Legality of DPF delete

[Greg Roles]

Not a chance I'm afraid. I have Ryan01's old blocked DPF, and have cut it open. There is absolutely no way to pick the cat part and the filter part, it all looks like black sooty pumice stone. Only in the manual I have does it mention the fore part being the cat, and the rear 2/3 being the DPF per say. The whole DPF system relies on two pressure sensors before and one after the DPF, mess with the cannister, knock a hole in it, pull some out, and it's going to get incorrect pressure readings, go into limp at best, shutdown at worst, and spend the entire time trying to regen itself. When it regens it allows fuel to ignite into the cannister itself, and in people in the UK that have tried a delete pipe without a Custom Code tune ( the only one that currently works ) have all sorts of problems every regen, to my knowledge everyone on the Seat Cupra forums I have followed have either gone with the CCode tune or put their DPF back on.

You only have two options - a new DPF, or the delete from Gav. I'd chat to Transporter who once mentioned a source for much cheaper O/S DPF's, as it's a $4k proposition here, the delete is going to be half that by the by.

Crappy situation to be in, but I'm expecting a lot more DPF delimma's in coming years as people enter the 100k plus range and they clog up for good. Shame this is all hush hush from VW and all the other diesel manufacturers at time of purchase, something I aim to change. I'd still buy a diesel, but it's a timebomb for short, city drivers that never get it hot, nor run a catch can etc to extend it's life.

[Greg Roles]

There's a slight flaw in the logic. Diesels are required to have a cat converter from about 2008 or so - But the rule states that if it came from the factory with one, you can't remove it. Although it's going to be a lot harder to tell than a petrol one. I intend on getting a downpipe and these don't come with cats. The issue with your idea is that I believe the cat and DPF are one piece, aren't they? Or is the DPF a replacement for a cat? I don't remember to be honest.

I have a 2005 diesel so I have no DPF and I intend on getting a downpipe without a cat. Legality of it is an issue....

It would be easy to add a performance cat to a dump pipe, just require a bit of welding, and I expect any exhaust shop could help you.

[kaanage]

For !@#%$@#%#%^% sake!! What moron designed this component??
No wonder it costs a fortune to replace since the cat portion contains some pretty expensive metals.

From looking at the Skoda DPF document, I'd thought that you could distinguish the separate components fairly easily .

Well, I'll be looking to do a DPF delete (with a working remap like CustomCode) and source a Mk5 PD cat to replace cannister to try and comply with the emissions that my car legally has to comply with.

[stormshark]

From experience, i can say two things.1) DPf delete will generate noticeably diesel smells, particles etc all the time , smoke puffs at sometimes
2)Be very careful about doing it both from EPA and functionality etc.From my albeit brief experience, whilst the power gains are noticeably there, the Delete may not be perfected, sensors are a problem,limp mode etc and therefore i would recommend waiting or an installer/solution that can "GUARANTEE" compatibilty and no issues!

[Greg Roles]

Custom Code seems to have a guaranteed solution, about 50 cars now in the UK, and very very few problems. To be fair Storm, you did get led on by another company, and to my knowledge NO OTHER company outside CCode has a proven tune at this stage. Your tune wasn't meant to work with an actual DPF delete pipe, so I'd suspect the fueling was out as well.

[stormshark]

Custom Code seems to have a guaranteed solution, about 50 cars now in the UK, and very very few problems. To be fair Storm, you did get led on by another company, and to my knowledge NO OTHER company outside CCode has a proven tune at this stage. Your tune wasn't meant to work with an actual DPF delete pipe, so I'd suspect the fueling was out as well.

Possibly a fair comment Greg, i wasn't implying that there was no claimed solution, just for people to be very careful,it was a costly frustrating exercise, and whilst i am grateful to Gav for his offer of help etc, i'm just over it for a while.Just thought i'd share my experience if anyone not giving it the sort of required deliberation/consideration that i obviously didn't, before jumping in.

[gldgti]

If we wait long enough, maybe eventually they'll make an emissions exemption for us dieselers. Worked for the golf 1 diesel in california 30 years ago...

Needless to say, all this talk is more than enough incentive for me to keep my 16 year old diesel running.

[Guy_H]

My engineer was here today certifying a stage 3 kit & I asked the question.

Definitely, 100% illegal in all states, no way to engineer around "removal" and the fine varies from $8,000 to $25,000.

Bummer

[mikinoz]

Just a semantic point here. If I do remove the DPF and have the car engineered and it passes, then I register it with those engineers papers, surely it cannot be the fault of the owner to cop the fine?

I say this as some of the engineers about the place are pretty loose on some things...

[kaanage]

no way to engineer around "removal"

But what about "replacement" with a cat without a DPF? If it allowed the car to meet all Euro 5 emissions specs EXCEPT for the 0.05 micron particulate requirement which models RELEASED before Jan 31 2010 and BOUGHT before jan 31 2011 do NOT have to comply with, then how is that illegal for a car like a 103kW CR Golf TDi?

The GTD wouldn't meet the release date criteria so there's no way around the DPF requirement for those