All DPF Owners

[Biker]

the reason you lot are geting DPF lights on is because your all doing silly short journeys in your cars!

you need to do atleast 15 miles in 1 journey for the light not to come on....
every one who is doing 5-10 mile trips wont have eeven let their engine warm up.. let alone the turbo.

and doing this day in day out will cause huge premature wear on the engine part and turbo due to nothing reaching and stabalising at full operating temp.

Well that is interesting, I have three choices here 1) move house further from my place of work. 2) Find another job further from my house. 3) Buy another car............

When buying this car I specifically explained what it would be used for (mainly short commute to work) and expressed concern about the DPF. I was assured the DPF would not be an issue and this type of use was quite acceptable.

Just have to wait and see how it all pans out I suppose.......

 

[golfgtipaul]

the reason you lot are geting DPF lights on is because your all doing silly short journeys in your cars!


Wow i must remember to walk to the supermarket next time its only 6 miles there and back! Jesus id be saving the planet as well - thanks for the great advice

On a sensible note, i do long journeys a 50 mile round trip everyday and its still been on 6 times so make of that what you will.
Totally agree with JonnyT on his experiences and agree that a something telling you about percentage until regen would be handy. This would stop you suddenly having to detour on a long clear road where you can do the necessary regen, which is a right pain when you are in the middle of your mad, silly short trips!

 

[Adam R]

hmmmm some of you are taking my previous post the wrong way.....

a DPF works by using an electronic charge to attract the 'soot'. after a while this process starts to become less efficient due to main cathode becoming overwhelmed by soot.
when this occurs, the DPF will inject a small amount of diesel directly on to the soot on the cathode. the current in the cathode is then increased significantly to burn the soot particles in to an ash which gets pushed away by the exhaust gas flow.

since the introduction of DPF's they have been a mixture or evil and good.
on the evil side....
if you do short trips the DPF will never reach max temp to start burning the soot. in turn thecar has to get pushed through a cleaning cycle by the dealer which isnt that great for it.
this then shortens the life of the DPF, which incredibly expensive to replace...

on the good side,
no more 'sooting' when driving making the cars emmissions slightly better.
DPF will self clean if taken on a long trip where the revs are kept abovr something about 2.5k rpm.


im not saying stop using your cars, im just trying to give you a little insight in to a possible causd of the re-gen light comming on.

i personally will not drive my car any distance under 8 miles as this is about the time it takes for my water to reach optimum opperting temp and the oil is on its way up.


its like everything really, if you want to keep something forever, you look after it. if your going to sell it in the next couple of years then you wont be the owner of the car when it starts to develope its issues.

 

[jools]

hmmmm some of you are taking my previous post the wrong way.....

a DPF works by using an electronic charge to attract the 'soot'. after a while this process starts to become less efficient due to main cathode becoming overwhelmed by soot.
when this occurs, the DPF will inject a small amount of diesel directly on to the soot on the cathode. the current in the cathode is then increased significantly to burn the soot particles in to an ash which gets pushed away by the exhaust gas flow..

Hi, I think DPF's that use electric heaters do exist, but this is not how the DPF in the Ibiza or the majority of passenger cars work.

The soot is trapped in the filter which is made of silica. If the filter is at a high enough temperature, say when driving on a long journey at a high speed it is possible for it to self clean- the trapped soot is constantly oxidised.

On shorter journeys the level of soot will gradually rise- a pressure sensor is used to determine the soot loading. Once this reaches a certain point an active regeneration is commenced by the ecu. This is when fuel is injected after combustion to raise the DPF temp up to 600 plus degrees, so that the trapped soot can be oxidised.

Thats the basic theory anyway, just a pity it doesn't seem to be working quite as well as it should on the current Ibiza's.!

 

[Adam R]

jools.

cheers for that . wasnt quite sure on how the ibiza DPF worked but i know thats what they used on commercial vehicles.

i think the problem with DPF's is you have to give the car a long hard run to clear the soot from the unit... and it seems people dont realise this and give the DPF a hard time by doing shorter journeys.

 

[ashleigh25]

had 2 lights on in the 3 weeks ive owned the car. Got the car as i do alot of driving for work normally long distances but since ive had the car not had any long distance drives (typical) Noticed this morning that the car is idling at around 1k so i guess im due another light unless i go for a long drive which is annoying as the last 2 days ive had 2 60 mile round trips on the motorway so surely the soot should of cleared on these trips?

 

[golfgtipaul]

Personallyi think its ridiculous, I dont need the facts on DPF filters, I now know the basic set up and thats all most people will want to know. I was not told about DPF when buying or after by the garage so being told I shouldnt do short trips is ludicrous! I bought my car for economy, looks, etc and I use it everyday short trips and long! surely this is what having a car is all about! Adam R - I think only using your car further than 8 miles is extreme and not what 99 percent of people will do i would have thought? I understand why the dpf filter works i just question its use when it can cause you a load of hassel having to clear it!
I also feel that if seat dealers were upfront about it at point of order maybe it is a potential deal breaker - who knows?

 

[nightflight]

^ definitely agree, if ii'd've known what i know now I definitely would've sacrificed the supposed "economy" and turbo torque of the diesel for the easier life (and probably more economical for me) petrol.

For anyone who's looking at buying a 1.6tdi ask yourself this...
"do you drive on a dual carriageway/motorway at usual speeds (ie not nose to tail traffic) for at least half of your weekly drive?" If you generally just drive round town DO NOT get the 1.6TDI despite what your dealership might say.

 

[Biker]

Personallyi think its ridiculous, I dont need the facts on DPF filters, I now know the basic set up and thats all most people will want to know. I was not told about DPF when buying or after by the garage so being told I shouldnt do short trips is ludicrous! I bought my car for economy, looks, etc and I use it everyday short trips and long! surely this is what having a car is all about! Adam R - I think only using your car further than 8 miles is extreme and not what 99 percent of people will do i would have thought? I understand why the dpf filter works i just question its use when it can cause you a load of hassel having to clear it!
I also feel that if seat dealers were upfront about it at point of order maybe it is a potential deal breaker - who knows?

X2

The whole idea that you would not use your car for less than eight miles is just silly. The car is there for my convenience, whatever the distance. I asked the question before purchase of my car if my usage, short journey to work would be a problem and was assured the vehicle was well able to deal with this.

I appreciate people are having problems, but I think this is more due to legislation forcing manufacturers to install systems before they are fully proven. My stance will be "use the car as normal" IF this causes problems then I will be taking the matter up with Seat.

As I said in another post, Seat could help matters quite a bit if they fitted a display to indicate the loading on the filter and allow people to take early action to prevent the filter clogging up.

And finally, there is no way I am telling my wife she is walking to the supermarket because it is only three miles away!

 

[Adam R]

Personallyi think its ridiculous, I dont need the facts on DPF filters, I now know the basic set up and thats all most people will want to know. I was not told about DPF when buying or after by the garage so being told I shouldnt do short trips is ludicrous! I bought my car for economy, looks, etc and I use it everyday short trips and long! surely this is what having a car is all about! Adam R - I think only using your car further than 8 miles is extreme and not what 99 percent of people will do i would have thought? I understand why the dpf filter works i just question its use when it can cause you a load of hassel having to clear it!
I also feel that if seat dealers were upfront about it at point of order maybe it is a potential deal breaker - who knows?

i can fully agree with you.

im not telling you to drive x amount of miles... im just saying DPF's are not good at all if you only do short drives where you dont get the car up to full temp and run the car on the motorway for a period of time.

I was not told about DPF when buying or after by the garage so being told I shouldnt do short trips is ludicrous! I bought my car for economy,

do you really think a dealer salesman would know about this issue ? let along bring it up in a sale of a £15k+ car ?

I also feel that if seat dealers were upfront about it at point of order maybe it is a potential deal breaker - who knows?

i think you said it yourself

Im not trying to preach guys, and i can fully sympathise with you lot. I know about DPF's before i purchased my honda accord, hence why i went for the slightly older model because it didnt have one.

also another thing to consider is... if quite a lot of diesel owners purchased their car and are only doing short trips in it....
you do realise the economy of a diesel isnt really that good until its up to full opperating temp. infact for shorted trips its recommended to get a petrol.


im not wanting to rock the boat / annoy members on here. just supplying information that you lot may find useful

 

[nightflight]

do you really think a dealer salesman would know about this issue ? let along bring it up in a sale of a £15k+ car ?

Yes, i would, the DPF has been around for a good while now, there must be plenty of info about for SEAT to be able to inform dealers of issues. In fact, as the briefing note by the VW Technical guy in the FAQ thread proves, VAG and hence SEAT know about the short-comings of the DPF and thus should full inform customers of the issues so that the customer can make a balanced and informed opinion and decision,

what's the worst that's going to happen? the customer decides that because of their useage profile they'd be better of buying the £15k petrol instead of the diesel.

 

[golfgtipaul]

Adam R - do you have a 1.6tdi? just out of interest!

 

[Adam R]

no... i left the seat fold a while ago... i now have a 54 plate 2.2 diesel accord, which is remapped .

i left seat due to poor CS and general attitude to customers.

nightflight.... salesmen, sell.. they wont tell you about possible issues as it would tarnish seats 'rep' thats if they have much anyway!

 

[jools]

Fully agree with all the comments about the DPF operation on the Ibiza.

The thing is the vast majority of diesel passenger cars are now being fitted with a DPF - they have to be to comply with EU emission standards. BUT the majority can also cope with shorter journeys without throwing on the waring light and the filter becoming blocked!

If you were only driving say a couple of miles each way, every day, with no longer journeys then yes even a well designed system would struggle to stay clear. It seems the system on the 1.6crd can not cope with journeys of even 8 or 10 miles each way.

This can not be blamed on driving style/journey length- the issue must be with either the hardware installed on the Ibiza or the software controlling it. I would be pretty sure Seat and indeed VAG are aware they have a problem, hopefully they come up with a solution soon!.

 

[mand1]

On the way home tonight from work (about 5miles), my 1.6crd started to feel 'sluggish' and idling speed up above 1000, the car felt the same way it did just before the light came on the last time so as I'd read this thread I thought I would keep driving instead of going straight home just in case the engine was doing a regen. Drove for about 25 mins keeping the revs up in 3rd gear as much as pos and by the time I finally got home, car felt good and idling back down to 800ish. Now as much as I love driving this fab car I have to say its a bludy nuisance........

 

[golfgtipaul]

On the way home tonight from work (about 5miles), my 1.6crd started to feel 'sluggish' and idling speed up above 1000, the car felt the same way it did just before the light came on the last time so as I'd read this thread I thought I would keep driving instead of going straight home just in case the engine was doing a regen. Drove for about 25 mins keeping the revs up in 3rd gear as much as pos and by the time I finally got home, car felt good and idling back down to 800ish. Now as much as I love driving this fab car I have to say its a bludy nuisance........

Exactly the same as me - well i dont do 25 miles to clear it lol. It is alright buying this car for economy but you waste a load fannying about trying to unblock the filter by driving extra miles and going out of your way to clear it! What if you live in the midle of a busy city and cant readily get to long stretch of road where you can do a contstant 2500 revs in 3rd gear? Stupid in my opinion!

 

[OLDOILER]

Exactly the same as me - well i dont do 25 miles to clear it lol. It is alright buying this car for economy but you waste a load fannying about trying to unblock the filter by driving extra miles and going out of your way to clear it! What if you live in the midle of a busy city and cant readily get to long stretch of road where you can do a contstant 2500 revs in 3rd gear? Stupid in my opinion!

I have been thinking of getting rid of my Leon FR tdi and downsizing to the Ibiza sport 1.6, but now I see all this DPF issues, which appear to be worst than on the Leon's I think I will try and look out for a 1.9 sport [ pre DPF] model and get better mpg . ...........................

 

[Biker]

I have been thinking of getting rid of my Leon FR tdi and downsizing to the Ibiza sport 1.6, but now I see all this DPF issues, which appear to be worst than on the Leon's I think I will try and look out for a 1.9 sport [ pre DPF] model and get better mpg . ...........................

There are lots of people who have no problems with the DPF as well. I do a short journey to work every day and have had no issues so far, admittedly I have only had the car a few weeks mind.

 

[Adam R]

There are lots of people who have no problems with the DPF as well. I do a short journey to work every day and have had no issues so far, admittedly I have only had the car a few weeks mind.

well you just cursed yoursef!

 

[Mak1]

I have now had 4 VWG vehicles with DPF. 1 Leon FR Tdi (PD engine), 1 Audi A3 Sline Tdi (Common rail engine), 1 FL Leon FR Tdi (Common rail engine) and a Ibiza SC 1.6 Tdi (Common rail engine).
The Leon PD put the DPF light on every 1000 miles for the 9k I did in it. Never seen the DPF light on any of the common rail engines YET, doing exactly the same driving.
Like it has been said above get used to it! after EU5 there is no turning back.