Got my DPF cleaned out
Discussion
So my E65 730d was telling me that after 112,000 miles, the DPF had only 700 miles left. A google search told of tales of mapping it out + removal (makes it smoky and possible MOT fail if busted) or a ££££££££ replacement by BMW which is bonkers for a near 10 year old car.
Happened upon an outfit called terraclean, who 'clean out' the DPF with a special agent and then run the car under load for an extended time to force a regen. I missed the guy doing the cleaning as I was in a meeting but when he was done after an hour or so he asked me to go with him for a 'spirited' drive to get the exhaust temperature up. He left the laptop plugged into the OBD port and when pulling out of my drive I was alarmed by the enormous clouds of blue smoke (something I've never ever seen from my car) which only got bigger when I booted it up a nearby hill. Within a minute or two the smoke had cleared, the regen did its thing and after about 15 mins it went into 'passive' regen which showed all was well. The car's DPF countdown has reset to 120,000 miles. Apparently the smoke is all the crap pushed through by the cleaning agent burning off inside the exhaust.
The car definitely feels a bit perkier to drive and the cost was only £180.
Will it work in the long term? I don't know. Will I still need a £1500 replacement BMW DPF. I hope not. I'll keep you guys posted.
Happened upon an outfit called terraclean, who 'clean out' the DPF with a special agent and then run the car under load for an extended time to force a regen. I missed the guy doing the cleaning as I was in a meeting but when he was done after an hour or so he asked me to go with him for a 'spirited' drive to get the exhaust temperature up. He left the laptop plugged into the OBD port and when pulling out of my drive I was alarmed by the enormous clouds of blue smoke (something I've never ever seen from my car) which only got bigger when I booted it up a nearby hill. Within a minute or two the smoke had cleared, the regen did its thing and after about 15 mins it went into 'passive' regen which showed all was well. The car's DPF countdown has reset to 120,000 miles. Apparently the smoke is all the crap pushed through by the cleaning agent burning off inside the exhaust.
The car definitely feels a bit perkier to drive and the cost was only £180.
Will it work in the long term? I don't know. Will I still need a £1500 replacement BMW DPF. I hope not. I'll keep you guys posted.
I'm afraid I don't know what he actually did as I left him to it for an hour or so while I was busy sorting out some other stuff (I work from my family farm). When I returned he was holding the car at fairly high revs with a device that attaches to the steering wheel whilst pressing the accelerator. He was looking at some diagnostic stuff from the OBD on a laptop.
It definitely did something as the huge clouds of blue smoke that came out of the back when I gave it the beans out of the driveway were unreal and having had this trusty 7er from nearly new to almost 10 years old now have never witnessed before. Anyone with a modern BMW knows that the one thing they don't do is smoke, and I literally left a smoke screen for a good mile and half along the road near the farm. According to the chap who did it, this was all the crap pushed out of the DPF burning off inside the exhaust and would clear up after a couple of miles and he was right. I drove the car on a 40 mile trip this afternoon with no sign of smoke.
Snake oil? I don't know. Just thought I'd share it with you gentlemen.
It definitely did something as the huge clouds of blue smoke that came out of the back when I gave it the beans out of the driveway were unreal and having had this trusty 7er from nearly new to almost 10 years old now have never witnessed before. Anyone with a modern BMW knows that the one thing they don't do is smoke, and I literally left a smoke screen for a good mile and half along the road near the farm. According to the chap who did it, this was all the crap pushed out of the DPF burning off inside the exhaust and would clear up after a couple of miles and he was right. I drove the car on a 40 mile trip this afternoon with no sign of smoke.
Snake oil? I don't know. Just thought I'd share it with you gentlemen.
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