DPF light.......how often

[Guest liverpoolphil]

i know this depends on how / where you drive the car but generally interested. Mines been on every week since I bought it (4 weeks ago) and this week twice. I dont use the m/way everyday but once a week do a 20 mile m/way journey. It seems to sort itself out quick enough, but I felt like I had to 'aim for the nearest motorway' when it came on this morning :(

[PhilP1903]

TBH mine has never come on yet but the run into work everyday is on 50mph dual carriageway.

[Guest liverpoolphil]

mine came on thursday morning, just as I was pulling onto the m/way, thought to myself 'perfect timing'. It had a good blast to work (light went off after about 10 mins), then back home again. Done about 20 miles round town since, then back on again this morning.

[Dolla]

i know this depends on how / where you drive the car but generally interested. Mines been on every week since I bought it (4 weeks ago) and this week twice. I dont use the m/way everyday but once a week do a 20 mile m/way journey. It seems to sort itself out quick enough, but I felt like I had to 'aim for the nearest motorway' when it came on this morning :(

Don't seem right at all that,twice in one week :no: should not be coming on nowhere near that often.

[silver1011]

In an ideal world it should never come on. The fact yours is on is because the DPF is getting full.

If it had come on and then never come on again after a good run I'd say don't worry. If it's coming on every week, now twice a week I'd say your going to run into problems very soon.

If your car is performing a regen to clear the light and it's coming on soon afterwards I don't think the regen is cleaning the filter very well which would suggest the filter is pretty well clogged, or the regen keeps getting interupted which is preventing it from reducing the level of soot.

The other possibility is a duff sensor fooling the car into thinking the DPF needs clearing.

Either way I'd get it checked out sooner rather than later or you'll be crawling home in 'limp home' mode before you know it...

Edited 4 December, 2011 by silver1011

[AndrewJB]

I think this thread is PD170 related not CR170 As they are completely different DPF Set-Ups

[Guest liverpoolphil]

any pd170 vrs owners with thoughts / comments

[Inego]

My PD140 Scout has it come on maybe 3 times a year. Mainly used for urban trips of under 5 miles.

[silver1011]

I think this thread is PD170 related not CR170 As they are completely different DPF Set-Ups

Who mentioned the CR? As far as I can see only the second poster owns a CR?

PD owners do suffer more DPF issues but for the purpose of this thread it doesn't matter which engine the DPF is fitted to, once the light is on then you have the same problem irrespective of whether it's fitted to a CR or PD - a full DPF.

[Jeeves]

Apologies for not being too helpful here, but I must be doing something wrong. My PD140 Scout is nearly a couple of years old, and our A4 PD170 nearly 5. The car before that also had a DPF, but I've honestly never seen the light come on (I would have noticed). Maybe it's something that begins to happen more over 50,000 miles (perhaps others can confirm), but I've normally got rid of my car by then.

I'm not trying to poo-poo the issue; rather to understand if (like the injector failure issue) its something that I'm likely to see as my mileage increases.

[mark999]

10K miles in my 140PD Scout short runs to work 5-10 min drive and 1 or 2 longer runs on w/e. Never seen the light come on.

Had to drain a bit of oil a couple times though.

Mark

[LeeHarrison]

Get the car checked ASAP. As Silver 1011 said it should never come on unless the regen is getting interupted, its well clogged or there's a fault somewhere. May be worth giving it a longer run with no traffic or spending a little to get it checked, if the second light comes on it's (unfortunately) going to get expensive.

Hope you have better luck with it soon.

i know this depends on how / where you drive the car but generally interested. Mines been on every week since I bought it (4 weeks ago) and this week twice. I dont use the m/way everyday but once a week do a 20 mile m/way journey. It seems to sort itself out quick enough, but I felt like I had to 'aim for the nearest motorway' when it came on this morning :(

[suk]

PDs also need at least 15ltr of fuel in tank to carry out a regen, just incase anyones trying with next to no fuel! My light was on every week and it doesnt do town driving, had new sensor and software update, no fix, new injectors, no fix, now just had new manifold, EGR valve and new DPF filter itself, so fingers crossed this time!!

[Auric Goldfinger]

any pd170 vrs owners with thoughts / comments

My octavia 170PD Vrs used to put the DPF light on about once a month or so so I stuck in a tin of JML DPF cleaner to a full tank of BP's finest derv, a once a year after servicing treatment and the light has not come on since.

Cars done 46K miles and mainly does short runs

[Guest liverpoolphil]

JML DPF cleaner....interesting, whats peoples views on this stuff?

[suk]

All DPFs will need replaced at some point as they turn the soot particles in to ash which stays in the filter so at some stage or another they all need replaced!

Edited 8 December, 2011 by suk

[magic62]

The 170pd is a car that is pretty sensitive on the PDF. It doesnt like short trips as it will built up soot pretty quick.

The 170CR is much less sensitive.

Booting the car on the motorway doesnt help either. Ideal regeneration rpm is between 2000-3000 in a lower gear.

the DPF needs temperature to regenerate, that is why a lower gear is getting it done quicker than 6th. Ideally around

2000rpm in third (as the manual says). You will have to stay on a steady rpm so the cycle wont be interupted.

It will interupt if you drop below iirc 1750 and if you go beyond 3250.

It will regenerate to the end if driving in 6th, but it will take longer.

What helped my car to get longer regeneration intervalls is using the premium diesel as this burns cleaner. Or a DPF freindly

diesel treatment.

Another thing on DPF diesels is the pressure sensor that measures the pressure before and after the DPF to find out the

soot level. These sensors seem to be wearing pretty quick. And if this sensor gets faulty, it can detect faulty (full) loads or

start regeneration more and more often. Let the car be checked to be sure or find someone with VCDS to get the fault codes

read.

[Nick P]

Even before I removed DPF, I never had the light come on once.

[magic62]

Depends mostly on driving profile. Just saw the light twice in 150000km.

Once in an 1.5 hour traffic jam with V-Power in the tank and once after

stop and go traffic after I filled the car up with normal diesel.

Mostly driving longer stints with high speeds and moderate (dutch) speeds.

[AndrewJB]

Even before I removed DPF, I never had the light come on once.

Me neither, I felt it Regen a few times

[Guest liverpoolphil]

The 170pd is a car that is pretty sensitive on the PDF. It doesnt like short trips as it will built up soot pretty quick.

The 170CR is much less sensitive.

Booting the car on the motorway doesnt help either. Ideal regeneration rpm is between 2000-3000 in a lower gear.

the DPF needs temperature to regenerate, that is why a lower gear is getting it done quicker than 6th. Ideally around

2000rpm in third (as the manual says). You will have to stay on a steady rpm so the cycle wont be interupted.

It will interupt if you drop below iirc 1750 and if you go beyond 3250.

It will regenerate to the end if driving in 6th, but it will take longer.

What helped my car to get longer regeneration intervalls is using the premium diesel as this burns cleaner. Or a DPF freindly

diesel treatment.

Another thing on DPF diesels is the pressure sensor that measures the pressure before and after the DPF to find out the

soot level. These sensors seem to be wearing pretty quick. And if this sensor gets faulty, it can detect faulty (full) loads or

start regeneration more and more often. Let the car be checked to be sure or find someone with VCDS to get the fault codes

read.

Thanks for your input, this helps a lot. Since I posted, the DPF has come on twice. Strangely, I done my usual 30 mile round trip (m/way) yesterday, and its came on after 5 mile this morning. :wonder:

Its booked into the dealer under 30 day w/tee (where I bought it from - not skoda :wonder: ) next friday, they said they are able to perform the same regen as the main dealer can, but without cost obviously.

Would be very interested to have the codes read before I go in, as I would also be able to have them deal with any issues as well, so if anyone knows (or can recommend) someone local to ormskirk with VCDS, that would be very much appreciated.

[dainott]

My missus PD170 leon had the DPF light come on a few months ago. Was on for a week until it went into limp mode (i did try to drive as described for a regen to occur, but it didnt work). I went out in the car early hours and took VCDS with me and ran regen which sorted the issue out. Car was fine for about 6 weeks and then suddenly DPF light came back on (no limp mode though) and thought i would be repeating the process later that night.

To my suprise missus phoned later that day to say that the light had gone back off and all was fine so Regen must have completed by itself. No further issues since.

[rustyGT]

Never seen the light on.. When people say they "felt it", what are the signs the car is doing a regen?

Rich.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[silver1011]

Higher rpm on tickover, engine cooling fans continue after the engine is turned off, a drop in mpg on the dashboard.

[magic62]

At steady rpm (motorway) are more droning sound. If you have

an oiltemp or the exact watertemp you can see a both temps

rising by approx 10°C.

I could feel a lot of regens, but not all. Takes a while

to notice, but when the car has more miles on it and the

exhaust is getting a little louder, it gets more hearable.