1.6 TDI DPF Light Won't Clear Despite Following Active Regen Method

[KiiTz]

Hi all, I have a 62 plate 1.6 TDI Ibiza CR 105bhp. The stupid DPF light came on two days ago so I haven't driven it since. Today I took it for approx 90 minutes of driving on the motorway driving at 60mph in 4th gear at around 2300rpm. After 45 minutes it still hadn't cleared, and I was well out my way so stopped and put a tenner of fuel in and drove home, again at 60mph in 4th, 2300rpm. The light still hasn't cleared.

I bought the car in August 2018 from evans halshaw and paid for a 2 year extended warranty (bastards didn't mention this was up to 80k miles and the car was on 72k when I got it). By January 2019 it had gone into limp mode with the DPF, coil and engine management lights all on. I took it in and they diagnosed a faulty DPF sensor and replaced it as well as forcing a regen. Same thing happened again a few months later. I got the car back to them (with 8 miles of this 80k warranty left - lmao) and this time it was the EGR valve at fault and they replaced that along with another forced regen under warranty.

I've read the directions on this forum about how to get the car to regen the DPF and followed them to a T, yet the light is still on.

What could be the issue here?

Big thanks in advance guys!

 

[Legojon]

Trouble is, DPFs have a hard life and a finite lifespan. I can't remember the exact %. But once a DPF reaches a certain % blocked the only way to unblock it is to force a regen. Which again is damaging to the DPF due to the temperatures involved. Since it's recurring I think my next option would be to seek out a company that does chemical DPF cleaning and see if that fixes it (I assume it's completely out of warranty now?). Although you could argue you declared this fault within the warranty period and it's never actually gone away.

 

[KiiTz]

Trouble is, DPFs have a hard life and a finite lifespan. I can't remember the exact %. But once a DPF reaches a certain % blocked the only way to unblock it is to force a regen. Which again is damaging to the DPF due to the temperatures involved. Since it's recurring I think my next option would be to seek out a company that does chemical DPF cleaning and see if that fixes it (I assume it's completely out of warranty now?). Although you could argue you declared this fault within the warranty period and it's never actually gone away.

Cheers for the reply mate. From what I've read here the DPF light comes on at 55% soot loading so I presume thats how full it is atm. Again from what I've read here, beyond 75% full is when it needs a forced regen, and at 95% the DPF needs replacing. I'm definitely going to follow your advice and argue that the fault was declared within the warranty period and that the issue is persisting. Do you have any ideas what a chemical DPF clean would cost? I recently graduated from uni and barely have a pot to piss in

I'm considering getting a DPF delete done when I've got the money, seen they're about £300 and improve performance and economy slightly as well. Ibiza DPFs are the worst things I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with.

 

[Legojon]

Cheers for the reply mate. From what I've read here the DPF light comes on at 55% soot loading so I presume thats how full it is atm. Again from what I've read here, beyond 75% full is when it needs a forced regen, and at 95% the DPF needs replacing. I'm definitely going to follow your advice and argue that the fault was declared within the warranty period and that the issue is persisting. Do you have any ideas what a chemical DPF clean would cost? I recently graduated from uni and barely have a pot to piss in

I'm considering getting a DPF delete done when I've got the money, seen they're about £300 and improve performance and economy slightly as well. Ibiza DPFs are the worst things I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with.

I've seen some offering it for £250 as well as some mobile services. Not sure how far they are from you but R-tech also do it for £120 (not sure if that includes VAT).
http://r-techperformance.co.uk/dpf-...g-services-hinckley-coventry-leicester-rugby/

But ye, DPF is an absolute pain. I had nothing but issues with mine when I had a diesel. Only thing I would say, if you have the DPF removed, you'll have to be mates with or do favours for an MOT tester as in the last year or so it's now an instant MOT fail.

 

[DPF_Cleaned]

Hi.

Just read about your DPF and the problems you are having.

DPF problems are not hard to fix once you know what is actually taking place with your DPF , unfortunaely the internet forums are full of weekend Google mechanics who regurgitate the same things they have read elsewhere and make it look like they know what they are talking about.

The issue with DPF's is very straight forward , they will give you problems if.

1) There is too much Ash in the DPF , you can expect DPF lights to come on from 80,000 miles onwards depending on the vehicle model .

Ash is a byproduct of the regeneration of the soot that is captured during the regeneration process and trapped by the DPF (that is its function).

Exhaust gas trying to exit the exhaust system starts to backup as it cannot get through the DPF fast enough , this in turn causes the DPF pressure sensor to trigger the engine management light to come on (on VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda more than 1 light may come on).

2) The second reason a DPF may block (with Soot ) is if one of the components that the regeneration system relies on to carry out a regeneration is not working properly .

This is quite a big list and only a company who specialises in DPF's (like ours) will be able to check and identify the underlying cause as error messages are not given and live data has to be analysed to find the culprit.

There are some components which are not directly related to the regeneration system, but will also cause DPF related problems , they are quite a few but mainly tend to be air leaks , glow plugs problems , injectors and EGR valves and a few more.

In a nut shell thats all there is to it ,

when you force a regeneration all you are really doing apart from putting your engine through a lot of stress is burning off a bit of soot and making it a bit easier for the exhaust gas to pass through .

The underlying issue of too much ash in the DPF still remains hence the light will come back on once your DPF has captured some more soot.

Fixing your problem.

Given the information above it is quite obvious that the remedy to fixing a DPF problem is to empty out the DPF 100% , this cannot be done by putting chemicals directly into it and forcing a regen as the chemicals have no effect on the ash and is therefore immune . The chemicals will get rid of the soot but your underlying issue will still remain.

Putting chemicals into the petrol tank is also a hopeless task as you put 500 ml of chemicals into about 30 litres of Diesel the dilution rate is so high that you probably get a few molecules going into your engine,

These turn into gas when the fuel is burnt in the engine , so how is this gas now supposed to unblock your DPF ?.
Cleaning with a Jet wash is the closest you can get to a professional flash cleaning machine (which we have ) however the jet wash cannot penetrate the DPF deep enough to effectively force out the ash .

The only real way to clean out the DPF effectively so you can get another 80,000 + miles is to take your DPF or vehicle to a specialist who has a Flash machine they can remove the DPF put it into the Flash machine and flush it out , not only will the machine test , unblock , dry the DPF for you it will also give you a print out of the effectiveness of the cleaning done..

If you do not know how a flash machine works , have a look at these videos www.dpfcleaned.co.uk

I own a DPF cleaning business and use the Flash machine everyday , and I can honestly say that it is the best method for cleaning DPF’s.

I hope this article will help you understand what is taking place with your DPF and give you some ideas on how to go about fixing your problem.

 

[KiiTz]

Update: got a dpf delete and egr delete done today with a stage 1 performance remap, no more dpf problems

 

[DPF_Cleaned]

Except for the fact you will always be looking for a dodgy garage to give you an MOT.
Not to mention pushing particulates into the air which give asthma to young children and problems for those who suffer from brething problems.

Way to go .

 

[KiiTz]

Except for the fact you will always be looking for a dodgy garage to give you an MOT.
Not to mention pushing particulates into the air which give asthma to young children and problems for those who suffer from brething problems.

Way to go .

Thanks for your input