dpf regen? rough idling - help?!

[Callumf]

Hi,

Would not let me post a new thread on the diesel section!

seat ibiza 1.6 cr tdi 2010
2500 miles

Basically on Friday after a 5 mile drive home gym - i noticed that the car was shuddering/rough idling at traffic lights - felt like it was about to cut out.

It was the same later that day on my 20mile trip to work (10 on motorway, 10 aroads).

couple hours later and drive home and it was fine.

Saturday - driving to work was fine, but driving home it had the same problem.
and this morning (sunday) it had the exact same problem driving to work, there had been no lights on the dash at all.

Just as i pulled up into car park - the dpf light came on.

Now ive got til 13:00 til i finish before i can take it out on the motorway to try and clear.
Is all of this shuddering related to the regen??? Ive never had a diesel before so im quite worried - ive read a few things on these forums and it does sound familiar - im just wanting to make sure that it is a dpf regen needs doing (I havent contacted my seat dealer yet)

Also if it gets any worse and goes into limp mode - how can you tell - is there all 3 dpf lights on the dash? and is it still safe to drive or do i need to call seat breakdown (if so - whats their number?!!)

Please help!

 

[Nath.]

It sounds like you keep interupting the regen routine. If you interupt the routine 3-4 times on the trot you get the first DPF light on. You need to go for a motorway run and keep the revs at about 2.5k for maybe 5miles.

Or it could be a faulty DPF pressure sensor that is causing all this.

 

[Callumf]

possibly so then, but first time in 2 monhs of exact same driving and its only just started since 2 days ago, just seems a bit weird - im gonna ring dealer when theyre open tomorrow and make them aware.

 

[jc_boc]

You need to make sure you never switch off the car while it is doing a regen mate. It will have serious consequences to our pocket as I believe the DPF is not covered under warrenty, ciuld be wrong but it is like that in our fleet of transporters.

 

[farrar]

It sounds like a fault a 20 mile trip to work should easily clear the DPF.

 

[Callumf]

It sounds like a fault a 20 mile trip to work should easily clear the DPF.

exactly - non stop driving aswell - all roads are dead on sunday mornings!
-------

and I know i shouldnt turn off the engine while regen is doing but you cant just plan your work around your car! lol no chance am i gonna ring up boss and say i cant come in for another hour cos the car needs to be driven lol

 

[dellaFR]

Just take it out on a motorway drive ASAP, same thing happened to my FR a few weeks ago, but be careful cos if the regen is failing like what happened to me, even a motorway drive won't clear it. Mine went into limp mode and had to go to the dealers to get sorted. So watch out for your glow plug and emissions lights, cos if they come on you won't be able to drive it at all

 

[adamb87]

I have posted a video with mine doin a regen I think. if you have a nosey in my posts and see if its something similar mate.

 

[Callumf]

I have posted a video with mine doin a regen I think. if you have a nosey in my posts and see if its something similar mate.

It does sound like one of those vids but at times it does sound a lot worse - really does sound like it's struggling to tick over (about to cut out)

 

[rji]

I think I have similar problems. A couple of times I have driven an extra 5 to 10 minutes to make sure the regen completes only to find that after another 5 mins or so it appears to have started again. The rough idling is very slight in mine and can easily go unnoticed, I use the idle rpm as another indication of when the regen is happening/finished.

I have never had a DPF light (done 3,500 miles) but I think it's doing a lot of regens.

Does anyone know if the computer records each regen or attempted regen or does it only record it when warning lights were illuminated? I'd like to know how often it's doing it.

 

[skeat12]

You need to make sure you never switch off the car while it is doing a regen mate. It will have serious consequences to our pocket as I believe the DPF is not covered under warrenty, ciuld be wrong but it is like that in our fleet of transporters.

9 times out of 10 though, you only realise it's happening when you get to your destination. I would prefer to see a light for passive regens, at least I can drive accordingly to clear it.

 

[jc_boc]

I must admit I was under the impression the DPF light came on when it was doing a regen.

 

[Callumf]

Jut a quick update, drove home from work and cleared the dpf light in 10-20 mins, went straight to gym and it was running fine - rpm at 800 at lights and no shuddering.
An hour later coming home and rpm was at 1000 and slight shuddering again!

 

[R22 JGB]

Welcome to the world of DPF regens on the 1.6 TDi CR engine!!

My car has now covered 12500 miles and has done 35 regens that I'm aware of, but have never had a light on. It sounds like you are interupting the regen process. When this happens, the car tries to resume the regen process next time the engine is hot enough. If you are doing shortish trips what you need to do during the regen process is leave the car in 4th or even 3rd to keep the revs up to allow regen.to complete it's cycle.
As a matter of interest last Thursday I set off from home and drove 60 miles to a site visit, 2 miles short of my destination it started doing a regen. ticking over at 1000 rpm and lumpy. I stopped on site long enough for the engine to cool down, when I restarted the engine was running fine as it had not restarted the regen process. When I arrived back at my office 45 mile from site the car was fine as it had carried out a regen during the journey.
I can tell when it is doing a regen, I usually use cruise Control at 60mph, if the car is doing a regen you can feel the car surging slightly as cruise knocks off the throttle & the regen process seems to want to hold it on.

 

[rji]

I agree with Andyf, there must have been many times that we have unknowingly interrupted a passive regen. I thought that an interrupted regen would only restart twice and if it couldn't complete on the second attempt it would have a hissy fit and make the driver do it. Then if you didn't complete it successfully it would be your fault. I'm sure mine is doing too many or restarting the same one too many times.

Could a faulty pressure sensor be triggering a regen too soon? It's all a bit worrying.

 

[skeat12]

Mine does a passive regen at least once a week, probably because I like to get to speed limits as quick as possible. You've seen a diesel smoke when booted, but our DPF catches all that soot, so booting it is probably the worst thing I could be doing.
Not going to change though, so will just have to suffer regens

 

[rji]

Andyf, You say booting it is bad (produces smoke/soot to be trapped by the DPF), but driving slowly is also bad (doesn't heat up the DPF). Driving like a granny to get good mpg is bad for running-in but driving it harder to help the running in will get low mpg. It's Catch 22 either way. And you're stuck with low mpg and DPF regens.

 

[Callumf]

Andyf, You say booting it is bad (produces smoke/soot to be trapped by the DPF), but driving slowly is also bad (doesn't heat up the DPF). Driving like a granny to get good mpg is bad for running-in but driving it harder to help the running in will get low mpg. It's Catch 22 either way. And you're stuck with low mpg and DPF regens.

Brilliant ey!

 

[skeat12]

Andyf, You say booting it is bad (produces smoke/soot to be trapped by the DPF), but driving slowly is also bad (doesn't heat up the DPF). Driving like a granny to get good mpg is bad for running-in but driving it harder to help the running in will get low mpg. It's Catch 22 either way. And you're stuck with low mpg and DPF regens.

Very true, hence why I gave up worrying about mpg and have fun

 

[dellaFR]

Very true, hence why I gave up worrying about mpg and have fun

Amen to that, haha! No point having the FR if you're not gonna enjoy it