BMW e90 DPF Issues

[DJM7691]

I would appreciate some advice with my e92 330d, I have got a dpf issue which causes a fault normally after approx 10 minutes of normal driving. The fault mentions its partially blocked and I am ok to continue, but obviously I am worried that if it is clogging and not regenning then eventually it will block and I will be in limp-home mode.

Some background, I have had the car since 80k miles, and am doing 30k miles a year, its now on 130k. I do 50 miles each way on my commute, probably 70% dual carriageway and motorway and 30% B roads, no town driving. With this in mind, I thought I shouldnt really be having any dpf issues, but then I found out what the regen pre-requisities are:

Coolant temperature at least 75 degrees
Exhaust temperature 240 degrees
at least 10 litres of fuel in the tank
60-80km/h speed maintained for approx 20 minutes

That final one surprised me and is probably the reason why I am having issues. My thermostats are all working fine, and after clearing fault codes and putting it into a forced regen mode, I can't get rid of the fault coming back.

Has anyone got any advice for a way of de-clogging the dpf, or any ideas of how I can get it to regen? Apparently, another useful feature is that the dpf cannot regen when the fault code is active, so I basically have 10 minutes after clearing the fault to force a regen.

Any advice appreciated, I would rather no shell out 1200 minimum to get a new one fitted!

[helix402]

You can get your existing Dpf cleaned by various companies. They come back good as new.

[DJM7691]

helix402 said:

You can get your existing Dpf cleaned by various companies. They come back good as new.

Have you had any experience of this and can recomend somewhere?

[helix402]

I used Dpf clean team for a customers Dpf when I used to run my own business. They did a great job, can't remember the price but I think it's on their website.

[twokcc]

DJM7691 said:

That final one surprised me and is probably the reason why I am having issues. My thermostats are all working fine, and after clearing fault codes and putting it into a forced regen mode, I can't get rid of the fault coming back.

Has anyone got any advice for a way of de-clogging the dpf, or any ideas of how I can get it to regen? Apparently, another useful feature is that the dpf cannot regen when the fault code is active, so I basically have 10 minutes after clearing the fault to force a regen.

Any advice appreciated, I would rather no shell out 1200 minimum to get a new one fitted!

Used to be plenty of excellent advice on this on the now sadly defunct BMWland. I bought a 2009 325d e91 with 40k miles on it in 2014 and was worried about DPF regeneration as I only do about 7K miles a year.
At same time got a c110 scanner and checked coolant temparature, both replaced and now achieves 90 degrees and no problems with DPF
Advise was to drive the car with C110 connected and for passenger to keep clearing dpf codes as you continued to drive. Plenty of responses from user to say this had worked and car did a full regeneration.Worth a try presume that your passenger cold clear codes as you drive with whatever kit you've got to do this.
HTH

[Monty Python]

Is the EGR working properly? If it's stuck open it allows more particulates into the DPF which may mean it can't regenerate quickly enough to cope.

[DJM7691]

twokcc said:

Used to be plenty of excellent advice on this on the now sadly defunct BMWland. I bought a 2009 325d e91 with 40k miles on it in 2014 and was worried about DPF regeneration as I only do about 7K miles a year.
At same time got a c110 scanner and checked coolant temparature, both replaced and now achieves 90 degrees and no problems with DPF
Advise was to drive the car with C110 connected and for passenger to keep clearing dpf codes as you continued to drive. Plenty of responses from user to say this had worked and car did a full regeneration.Worth a try presume that your passenger cold clear codes as you drive with whatever kit you've got to do this.
HTH

Thanks for your help, I will give this a go. I am a bit of a noob when it comes to this, can I monitor exhaust temperature as well through the scanner?

Really frustrating that they have limited the regen speed to 60-80km/h, realistically the only place where you can keep a consistent speed going is a motorway, but you become a nuisance running along at 48mph!

[DJM7691]

Monty Python said:

Is the EGR working properly? If it's stuck open it allows more particulates into the DPF which may mean it can't regenerate quickly enough to cope.

I believe so, I would have thought I would have a noticeable lack of power if the EGR was stuck open?

[twokcc]

DJM7691 said:

Thanks for your help, I will give this a go. I am a bit of a noob when it comes to this, can I monitor exhaust temperature as well through the scanner?

Really frustrating that they have limited the regen speed to 60-80km/h, realistically the only place where you can keep a consistent speed going is a motorway, but you become a nuisance running along at 48mph!

Pretty certain that C110 includes exhaust temperatre so yes you can monior it, alo gives (back?) pressure for exhaust so can monitor at any time.
The BMW data sheet for conditions to regenerate is on the nett somewhere(but can't find it at moment) but pretty certain regeneration is NOT speed limited. Noticed mine regenerated a couple of times(on its own) and was on only good A roads without traffic and most of journey would be at NSL(60)
If you've not got a C110 would recommend it(was about £40) as can easily carry round in car and can check and clear fault codes and drive round with it connected to check most of the car functions.

[PDP76]

Your coolant temp is too low. You won't get a regen going. E90 thermostats are crap. Change the egr stat, check temps. If you are still below at least 88 get the main changed.
The ecu will never tell the car to start a regen at 75.

[PDP76]

To add. I'm an early e90 non dpf model so operating temp is only important for fuel economy. Just changed my egr thermostat ( my second in 8 years ish) and I'm back upto normal operating temp. Last time I changed the egr stat I had to do the main too. Temps were low to mid 70's. It's a common theme with the e90 models.

Today after 15 minutes driving

[DJM7691]

twokcc said:

Pretty certain that C110 includes exhaust temperatre so yes you can monior it, alo gives (back?) pressure for exhaust so can monitor at any time.
The BMW data sheet for conditions to regenerate is on the nett somewhere(but can't find it at moment) but pretty certain regeneration is NOT speed limited. Noticed mine regenerated a couple of times(on its own) and was on only good A roads without traffic and most of journey would be at NSL(60)
If you've not got a C110 would recommend it(was about £40) as can easily carry round in car and can check and clear fault codes and drive round with it connected to check most of the car functions.

I can't find that data sheet either, it does strike me as odd that it would have a maximum speed, but I can understand it having a minimum speed. Ive ordered a C110 from Amazon (£37) so will see what I can do with that.

[DJM7691]

PDP76 said:

Your coolant temp is too low. You won't get a regen going. E90 thermostats are crap. Change the egr stat, check temps. If you are still below at least 88 get the main changed.
The ecu will never tell the car to start a regen at 75.

I didn't say my car was reaching 75, more that it was mentioned as a pre-requisite that it had to be. I am not sure how to get in to the hidden menu to find the temperature, but when I dropped it into my local indy recently, he took a reading less than 5 mins after I had dropped it off and it was apparently 82 degrees.

PDP76 said:

To add. I'm an early e90 non dpf model so operating temp is only important for fuel economy. Just changed my egr thermostat ( my second in 8 years ish) and I'm back upto normal operating temp. Last time I changed the egr stat I had to do the main too. Temps were low to mid 70's. It's a common theme with the e90 models.

Today after 15 minutes driving

I might look into that, any idea on how to get into the hidden menu to find the temp? I have a December 2007 vehicle with iDrive if it makes a difference.

[twokcc]

c110 will give you live readout of temp.

[FurryExocet]

Same issue with my E90 325D. Would not regen. I've had the thermostats replaced, glow plugs done and had it cleaned out. It was fine for around 5 months and DPF fault came back again. Just had it cleaned again as it was really clogged up and had a back pressure fault come up too (have to scan for error codes to see this)

Mines at 115k so not far off yours, but I do less miles now, which I think is an issue, hence it will be sold now that it's all clean

[anonymous-user]

twokcc said:

c110 will give you live readout of temp.

Exactly how do you set it to do that? I have one but was unaware if that facility.

[twokcc]

REALIST123 said:

Exactly how do you set it to do that? I have one but was unaware if that facility.

Just set on screen which shows temp when cars running temp will update as it increases, not easy to read whilst driving but interesting readings looking at how long it takes to get up to temperature depending on ambient temperature and driving conditions

[Tell boy]

What was the problem in the end?