Thread: Has my Puma got a DPF or not.

Originally Posted by nedflanders

Your one of the lucky ones then, we were warned as Patrols that the BBC watchdog programe was investing for a possible show. The problem is with the UK market, to much traffic and people want smaller cars that do better mpg, small diesel cars with DPF was the biggest problem. The Mazda DOES increase fuel, I've had to crawl under th bloody things to drop the oil level! Don't believe me, have a look at one of their diptsticks, there's a Low and Hign mark and above the high another mark which is the danger level, the oil used to pour out like dirty diesel. Different manufacturers have different methods, I'm simpy talking from experience.

Not lucky, I did my homework and went in fully informed.

I frequent a UK forum for this particular car and they still are hell-bent over there on selecting diesel/petrol based on mileage per year. When IMO it should be selected on miles per journey.
Under 20km per journey, buy a petrol. Diesels regardless of DPF or not hate short, cold running. Diesels with a DPF just hate it more.

The DPF in my car has at least three regeneration modes. Passive is in normal use where it just drops boost to raise exhaust temps and let the DPF burn itself clean.
Active is where it retards injection timing as well, commonrail engines can also do a post combustion injection to add extra fuel to the exhaust fire. If you trigger these on a cold engine or at low load then I can see diesel getting into the sump.
Forced is when the vehicle is parked outside, diagnostics plugged in and it runs high idle with no boost and post injection for enough time to try and burn the DPF clear. This is what the dealer does if your DPF light comes on.

Diagnostics show my DPF is still in excellent health at ~90,000km and at current rates would survive well past 300,000km.
But those who get a smokey performance remap can kill a DPF straight away. Forums are full of those people.

I went the other way, I got a custom map done which shut down EGR (less soot), advancing injection timing and raised torque limiters without raising boost or fuel beyond stock limits. Essentially turning the flat spot on the torque curve into a smooth upward peak. Saving me almost 1 litre/100km, improving drivability and further protecting the DPF.

If an engine can be remapped, then the DPF can be mapped out of it just as easily. Those who try things like replacing the DPF with straight pipe or plug in emulators cause a few more problems.
Those periodic passive regenerations will put white smoke out the back of a vehicle without a working DPF.

Do it properly, get it mapped out if you want to remove one.

The upshot is its a complicated system, I've seen other manufacturers get it wrong and I wouldn't touch a car with one. I'd rather buy a second hand Defender without one than a new one with but that's just me.

i use CEM FTC decarbonizer and i have no issues with the dpf setup on the vw and i know people that have and nearly all of them ceased to have trouble once they started using it.

also have no issues with the egr and i know quite a few that have.

CEM FTC decarbonizer has quite a few benefits imho

Originally Posted by nedflanders

The upshot is its a complicated system, I've seen other manufacturers get it wrong and I wouldn't touch a car with one. I'd rather buy a second hand Defender without one than a new one with but that's just me.

It is not difficult to remove a DPF from a vehicle and remap it to run correctly without it.
You're avoiding some very good vehicles (not talking defender here) with that fear.

But why should you have to use something extra just to ensure your car runs OK, VW/Audi group are marketed as being premium brands, I used to hate going to breakdowns on them (and I could spend all day on nothing but) as it was always a tow as nothing could be fixed roadside. From experience Vauxhall (or Holden/Opel) were the most unreliable followed by VW group I went out to Suburus the least and virtually no Land Rovers, I can even remember what they were, TD5 Defender with a stuck fuel cap, Defender 300TDI with a holed injector pipe, Disco water pump and a couple of flat batteries. All fixed at roadside, I drive a Defender and the wife drives a Suburu.

Thanks inc, $120 a liter is exp for FTC but $675 for 20l seems very attractive, a winner if it stops the EGR gunking up too. and that it stops fungus too, bonus.

I used FOC and Cleanpower on a high km diesel and the results were quite impressive so their stuff does work.

makes sense to me

Originally Posted by nedflanders

But why should you have to use something extra just to ensure your car runs OK, VW/Audi group are marketed as being premium brands, I used to hate going to breakdowns on them (and I could spend all day on nothing but) as it was always a tow as nothing could be fixed roadside. From experience Vauxhall (or Holden/Opel) were the most unreliable followed by VW group I went out to Suburus the least and virtually no Land Rovers, I can even remember what they were, TD5 Defender with a stuck fuel cap, Defender 300TDI with a holed injector pipe, Disco water pump and a couple of flat batteries. All fixed at roadside, I drive a Defender and the wife drives a Suburu.

3 DPF VAG group vehicles in my family. Two of them had DPF sensors replaced (common failure across all VAG vehicles, USA built part failed). That's the extent of DPF problems for these three.
None of these vehicles use additives of any kind.

I'd never buy a subaru.

Each to there own, I'm sorry if you don't like what I'm saying but I'm talking from my own experience, yours is obviously different. The difference between Australia and Europe is VAG are still thought of as a premium brand here, it doesn't matter where the part that fails is built, it's still fitted and still causes a breakdown!!!
It's difficult sometimes when someone has a different opinion to yours, especially when it comes to your car choice, like the lockout on a 6month Audi A4, top of the range and still in within 2minutes, the owner wasn't happy that it was so easy to break into, or the Aston Martin with a broken switch, sourced from a Ford Mondeo!!
I'm just saying if you haven't had a DPF failure your doing well