General DPF question.

[Russ_16v]

Price of the part roughtly is £1200 ish, give or take a bit depending on what model, that price is from a MK5 Golf i just quickly looked up on ETKA

[Nick P]

# I'm in the money, I'm in the money... #

That said, I might have to put any proceeds towards a new turbo and engine rebuild one day...

[Russ_16v]

get the part number off it matey and PM me it and il get the price for you

[Nick P]

Will do, ta.

[jonbliss152]

Brought my Octavia II 07 model from new, I've driven just over 20,000 miles covering both town and motorway driving and had a catastrophic failure of the DPF. I've been fighting with Skoda warranty for the last couple of months and have managed to get them to foot 40% of the cost of a replacement DPF, I cant believe they are so un-robust. Has anyone been given any advice on DPF's as I was told nothing when I originally brought the car?

It has completely put me of buying another Skoda! :(

[Dr Zoidberg]

It's not just Skoda - virtually no dealers of any brand are mentioning DPFs when selling the car or giving any advice on how to look after them.

Fiat have DPF issues on their newer diesel engines - the 1.6 and 2.0 - which will also be in quite a few other brands.

[riph72]

Brought my Octavia II 07 model from new, I've driven just over 20,000 miles covering both town and motorway driving and had a catastrophic failure of the DPF. I've been fighting with Skoda warranty for the last couple of months and have managed to get them to foot 40% of the cost of a replacement DPF, I cant believe they are so un-robust. Has anyone been given any advice on DPF's as I was told nothing when I originally brought the car?

It has completely put me of buying another Skoda! :(

How come it's not covered by warranty on a 2-year old car, do they consider it a consumable (like tyres) or something?

I had a leaflet about DPFs when I bought the car, I can't say I didn't know about them.

As for not buying a Skoda, I think you'll find it hard to buy a diesel car without a DPF going forward (I assume the new CR still uses DPF?). Unfortunately, in order to meet improved standards of fuel efficiency and emissions, cars are getting more complicated, which means there is more to go wrong (e.g. turbos). If you want to completely insulate yourself from this kind of risk, but a Golf SDi or something similar. It'll have less things like turbos and DPFs to go wrong, but it'll probably have high emissions and tax, etc.

I'm afraid you can't have your cake and eat it

[jonbliss152]

I understand what you are saying about moving on but technology needs to be sufficently durable and in my mind DPF's are not. I would expect most major parts on a car to last more than 20,000 miles or 2 years. dealerships are being a little under handed by not informing the consumer fully of the risks of DPF's in diesel cars.

Edited 15 October, 2009 by jonbliss152

[Dr Zoidberg]

I understand what you are saying about moving on but technology need to be sufficently durable and in my mind DPF's are not. I would expect most major parts on a car to last more than 20,000 miles or 2 years. dealerships are being a little under handed by not informing the consumer fully of the risks of DPF's in diesel cars.

I quite agree.

DPFs are a result of the EURO5 standards and at present are the only way most diesel engines can pass them.

The manufacturers almost certainly know it's flaky technology but have no choice.

[jonbliss152]

Exactly! I Love diesel engines for their fuel economy and torque, but I am being forced into buying a petrol car. I had a VW Golf GT TDI PD 130 before the Octavia and loved it, hence buying the Octavia VRS TDI.

I suppose car manufactuers are stuck between a rock and a hard place, as they are being forced to put DPFs in their cars.

[skomaz]

I have a theory that a lot of the issues are also down to driving style...

Diesels produce most smoke (particulates) at low revs and high loads ie foot down at low revs leading to over fuelling and unburnt soots. Also I may be wrong but I'd suggest that most of the DPF problems on the Octavia's have been with PD170 Vrs's as you don;t hear many 4x4 or Scout TDI owners having problems and the PD 140 fitted to bopth of those also has a DPF.

Could it therefore be that Vrs drivers tend to be more 'lead-footed' than others as a result of the type of car they are driving and it's performance potential and therefore tend to put their foot to the floor rather than modulating the throttle. If this is the case than this could explain why they are having so many problems?

Only a theory but to my mind and interesting one...

[TDi Vrs]

I think the thing is, it's not a bad idea in principal. The problems lie in implementations and customer knowledge. I've certainly never personally heard of a single problem with the BMW ones. The Skoda PD170 ones seem to have been fine since 26E6 and most people should just leave them alone and not give them another thought. I only got mine taken off because I'm a nerd and it kind of interested me and I wanted better mpg and more performance than was possible with it in place. My mechanic says the early Peugeot ones were dire.

im a technician for bmw and we having been having a few problems with them, the other thing i will add is on the bmw's its a service item, and not a cheap one at that, i dont know if vw's are the same

[riph72]

I understand what you are saying about moving on but technology needs to be sufficently durable and in my mind DPF's are not. I would expect most major parts on a car to last more than 20,000 miles or 2 years. dealerships are being a little under handed by not informing the consumer fully of the risks of DPF's in diesel cars.

It's a tough call though, how durable is "sufficiently durable"? There are plenty of cars out there with DPFs with no problems at all. I guess it's relatively early days for the technology too.

You didn't say why it's not covered by warranty?

I don't think dealers are being underhanded really, where would you draw the line? They would have to tell consumers of every little technical change otherwise. And factor in the fact that before long all diesel cars will need a DPF to meet regs, it's not like a customer will be able to go and buy a different diesel car from somewhere else without a DPF. Although they could buy petrol I suppose...

[riph72]

I have a theory that a lot of the issues are also down to driving style...

Diesels produce most smoke (particulates) at low revs and high loads ie foot down at low revs leading to over fuelling and unburnt soots. Also I may be wrong but I'd suggest that most of the DPF problems on the Octavia's have been with PD170 Vrs's as you don;t hear many 4x4 or Scout TDI owners having problems and the PD 140 fitted to bopth of those also has a DPF.

Could it therefore be that Vrs drivers tend to be more 'lead-footed' than others as a result of the type of car they are driving and it's performance potential and therefore tend to put their foot to the floor rather than modulating the throttle. If this is the case than this could explain why they are having so many problems?

Only a theory but to my mind and interesting one...

Very interesting theory indeed, but is there any substance to your hunch statistically? I think a poll might be needed!