Conor9

Hi, I was getting P2002 and my local dealer informed me that the DPF was cracked and they would replace under extended warranty. That work has now been completed a couple months back. The DPF has been through approx 12 cycles now and I've monitored the DPF on VAG DPF almost constantly since replacement. It does not seem to be operating correctly. Instead of filling to about 90% (app based scale) and burning down to 20%, it instead instantly jumps to 100+6% on every cycle. The point at which this happens is variable. It was forming a pattern of filling more and more before this happened e.g. 32% & jump to 100+6%, 43% & jump to 100+6%, 51% & jump to 100+6% etc etc It got as far as 82% & jump to 100+6% but now we are back to it happening in the 40s or 70s again - random basically. Also the type of driving is not significant. I do mostly longer journeys and this jump to 100+6% can happen while cruising on the motorway, with all motorway driving since last regen. To finish the story the ECU will then actively regen the DPF down to 20% (or thereabouts) correctly. The slight problem being that because the ECU sees it at 100+6% it will aggressively start the regen - so if this happens near my home and I just want to go to the golf club which is not far but I will get up to 45KM in 4th gear, it will start the regen and I'll have to kill it leaving fans running. Or if I have to do a number of short runs I presume I'm going to start seeing warning lights..... This is nothing like the behaviour I saw before the DPF was replaced and nothing like what everyone else describes. As to whether there is a physical fault and something really is causing the differential pressure to suddenly rocket to equate to 100+6% or whether there is a software or sensor issue - I don't know! What I can say is that when the regen at 100+6% starts, it seems to last as long as it should as though the DPF is actually full. So whether it jumped from 40% or 80% the regen time seems to be the same. (I need to go back and pay more attention to this claim to be really sure about this aspect) Also what is even stranger is that if the regen starts at 100+6% and is interrupted at 73%, for example, the subsequent behaviour is normal - i.e. it will fill to 90% and an active regen will then burn it down to 20. Just to say that the number of KMs I drive before this jump happens correlates with the %age so it is definitely happening early at times - i.e. it's not likely a problem with the VAG DPF app. The mechanic in Skoda dealer is either under pressure not to admit a potential fault or really does not understand the DPF cycle. I brought it in to be looked after it had jumped to 100+6% but before the regen burned it down and he told me the DPF was empty!! Totally incorrect because it was at least 72% full (as per the app) as this was the point it jumped at the evening before and I parked it up to preserve the situation. I explained this and he just repeated that it was empty - where do you go from there?! He also claims that driving on the motorway will passively clear down the DPF but I think we understand that this is unlikely unless going uphill at 90+mph. If the app is accurate the best i see is 0mg/km at 80mph and negative figures under heavy acceleration. Before the DPF was replaced this made sense in terms of what the behaviour was also. Does anyone have experience of this or can you at least please comment on this so I can show something to the dealership that they cannot argue with me on? I'm only a layperson that knows too much about these damn DPFs at this point! I hope this made sense and I will try to clarify anything I confused you on! Thanks -Conor