Seeking DPF advice

Fargo Boyle

Hi there,

I bought my first diesel car in October last year. I was in the market for a petrol avensis estate but was struggling to find one within budget.

Anyway, a friend of mine offered me a good deal on a Seat Leon ST 1.6 diesel which I ended up going for.
I was wary of DPF issues after hearing some horror stories over the years.

My daily commute is 20km on country roads generally, rarely get out on motorway.
Anyway, that's the backstory, I am just curious about the normal frequency rate of DPF regens. I have found that mine will occur somewhere between 250km and 300.

If I am understanding things right these are 'active' regens.
Is it advisable for a car to always be performing these or would you need passive regens as well from longer motorway runs?
Or does it make no odds at all?!

No issues yet, car is great in fact, but would consider offloading for a petrol if DPF issue became apparent. Bit of a ramble..apologies

Any advice welcome!

colm_mcm

That seems normal to me. How frequently do you hear the cooling fan running when you turn the engine off?
You don’t need to be on the motorway to regen on those. They’ll even do it driving in town once engine is up to temp.

punisher5112

You would want to be adding in some longer drives and get it running around 30 minutes at least as the regen can take that long.

Good spirited drive too. Should be good then.

colm_mcm

punisher5112 wrote: »

You would want to be adding in some longer drives and get it running around 30 minutes at least as the regen can take that long.

Good spirited drive too. Should be good then.

I think they only take 10 minutes on newer TDIs, if even that,
you don’t need to drive hard as it actively manages the temperatures itself.

You can tell when it’s doing a regen as the fans come on, fuel consumption goes up, and idle goes up to 1000rpm

Shah91n

What I do and it's my case "BMW 1.9" - all good as well in my car but because I do not even drive long journeys and I do short journeys "as they call it city driving", I do monitor the DPF via an app time to time once I see the soot level reachs the grams that my car activate regens, I do go to M50 and drive for 20mins up and down until back to almost 2%.

if I do not want to wait for the car to active that automatically, I hit a button in the app that activate it and I go for the drive to ensure the car is in a good condition.

so, I would either suggest monitoring it or if you are not into this, then every week make sure, take it for a run for at least 15 min constant speed somewhere in motor way and like that u will be fine.

DrSpongeBobz

Yep I use an app to monitor dpf levels too.Only way to keep soot levels down by adapting your driving.

Also any of those dpf fuel adjectives worth using?

Whocare

What this app ?

DrSpongeBobz

Whocare wrote: »

What this app ?

VAG dpf app to see soot levels

and carista app do make your car start an active regen if you want

Fargo Boyle

Thank for replies folks!

you have put my mind at ease regarding the frequency these regens have occurred so far. It has only happened once that I have stopped car during regen and was unable to continue driving or i would be late for work! i have actually just taken delivery of the carista obd monitor so I can more accurately predict when regen will initiate, but i only have the free VAG dpf app, think i would need to fork out if i want the version that allows you to initiate the regen yourself. I'll try to squeeze in a spin on motorway more often too!

DrSpongeBobz

Fargo Boyle wrote: »

Thank for replies folks!

you have put my mind at ease regarding the frequency these regens have occurred so far. It has only happened once that I have stopped car during regen and was unable to continue driving or i would be late for work! i have actually just taken delivery of the carista obd monitor so I can more accurately predict when regen will initiate, but i only have the free VAG dpf app, think i would need to fork out if i want the version that allows you to initiate the regen yourself. I'll try to squeeze in a spin on motorway more often too!

VAG app won't let you do a regen the five euro version just gives you more information.You need to download the carista app for the obd monitor to do more advanced stuff such as starting a regen.You get a free months trial but its 40 euro a year after that.I think its worth it tbh.