E60 530D - how to tell if it has a DPF?

[reggie82]

Hi all,

I bought a 2008 530D earlier this year and the seller told me it hadn’t been remapped, however, I since noticed there is an invoice for a remap in the paperwork.

So now I’m wondering if it had DPF removal too. I don’t know where the DPF is, so not sure if I can easily check?

I have noticed it doesn’t include DPF within the service menu on idrive, which guessing means it has been coded out as I’ve read others talking about checking status of DPF within idrive?

I never see smoke coming out of the exhaust, even when I put my foot down, but if I wipe my finger on the inside of the exhaust there is a black residue which I’m presuming is soot.

Is there an easy way to do a visual check?

[d_a_n1979]

It will have had a DPF

Look on www.realoem.com - put the last 7 digits of your VIN into the box at the top of the page and it'll bring up your exact car

Look on the engine diagram and you'll see all the parts related to the engine etc

IIRC it'd be at the front, a rectangular box

[reggie82]

Thanks, can’t tell for 100% but looks like it connects on to the back of the turbo, I’ll have a look and see if I can see something that looks like a DPF there!

I’m just trying to gets a heads up if there’s something I’m going to need to sort for it’s MOT.

[reggie82]

Ok I can see there is a dpf there, I guess what I don’t know is whether it’s been gutted.

I don’t get black smoke so thinking it hasnt. But as I can’t see the dpf within idrive and do have black residue on the inside of my tail pipe a bit worried it might have been.

Can anyone confirm whether I should have dpf info within the idrive menu?

[d_a_n1979]

reggie82 said:

Ok I can see there is a dpf there, I guess what I don’t know is whether it’s been gutted.

I don’t get black smoke so thinking it hasnt. But as I can’t see the dpf within idrive and do have black residue on the inside of my tail pipe a bit worried it might have been.

Can anyone confirm whether I should have dpf info within the idrive menu?

I don't recall seeing the DPF mentioned on my 06 730D iDrive, but it did show up when I used Carly for BMW etc

Do you know anyone that has the likes of INPA, NCS, Bimmercode or Carly etc? Prob best way to communicate with it

But as you said, it could have been gutted and coded out too

[reggie82]

No unfortunately not. I do have a little icarsoft fault code reader actually, so will plug that in when it stops raining to see if it tells me anything. P

[reggie82]

Plugged in icarsoft and it says last dpf regen was just under 12k miles ago - so looks like it does has one!

From a bit of further research it seems the lci cars don’t have dpf info within idrive, so presuming the older ones did.

Cheers for your help 👍

[stevemcs]

If it regened 12k ago and the tailpipe has soot then i would say its been gutted.

[reggie82]

stevemcs said:

If it regened 12k ago and the tailpipe has soot then i would say its been gutted.

Wouldn’t I see a cloud of soot out of the rear window when I put my foot down if it has been gutted?

Also I’ve done a bit more research and apparently they regen every 300 miles or so. But in the service menu of the car they give it a 100,000 mile life, and I think the life of my one was reset about 12k ago.

What I’ve also found out is I have glow plug codes on, which prevents a regen, so don’t think my dpf is regenerating at all at the moment.

Edited by reggie82 on Tuesday 25th August 23:39

[stevemcs]

If it has a dpf then there should be no soot at the tailpipe, lci cars dpf’s don’t have a service life

If you have a couple of codes stored for glow plugs then it may just be the glow plug, if it’s all 6 then it’s likely to be the controller

[reggie82]

Cheers Steve. I’ll give the tail pipes a clean and see if it come back, but doesn’t sound like a good sign.

Yeah it’s all glow plugs so think it’s the controller.

[bigdom]

Check the thermostat operating temperature, if they don't get up to over 80c, if won't regenerate. Both will need replacing, pretty easy to do. Other sites are available, although https://www.c3bmw.co.uk/ are often good value.

[d_a_n1979]

bigdom said:

Check the thermostat operating temperature, if they don't get up to over 80c, if won't regenerate. Both will need replacing, pretty easy to do. Other sites are available, although https://www.c3bmw.co.uk/ are often good value.

^^

Agree with this; had similar issues on a previous E65 730D; replaced both stats and zero issues

I got all genuine BMW stats via BMW on eBay and it was cheaper than C3BMW that time around; worth checking

[stevemcs]

There are 3 stats if its an automatic and you may find its the glowplug control unit as well as the thermostats

[reggie82]

Cheers guys, the previous owner changed the thermostats not long before I bought it.

[d_a_n1979]

reggie82 said:

Cheers guys, the previous owner changed the thermostats not long before I bought it.

Doesn’t mean they’ve not failed!

Get the temps up on the hidden dash, or use an OBD II reader to get the live temps

[reggie82]

Oh I didn’t realise the thermostats were that unreliable. I’ll check the temp on my computer.

[reggie82]

d_a_n1979 said:

^^

Agree with this; had similar issues on a previous E65 730D; replaced both stats and zero issues

I got all genuine BMW stats via BMW on eBay and it was cheaper than C3BMW that time around; worth checking

What issues did you have? I appreciate it’s worth checking the thermostats anyway, but I’m totally lost as to how this links back to me wondering if my dpf has been removed?

Are you saying the faulty thermostats caused each glow plug to throw a fault?

[stevemcs]

For a DPF to work the car needs to see various parameters to be met, these depend on make and model.

On the BMW for it to regen it will need to see the engine temperature at a certain point, so lets say 94 degrees, when the thermostats fail they will usually stay closed and not open or restrict the temp to 80 degrees, because of this it won't carry out a regen.

You also have fault codes for the glow plugs, again because of these the car won't regen as there is a fault on the circuit, we had an X5 in a few weeks ago and the glow plug unit stopped it carrying out a regen, it was going into limp mode and stopped carrying out regens.

Some cars look at fuel level, oil quality, fault on the injection/egr/intake/sensons circuits and the DPF will slowly start to block and restrict performance, again we had a 320d a customer had just purchased the previous owner had had that mapped and the insides smashed out.

If your car hasn't carried out a regen in 12k then i would guess its been removed and the software tweaked. Diagnostics should show soot and ash content which will also point you in the right direction. When a DPF fails its usually as a result of something, normally they work but will only block if something prevents them carrying out a regen. Some cars you can force, others will carry out a regen while driving, our preference is to roadtest a car for 30 minutes and let the car do it naturally.

You need to start with replacing the relay unit and then check the temps of the thermostats to get the car running right, however it may still produce soot and fail the MOT.

[stevemcs]

Oh and to answer the original question, the only way to tell is to drop the exhaust and look up it (or poke a stick up)