Used car DPF problem

property.advert

I read recently that you can just take the bloody things out if yo have a friendly garage. Isn't that the way forward in some cases ?

In this instance, there is a clear case of misrepresentation. Just get your money back.

Delivery_Driver

A lot of people are removing and gutting the dpf, and refitting it or fitting a whole new pipe with it removed.When this is done with a remap(inc dpf delete software) its supposed to give better power and mpg than just a remap alone.I'm not sure about the power/torque gains but it makes sense as the dpf will be causing some backpressure in the exhaust and on a turbo car(majority of diesels seem to be turboed these days), reducing this generally gives gains as it helps the engine breath better.

If you don't get anywhere with the garrage you bought it from, then gutting it might be a cheaper solution than paying to have it replaced.

maninthestreet

cardinalbiggles wrote: »

That's right because nobody has problems with petrol cars....

Well, they don't have DPF's that get clogged like a diesel car, which makes them unsuitable where they are mainly used on short journeys.

Strider590

cardinalbiggles wrote: »

That's right because nobody has problems with petrol cars....

Oh people do have problems with petrol cars, but they're not quite so expensive to fix....

GolfBravo

maninthestreet wrote: »

Well, they don't have DPF's that get clogged like a diesel car, which makes them unsuitable where they are mainly used on short journeys.

That's very true.

Diesels are definitely not suitable for short journeys - they are extremely inefficient when cold (especially in winter), and it takes a while for a diesel engine to warm up to it's normal operating temperature. Then you can add the cost of DPF and DMF replacements, plus higher purchase price and servicing/fuel costs, and your average diesel car becomes very expensive to run in the long term.

So, on average, unless you really need the low end torque and motorway efficiency you're definitely better off with a petrol engine.

PS
Walked my daughters to school this morning, every single school run car was a diesel - and the school's catchment area is a 1 mile radius. So all these mums are potentially doing ten 1 mile short trips each week. In a diesel. Crazy.

Strider590

GolfBravo wrote: »

Walked my daughters to school this morning, every single school run car was a diesel - and the school's catchment are is a 1 mile radius. So all these mums are potentially doing ten 1 mile short trips each week. In a diesel. Crazy.

People don't think and don't do the research before they buy, they assume that a Diesel is more economical, but don't think about the other costs.... There's also a tendency to "sell" the concept to friends/family via gossip, how often do you see people boasting how great and efficient their new car is? Then some poor sap goes and buys one, only to find it's a dog.

samba

Thanks for all the replies.

I did do some homework, and I believe a diesel is suitable for my usage - the blocked filter light came on almost immediately, so it seems that the usage over the last year or so has not been sufficient to regenerate the filter. I think the car has been sat around at the dealers yard for a while too. I was aware of the DPF and its related issues, and did ask the dealer about it but he assured me it was would be alright (well he would wouldn't he?) and it wasn't until recently when I'd done much more digging that I discovered ford's recommended replacement interval was 75,000 miles.

I've searched all over, and there seems to be plenty of aftermarket DPF's available for the Focus Mk2s for just a few hundred pounds, but very few for the facelift model. I am hoping this will change as more and more of the newer focii reach the point where a new dpf is required.

I've also read everywhere that the recommended action when the dpf starts to get blocked on your car is just to get rid of the car asap. Well that doesn't seem to be very economical to me. A new DPF at main dealer prices is £1000, but surely you would lose much more than that pxing your car, and although you probably won't have any more dpf issues, who knows what issues the new car may have?

Anyway, the dealer has now cleaned the filter and refitted it and tells me that all the diagnostic errors have cleared themselves. It has a new egr and the eolys has been topped up, so hopefully the problem has been rectified. I'll just have to see how it goes.

Funnily enough, from the way the car was behaving I had suspected the egr was sticking before the MIL light came on last week and had planned to get the the egr valve off and clean it out over the weekend so getting a new egr, an eolys topup and and a cleaned out dpf is a bonus.

Trebor16

GolfBravo wrote: »

That's very true.

Diesels are definitely not suitable for short journeys - they are extremely inefficient when cold (especially in winter), and it takes a while for a diesel engine to warm up to it's normal operating temperature.

Petrol engines are not very efficient either for short journeys, but while the diesel is warming up it is still not using as much fuel as a petrol engine.

GolfBravo wrote:

Then you can add the cost of DPF and DMF replacements, plus higher purchase price and servicing/fuel costs, and your average diesel car becomes very expensive to run in the long term.

You said in an earlier post that the DPF on a Ford is good for 120000 miles so that replacement cost is a long way down the road for the average motorist. Same with the DMF. Service costs are no different to a petrol engined car as the service intervals are now the same for most manufacturers.

GolfBravo wrote:

So, on average, unless you really need the low end torque and motorway efficiency you're definitely better off with a petrol engine.

The low end torque is a very valuable commodity. Your assessment is also too simplistic as it is well established that if you are doing higher annual mileage (above 12000 per year) a diesel is better and a petrol is better for lower miles per annum.

GolfBravo wrote:

PS
Walked my daughters to school this morning, every single school run car was a diesel - and the school's catchment area is a 1 mile radius. So all these mums are potentially doing ten 1 mile short trips each week. In a diesel. Crazy.

And they are also potentially doing other journeys during the day as well.

GolfBravo

Trebor16 wrote: »

You said in an earlier post that the DPF on a Ford is good for 120000 miles so that replacement cost is a long way down the road for the average motorist. Same with the DMF. Service costs are no different to a petrol engined car as the service intervals are now the same for most manufacturers.

The low end torque is a very valuable commodity. Your assessment is also too simplistic as it is well established that if you are doing higher annual mileage (above 12000 per year) a diesel is better and a petrol is better for lower miles per annum.

And they are also potentially doing other journeys during the day as well.

Yes, you are right, my assessment is definitely too simplistic. But what I am trying to say is to not automatically assume that a diesel engine is definitely better than a petrol engine only because it gives you more torque and better milage - and I find that almost everyone I speak to thinks the modern diesel engines are far better than petrol. Saying that a diesel is universally better for mileage over 12K miles is also too simplistic.

You see, my car has a 2 litre diesel engine with DPF and DMF, and I am perfectly happy with it, but I am well aware of its limitations. I know that I should expect the dreaded DPF blocked message one day, and I hate it's Massey Ferguson tractor refinement when cold. But I absolutely love when it takes me from Oxfordshire to Berlin on only one tank of motion lotion.

One of my neighbours is the perfect example of a pending DPF disaster - recently bought a Peugeot 3008 1.6 HDI with a semi auto transmission. The car is almost exclusively used for school runs and the odd short shopping trip. She struggles to get 30mpg (!), hates the "automatic" transmission (I had to point out to her that it is not automatic, it is a semi-auto), and the risk of DPF blockage message keeps coming up quite regularly but she doesn't know what to do about it so just ignores it. When you ask her why she bought it in the first place her reply is that a friend of a friend has one and highly recommended it. Clearly no point in getting a diesel there.

Trebor16

GolfBravo wrote: »

Yes, you are right, my assessment is definitely too simplistic. But what I am trying to say is to not automatically assume that a diesel engine is definitely better than a petrol engine only because it gives you more torque and better milage - and I find that almost everyone I speak to thinks the modern diesel engines are far better than petrol. Saying that a diesel is universally better for mileage over 12K miles is also too simplistic.

Agreed, it is important to do the research to make sure a DPF diesel is right for you. I have a Golf 1.6TDi with the dreaded DPF, but as well as a few local runs it is also used every weekend for a 40 mile round trip of which 75% of the journey is motorway and dual carriageway and once every four weeks it is used on a round trip of 160 miles of mixed roads of which 50% is dual carriageways and the other 50% is A roads.

I think the important thing with DPF's is getting the engine up to operating temperature on a regular basis which will get the exhaust temp up and helps keep the DPF cleaner.

GolfBravo wrote:

You see, my car has a 2 litre diesel engine with DPF and DMF, and I am perfectly happy with it, but I am well aware of its limitations. I know that I should expect the dreaded DPF blocked message one day, and I hate it's Massey Ferguson tractor refinement when cold. But I absolutely love when it takes me from Oxfordshire to Berlin on only one tank of motion lotion.

The Gold 1.6TDi is very refined, even when cold, and I do love the economy, easily managing 600 miles on a tank (it is the Plus model so not as economical as an ordinary Golf).

GoldBravo wrote:

One of my neighbours is the perfect example of a pending DPF disaster - recently bought a Peugeot 3008 1.6 HDI with a semi auto transmission. The car is almost exclusively used for school runs and the odd short shopping trip. She struggles to get 30mpg (!), hates the "automatic" transmission (I had to point out to her that it is not automatic, it is a semi-auto), and the risk of DPF blockage message keeps coming up quite regularly but she doesn't know what to do about it so just ignores it. When you ask her why she bought it in the first place her reply is that a friend of a friend has one and highly recommended it. Clearly no point in getting a diesel there.

I wouldn't disagree with you on that one.:)