Common manufacturers problems
Problems we see regularly
The Yorkshire DPF Centre knows how to service and maintain every make and model out there, and whilst any vehicle can suffer DPF issues, over time we have come to learn some specific problems associated with certain cars.
We know your car is important to you and your family, which is why we’re here to help improve its current and future performance. Bring your car in today for a tune-up and a diagnostic test.
Volkswagon
Failed regeneration
Over the years the common problems with Volkswagen DPF's we have seen have been due to failed regeneration. Even after cleaning, a lot of VW cars then "fail" to regenerate as before, we have found that the temperature sensors in these cars suffer from carbon build up and eventually stop sending the correct temperature information, or don't send any information at all. This leads to failed regeneration cycles because the ecu is unaware of the temps and as such cannot control the burn cycle properly. We understand this and know how to identify the sensor that is to blame, meaning we can restore your VW to its former glory without the need to replace the DPF filter.
Ford
Differential pressure sensor failure
Fords are great, reliable, and cheap to maintain. This is until the DPF filter fails and blocks up. Luckily we have encountered many of these problems already. The 1.6 in particular suffers from pressure pipe cracking and differential pressure sensor failure. Luckily we know this, and as such can pinpoint the problem before repair. We find that ford price DPF sensors very highly (over 100 pounds) and whilst this is a high price for a sensor, we very rarely find temperature sensor problems on these cars. Either way we are familiar with these issues and we know how to get you back on the road.
BMW
Differential pressure sensor and Glow plug errors
Most of the BMW's we repair tend to have faulty or clogged DPF sensors or glow plug errors lodged in the ECU. BMW Glow plug errors are the most common cause of blockage and we see this every week without fail.
Luckily we are familiar with how awkward these cars are to regenerate and repair, and as such have become familiar with the caveats of these engines.
Each car has its own demands and test conditions that must be met before a regeneration is possible. We understand these niggles, saving you thousands. BMW used to suffer from DPF filter fires when regenerating on the spot and as such these vehicles must now be driven to properly regenerate them.
We arnt like other garages, this is all we do.
DPF complexity
Why does my garage want to replace the DPF on my car?
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Well the simple as is, because its such a complex a piece of equipment that they either
A. Don't have the time to diagnose it and sometimes
B. Don't know how to diagnose it.
For instance take a look at this diagram of a typical DPF system fitted to a VW golf or Audi A3.
We imagine a DPF as a simple box of soot that gets full, its not. As you can see it has a diesel oxidation cat converter at the top with a nox converter in the middle and a h2s cat converter on the back, with 2 pressure sensors at the beginning, 2 oxygen sensors, 2 temperature sensors and a differential pressure sensor.
The DPF almost has as many sensors as the engine its connected to!
For this reason its important that you NEVER try to power wash or jet wash your DPF. If your even thinking about that STOP now and call us! because you could o irrevocable damage to your DPF. We understand each stage and component of the DPF system and are able to diagnose the true cause of the failure for you with minimal fuss.
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Common Warning lights
What do they mean?
Here are the three most common warning lights you may see on your dash when your DPF is faulty. They can appear at any time, come and go, or be there constantly. You may also have a yellow coil visible which sometimes can accompany the flashing DPF light, These are things we are used to seeing, and we deal with them on a daily basis. So don't panic, if you see these lights and your in limp mode call us, we do this day in day out. Why get charged hundreds form your garage for them to guess at the problem and not repair it? Call us first and know you got the job done right the first time.
Differential pressure sensor
The Weak Link in DPF systems
The differential sensor performs one of the most crucial jobs of the system, relating pressure differentiation data back to the ecu for analysis.
Without the precious data this unit sends back the DPF will never regenerate itself.
The problem with this system is that the pipes are connected to the DPF and as such particulate material travels into the sensor eventually breaking it. For this reason it is necessary to replace the sensor when it breaks.
Th problem with this is you don't notice its broken until you have a blocked DPF, by which point just changing the DPF sensor wont fix anything, as once you pass 65 percent soot loading the ecu wont allow a regeneration anyway for risk of fire.
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At this point the only way to repair the DPF is with a 2 pronged attack.
We clean the DPF to reduce the soot loading back to minimal levels, then flush the system front to back. Once this is done we run a complete regeneration cycle on the vehicle to satisfy the ecu the DPF is empty. We then reset the DPF values and soot values, and if necessarily we change the DPF sensor (should you ask us to do that)
We stock a wide rang of DPF sensors for most makes and models