Just had the unholy trinity of warning lights come on in my VRS PD; DPF, Engine exhaust and glow plug. I'm now reduced to limp mode. Very little warning of this - the DPF light showed up on Thursday and both the others came on when I tried taking it on a run to clear it on Friday. My local dealer tells me that a regen. won't work and that the only option is a new DPF - costing £1625!

I am exercising the alternative option that the dealer didn't mention, i.e. DPF removal!

A forced regen can still usually sort it.. Through VCDS

Kev

A forced regen can still usually sort it.. Through VCDS

Kev

They had the car on diagnostic and say they tried to do a forced regen but to no avail.

Is it possible to take the car somewhere to get the DPF removed and mapped out? Or is it too late for that?

Is it possible to take the car somewhere to get the DPF removed and mapped out? Or is it too late for that?

That's just what I'm doing - it's booked in for surgery on Thursday, fortunately not too far from home.

I got near 7000 miles on a 6 month old 1.6TDI

Fingers crossed no warning lights yet.

I do 3 miles into work, park. do 3 miles home at lunch time, park. ret to work for the afternoon, another 3 miles home& park.

Then 3 miles home.

With an occassional longer run at the weekends

I got near 7000 miles on a 6 month old 1.6TDI

Fingers crossed no warning lights yet.

I do 3 miles into work, park. do 3 miles home at lunch time, park. ret to work for the afternoon, another 3 miles home& park.

Then 3 miles home.

With an occassional longer run at the weekends

If your car has a DPF, that's a dodgy pattern of journeys as short commuting runs do tend to cause clog up. I don't know how the 1.6 TDI behaves and I hope you continue to have trouble free motoring, but the VRS with the 2.0 PD engine really doesn't like short low-speed journeys.

Get the DPF removed and remapped at the same time. Will cost you alot less than having a new DPF fitted

issues seems to the the DPF on PD engines, the CR is much better in this respect, I do 5-6 miles to work and back each day and longer runs at the weekend, never had a warning light or any noticeable regen cycle. Mins's is the 2.0 CR but I bet the 1.6 is the same. I believe the filter on the CR is closer to the engine so gets hotter and easier to burn the soot off.

I'm guessing being a PD you are either close to the end of your warranty or it has already expired?

I would argue that getting a light on the dashboard on the Thursday, following the manual and taking the car for an extended run on the Friday is the best you could have done.

As I understand it the light is supposed to illuminate at a certain level of filter clogging providing plenty of opportunity for you to do something about it.

I think the filter has to be severely clogged for a dealer forced regen not to work.

I don't think I'd be letting the dealer off quite as lightly as you...

The filter has to be very clogged for it not to be able to carry out a forced re-gen. Think its somewhere in the region of 95%. Whats the mileage of your car? Even though the car can re-gen the filter, the ash cannot be removed from the DPF so I would expect that regardless of if the filter is regened, higher millage cars will still suffer DPF issues. You can get the DPF removed and Mapped even if it is totally goosed and in limp home. Cheaper, more power and better economy

issues seems to the the DPF on PD engines, the CR is much better in this respect, I do 5-6 miles to work and back each day and longer runs at the weekend, never had a warning light or any noticeable regen cycle. Mins's is the 2.0 CR but I bet the 1.6 is the same. I believe the filter on the CR is closer to the engine so gets hotter and easier to burn the soot off.

I had no idea that there was this difference between the PD and the CR engine regarding the DPF.

I thought the 1.9 TDI was PD and the 2.0 TDI was CR but am I wrong about that? What would a 2008 57 plate Octavia 2.0 TDI be?

The original poster's warning notice was extremely short wasn't it?

I hope I am correct in suggesting that in the case of the 1.6CR that the DPF appears to be fitted adajacent to the exhaust manifold, right at the top of the engine snuggled in below the windscreen and all wrapped up with insulation, hence it gets hotter faster and stays hotter longer.

I presume on the PD engines it was fitted somewhere below the car in the run of exhaust pipework?

I mulled the DPF issue over before purchasing and reckoned/guessed that VW's engineers would have addressed whatever problems there were with the basically retrofit DFP installations on the PD engines.

And figgered how to solve the problem for the new "designed from scratch" 1.6 CR engine series.

I hope I am correct in suggesting that in the case of the 1.6CR that the DPF appears to be fitted adajacent to the exhaust manifold, right at the top of the engine snuggled in below the windscreen and all wrapped up with insulation, hence it gets hotter faster and stays hotter longer.

I presume on the PD engines it was fitted somewhere below the car in the run of exhaust pipework?

I mulled the DPF issue over before purchasing and reckoned/guessed that VW's engineers would have addressed whatever problems there were with the basically retrofit DFP installations on the PD engines.

And figgered how to solve the problem for the new "designed from scratch" 1.6 CR engine series.

They're fitted directly downstream of the turbo in all the transverse engined VAG cars

The filter has to be very clogged for it not to be able to carry out a forced re-gen. Think its somewhere in the region of 95%. Whats the mileage of your car? Even though the car can re-gen the filter, the ash cannot be removed from the DPF so I would expect that regardless of if the filter is regened, higher millage cars will still suffer DPF issues. You can get the DPF removed and Mapped even if it is totally goosed and in limp home. Cheaper, more power and better economy

The light usually comes on around 45% and doesn't go off until it's below 5% even if the car has tried to regenerate itself. A forced regen can be carried out using VCDS and a controlled test drive even over 100% (if being over 100% saturated is even possible!)

I had no idea that there was this difference between the PD and the CR engine regarding the DPF.

I thought the 1.9 TDI was PD and the 2.0 TDI was CR but am I wrong about that? What would a 2008 57 plate Octavia 2.0 TDI be?

The original poster's warning notice was extremely short wasn't it?

I have a June 2010 Octavia elegance estate it has a PD engine, would have possibly preferred the the CR except this engine has NO DPF INSTALLED. All the reports of DPF problems on the PD indicates that they are not fit for purpose, if you are urban driver and was not told this engine is not suitable for urban use you should be entitled to a full refund. The whole DPF situation is a total farce, particularly that they can made inoperative and still presumably pass a MOT

I've been reading these DPF posts with some interest and I'm sure you could quite easily argue not fit for purpose. I would personally expect a DPF to be in the same situation as a catalyitic converter and SHOULD last around 10 years or 100 000 miles. Might be worth talking to your legal cover team with your insurance (if you have it) as i'm sure they would be able to help. Got to be worth a go ???

I have a June 2010 Octavia elegance estate it has a PD engine, would have possibly preferred the the CR except this engine has NO DPF INSTALLED. All the reports of DPF problems on the PD indicates that they are not fit for purpose, if you are urban driver and was not told this engine is not suitable for urban use you should be entitled to a full refund. The whole DPF situation is a total farce, particularly that they can made inoperative and still presumably pass a MOT

Personally I think that's a bit of a harsh comment. We have a 2.0TDI PD 4x4 with DPF and have had no issues whatsoever in nearly 4 years and 30,000 miles, the vast majority of which have been short urban journeys of a few miles (it tends to be the wifes car and I use one of the otehrs).

Personally I think it's all down to how the car is driven and not the type of journeys. All diesels will produce particulates and, due to thier nature will overfuel and produce more particulates if driven with a heavy right foot. If you are one of those drivers that tends to be on/off with full throttle then you'll get problems and the nature of how the car is driven is something totally out of the control of the manufacturers or dealers.

Edited 30 March, 201115 yr by skomaz

Personally I think it's all down to how the car is driven and not the type of journeys. All diesels will produce particulates and, due to thier nature will overfuel and produce more particulates if driven with a heavy right foot. If you are one of those drivers that tends to be on/off with full throttle then you'll get problems and the nature of how the car is driven is something totally out of the control of the manufacturers or dealers.

I think you are spot on with that comment, the only caveat to that is that when buying the car, no mention is made to special driving techniques required to look after this very expensive part - at least that was my experience.

I think you are spot on with that comment, the only caveat to that is that when buying the car, no mention is made to special driving techniques required to look after this very expensive part - at least that was my experience.

Well, I'm not so sure about the 'driving style' view - I've had the car for over 4 years having bought it at 6,000 miles and now up to 64,500.Neither my journeys (mostly decent runs interspered with a few local journeys) or my driving style have changed much in that time, but the DPF has only become an issue in the past 6 months, with repeated instances of the warning light coming on and having to do a regen. - in two case a forced regen. Whatever the whys and wherefores, I've had enough of it and I'm getting it removed.

Skomaz

very interesting comment there.

Incidentally

Me (and my halo) drive with a light right foot, though our 18 year old daughter is showing me how it should be done......60 plus mpg from the old Galaxy the other night.Gerrrr.

I've been reading these DPF posts with some interest and I'm sure you could quite easily argue not fit for purpose. I would personally expect a DPF to be in the same situation as a catalyitic converter and SHOULD last around 10 years or 100 000 miles. Might be worth talking to your legal cover team with your insurance (if you have it) as i'm sure they would be able to help. Got to be worth a go ???

Nope

Had a big row with Skoda when we had issues with the Superb Mk 1

The bottom line its a filter, by that very nature a service item & not covered at all under the warranty, if they fail at low mileage Skoda do look sympathetically on you but thats about it, they are expected to fail at higher mileage

Nope

Had a big row with Skoda when we had issues with the Superb Mk 1

The bottom line its a filter, by that very nature a service item & not covered at all under the warranty, if they fail at low mileage Skoda do look sympathetically on you but thats about it, they are expected to fail at higher mileage

Thanks for the comment. Interesting to know and will be looking into removal myself when the car gets a bit older. Just one other question, At what service interval is it scheduled to be replaced ? Is it age or milage ?

I have a June 2010 Octavia elegance estate it has a PD engine, would have possibly preferred the the CR except this engine has NO DPF INSTALLED. All the reports of DPF problems on the PD indicates that they are not fit for purpose, if you are urban driver and was not told this engine is not suitable for urban use you should be entitled to a full refund. The whole DPF situation is a total farce, particularly that they can made inoperative and still presumably pass a MOT

I too have a 1.9 Elegance 2010 plate estate though and this is the exact reason why I got this engine rather than a CR. I used to have a 2007 Toyota Avensis T180 that due to the DPF was virtually dangerous when pulling on to roundabouts or out of turnings due to it taking ages to spool up before all the power coming on at once. You used to have to set the revs high before pulling off.. and that would of course help with burning out the clutch. Additionally the most even when driving like a granny I could get out of it was like 35 MPG. I looked at removing the DPF and having it remapped.. and would have done, but no-one could crack the ECU.

Personally I think that's a bit of a harsh comment. We have a 2.0TDI PD 4x4 with DPF and have had no issues whatsoever in nearly 4 years and 30,000 miles, the vast majority of which have been short urban journeys of a few miles (it tends to be the wifes car and I use one of the otehrs).

Personally I think it's all down to how the car is driven and not the type of journeys. All diesels will produce particulates and, due to thier nature will overfuel and produce more particulates if driven with a heavy right foot. If you are one of those drivers that tends to be on/off with full throttle then you'll get problems and the nature of how the car is driven is something totally out of the control of the manufacturers or dealers.

I think your answer is a rather simplistic , are you saying if you purchase a PD diesel if you drive it in your prescribed manner none of the multitude of posters with problems with regard to DPF filters would not have occurred ,and no one would have had them removed ? Surly the point is if you purchase a modern diesel car you should be able to drive it how you damn well like, with out worrying if the DPF is getting sooted up. I have held a Licence for Forty years and have driven every thing from a scooter in my mod days to coaches and have never had to adopt a driving style to prevent a bloody filter blocking up, and driving at a certain speed praying the light will go off , to avoid having taking it to a stealer and possibility getting a huge bill to replace it.

Edited 30 March, 201115 yr by mellyboy