Smoke from exhaust

[Tomster]

Here's the problem, I'm hoping someone can advise me.

 

I own a 2012 2.0CR TDI. The car has done 196,000 mile which i would have to say 95% of is motorway miles.

 

Around the time the car had done 150,000 miles, i noticed occasionally smoke from exhaust. It was more noticable when i accelerated but also done it under a slight touch of the accelerator. I also noticed that if this was happening & I came to a standstill the rev counter would sit at 1000rpm instead of the usual 600rpm(approx). A VAG computer confirmed that at the time I was experiencing the revs at 100rpm it was indeed performing a DPF reneration.

 

It didn't however explain why all the smoke was coming from the exhaust.

 

The local independant garage felt the problem was with the DPF and said there was a company who cleaned them for £250 + vat. Feedback was very good so the filter was sent to be cleaned. It came back along with before & after pictures and also data relating to the air flow test it had undergone. The report also said that the weight of the filter was 352g lighter after the cleaning, which i'm assuming would be all the soot that was collecting in the filter.

 

It was refitted & after about 100 miles, the car started regenerating again whith the same smoke ommiting. Before i go any further, i should add that the garage reckon the turbo is fine, with no oil deposits and also the engine is sweet sounding.

 

A few days ago the a warning light (glow plug system) started flashing and the vehicle went into limp mode. when enging was switched off & restarted it had reset & everything was ok. The VAG comfirmed the EGR valve had stuck.

 

5 miles after leaving garage the glow plug light appeared again, this time along with the engine management light. I returned to garage and a new EGR was ordered. After it was fitted, all faults were cleared and it appeared to be fine. I have now done 400 miles without any problems or smoke from the exhaust...UNTIL THIS MORNING !!!

 

The revs were back at 1000rpm when at a standstill (this does eventually return to normal after regeneration) and smoke appeared from exhaust.

 

I have a few questions here

 

1. Would anything need changed on the VAG computer after the cleaned DPF was refitted?

2. Is it normal for excessive smoke to come from exhaust when vehicle is regenerating ?

 

Please help as im scunnered & the bills are running at £1000 so far  

[KenONeill]

"Regeneration" is the burning off of the soot in the DPF. Accordingly, I'd expect smoke (probably black) to appear during this phase.

 

What I would not expect is for a car that's doing 60_000 miles of fast cruising per year to need to burn soot from the DPF regularly!

[Koxy]

Yes, the computer does need to be reset when a new or cleaned DPF is placed in the car. This can be done using VCDS software and cable.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

[Tomster]

I have since had the software reset to tell the vehicle that a new DPf has been fitted. All the values are perfect, as are the EGR & turbo but the damn thing is regeneration between every 100 & 200 miles.

 

Garage is advising to replace the DPF at a cost of £1300 +vat for the part. Labour cost of 2.5 hours is extra

 

[Taxi_G]

First of all, highly impressed with mileage on the car.

These cars along with the 1.6's are known to suffer from DPF/EGR faults from what I've read, my garage offers DPF cleaning where they use a terraclean tool to do it with the filter in place but it costs a considerable amount of money, however they are highly respected with other local garages and anyone local with a DPF fault is sent to them and they've only once failed to cure a car with DPF fault due to previous garage trying multiple times to force a regen and it actually totally destroyed the filter. My garage is Spannerama in East Kilbride, Glasgow

Personally if I was in your position I would have had the EGR & DPF professionally removed/coded out.

My 1.6 105 is sitting on 105k atm, no signs of common problems, no smoke like yours, I'm waiting for the first sign of any EGR/DPF Problems to have them both removed and remapped at a cost of £399 inclusive of Vat, yes £399..... New EGR valve alone fitted is around £700 I'm told..... No brainer to me.

G

[Tomster]

First of all, highly impressed with mileage on the car.

These cars along with the 1.6's are known to suffer from DPF/EGR faults from what I've read, my garage offers DPF cleaning where they use a terraclean tool to do it with the filter in place but it costs a considerable amount of money, however they are highly respected with other local garages and anyone local with a DPF fault is sent to them and they've only once failed to cure a car with DPF fault due to previous garage trying multiple times to force a regen and it actually totally destroyed the filter. My garage is Spannerama in East Kilbride, Glasgow

Personally if I was in your position I would have had the EGR & DPF professionally removed/coded out.

My 1.6 105 is sitting on 105k atm, no signs of common problems, no smoke like yours, I'm waiting for the first sign of any EGR/DPF Problems to have them both removed and remapped at a cost of £399 inclusive of Vat, yes £399..... New EGR valve alone fitted is around £700 I'm told..... No brainer to me.

G

Hi

 

Yeah, my DPF was cleaned by DPF deep clean in Falkirk/Grangemouth area. It was done through Dingbro who are promoting them. The report came back saying it was sucessful. The EGR for my particular engine was £267 +vat and also 4.5 hours fitting time. Its not just the valve that you get, there is the whole cooling unit to.

 

Its licenced as a taxi, but only used for airport trips so its all motorway miles so I woulndt be able to take egr/dpf off

[Taxi_G]

Hi

Yeah, my DPF was cleaned by DPF deep clean in Falkirk/Grangemouth area. It was done through Dingbro who are promoting them. The report came back saying it was sucessful. The EGR for my particular engine was £267 +vat and also 4.5 hours fitting time. Its not just the valve that you get, there is the whole cooling unit to.

Its licenced as a taxi, but only used for airport trips so its all motorway miles so I woulndt be able to take egr/dpf off

Mines is also a taxi mate, speak to Ecotune in Hillington, EGR, isn't part of the taxi test. Ecotune will blank the EGR off, keeping it in place and code it out, same the the DPF it'll be gutted from the inside and coded out, no way to check it and the taxi testers won't notice

While on the subject of taxis, feel free to drop me a pm if you ever need anything covered, even drop me your number and we can maybe sort something, I could also get you involved with a couple online suppliers I use.

G