Dpf maintenance

[Eleg4by4]

I was in the dealer yesterday to buy yet another front parking light which keeps blowing and got chatting as you do to friendly mechanic. He advised taking the Yeti for a good run in third gear (at about 2,000 rpm) to prevent dpf problems. Does anyone else do this as routine?

Whilst there he advised changing the service settings to a fixed interval (rather than my current variable setting) which for my driving makes sense.

Oh, twas a busy time there as we also got the small 'bubbling paintwork' effect just in the front of the rear wheelarches phototgraphed and sent off to Skoda for a (hopeful) remedy. Any others had this done?

[MCAMRA]

Yes

Since moving from the country to a city and thus doing more shorter journeys, the DPF error light has come on twice on my Yeti. A quick read of the manual tells you (if this happens) to drive the car at 90kph...ish in 4/5 gear on a suitable road for 10/15 minutes in order to clear the filter.

Now as a precaution, every now and then (when I get the opportunity) I give it a good burn down the dual carriageway in these gears to prevent the problem coming back.

[Hairball]

When the engine is warm and you notice the idle at or slightly above 1KI just try and keep the revs up to about 2K for a few mins/miles until normal idle at 750 RPM is resumed. So far I have only noticed 2 active regens (no DPF light) in nearly 5K miles. This is a lot less than my previous VAG car with the 1.6 CR engine but that gave me zero DPF issues or warning lights for 2 years.

[rockhopper]

I just took it for a fast ish run in the country using 3 & 4th most of the time. 50-60mph in 3rd or 4th is ample.

Okay, I was driving home from seeing a client. Great chance to use IPSGA.

Some lovely lanes in north west Kent between Tunbridge Wells and Warlingham.

Shame about the fog out there now.

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[littleade]

Hi there,

have you got a CR or PD engine? Looks like the mechanic has advised you to follow the PD engine proceedure, but as you've got a Yeti 'm assuming you're CR? I asked my dealer the same question and he said there was no need to do the 3rd/4th gear 2-2.5k routine if you've got the CR and printed me the CR leaflet off. This was after I'd had what turned out to be a partial regen when it increased the tickover to around 1000rpm and when I was stationary the fans were going flat out with no DPF light on. What he also said was that where possible just drive the car normally until the tick over goes back down to normal- this apparently means it's then completed it's regen cycle.

he said problems occur because people switch their engnes off part way through the regen and do the same repeatedly so never give it time to complete it's cycle.

Whether you've got the CR or PD engine there is a leaflet for each on the SUK website explaining what to do which is more up to date than the owners handbook- the links below

http://www.skoda.co.uk/GBR/Pages/owning-a-skoda.aspx

Hope that helps

[weasley]

They haven't made the PD engine for over ten years, so only think about CR for the Yeti. In most circumstances you just drive and get on with it. Sometimes you may interrupt an active regen but this, in itself, shouldn't be a problem. Since there is no specific way of knowing a regen is in progress (light or warning message etc) then you can't always be sure what it's up to. Only if the light comes on do you need to go out of your way to help it out. A preventative regime that includes a decent run every so often will always help.

[Huskoda]

Even the 1.9 PD was sold right up to 2010, though none of the Skoda ones had DPFs. Earlier 2.0 engines also were PDs and some had DPFs. The Yeti never had that frankenstein engine though.

[survey]

Hi there,

have you got a CR or PD engine? Looks like the mechanic has advised you to follow the PD engine proceedure, but as you've got a Yeti 'm assuming you're CR? I asked my dealer the same question and he said there was no need to do the 3rd/4th gear 2-2.5k routine if you've got the CR and printed me the CR leaflet off. This was after I'd had what turned out to be a partial regen when it increased the tickover to around 1000rpm and when I was stationary the fans were going flat out with no DPF light on. What he also said was that where possible just drive the car normally until the tick over goes back down to normal- this apparently means it's then completed it's regen cycle.

he said problems occur because people switch their engnes off part way through the regen and do the same repeatedly so never give it time to complete it's cycle.

Whether you've got the CR or PD engine there is a leaflet for each on the SUK website explaining what to do which is more up to date than the owners handbook- the links below

http://www.skoda.co....ng-a-skoda.aspx

Hope that helps

Your link is very useful indeed and I just wonder how many Skoda mechanics have read it! Certainly in the 2 years and 18000 mileswe have had our 140CR tdi 4x4, we have never had a problem and that includes a mix of very short shopping trips and also longer runs. We have noticed several regens.

[Eleg4by4]

Hi there,

have you got a CR or PD engine? Looks like the mechanic has advised you to follow the PD engine proceedure, but as you've got a Yeti 'm assuming you're CR? I asked my dealer the same question and he said there was no need to do the 3rd/4th gear 2-2.5k routine if you've got the CR and printed me the CR leaflet off. This was after I'd had what turned out to be a partial regen when it increased the tickover to around 1000rpm and when I was stationary the fans were going flat out with no DPF light on. What he also said was that where possible just drive the car normally until the tick over goes back down to normal- this apparently means it's then completed it's regen cycle.

he said problems occur because people switch their engnes off part way through the regen and do the same repeatedly so never give it time to complete it's cycle.

Whether you've got the CR or PD engine there is a leaflet for each on the SUK website explaining what to do which is more up to date than the owners handbook- the links below

http://www.skoda.co....ng-a-skoda.aspx

Hope that helps

Thanks for that. I think my driving style (I.e. I usually give it some welly!) already caters for this.

Michael.

[Huskoda]

So, in short, to keep your diesel nice and efficient and saving you money over a petrol, you have to drive it like you stole it...

[vegit8]

Looking at the leaflet in the link, I would say it must be pretty difficult not to achieve the correct conditions to regen the dpf, >23mph continuously for 10 - 15 minutes @ > 750rpm (can think of any ratios that would be <750 rpm and still achieve a speed of >23mph - without stalling.

I accept that living in Large cities would cause an issue but those people would probably buy Tsi's in any case.

[MCAMRA]

I accept that living in Large cities would cause an issue but those people would probably buy Tsi's in any case.

There are many reasons why you would buy a diesel over a Petrol engine. Where you live is not necessarily a factor. Hmmm

Like I said in a previous post, the DPF error light comes on and you simply just do as the manual tells you. Its not a problem, no big disaster. The car is not broken, no loss in MPG, the world is still spinning. Life is great. The car is telling you that the DPF needs cleaning. No different to any other piece of technology these days. It takes ten minutes to do.

The only thing I would add is that it just teaches you that if you are doing regular short journeys (for us townies) the Filter needs to be cleaned now and again so better to be preventative than react when the problem occurs....and the Yeti has a self cleaning process...as described in the manual.

[Bobdog]

:sun: If the way you drive, or where you drive, causes the DPF warning light to come on, that's a clear message to ditch the car for these type of journeys and buy a bicycle!

[survey]

:sun: If the way you drive, or where you drive, causes the DPF warning light to come on, that's a clear message to ditch the car for these type of journeys and buy a bicycle!

Indeed, however, the Skoda dpf link does indicate that the CR engine (unlike the PD) does not need extreme changes to driving style to maintain the dpf. I believe that many new diesels nowadays are adopting much better dpf cleaning technology resulting in greater flexibility of use. I also own a newish Mercedes diesel and that also appears to keep the dpf clean without low gear, high revs etc etc.

[MCAMRA]

:sun: If the way you drive, or where you drive, causes the DPF warning light to come on, that's a clear message to ditch the car for these type of journeys and buy a bicycle!

LOL...if I got the bike out I would have to clean that too.

Really, I do not understand what all the fuss is about with DPF...Regen..flashy flights ....and all that. I let the car get on with it. My little Yeti tells me what I need to do and I do it. Its a partnership a relationship if you like. I prefer that than to take it to a garage and let them tell me I need to spend too much money on replacing something that does not need to be replaced. I have complete faith in technology and Skoda (to a point).. By the way I am not a Townie. 'Juste une Blague'.

[yetifabia]

The problem is when the light comes on and nothing you do turns it off - because it's a faulty sensor! Happened on my last one.

[rockhopper]

I'm a townie, and drive around South London all the time. In 27 months I have not had any DPF issues or any light come on. I do drive 16,000 mike a year though.

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[littleade]

Your link is very useful indeed and I just wonder how many Skoda mechanics have read it! Certainly in the 2 years and 18000 mileswe have had our 140CR tdi 4x4, we have never had a problem and that includes a mix of very short shopping trips and also longer runs. We have noticed several regens.

I wondered the same thing when he showed me!

Thanks for that. I think my driving style (I.e. I usually give it some welly!) already caters for this.

Michael.

Sounds like you've got it covered then....

Looking at the leaflet in the link, I would say it must be pretty difficult not to achieve the correct conditions to regen the dpf, >23mph continuously for 10 - 15 minutes @ > 750rpm (can think of any ratios that would be <750 rpm and still achieve a speed of >23mph - without stalling.

I accept that living in Large cities would cause an issue but those people would probably buy Tsi's in any case.

I wonder how many people with CR's actually have problems with the DPF and whether most if not all of the bad experiences were with PD's, so the issue dos not really apply to CRs and in reality it's just part of the 'experience' which I'm happy to stick with. I've had 2 so far- the initial partial one that I inadvertantly abandoned because i didn't know what was going on due to no DPF light and the stereo on loud and one 'on the go' the next time I went on a 30 mile round trip, so to me it seems to be working....

[geordiebroon]

Great to have a topic which which is reassuring

[Llanigraham]

3 years, 60k miles and no problems with the DPF.

[Bobdog]

Two and a half years, 50k miles and likewise.

[survey]

We also own a 2012 Mercedes diesel and I have mentioned on my MB forum the minimal Skoda regen routine as set out by Skoda for the CR engines. I have posed the question as to whether the latest MB diesels' dpf's need as minimal driving to keep them clean. Will be interested to see what responses I get.

[Ayrshire1]

Elg4x4.

Looking at your post on the dpf I noticed that you said you had bubbling paint. I have just posted about this on another thread but mines are along the door bottom. I would be interested to hear what your dealer/Skoda come back with as my dealer put it down to stone chips. If they are stone chips they are microscopic.