2008 530D - DPF warning

[Spanglepants]

Had a PDF warning on dash on Sunday night. I've booked the car in for tomorrow morning for a diagnostic. Am I likely to have any options apart from replacement? I've read it could also be something like a split vacuum hose that could bring this warning up whichight also explain the feeling I have that it has some turbo lag, either way im guessing it's not going to be cheap?

[JWH]

Try using Adobe Acrobat reader, it should allow you to view the full pdf.

[Spanglepants]

On phone so that was an autocorrect I never noticed?
DPF!

Edited by Spanglepants on Thursday 20th October 11:20

[Ahbefive]

There goes the economy saving of having a diesel.

[helix402]

Dpf faults on these are often caused by faulty thermostats or glow plugs. Forced regens can unblock the dpf in the the early stage of blockage. In case of major blockage they can be sent away for cleaning. On BMWs they only usually block due to a problem, a lot of people simply put a cheap aftermarket dpf on and send the customer away. The car comes back with the same fault shortly afterwards.

[Welshbeef]

helix402 said:

Dpf faults on these are often caused by faulty thermostats or glow plugs. Forced regens can unblock the dpf in the the early stage of blockage. In case of major blockage they can be sent away for cleaning. On BMWs they only usually block due to a problem, a lot of people simply put a cheap aftermarket dpf on and send the customer away. The car comes back with the same fault shortly afterwards.

Hold on it's a 8 year old car and DPFs are a 150k condition based service item. Some last 200k+ others if you just drive round town short trips less than the 150k miles



OP what miles have you achieved so far?

[helix402]

Dpf replacement was removed from the CBS system on later BMWs, I think from 03/07 onwards.

[Welshbeef]

helix402 said:

Dpf replacement was removed from the CBS system on later BMWs, I think from 03/07 onwards.

It's a service part period.

[Fox-]

Welshbeef said:

It's a service part period.

No it's not - only in the same way a shock absorber might be. It isn't part of any service schedule and has no replacement interval.

[Welshbeef]

Fox- said:

Welshbeef said:

It's a service part period.

No it's not - only in the same way a shock absorber might be. It isn't part of any service schedule and has no replacement interval.

Well my E90 330d had it as a service item on 150k.


But yes agree shocks would be the same too however he very very vast majority of people never change shocks they are kept as the original parts from day 1. What joe public doesn't like paying for is preventative long term servicing bushes shocks springs DPF clutch timing chain exhaust etc.

[Vee]

OP
Assuming the lack of power is related to the DPF, it is because the exhaust back pressure is too high and the car is playing safe.
This could be 2 things . .

1) the pressure sensor is faulty. My old 35d was reading 3 bar. It should be in the 0-100 millibar range I think. If it really was 3 bar the car shouldn't even tick over.

2) the DPF is blocked and the pressure sensor is reading correctly.
If blocked then get it cleaned (approx £500) and have the garage take the car on a long test drive to confirm that it is actually regenerating. If it isn't regening then that needs to be sorted as well otherwise it will just block again. It won't regen if the thermostats are not working and/or 4 or more glow plugs have failed - these are very common issues on that engine.


What mileage on your car and how is it driven ? Long journeys or start stop traffic ?
I bought mine with 40k on and ran it 70% around around town to 110k before the DPF needed cleaning, and I think that was only because I ran it for 3-4 months with failed thermostats (temp never got higher than 70c) doing 60 miles per day.

Edited by Vee on Thursday 20th October 08:58

[helix402]

[Spanglepants]

Just got back from having the car diagnosed.
DPF is blocked, glow plugs all have fault codes, car not reaching temperature ( 80 c ) .
So they presented me with two options
a) DPF delete and remap but not change glow plugs - £550
b) change all glow plugs and thermostats then do re gen - £500

Part of me wants to g o with re map and delete so problem doesn't arise again, but Im not convinced car will pass MOT in future which will then give me another large bill to replace DPF etc.

I would guess having the glow plugs and thermostats changed with the re gen will as well as curing the problem reinstate any lost performance any way. He said it was down on power quite a bit mainly due to the blocked DPF.
But will a re gen definitely clean the DPF? What if its blocked more than they can tell at the moment?

Also car has 138,000 miles and does a mixture of 3-4 miles in Milton Keynes so pretty high speeds and acceleration or longish journeys and I dont particularly drive slow.

Edited by Spanglepants on Thursday 20th October 11:22

[Ahbefive]

Dpf delete will end you up as one of those black cloud smokers. Don't be one of those people.

[helix402]

I have found that if the car runs a forced regen will usually clear the dpf.

[Spanglepants]

Thats exactly what i don't want, Im going to go with glow plugs and the thermostats.

Ahbefive said:

Dpf delete will end you up as one of those black cloud smokers. Don't be one of those people.

[helix402]

Wise choice.

[Vee]

My opinion . . .
If you are going to keep the car then the glow plugs and thermostats need changing anyway.
Whilst the intake manifold is off they may as well sort out any swirl flap leaks (if not previously done) and also change the glow plug controller (only an extra £90 for the part iirc).
Then have the forced regen and see if that clears it.
If it doesn't then have it cleaned.

[Spanglepants]

Well Im hoping that when they do a forced re gen after changing those parts it will be able to do a full re gen.

helix402 said:

I have found that if the car runs a forced regen will usually clear the dpf.

[Andehh]

Spanglepants said:

Just got back from having the car diagnosed.
DPF is blocked, glow plugs all have fault codes, car not reaching temperature ( 80 c ) .
So they presented me with two options
a) DPF delete and remap but not change glow plugs - £550
b) change all glow plugs and thermostats then do re gen - £500

Part of me wants to g o with re map and delete so problem doesn't arise again, but Im not convinced car will pass MOT in future which will then give me another large bill to replace DPF etc.

I would guess having the glow plugs and thermostats changed with the re gen will as well as curing the problem reinstate any lost performance any way. He said it was down on power quite a bit mainly due to the blocked DPF.
But will a re gen definitely clean the DPF? What if its blocked more than they can tell at the moment?

Also car has 138,000 miles and does a mixture of 3-4 miles in Milton Keynes so pretty high speeds and acceleration or longish journeys and I dont particularly drive slow.

I went with a DPF delete & remap on my Skoda at exactly the same milage as you. I can't comment on the glow plugs i'm afraid. Skoda replaced all mine as part of a VOSA recall (at 140k miles & remap etc) it passed it's MOTs fine, and didn't smoke excessively.

3-4 mile journeys even at ''high speed'' will not be enough to keep a DPF in good order. I would do a good 30min blast once a week to make sure you clear it out.