DPF Removal Guide

[jazd]

Guide for Mk5 Golf GT but should be similar for all cars with BMN/BMR engine.

Equipment needed:
Torx set (T25, T27, T30)
Socket set (10mm, 12mm, 14mm)
Spanners (17mm, 22mm)
Allen keys (5mm)
Thin cutting angle grinder disc
MIG welder
2 post hoist
Hammer/mallet + big flat blade screwdriver
(May have gotten some of the sizes wrong or some missing)

1. Start by removing the wipers and plastic cover below windscreen, you can then remove the black painted metal plate with fabric lining which runs along the back of the engine bay. This will give you more room to work.

2. Locate the DPF which is at the left back of the engine bay, connected to the turbo.

4. Unplug and remove the G450 pressure sensor from the bracket and undo the bracket from the engine (2x torx). Move it off to the side, this will again give you more room to work. You dont have to unclip the hoses from it.

5. Undo the temperature sensor located closest to the turbo and remove it. If you can remove the big one in the middle too (oxygen sensor), I couldn't get it so I unplugged the wire at the other end.


Top of DPF showing removed temp sensor. Turbo at top of image, unplugged G450 sensor still attached to bracket at lower right.

6. Undo clamp from turbo (5mm allen key), don't loose the gasket between the connection. Its a bit hard to get at it as the allen key points downwards. When I put it back in I put it in upside down so its easier to undo.

7. Hoist the car up.



8. Locate the temperature sensor at the bottom of the DPF and remove it.


You can see the DPF going up the back of the engine on the left and the flexi exhaust section going down to the right. Also note the pressure sensor tube to the left of the temp sensor, you don't need to disconnect these.

9. Undo the bolts holding the DPF to the backet at the bottom. Then also remove the nuts holding the bracket on to the studs on the engine. Take the bracket right out.


Note the three nuts holding the bracket on, there is one above the bracket too (3x total).

10. Undo the bolts holding the exhaust on at the bottom of the flexi section.



11. Undo exhaust from rear section and remove supporting bracket.



12. Remove front right drive shaft from gearbox. The shaft will drop down giving you room to nagivate the DPF down and out above the subframe.



13. Wrangle the DPF out, it requires a bit of twisting and trickery. Be careful not to squash and wires or damage sensors. We disconnected the oil temp sensor (at bottom of sump) to give us more room. Highly recommend wearing some gloves while doing this.

14. DPF out



15. Cut hole in DPF with cutting disc


Give yourself room to smash out insides, but probably doesnt have to be quite as big a hole as we did

16. Smash out inside with hammer+screw driver. Strip out lining and give a blast of compressed air to clean it out.




17. Weld her back up


18. Put everything back together in reverse order.

19. Get ECU remapped.

[ForceFed]

Very nice and very illegal. Probably worth the risk though. I'm glad mine has no DPF.

[GoLfMan]

nice one, where are you getting yours remapped?

nice MIG welds by the way!

[jazd]

Very nice and very illegal. Probably worth the risk though. I'm glad mine has no DPF.

At this stage its worth it

nice one, where are you getting yours remapped?

nice MIG welds by the way!

Downloaded the code from it and sent it to Martin from Pendle Performance in the UK then flashed the file back on myself. So far so good but have only done about 80km on it. Will report back.

Can't take credit for the welds, my mate is a panel beater.

[benough]

So how much smoke does it blow?

[gecko2k]

So how much smoke does it blow?

+1

How is the performance gain?

I considered Pendle Performance for my TDI too. Did they supply you with a flashing unit?

[jazd]

Doesn't blow that much smoke at all.. Noticable in the rear view mirror under hard acceleration but other than that not much. Will have to take a vid.

Power is much better at the top end, I think the tune is a lot smoother than the Bluefin tune I was running so its hard to make a comparison. Its deceptively quicker now though, doesn't feel that much faster but when you watch the speedo dial its obvious.

No flashing unit, I bought my own tool then shopped around for a tuner. Pendle has a good reputation with removing DPFs especially with the Transporter vans and Martin seems to know his stuff with ECU remapping.

[gecko2k]

Yeah Martin has a great reputation in the T4/T5 scene for sure! He's recently also become a (guest) contributor for the T4/5 magazine. I might have to PM you regarding the flash tool, as I would looooove to have a Pendle Performance tune for my van

[Jase]

Jazd, sounds like you had a Bluefin remap whilst you had the DPF. How much performance improvement did you notice once you removed the guts of the DPF?

[jazd]

Jazd, sounds like you had a Bluefin remap whilst you had the DPF. How much performance improvement did you notice once you removed the guts of the DPF?

Yes I had a Bluefin before.

I am running a Pendle Performance remap now, I have recorded easily repeatable times of 7.2 seconds to 100 km/h (including DSG lag and lots of wheelspin). Its definitely quicker now but I never really recorded 0-100 with the Bluefin.