I am not an expert.

 

[skeat12]

loads of DPf issues with the 2.0 all over briskoda.

Not a single issue with it (well no light). But would be nice to have a warning when it is starting a passive regen so I can change driving style to suit.

 

[jc_boc]

Wow would like to have see the invoice for that lot....Who bought all them ? Network rail ?

LOL, we are Europes largest cab and courier firm and run a fleet of about 2300 vehicles in total. Galaxy = 1500 with the balance made up of e-class and s-class, transporters, transits now and a few sharans still left.

 

[Woodge]

Andyf my car is a 60 plate and i have been told by seat servicing that they were unaware that my car had an ACTIVE dpf and it was one of the first, they didnt know what was causing my problems for 4 months they still are researching and doing tests now 7months

 

[BaldyDave]

Andyf my car is a 60 plate and i have been told by seat servicing that they were unaware that my car had an ACTIVE dpf and it was one of the first, they didnt know what was causing my problems for 4 months they still are researching and doing tests now 7months

That's a real bummer! I think I'd really have lost the plot by now if I was in your situation and demanded my money back. Kudos for your perseverance!

I take it you are talking about the Service Dept at your local dealer? That's almost beyond belief! I think I'd be looking elsewhere to get your car serviced once you have a resolution over this issue!

Not had my MK5 FR 2.0 TDI for very long (only covered 700 miles) but so far no dreaded DPF light.

From what I can gather it seems to be the 1.6 TDI engines that seem to be the worst affected. A guy at my work had a Golf Bluemotion which has the 1.6 diesel engine and he had a terrible time with the DPF! He largely got the problem fixed with a software update to the ECU and then resolved the remainder of the issue by altering his route to work to take in a stretch of dual carriageway a couple of times a week. It's a shame that you have to go through all that to have a reliable car!

Hope you get a good outcome soon!

 

[Woodge]

Had 2 ecu updates already cant change journey to work already using fastest roads 50% dual carriageway and I do regular motorway trips, point is if i am driving to work and regen starts I do not have job where I can just be late and the m25 or m3 in the mornings are like carparks The car should only be sold to people who live in non urban areas unlike the seat advertising where they say it is ideal for the urban generation

 

[nightflight]

You don't necessarily need to dual carriage/motorway it to clear the dpf.
Just pay attention to the engine idle speed as you're driving, if you see it raises to 1000, then you know a regen attempt is going on, so start using a lower gear and kep the revs around 2-2500 and avoid booting it from low revs (typically when you'd see the puff of black smoke from an earlier diesel) and it'll settle soon settle down.

I've managed to clear my dpf light driving round sheffield by doing the above.

Oh and remember, if the DPF light comes on, it won't clear if the "low fuel" light is on too no matter what you do

 

[Woodge]

Thanks nightflight will try this athoudh when in rush hour even that not possible and this still doesnt sort out the deisel in the oil problem

 

[BaldyDave]

I think the bottom line is that DPF technology is still pretty ropy and it really should be made clear before you buy a car with one fitted that it isn't suited for urban stop/start driving, if that's what you predominately do. I did know a bit about the DPF problem before I bought my FR, but the salesman at Arnold Clark only mentioned it AFTER I had handed over the money. What a surprise - NOT!

If SEAT has advertised that your car is suited to urban driving you may have some legal recourse to hand back the car, claiming their advertising is misleading and the car is not fit for the purpose they claimed it was ideal for. If you were not informed of how a car with a DPF has to be driven before you purchased it, this would strengthen your case.

 

[markmeus]

The majority of people have no trouble with the DPF. I've done nearly 20k in my 1.6 CR TDI and not had a problem with the DPF to date.

Clocked up over 20k in my 1.6 TDI and also never had a DPF problem

 

[skeat12]

Dealer never mentioned the DPF to me before or after signing for it. Like nightflight said, you do need to 'read' the rpm and interpret when it needs to be driven accordingly.

The suggested of 2.2 - 2.4 PRM to do the regen looks to be deliberate in that at 70mph in 5th, 60mph in 4th & 50mph in third etc, will keep you in this rev range at the standard road speed limits. I would expect it's similar for the smaller diesel engine versions

 

[JonnyT30]

Had my 1.6Tdi for about 20 months, and hated the dpf issues, The idling was lumpy when it was doing a regen and the oil level went up. Had my car serviced by not so local garage for the first service as they were £100 cheaper and when I got home I checked the oil level as a matter of course, over the course of the next 2000 miles the level went up so I took it to my local dealer who checked and just concluded that the garage that serviced it had over filled it (By 300ml ??????) I just lost interest in the car after that. I started using it to do a lot of miles so the mpg wasn't too bad, it would do 60mpg as long as I didn't go much over 60mph on the motorway. Recently I swapped it for a Golf 1.6 tdi. The Golf does more mpg at higher road speeds so I can easily do 70 + mph on the motorway and get 65 mpg. The regens are a lot better as well, the engine just idles at about 900 rpm but is still smooth and not jumpy in any way. Thats a good point made by Nightflight. The regens stop if the fuel light is on, but if the dpf light is on when the fuel light is on it will not extinguish until you add enough fuel to switch off the fuel light and the car completes its regen. I have had to explain this to 2 supposed mechanics at seat dealers who don't seem to know the dpf system at all.