Mot fail.... dpf removal

[Megsxx]

I was having major dpf problems, I was assured by a local ‘tuning centre’ that if I was to have my dpf removed it would still pass the mot and it wouldn’t be obvious, and it would stop the problem recurring. So as it seemed the win win situation (better power, mpg, no future problems, costs less) I went with that option. I was told if there was any mot problems pop back and they will sort it out. Cue 9 days later my mot is due and two of the 3 major fails were ‘dpf appears to have been tampered with’ and ‘excess smoke’ (the third being a fractured coil spring). I contacted the tuner who said they would sort it and were waiting to get me booked in, this was 2 days ago and now they are not responding to my messages.

 

Rather than tell me how stupid I’ve been can anyone suggest an option to get me back on the road? If the dpf has been ‘mapped out’ will it cause a fault putting one back in? 
I must admit it drives so much nicer now too 😢. 
 

any constructive advise welcome please 

[Gissin]

unless you can prove it's been cut open for a valid reason (filer cleaning) any signs of tampering will be a fail.

 

you will need to put a new DPF back in (I assume you won't be able to just stick a filter back in as it'll still have signs of tampering, but that contradicts the above, I await to be corrected) the other option is to find a MOT tester that will pass it knowing about the removed DPF.

 

not sure if the prior fail will show up on a database which might make the next pass look suspect. 

[bspman]

Only thing constructive I can say is once it's fixed - make sure you've got the paperwork to say WHY it's been tampered with (for replacement).

Excess smoke is a result of no DPF so none of the particulate being caught.

 

A Call to darksidedevelopments might be in order to see if you can get some help and advice.

 

 

[Gissin]

just a thought could you put some kind of heat wrap/shield around the DPF, like a turbo heat shield.  so the tester would have to state something like could not test/inspect for tampering 

Edited 27 November, 2020 by Gissin

[bspman]

Just now, Gissin said:

just a thought could you put some kind of heat wrap/shield around the DPF, like a turbo heat shield.  so the tester would have to state something like could not test/inspect for tampering 

 

That may help, but I imagine it won't solve the issue of excessive smoke from a rich map.

[Gissin]

3 minutes ago, bspman said:

 

That may help, but I imagine it won't solve the issue of excessive smoke from a rich map.

good point.

stop smoke treatment and Italian tune up ?

but I think it's a replacement DPF to resolve this issue. 

[Megsxx]

Dpf ordered, only a cheap one as not got a lot of money but as long as it gets me back on the road 

[Gissin]

good luck, hope you get it sorted

Edited 27 November, 2020 by Gissin

[seriesdriver]

8 minutes ago, Megsxx said:

Dpf ordered, only a cheap one as not got a lot of money but as long as it gets me back on the road 

Did you get any joy from the local tuning center ? their advice was horribly optimistic , certainly making your car illegal as you have found out. I would expect them to at least cover the labour to refit a working dpf. 

[Megsxx]

9 minutes ago, seriesdriver said:

Did you get any joy from the local tuning center ? their advice was horribly optimistic , certainly making your car illegal as you have found out. I would expect them to at least cover the labour to refit a working dpf. 

No they’re not returning phone calls or replying to messages atm..... I’ll give them a chance but it has been a couple of days x

[Megsxx]

Probably doesn’t help that they put a pic of my car advertising their services on social media 🤦🏻‍♀️ (names deleted for confidentiality) but you can see what they said on the post  about removal and MOTs xx

[Ootohere]

Celtic Tuning's Advert is unbelievable,

as is the DVSA / DVLA / DfT doing nothing about them and others even though they have bumped their gums about it for years.

[Phil-E]

That's shocking.

 

Admittedly you've been a bit silly 🤣😂

 

But they openly guaranteed there will be no signs of tampering.

 

It's highly likely that the car has been tested to the stricter value. If you scratch this number off the label in the door sill then they have to test it to the higher older value.

 

But they'll still be inspecting the DPF with a fine tooth comb if it's already failed.

 

Obviously the new DPF will need mapping back in and an initial forced Regen to reset all the pressure values etc.

 

A once over/health check of the engine, hoses and EGR etc wouldn't go a miss to ensure the engine is running well and not going to clog up the new DPF within 100 miles.

[Breezy_Pete]

Not worth it.

 

Edited 27 November, 2020 by Wino
Determined to pollute.

[maximusvrs]

My neighbours Citroen has had a similar problem, chatting to him he bought the car earlier in the year and had a DPF problem straight away, he took back to the garage who apparently fitted a new DPF, a few weeks ago while I was washing my car choking on all the soot coming out of his exhaust on cold start I thought tho myself that can’t have a DPF on it and it failed the MOT the other day with a DOF/ emissions issue 

[Megsxx]

2 hours ago, Phil-E said:

That's shocking.

 

Admittedly you've been a bit silly 🤣😂

 

But they openly guaranteed there will be no signs of tampering.

 

It's highly likely that the car has been tested to the stricter value. If you scratch this number off the label in the door sill then they have to test it to the higher older value.

 

But they'll still be inspecting the DPF with a fine tooth comb if it's already failed.

 

Obviously the new DPF will need mapping back in and an initial forced Regen to reset all the pressure values etc.

 

A once over/health check of the engine, hoses and EGR etc wouldn't go a miss to ensure the engine is running well and not going to clog up the new DPF within 100 miles.

At the risk of sounding really dumb....

 

would having the dpf refitted for the mot pass then have it removed afterwards? I love the way it drives now (my last car was a stage 2 wrx blob eye). 

[Ootohere]

@Megsxx You could very easily as others do, but then you know you would be committing an offence. 

So you run the risk of a stop, maybe just a random roadside check and any traffic officer or DVSA employee will see the cars MOT history.  

 

They know exactly the type of vehicles to signal in for checking.  A Yellow Octavia is likely No.1 After Vans and Busses.

Edited 27 November, 2020 by e-Roottoot

[Phil-E]

After owning my last car for a few months I discovered it had no DPF!

 

Thankfully it passed an MOT and also a German TÜV. So the DPF still looked intact and the smoke was under the limit (only just!).

 

Although the car drove lovely and with a remap too (240bhp and 500nm), I didn't enjoy driving it a lot as I constantly had a worry in my mind that I could be pulled over and get into trouble.

[EnterName]

5 hours ago, Megsxx said:

I was having major dpf problems, I was assured by a local ‘tuning centre’ that if I was to have my dpf removed it would still pass the mot and it wouldn’t be obvious, and it would stop the problem recurring. So as it seemed the win win situation (better power, mpg, no future problems, costs less) I went with that option. I was told if there was any mot problems pop back and they will sort it out. Cue 9 days later my mot is due and two of the 3 major fails were ‘dpf appears to have been tampered with’ and ‘excess smoke’ (the third being a fractured coil spring). I contacted the tuner who said they would sort it and were waiting to get me booked in, this was 2 days ago and now they are not responding to my messages.

 

Rather than tell me how stupid I’ve been can anyone suggest an option to get me back on the road? If the dpf has been ‘mapped out’ will it cause a fault putting one back in? 
I must admit it drives so much nicer now too 😢. 
 

any constructive advise welcome please 

A couple of things spring to mind.

Firstly, what are the figures? (By how much did it fail?)

Secondly, now your DPF is on the MOT testers radar, it might get further scrutiny if tested by the same tester. Nothing wrong with going to another MOT test place.

 

Solutions:

First, put some Diesel Clean or similar into the fuel tank and give it a good run. Load up the car with people, find a hill and boot it up there. Get the revs up to give the injectors a clean. (A garage can do a more specialised injector clean, but that's more cash.)

Then, with the car "as is", i.e. with a dodgy/gutted DPF, (and as a layman, bear in mind this is a "Just get the effing thing to pass at minimum cost!" fix), my cheapest quick fix to get you through the MOT would be an EGR blank and (for the purposes of the MOT) remove the air filter.

Those fairly simple and cheap things should get as much clean air into the engine as possible, which, if your fail is marginal, might just reduce the smoke enough to get you through the MOT.

But it's a bit of a case of grasping at straws.

Even if you manage to pass the emissions, a vigilant and conscientious MOT tester will be giving your DPF a close look, now someone's already pointed it out as being suspect.

 

Let us know how you get on. Good luck!

 

 

Edited 27 November, 2020 by EnterName

[Megsxx]

1 hour ago, EnterName said:

A couple of things spring to mind.

Firstly, what are the figures? (By how much did it fail?)

Secondly, now your DPF is on the MOT testers radar, it might get further scrutiny if tested by the same tester. Nothing wrong with going to another MOT test place.

 

Solutions:

First, put some Diesel Clean or similar into the fuel tank and give it a good run. Load up the car with people, find a hill and boot it up there. Get the revs up to give the injectors a clean. (A garage can do a more specialised injector clean, but that's more cash.)

Then, with the car "as is", i.e. with a dodgy/gutted DPF, (and as a layman, bear in mind this is a "Just get the effing thing to pass at minimum cost!" fix), my cheapest quick fix to get you through the MOT would be an EGR blank and (for the purposes of the MOT) remove the air filter.

Those fairly simple and cheap things should get as much clean air into the engine as possible, which, if your fail is marginal, might just reduce the smoke enough to get you through the MOT.

But it's a bit of a case of grasping at straws.

Even if you manage to pass the emissions, a vigilant and conscientious MOT tester will be giving your DPF a close look, now someone's already pointed it out as being suspect.

 

Let us know how you get on. Good luck!

 

 

Can you advise what you mean by diesel clean? Preferably links/ product details please?x

[skomaz]

What year is it.  If it's old enough it should still pass with the dpf off unless it is very obvious it's been tampered with which sounds like it might be the case

[Megsxx]

9 minutes ago, skomaz said:

What year is it.  If it's old enough it should still pass with the dpf off unless it is very obvious it's been tampered with which sounds like it might be the case

From what I can gather, 2007 build, early 2008 first registration (10th jan looking at docs) so a 57 plate but on a personal reg xx 

[skomaz]

41 minutes ago, Megsxx said:

From what I can gather, 2007 build, early 2008 first registration (10th jan looking at docs) so a 57 plate but on a personal reg xx 

 

That would make it a BMN engine code which is EU4 so should pass even without the dpf as the limits were much less strict.  So it sounds like its a visible weld or similar that's the issue unless the map is way off or you have something else amiss

[Tilt]

@Megsxx Can you not turn the social media mention to your advantage......

 

Name and shame the fact that they convinced you that it would pass the mot.......... something like that. For the purpose of getting their attention and some assistance from them to resolve the issue, as they said they would.

Edited 28 November, 2020 by Tilt

[Megsxx]

13 hours ago, skomaz said:

 

That would make it a BMN engine code which is EU4 so should pass even without the dpf as the limits were much less strict.  So it sounds like its a visible weld or similar that's the issue unless the map is way off or you have something else amiss

It is a BMN, but I’m not sure whether the mot centre were just being an arse looking at the mot sheet as they didn’t run an emissions test after seeing the dpf by the looks of things xx