All DPF Owners

[robin cur]

I have a leon dti 170 dpf I live in a city centre do only short trips 3 times a week i use it for work 30 miles and the odd trip to the shops 2-3 miles less than 40 mile a week. I have had my car now for 6 months and a light did come on once but was not the dpf light,
it was a senser to do with dpf, was changed and now fine. I think i saw a thread about this and I think techie said? has never had to replace a dpf (filter) it is allways the sensor go.
It seems all new oil burners have this kind of filter and seem to all have the same problum not just the VWA group.

 

[gaffer1986]

I still have not seen the DPF light so far 2300 miles. However my average journey is 20 mins long and 6 miles. The DPF seems to regenerate itself once every three days and it usually finishes the regen before the end of the journey.

Although most of my journys are short stop start journeys. They are long enough in terms of minutes - not miles - to allow the engine to bring the dpf up to temperature and burn the soot off before i turn off. From what i have read the dpf light comes on when the regeneration has failed to clear the soot on two consecutive occasions due to the engine being switched off.

I think that if most your journeys are less than 20 mins - regardless of distance, a DPF is probably not for you.

 

[CHILTON]

i have had a list ofproblems with my dpf!, and i dont just to short journeys. the light often comes on and i have to drive for the 10mins to regenerate it but recenty other lights have appeared such as the engine emmision light and the globe plugs light. aswell as this the car has gone into limp mode so it is goint into the garage to get it sorted. i think seat need to sort out this problem as it is a total pain!!!!!

 

[Biker]

Just coming up to 1000 miles in my 1.6 TDi sport and fingers crossed, no DPF lights so far. I can't say I have noticed it do a regen come to think of it. Most of my journeys are short, ten minute trips to work, with a few longer journeys at the weekend.
Having read some of the stories on here about other peoples expriences with DPF's, I was a bit worried I had bought the wrong car. 1000 miles on, I couldn't be happier with the Ibiza.
It is going to get a proper workout next week mind, London and back in one day, thats 600 miles. CAN'T WAIT

 

[Chaza123]

Well my car is now currently back at the dealership as the dreaded DPF light came on & failed to clear despite following all instructions & it being driven round for 40mins +!! I for one am not impressed as I'm told this wont be under warranty despite the fact this has happened twice since I got the car in October that it has had to be towed away!

Getting this diesel has become more of a nuisance than I ever wanted, so much for going for the economical side, with all the extra driving to get rid of the light its costing money in fuel so highly likely not saving any money at all! I think its wrong the dealers do not tell you about the filter on the engine & inform you that you must drive the car in a certain way for it to be maintained!!!

I loved my car when I first got it even though I had the issue with the DPF in the first 2 weeks & saw it get towed away but the issue was supposidly "fixed". I now am finding myself loathing the car & wished I had never purchased it for all the hassle its causing. When I pick my car up monday I am due to be having words with someone at the dealership as right now I am not a happy car owner 7months on.

 

[JonnyT30]

Well my car is now currently back at the dealership as the dreaded DPF light came on & failed to clear despite following all instructions & it being driven round for 40mins +!! I for one am not impressed as I'm told this wont be under warranty despite the fact this has happened twice since I got the car in October that it has had to be towed away!

Getting this diesel has become more of a nuisance than I ever wanted, so much for going for the economical side, with all the extra driving to get rid of the light its costing money in fuel so highly likely not saving any money at all! I think its wrong the dealers do not tell you about the filter on the engine & inform you that you must drive the car in a certain way for it to be maintained!!!

I loved my car when I first got it even though I had the issue with the DPF in the first 2 weeks & saw it get towed away but the issue was supposidly "fixed". I now am finding myself loathing the car & wished I had never purchased it for all the hassle its causing. When I pick my car up monday I am due to be having words with someone at the dealership as right now I am not a happy car owner 7months on.

Totally sympathise mate, mine pisses me off every now and again, but just out of interest, can you recognise when the regen cycle is running? How do you drive your car when the light does come on? Because what the manual says doesn't work very well

 

[skeat12]

I've done around 500 miles, no DPF light yet but i'm sure it was doing some sort of regen. Tick-over was slightly higher than normal, car seemed more responsive and there was a definite burning smell coming from the engine.

 

[Chaza123]

Totally sympathise mate, mine pisses me off every now and again, but just out of interest, can you recognise when the regen cycle is running? How do you drive your car when the light does come on? Because what the manual says doesn't work very well

Oh yeah I can always tell when its doing it in the background. I find sometimes tho it makes no sense when it is, like for example once the light came on when I was half way doing a 150+ mile drive on the motorway! If it ever comes on when im in town I keep the car in 3rd & dont change to 4th that always helps to clear it as it keeps the revs higher.

 

[Nath.]

I posted in the FAQ section on Wedensday.

Copy and pasted:

I'm at my local Seat dealer at the moment waiting for them to do my Leon's first service.

There are a lot of Seat suits here and I am earwigging all of the conversations they are having around the coffee machine.

Anyway it seems that the manager here has a customer with a 1.6 TDI CR with ongoing DPF/regen problems. One of the suits here is in the technical department and I overheard that they have currently got 1500 1.6 CR cars regestered with DPF/regen problems in the UK

Not good

 

[JonnyT30]

Chaza123. Did the light clear while you were on the motorway though?
I wonder if i'm one of the 1500 cars. My light wouldn't go out even though it had finished the regen. It doesn't exactly fill you with confidence especially when, if like my local seat dealers the first thing they say is 'Thats chargeable that is' in an arrogant manner. Only to have egg on their faces when they realise that they can't solve the problem. Nothing better than seeing service peeps eating humble pie.

 

[Pavoldubovany]

Hello

 

[chris128]

Excuse my ignorance but can someone explain exactly how you know when it is doing a "re-gen" ? Is that the same thing as when the DPF light comes on (ie is that what the light is telling you) or is it something different?

PS I havent had this DPF light come on yet, but I've only had the car 2 days so that's hardly surprising I'm also hoping I wont have any problems as my daily commute to work includes about 25 miles of motorway driving.

 

[Adam R]

this may take a while as im on my phone....

a dpf is either a silica filled unit or more commonly a charged wire that attracts the diesel particles as they flow past. at a certain point this will become quite restrictive to exhaust flow, so a re-gen occurs. this is where a small amount of diesel is injected directly in to the dpf. the dpf then super heats its self normaly using a wire with high current passing throughit to burn the diesel particles in to a white ash. this is the deposited out of the exhaust.

not sure why the dpf in you cars are being so faulty but they are not cheap units so i hope seatcover this under warantee

 

[Daniel1431]

I believe, correct me if i am wrong that if the DPF comes on and you do nothing about it and you can no longer self clean it then it is not covered by SEAT.

 

[nightflight]

^ Yep, It's not covered a any faillure is due to you "not taking due care" of it as it says how to treat it in the manual.

the light will come on but you'll still have a chance to clear it yourself.
If you fail to clear it yourself, the exhaust system warning light will come on aswell, the car will go into limp home mode and it'll need to go to the dealers for a regen
(If the limp home mode cuts in, just stop, don't limp it home, or to the dealers, you'll just clog the DPF up more, pull over and get Seat Assistance to come get you, take the car to the dealers and get you a courtesy car )
The dealers will charge you an amount to do a forced regen, (my local place does it for £40 [half hour labour] as all they do is plug in a laptop and drive it round for half hour)
If the DPF is too blocked for them to clear it like that (hence the pull over , don't limp it anywhere) it's over a grand for a new DPF.

Mine, like Char's, has been in twice for a dealer regen, and neither time have I been charged as, both time, "the DPF ECU needed recoding"

 

[Daniel1431]

Yeah ive had the light once on the MK5 one but in the MK4 i had it a few times. Just a quick blast down the motorway clears it. You can tell when the light is going to come on as the car starts bouncing instead of driving haha.

 

[Biker]

not sure why the dpf in you cars are being so faulty but they are not cheap units so i hope seatcover this under warantee

Adam you have already told us why we are getting DPF problems, here's a reminder...LOL

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

 

[garethrobson]

I have only had the light once too and that was because i made 3 or 4 really short journeys to asda, and it cleared itself fine the next tiem i went in a 15 minute journey.

 

[nightflight]

I had the DPF light come ON doing 2900rpm in third gear on the M1 using the cruise control (i was deliberately trying to clear the DPF out before drving to the airport the next day, last thing i needed was to be caught in traffic with a semi blocked dpf!)
upping to fourth and dropping the revs to 2200 cleared it.

Stupid system.

 

[Chaza123]

^ Yep, It's not covered a any faillure is due to you "not taking due care" of it as it says how to treat it in the manual.

the light will come on but you'll still have a chance to clear it yourself.
If you fail to clear it yourself, the exhaust system warning light will come on aswell, the car will go into limp home mode and it'll need to go to the dealers for a regen
(If the limp home mode cuts in, just stop, don't limp it home, or to the dealers, you'll just clog the DPF up more, pull over and get Seat Assistance to come get you, take the car to the dealers and get you a courtesy car )
The dealers will charge you an amount to do a forced regen, (my local place does it for £40 [half hour labour] as all they do is plug in a laptop and drive it round for half hour)
If the DPF is too blocked for them to clear it like that (hence the pull over , don't limp it anywhere) it's over a grand for a new DPF.

Mine, like Char's, has been in twice for a dealer regen, and neither time have I been charged as, both time, "the DPF ECU needed recoding"

Nightflight you may be interested to hear this seeing as both of our cars have had the issue twice now! Spoke to the dealership today, it is all being covered under warranty as SEAT Spain know there is a consistent problem with the new 1.6 engines & apparently there shall be letters sent out in the next few months or so for a recall as the dfp coding/software etc is being updated to stop this problem with the filter happening unnecessarily, unless obviously there really is a genuine issue. So mine has been recoded again for now as a temporary fix until the new update is available....so fingers crossed all these issues with the dpf's on the 1.6 shall be a thing of the past!!