DPF Hell Van On Finance

martin_wilson wrote: »

Thanks all food for thought I have just taken it on a run down the motorway (sorry its a vivaro by the way 2014 ) I did it twice as my dash warning light says check emissions so in all I have covered 78 miles and it still has warning light, although at one point it changed to STOP injection fault. Is it me am I missing the point? when I grafted my nuts off to buy a van I just expected it to run ok and am now told I need to go for a drive down the motorway every few weeks.

Diesel particulate filters trap the soot that inevitably comes out of diesel exhausts. As you may know, diesels don't have a throttle, like petrols, restricting the air going into the engine. They can get as much air as they need - instead, the engine speed is controlled by the amount of fuel going in. More in, revs increase. Lots more in, revs increase faster. But "more in" means some is unburnt - and that's what the soot, the particulate matter, is. It's very, VERY bad for lungs.

So in modern diesels (these have been around for nearly 20 years now, initially on a few vehicles, but almost all built within the last decade - how old was your last van?), they trap those particulates. Then, when the exhaust is really, REALLY hot, a bit more fuel is injected in to start them burning cleanly. The end result is no particulates, and better health for all those in urban environments.

Pootling around towns does not get the exhaust hot enough. Short journeys do not get the exhaust hot enough. Hard work is what gets it hot - not necessarily just sustained lowish-load at a reasonable cruise speed. That's actually fairly unlikely to get it hot, not least because of the extra airflow. You're a builder - do you never drag a heavy trailer around, van loaded to the gunwales and on the bumpstops...? THAT's how to get an exhaust hot...

honestly used quite a lot of diesel today driving down the motorway

If that's true, then I think we might have a cause - it's probably overfuelling. Sitting on a motorway should use less fuel than pootling round town on short trips.

...not to mention having to take all the materials off my van roof and check tyre pressures

Umm, why? Tyre pressures should be checked regularly anyway, and don't need to be any different for a bit of motorway, especially in a van that's regularly loaded. And isn't the stuff on the roof properly secured anyway? It's more likely to come off if you have to brake hard - more likely in town - than just sitting at 60-70ish.

By overfuelling, I mean that something's not happy with the van, causing it to put too much fuel in. This'd use more fuel, and create too much particulate.

The garage have forced regeneration, but have they done a full range of diagnostics (and I don't just mean reading any fault codes)? Is this a Vx dealer, a technically competent indie, or just a second-hand-van sales place?

BTW - "Hurtling"? 70 in a modern van? Let's leave the melodrama out. It helps nobody.

Vx dealer, but I leave "competent" as an exercise for the reader...

I'd be looking for a well-reputed diesel or Bosch specialist.