"Unclogging" DPF

[Umai Naa!!]

Any issues regarding the DPF should be taken seriously. Neither VW or yourself would want to pay for a $2500 part unnecessarily.

[silvershadow]

Any issues regarding the DPF should be taken seriously. Neither VW or yourself would want to pay for a $2500 part unnecessarily.

Is this price correct?

Other posts in this forum have mentioned prices around $5K for a replacement DPF.

[gldgti]

maybe referring to actual part cost, not including labour? There have bee na few number thrown around, but lets face it, anything with platinum in it is going to cost you bigtime.

[Inego]

Thanks guys - I have it booked in for tomorrow, so it'll be checked out and have a forced regen. run. Might mention the altered settings as well, as (at least during the week) it mainly does 5-10 min runs in traffic.

And look for excuses to flog it at the weekend.....

Kent

[gregozedobe]

..... as (at least during the week) it mainly does 5-10 min runs in traffic.

That is the absolute worst case scenario for a DPF equipped VAG TDI engine

You will probably get told to take it for a good 20 minute run (over 2,000 rpm) once or twice a week.

Did your salesperson advise you that a DPF equipped TDI was OK for those sort of driving conditions ? If they did - they lied to you !

[Inego]

OK, took the car to the dealer yesterday to have the warning light checked, and they did the "1,500km service" as well.

End result - the car's clean, next regular service is next Feb. But the light's still on - their advice "8kmh+ for at least 15mins on a regular basis".

I was speaking to a friend last night (GTI owner) - he nows a GTd owner (that was the sports diesel wasn't it?) who wrecked their DPF ($3k replacement cost) beacuse they "didn't drive it hard enough".

It's a pity that VAG doesn't seem to publicise enough the need to get the regen working.....

Kent

[STV4SYT]

I used ot do regular short trips in mine, and i found that the best way to keep it rom unclogging was to knock it back into "S" and give it some beans thru the back streets on the way home from work 1 or 2 nights a week.

Dealer advice is to just go to a decent stretch of road and manully hold the car in 3rd or 4th.


Ive only had the light come on twice in 25000km

[Inego]

Dealer advice is to just go to a decent stretch of road and manully hold the car in 3rd or 4th.

I suppose my issue is that VAG ought to be providing very clear advice, and not only in the manual about the issue (and I haven't found anything in the manual. All it says about the DPF is contact the dealer if the light comes on). Equally, dealers should be mentioning it at pickup, given, at best, it will mean an early return for many inner-city owners....

What do people who don't cruise net forums do about this sort of stuf??

Kent

[Greg Roles]

They pay for it at the dealers sadly. I have found that keeping the car out of "lag" range, that is sub 1800 rpm, and I don't get obvious auto regens more than once a month. If I just drive "normally" around town, it happens almost weekly. I spend a lot more time in 3rd at 60kph than usual.

It's a good excuse to install either a boost guage, an EGT guage, or just get a Scan guage II, which does all this and more. Search on here, Polar did a good writeup about it. Mid $200US too from memory.

[gldgti]

I used ot do regular short trips in mine, and i found that the best way to keep it rom unclogging was to knock it back into "S" and give it some beans thru the back streets on the way home from work 1 or 2 nights a week.

that seems a sensible thing to do really. Another thing that i reckon a lot of new diesel owners might not realise off the bat, is that the diesel wont chew the fuel when you get up it. People with only petrol car experience coming to the TDI fold likely are fairly conservative drivers (why else would you buy a normal TDI but for the great car and fuel economy, right?) but if you havnt hada diesel before its not obvious that making it work hard doesnt hurt your fuel economy much.

The best i've ever got from my mk3 diesel is 922km/tank, and the worst is 760km/tank. my normal fillup is about 45-46 liters..... thats not really a lot of variance.