DIESEL ADDITIVES AND DPF CLEANERS.

[tucpal]

So today i will be trying out a new diesel additive
liqui moly super diesel additive.

here is a link to what it does.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&...h1DbL2cskQ

i have hear loads of good reviews about this stuff online
so i will give it a try and see how it works. 
 



in the next few weeks i will see if it is possible to do the liqui moly diesel purge 
to clean the injectors directly on the 2.0 cdti 
as this really does look like a very good product
and also i have read loads of very good reviews about this.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zpb1dGgwbo

i could do with a good quatly dpf cleaner additive recommending also.

so what do you use and why
and what do you add to your tank to keep your diesel in top shape.

[Rusty2009]

Best stuff is the pro-tec range mate.

[stigeye]

Last week I got the 'DPF full continue driving' and drove up the motorway for about ten minuted until the message went off. Yesterday it came back on and stayed on despite driving it on the motorway for about 40 minutes at around 3000 rpm. Tried it again a little later at around 2400rpm for around 20 minutes but still no luck.

Car was only serviced in FEB and the oil now looks as though there's too much in it, apparently failed regens can add diesel in the sump and degregate the oil, can't tell the oil life though as the DPF full message is on the screen so cannot check for anything else.

[tucpal]

The dpf system sucks I have had to do a forced regen as my car went into limp mode with dpf full no warnings no message ever seen saying car is doing one or needs one as yours has failed when you get the service soon message it will go into limp mode untill you get a forced one done dpf gegen will make the oil go black very quick also

[stigeye]

Same here, no warning messages prior to the blocked dpf, nothing to indicate it had any failed regens. Looks like it will need a forced regen and oil change.

[Rusty2009]

You don't get any warning messages or a tell tell light that the car is doing a DPF regen it annoys the hell out of me as it normal does one just I get to where I'm going so I have to go off driving again.

I did email Vauxhall

I own a 2012 2.0CDTI Vauxhall Astra Reg *******.
 
It does get annoying when I arrive at my destination only to discover the car is doing a DPF regen.
 
As failed DPF regens are bad for the engine and also the DPF, also the cost to replace DPF before labour costs is high why is there no message or even the orange warning light lit up?
 
This will allow the driver to clearly know the car needs to keep being driven.
 
Have there been any updates to the BCM / ECU software to include anything to supply such a warning since 2012 and if not can an update be done to include a message?

This is their reply

Dear Mr White,
 
Re: Vauxhall Astra, vehicle registration *******
 
Thank you for your recent contact to Vauxhall.
 
I can advise after raising your technical enquiry regarding the DPF, Vauxhalls technicians have been investigating this. 
 
Vauxhalls Technical Department have confirmed there is no known concern but if you are driving to enable a regeneration automatically then the light will not come on and you will only get the light come on when your driving style needs to be changed to carry one out. If the vehicle is on a dual carriageway/motorway a lot then the light should not come on.
 
Thank you for allowing me to clarify this for you on your behalf. 
 
 
Kind regards,
Bambos Neofitos
Vauxhall Customer Care Advisor 

[tucpal]

Other words we don't think it is an issue just drive for longer and never use the car off the motorway

[stigeye]

The car has a computer that tells it when a regen is required, why is it that VX cannot seem to give us a system that relays the DPF's general health so that we can be more pro-active and not have to wait for the bloody thing to fail before we know there's an actual problem.

Why don't these vehicle manufacturers just make a static or forced regen part of the service interval or make a DPF that has inners that can be simply unclamped & removed for cleaning or replacement when they are failing instead of a sealed unit which they would like the best part of between £1.5k & £2.5k for a replacement.

[Rusty2009]

I have to agree I don't think they fully read or fully understood my email.

There is a option to clean the DPF off the car. By pouring a cleaner in it and letting it sit. I'll see if I can find the link again.

I wouldn't recommend a static Regen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[stigeye]

So, car's been down our local garage and he's just rang to say that he thinks the problem is with one of the temperature sensors. Bear with me now as I'm not the most mechanically inclined people on the block...

He says there are two sensors on the exhaust/ engine (cant remember his exact words) but one is reading 350c when he tried a regen and the other was registering 0c. He had a go at taking out the errant sensor which he said was easy to get to but he could only slide it out about half way as it was too long to get past the fan. So he said he will have to remove the fan in order to get this sensor out.

He also said that there was loads of black smoke coming from the exhaust but the car would not finish the regen, it just continued through part of the cycle, probably because it wasn't reading the sufficient temp. He also said the diagnostic read that the filter had a saturation level of 105%, so we're stuck in limbo now because he can't get the part until tomorrow and he can't fit us in until Thursday, absolute mare...

Bloody cars not 4 years old and a faulty sensor looks like it's going to cost a fortune.

[tucpal]

there are two sensors on the dpf at the front it will be this one the lower one



they live in a very hostile environment and they don't last forever
bummer the fans in the way but at least you will get it sorted and you know what the problem is
if the car can not sense the temp then no regen
no more than an hours labor there mate

[stigeye]

Cheers mate, not sure why though the temp sensor didn't show on the display as a fault, or a SVS message appear. It annoys me that you have a message on the display telling me to continue driving, and the actual cause is a temp sensor which has failed and was continuing to make the situation worse by our continued driving.

Hopefully the new temp sensor will sort the issue out, but the mechanic didn't think another regen will clear the blocked DPF as it's now at 105%, so it may be a DPF off and clean job now also, fingers crossed... how the hell did we survive before we had cars, look out onto the drive and it's empty, even had to walk for a bit today lol.

[stigeye]

A quick update...

Got the car back today, it seems the temp sensor wasn't the issue as once it was plugged back in it was reading temperatures. The filter is no longer blocked and the regeneration message has gone from the dash but it still wont complete a regen cycle and there are no error codes.

The mechanic put some decent fuel in it with a DPF cleaner and we will no drive it around for now as we are on holiday from Monday and the car wont be used for a week. From reading the VX Workshop Manuals there are a couple of things that it says may not show up as errors, partially open EGR and air escaping from somewhere, but both usually result in lots of soot coming from exhaust which ours doesn't seem to be doing at the moment.

From Vauxhall Workshop Manual...

Query.. I can hear air escaping from somewhere under the car, when knelt on floor near to drivers door, is this normal, do all 2.0 cdti's have this 'hissing' noise when engine is on? almost sounds like a car tyre being deflated... or could this be the air escaping issue causing the dpf issue (charge air hoses?), whatever they are.

Question 6: The DPF loading is (far) below the threshold value for the flashing glow plug lamp, but the customer comes in with the SVS light on and the DPF clogged. Why?

Answer: In this case, there is very likely a hardware fault or tuning. This fault is usually due to a leak in the air-carrying parts. Often there is a split in one of the charge air hoses or charge air cooler. Due to the leak, which the ECU or loading model does not detect, the engine will emit more smoke if the pressure difference remains below a defined threshold. The increased smoke emission can clog the DPF. Furthermore, a disproportionately high loading of the DPF can be due
to a (partly) open EGR valve.

[stigeye]

A quick update...

Got the car back today, it seems the temp sensor wasn't the issue as once it was plugged back in it was reading temperatures. The filter is no longer blocked and the regeneration message has gone from the dash but it still wont complete a regen cycle and there are no error codes.

The mechanic put some decent fuel in it with a DPF cleaner and we will no drive it around for now as we are on holiday from Monday and the car wont be used for a week. From reading the VX Workshop Manuals there are a couple of things that it says may not show up as errors, partially open EGR and air escaping from somewhere, but both usually result in lots of soot coming from exhaust which ours doesn't seem to be doing at the moment.

Query.. I can hear air escaping from somewhere under the car, when knelt on floor near to drivers door, near or around the front wheel arch, is this normal, do all 2.0 cdti's have this 'hissing' noise when engine is on? almost sounds like a car tyre being deflated... or could this be the air escaping issue causing the dpf issue (charge air hoses?), whatever they are.

From Vauxhall Workshop Manual...

Question 6: The DPF loading is (far) below the threshold value for the flashing glow plug lamp, but the customer comes in with the SVS light on and the DPF clogged. Why?

Answer: In this case, there is very likely a hardware fault or tuning. This fault is usually due to a leak in the air-carrying parts. Often there is a split in one of the charge air hoses or charge air cooler. Due to the leak, which the ECU or loading model does not detect, the engine will emit more smoke if the pressure difference remains below a defined threshold. The increased smoke emission can clog the DPF. Furthermore, a disproportionately high loading of the DPF can be due to a (partly) open EGR valve.

Made an error when I first posted the message above. The one directly above highlighted in green has been corrected.

[Rusty2009]

Has the EGR been removed and cleaned?

[stigeye]

Has the EGR been removed and cleaned?

No it hasn't mate, I have seen your how to but looks a bit awkward getting to it... or at least for me it does lol. I need to get it into a garage and cleaned as soon as.

[Rusty2009]

Has the EGR been removed and cleaned?

No it hasn't mate, I have seen your how to but looks a bit awkward getting to it... or at least for me it does lol. I need to get it into a garage and cleaned as soon as.

It was Tucpal that did the how-to, I was unsure of doing it myself but I did it last week it really wasn't that hard to do and worth doing it yourself to save a few quid.

[stigeye]

If I had most of the tools I would probably give it a shot, I will probably ask my brother-in-law to do it for me as he does these types of things on the side outside of normal work.

Out of curiosity, as you have the same engine as mine... can you hear a 'hissing' sound of air near to the drivers front wheel arch, like air escaping or is this normal?

[tucpal]

No it is not most likely a split intercooler pipe or boost pipe will be the hissing if you car is not doing a regen due to blocked dpf you need the cat professionally cleaned so for the his you need a pressure test and visual checks done

[stigeye]

Took it for a drive up the motorway today and then into the garage. He hooked it up onto the machine and it snowed that it had done a regen a few miles into the journey. Soot levels went down from high 60's to 36%, no fault codes. Booked it in for 4th August for an egr clean and will get him to look under the car and check for air leaks, checked again today and the noise seems to be coming from the back half of the car but hard to tell over the engine noise.

[Hummelshøj]

Hi.

I bought HappyBlue from http://www.happylightshow.com/opel-1/ast...ore=german
It tell you in the mid display when a regen is startet ("DPF Active" in mid display) and finished ("DPF ready")
Very handy