DPF fault

[Katie Garner]

Hi so hope you all don’t mind me asking another question but I do like to try and get a little knowledge and opinions/experience of issues I’m facing so can go into the situation a little armed!
My 2013 Mercedes e250 has an engine management warning Light on.
It has covered 55000 miles, I do a lot of short runs so from my reading so far I think this could have caused an issue as the fault code refers to the DPF.
It’s going into the garage on Saturday for them to have a further look and give me a price.
It isn’t driving right so I’m almost sure it isn’t a faulty sensor and that there is an actual issue.
Has anyone had similar issue? What was the outcome for the repair and cost?
It seems there are many options to sort this out depending on the severity of blockage etc.
Thanks in advance

[Saleen836]

When was the last time you took the car for a good long (40-50miles) continuous drive? If you have a motorway near you go for a long drive and if possible keep it 1 gear down from top gear to keep the revs up for at least 10miles when normal runing temp has been reached, then put it in top and keep at a constant 70-80mph for the remaining 30-40miles, see if this makes a difference before spenind money at a garage.

[Ed/L152]

My garage gave me 3 options for a clogged DPF: 1) new OEM filter for lots of money, 2) new pattern filter for not so much money, 3) clean the old filter for not so much money but car off the road for 3 days.

I went with option 3 to retain an OEM specification part for not much money. The cleaning service returned an analysis of the flow through the filter pre- and post-cleaning.

[Katie Garner]

Saleen836 said:

When was the last time you took the car for a good long (40-50miles) continuous drive? If you have a motorway near you go for a long drive and if possible keep it 1 gear down from top gear to keep the revs up for at least 10miles when normal runing temp has been reached, then put it in top and keep at a constant 70-80mph for the remaining 30-40miles, see if this makes a difference before spenind money at a garage.

I thought about doing this but garage said that it wouldn’t regenerate now that the code was showing?

[Katie Garner]

Ed/L152 said:

My garage gave me 3 options for a clogged DPF: 1) new OEM filter for lots of money, 2) new pattern filter for not so much money, 3) clean the old filter for not so much money but car off the road for 3 days.

I went with option 3 to retain an OEM specification part for not much money. The cleaning service returned an analysis of the flow through the filter pre- and post-cleaning.

Yes I think we will be doing option 3, the garage said new filter is 4 figures!

[The Turbonator]

Katie Garner said:

I thought about doing this but garage said that it wouldn’t regenerate now that the code was showing?

If it's gone into limp mode then no it won't

Cheapest option is to get it cleaned and the fault code reset but it will quickly block again if you don't change the kind of trips you're doing. You might want to start thinking about getting another car with a petrol engine before it starts getting incredibly expensive.

I don't know what type of garage you're taking it to but if they offer to remove the DPF altogether and delete it from them ECU then refuse, it's now an MOT failure

[Katie Garner]

The Turbonator said:

Katie Garner said:

I thought about doing this but garage said that it wouldn’t regenerate now that the code was showing?

If it's gone into limp mode then no it won't

Cheapest option is to get it cleaned and the fault code reset but it will quickly block again if you don't change the kind of trips you're doing. You might want to start thinking about getting another car with a petrol engine before it starts getting incredibly expensive.

I don't know what type of garage you're taking it to but if they offer to remove the DPF altogether and delete it from them ECU then refuse, it's now an MOT failure

I don’t think it is limp mode yet, that’s when it won’t drive at all isn’t it?
I will definitely factor in some long runs for the future and also consider a Petrol car next I think!
They haven’t mentioned about removing, only different methods of cleaning.
I’ll bear that in mind though thank you!