Car has had problem from 6 months old

Nobbie1967

sevenhills said:

Nobbie1967 said:

I don’t think you’ll get far with the dealership as they will blame the way it’s driven. Your best bet is to take it to a garage that can confirm the diagnosis and if it is the DPF, send it off for cleaning and then reinstall. The service my local garage uses puts the DPF in a high temperature oven to burn off all the deposits blocking the filter. Should be much cheaper than replacing.

Is there really such a thing as burning ash, surely there is nothing to burn, if the cars regeneration process is working? Can it be emptied out, is it a powder?

I’m no expert, but I think the issues is the DPF getting gummed up with unburnt hydrocarbons as it never gets a chance to burn these to ash during a regen due to short journeys. It’s certainly a thing that garages can get done.

Goudy

Uno12 said:

Something to with the vauxhall astra particulate filter system. The Vauxhall dealership is quoting £2000 repair cost. It had the particle filter sensor changed about five months ago. This car has been disaster, I wish I never brought it. The most annoying thing is, I had Astra before which was great but someone drove into it and It was written off by the insurance company.  

I suspect the dealer has been chasing a DPF pressure problem.

As the filter fills the pressure inside increases and that is fed back to the engines computer so it knows went to regen.

They have changed the pressure sensor as a faulty sensor could be sending a rogue reading which then informs the computer it's full. (there is more than one full, but we'll come back to that).

The replacement sensor hasn't solved the problem, so it's either full or there is a software problem within the computer translating a pressure sensor reading as a full DPF.
It's possible there might be a software issue, Vauxhall did issue a service bulletin for some diesel engines around this time that fixed a DPF issue with the Astra and Mokka, but I don't know what engine or exact years that was for and of course I have no idea if yours was on the list or had it updated.

There is a good chance that the filter is just full.
It sounds like the dealer has come to that conclusion as well.
The filter traps soot and once it's reaches a certain level the pressure inside reports back it needs a regen.
This regen process sends fuel through the engine on a stoke that isn't firing (post combustion) which then burns the larger particles of soot to smaller particles of ash inside the filter.

So it's possible for the filter to fill with soot and the regen process is continually interrupted by stopping the engine or the condition inside the DPF just aren't correct to start a regeneration. The process needs heat and fuel to burn the soot to ash.
So short tripping the car doesn't allow it to reach the conditions required as it's cold and can also interrupt the process if it does start by turning the engine off.

Of course it could possibly be performing regens, but it's performed so many in less that ideal conditions (cold running equals more soot) that the filter is full of ash and can store no more.

I would have thought the dealer would have checked the version of the software and now consider the filter is some how full so want to change it.

You could try and find a DPF specialist, they might be able to clean the filter out but be very wary.
There are a few "specialist" around that will happily butcher the filters insides, basically knocking the guts out of it to solve the problem which will more than likely leave you with more problems than you started with.

Stateofart

sheramber said:

 I drive mainly in towns. 

My annual mileage is about 11,000 miles year. 

Why did you chose a diesel car?

This.  Your DPF is clogged because you're doing mainly town driving.  It's a huge problem with many manufacturers effected