DPF light on - no town driving - PD170 vRS

[silver1011]

£449 inc. VAT for Shark to open up the DPF, remove the insides, weld it back up and map out all of the sensors (Stage 0 - no power increase).

Or, just put up with having to clear the light every week or two.

I've heard some good reports from after the DPF is removed, better MPG (the DPF uses fuel to regen), slightly quicker (less resistence in the exhaust) and a much smoother power delivery (we all know what the car feels like just before the light comes on, so much so we can predict when the light is about to flick on!).

The thing is to shell out almost £500 on a £7,000 car means you need to be sure its a 'keeper'. If it's not then its time to chop it in.

[silver1011]

Got the car back this morning and the response was exactly as expected, "all is well Sir".

They said they'd consulted Skoda UK Technical Support who'd suggested 'contaminated fuel'.

I do use the same filling station (BP standard diesel) but as I'm running through two full tanks a week I'm pretty sure that the fuel isn't the issue here. Either way I'll swap to Shell and see if that helps.

Invoice:

Checked fault memories - No faults

Checked TPI

Checked Fuel Filter - OK via production date (I hope so, they only changed it last month)

Checked software - All up to date

All temp sensors working OK.

So, I'll have to suck it and see, if I see the light again it'll be getting booked into Shark.

Interesting how the guy on the phone from Skoda UK said motorway driving can be as bad for the DPF as city driving. When I asked him where I should drive the car he said dual carriageways and A roads, hmmm kind of limits the car's usefulness when I can't use it to get to work or drive into town!

[wigster]

I had a very similar problem on my '07 vRS (65k miles). The DPF light came on while away in Burton, wouldn't go out, and had to do most of the drive home from Reading in limp home mode. I got it sorted by Shurlock Row garages (near Reading), who used to be Skoda dealers until Skoda got big and pulled the franchise from them.

Turned out to be a sensor on the DPF somewhere, but they found someone who managed to get it all checked out, do some sort of clean up on the DPF, and replace the sensor. It was still about £350-400, but that was way under the price of any DPF I could find.

Fuel-wise, I'm afraid I stick with cheapo ASDA and Morrisons.

[Morph]

Hi silver1011. Can you give me an update on your car as I seem to have the excat same issues.

[silver1011]

Hi Morph, all appears to be OK now*

*touches wood!

After the dealer replaced the exhaust gas pressure sensor it slowly improved, it certainly wasn't immediate though. I think it took a good few thousand miles for the DPF to get back into a rhythm.

One interesting point to bear in mind is that the sensor was faulty (without logging a fault code) well before the EML came on. This was screwing up the regens which meant frequent DPF lights.

Because I am now very familiar with the cars tell-tail signs that it's trying to do a regen I am able to do all that I can to help it complete - thus minimising the chances of several failed regens which eventually results in the DPF light.

The driving characterisitcs of my car change when it's trying to regen (the relationship between the clutch and the accelerator) which makes the car behave differently, it's harder to drive smoothly. The RPM also increases to 1,000RPM on tickover.

What's the story with yours?

[silver1011]

Well it seems that these sensors are a weak point, no doubt about it.

 

It's an old thread to revive but since it's mine I'm allowed!

 

I ditched the vRS a few years ago, the DPF light did re-appear with avengence, along with limp-home mode, a whistling turbo and lots of other issues the dealer couldn't fix.

 

We still have the wife's DPF-equipped Scout though, no DPF light in 6 years / 50,000 miles, however this morning the EML light came on.

 

Late last year the G235 temperature sensor (sensor no. 1) went, this morning it was the G450 exhaust pressure sensor's turn to fail. Seems like they have a limited life, at least those from 2008 era cars.

[studmuffin]

I've not read all the posts...

Don't want to scare myself as I have a PD vrs which has done 137k...

Had the sensor changed 4 years ago after my dashboard lit up like a Xmas tree on a regular basis for about a week !

Would be interested to know what the highest mileage someone has had out of a dpf before it died because I know mine is well past its sell-by date !