Octavia Mk3 Diesel VRS Excessive DPF regenerations?

[Sportsbilly]

Hi,

Just wondering if I'm going mad but I have a Octavia MK3 VRS diesel that no matter what kind of driving I do either in town or motorway does an active regeneration every 180 miles and its driving me crazy. Anyone had anything similar?

Sportsbilly

[mk4gtiturbo]

Settles down the more miles you put on it.  Common to do it fairly frequently when new.

 

Head over to the Oct3 forum and there is loads of discussion about it.

[Sportsbilly]

Its not getting better but getting worse. Did a 70 mile round trip on Wednesday and it regened in the middle. I've done 100 miles since of which 65miles on the A19 at 70 mph and its regened again?

[Yeti_Man]

Try posting in a more relevant section for feedback. The Octavia 3 section would be a good start.

[cortina63]

 

Its not getting better but getting worse. Did a 70 mile round trip on Wednesday and it regened in the middle. I've done 100 miles since of which 65miles on the A19 at 70 mph and its regened again?

 mine seems to be doing regular regens, after only around 50 miles since last one,as i have just been ploding around and not given it a good m6 run, but im sure its regenerating more often than all my other mk2 vrs did, hopefully it will settle in, but with 8500 miles its not showing any signs of improving

[andyvee]

What kind of revs are you running at on the motorway? Try dropping down a gear and running at higher revs to get the DPF nice and hot. You need to be around 2250-2500 really.

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[littleade]

It's normal for regens to occur around every 600 miles so yours seems excessive. Might be worth contacting your dealer in case you have a faulty sensor.

[silver1011]

The DPF will regen after a set mileage (it used to be around 600 miles) regardless of the soot levels.

 

How do you know it's performing a regen if you are doing 70mph?

[toni8b]

I guess the more town (short) driving you are doing the more the regens you will see and vice versa.

[StevenB]

Having had mine for nearly 3 weeks and 1800 miles, I've noticed upon stopping the car on 3 occasions, the fans are going mad for a few minutes after stopping the car. Checked in the manual and it mentions this but no mention or indication it was doing a regen...

How do you know when it's performing this operation ?

Steve

[littleade]

The tell tale sign is the tickover increases to about 1000rpm. It can also smell a bit hot and fuel consuption increases while it's doing the regen.

[GordonH]

similar to mine - does an active re-gen about every 150 miles at moment.  Mostly driven on short journeys so far - first distance at weekend - will see how it performs.

 

Regen sets tick over to 1000rpm and stop/start is deactivated.  takes about 10 mins to run.

 

I've just assumed thats how it works.  Better than my previous Superb  - that used to really smell of burning oil (even after many visits to dealer), VRS just smells "hot".

[classic]

These engines will perform a mileage regeneration every 465 miles, regardless of the soot loading of the dpf. If I understand it correctly there is also a heat up phase where additional fuel is injected to warm up the dpf and catalytic converter. The quicker the engine gets up to operating temp the sooner the heat up phase is over. During this phase the stop start may not be available. Could it be you're mistaking this for an active regeneration ?

Edited 17 October, 2014 by classic

[Dr Zoidberg]

I'm not so sure we should be too concerned about the naming of the different types of regeneration here.

What's important is how often the car is running in anything other than normal mode.

[classic]

It is normal; Passive regeneration, warm up phase, active regeneration (+ mileage regeneration every 465 miles). If these are not sufficient the user gets a warning light and needs to drive a journey in a certain way to burn off excessive soot, if that fails then 2 warning lights - needs forced regeneration by dealer....

Edited 17 October, 2014 by classic

[cortina63]

It is normal; Passive regeneration, warm up phase, active regeneration (+ mileage regeneration every 465 miles). If these are not sufficient the user gets a warning light and needs to drive a journey in a certain way to burn off excessive soot, if that fails then 2 warning lights - needs forced regeneration by dealer....

thanks,it must be down to the extra crawling traffic in morecambe now due to various road projects going on at the same time,meaning my car doesnt get to the conditions to regen as youv described as i cant maintain constant speed/revs,need to have a drive down the m6,thanks for all your replys,this has answered my concerns

[AllanDJ]

When I first got my car last year the fan would often be roaring for ten minutes or so after I'd stopped and parked the car.

 

No exacts as to how often it does this but does seem much less frequent now.

[AllanDJ]

PS I did used to wonder about the mysterious red warning lights too, you would have thought they would have put it in the manual. The car used to tell me that the stop/start system wasn't working either but it seems to work fairly well these days

[Web Ferret]

Mine seems to regen often too. Once a week I have the fans running. I do 300+ miles a week. Mixture of crawling traffic and proper motorway speeds.

No warning lights and no noticed anything whilst driving other than mysterious loss of economy.

[pipsyp]

My 150 TDI regen'd loads when new...now with nearly 12k miles on the clock does it every few hundred miles or so.

I've never had the DPF light come on though.

The DPF design on the new engine is quite radical, the canister is v near the manifold outlet and is v small, I think it regens more often to account for this. Something I have found also is that warm up times are incredible, within a minute or so of starting the car and driving away there is warm air coming out of the vents....Much more like a petrol. Compared to my Mk2 170 CR which took several minutes to provide warm air it's like night and day.

[Redline Greenline ii]

My 150 TDI regen'd loads when new...now with nearly 12k miles on the clock does it every few hundred miles or so.

I've never had the DPF light come on though.

My Fabia was the same (including the fact that the light never came on), and my Octavia did its first active regeneration after 50 or so miles when I picked it up yesterday - I stunk out Sainsbury's car park!

[AllanDJ]

The DPF warning light came on with my car within only a few days of buying it, it is a bright red light which flashes up in between the rev counter and the speedometer, only stays on a few seconds and then vanishes. It took a few calls to the garage to find out what it is as it isn't in the owners manual. Probably had it about 5 times in the last year. Might help if garages would explain this technology a bit better so that diesel engine owners would know what to expect.

This is the fourth diesel engined car that I have owned but certainly the most advanced and eco friendly, no black smoke belching out of my exhaust any more, unlike my old Mondeo 2.2TD Estate! The Peugeot 406 HDi engine ran well enough as did my Rover 400 2.0TD, which also had a bit of a smoking habit on occasion.

Makes you wonder though if these new diesel Octavia's could prove to be expensive to run in the long term if anything goes wrong with all this new eco technology after your warranty has run out, I'm guessing that might well be a rather costly MOT failure!

[DarrellGB]

My Yeti seemed to regen a lot when new, but it settled down after a few thousand miles

[Sportsbilly]

This is my first Skoda and could well be the last. The type of driving seems to make no difference to the intervals for regeneration at all. I can do a 20 mile run booting it engine well warmed up and just before you stop it starts a regeneration. You know it's happening as mine begins to run rough almost feeling like it's going to backfire which I assume is the change in fuel mixture. Absolute rubbish.

[blahde2]

What Kind of fuel are you filling it with, supermarket or posher stuff as it does make a difference?

Over here in Germany car dealers will actively talk you out of buying a diesel if your regular driving isn't suitable. The saving you make buying a petrol easily covers the extra fuel costs with extra fill ups.

My first DPF equipped car was a Golf mk5 GT TDi 170 bhp. It regened so much in the first 600 miles I thought it was defective. Then it went from driving rough and trying to regen to lighting all the lights on the dash and limping the two miles to the dealer. I must admit that I'd not read about DPF regen in the hand book so wasn't driving the car in a manner the DPF could cope with.

Dealer managed to force a regen the first time, only for the DPF to pile in a week later. Anyway VW replaced it under warranty and their technician gave me a thorough briefing on how to keep a DPF healthy. Having Autobahns is a life saver, 100mph is perfect in 6th, enough load and heat being generated to do a full regen.

With my last two Superbs I only ever saw the yellow dash light once in both, but with my current Octy 3 vRS it regens noticeably more often than the Superbs. With 4000 on the clock it has settled down somewhat but still happens more often than I would like. Cold weather also increases them as does city driving which is where my car normally spends its life.

I would suggest that when you notice the car attempting a regen (1000rpm at the lights) then drive high revs where your can but not full throttle, 2/3rds to 4/5ths is good and hold the revs where you can, i.e 2500-3500rpm when you would normally be doing 1300. If you get a yellow light make for a good A-road or the motorway and boot it full beans up to the speed limit then cruise ctl in 5th at the 70mph. Do that solid for 10-15mins if you can and that should sort it all out.

I know tha DPF regen is a problem for many car makers not just the Skoda / VAG group, so consider next time if a diesel is right for you and your driving habits. I am seriously considering converting back to petrol for my next car, the £2300 saving buys an awful lot of petrol and as my miles are low it makes sense......however I like lazy diesel driving so who knows what I'll get.

DPFs are a necessary evil, really consider your choice of fuel next time as the German VW dealer over here said he would seriously suggest that I purchase a petrol car next time and would have protested 90% against a diesel purchase. Food for thought I think