Running a diesel car with DPF on not many miles per journey/year?

bengalknights

Hondas tend to be fine with low mileages, its just a matter of making sure that when/if the regen triggers you let it finish (or use a cheap HDS adaptor to force it)

Biggus_Dickus

bengalknights said:

Hondas tend to be fine with low mileages, its just a matter of making sure that when/if the regen triggers you let it finish (or use a cheap HDS adaptor to force it)

What be this HDS adaptor of which you speak?

AdrianC

Biggus_Dickus said:

bengalknights said:

Hondas tend to be fine with low mileages, its just a matter of making sure that when/if the regen triggers you let it finish (or use a cheap HDS adaptor to force it)

What be this HDS adaptor of which you speak?

https://www.google.com/search?q=honda+hds
Honda Diagnostic System

JustAnotherSaver

Biggus Dickus - sounds an almost identical situation to mine. I do 10.2 mile per journey to work and 6.5 of that is 50-60 zones.

And fair comment to the one who pointed out the type of driving too. I'd forgotten to mention that. 
We knew a woman who was sold a Corsa diesel to drive around the corner kind of thing. She had nothing but trouble with it and was told she should take it for a blast. 

I also know of someone with an SQ5 who uses it to drive the 0.5-1.0 mile to work and then go round and about the town. They'll do some motorway driving at some point but not much. They've never had any trouble. 

I don't like the idea of having to take a car for a specific journey and driving it a specific way just to keep it going. It takes time out of your day and is just a PITA. I was just wondering if folk did the kind of driving that supposedly triggers all these failures and can happily report no failure. 

AdrianC

It's also worth remembering what triggers DPF regeneration. HEAT.

Just "going on a motorway" does not necessarily get an exhaust hot. Something like a diesel SQ5 will be barely tickling along sitting at 70mph on a clear m'way. Plenty of cooling airflow underneath, almost no throttle, very few revs, very little load. You'll probably find it'll get hotter in slow moving urban traffic, especially if given a bit of squirt into gaps or if they turn stop-start off...

JustAnotherSaver

AdrianC said:

It's also worth remembering what triggers DPF regeneration. HEAT.

Just "going on a motorway" does not necessarily get an exhaust hot. Something like a diesel SQ5 will be barely tickling along sitting at 70mph on a clear m'way. Plenty of cooling airflow underneath, almost no throttle, very few revs, very little load. You'll probably find it'll get hotter in slow moving urban traffic, especially if given a bit of squirt into gaps or if they turn stop-start off...

Yep. Am aware roughly of how it works as I did a fair bit of reading on it years ago when I was looking in to diesel cars as a possibility but at the time I just stuck with the car I had as it was reliable. I just didn't put the info across in my OP. 
Looking at something like the Golf (for example - I know there'll be the Seat, Audi, Skoda variants) 140bhp vs 170bhp. I was always put off the 170bhp simply because it had a DPF and the 140 did not. My sister picked up the 140 also for this reason. Though if I understand correctly then unlike the Golf, it isn't a blanket car doesn't have with the A3 140bhp and that some of them in the same time frame actually do.

@neilmcl - do you have an interest in detailing cars or am I off the mark and its just a coincidence? Searched for something at the weekend and saw your name. 

Biggus_Dickus

AdrianC said:

It's also worth remembering what triggers DPF regeneration. HEAT.

Just "going on a motorway" does not necessarily get an exhaust hot. Something like a diesel SQ5 will be barely tickling along sitting at 70mph on a clear m'way. Plenty of cooling airflow underneath, almost no throttle, very few revs, very little load. You'll probably find it'll get hotter in slow moving urban traffic, especially if given a bit of squirt into gaps or if they turn stop-start off...

A few miles on the m/way at high speed/revs is enough to complete the regen on my son’s Vauxhall GTC. Tootling around and it takes ages, even when the engine is hot.

Depends on the car I guess, but if you have a regen procedure that works for you then stick to it.

clive0510

I don't do high mileage in my peugeot and thats got a dpf. with add blue. also has eloys system. never have a problem. sometimes when im out shopping I'll take it along the bypass for a few junctions, just keeps the dpf clear and stops any warning lights coming on. 
even if the dpf does clog up, it can be removed and flushed out, using chemicals specially for that job. main dealer won't do that. he will just tell you it needs new dpf, and the best part of maybe £1k.  

AdrianC

clive0510 said:

I don't do high mileage in my peugeot and thats got a dpf. with add blue. also has eloys system

It won't have both Eolys and AdBlu. It'll have one or the other, depending on age.

JustAnotherSaver

Is there anything about the MOT that fails a car without a DPF that should have one or is the answer "depends"? 

If there's a big section in the exhaust where a box should be with a filter inside and this has been clearly cut out and welded back up then I'm not talking about that. 
I mean done in such a way that it appears the DPF is still there. A blank fitted perhaps. Also spoke to someone who had just bought a Golf 170 on an 08 plate. He said he was going to have the DPF mapped out on it.