Diesel Particulate Filter

129960 Views 431 Replies 63 Participants Last post by Timbo, Feb 11, 2014

Mike L

Discussion Starter · Feb 14, 2013

I bought my 2.2 Exclusive 163bhp in April 2012 and find great difficulty in achieving fuel economy nything near the 50.4 mpg stated in the promo brochure for extra urban driving. On a run, I generally get around 34mpg; if I really try I can get around 39; but only on a handful of occassions (with a pre-warmed engine) have I broken the 40mpg barrier ... and then only 40.1. On the few occassions that I have got an adequate economy figure, my euphoria has been spoilt by the DPF cutting in and slashing the economy by half. The DPF cuts in with distressing regularity.I have now done 6,600 miles and, f anything, this sitution is getting worse.
The last incident was on Monday when following a cycle of the DPF regeneration, I got an oil warning light illuminated.
I've taken the car to the dealer who tells me it needs an oil and filter change (Cost £165 !!!!). When I queried this - well you would, wouldn't you - he tells me that the regeneration of the DPF will frequently ccontaminate the oil; especially if the cycle is inerupted as it is almost bound to be for sound practical reasons). I'm told that interim oil changs between services should be expected.
It seems to me that the Antara should be a really nice, capable car but has been spoiled by Vauxhall installing a largely unnecessary and grossly inefficient component i.e. the DPF, which comes close to making the car not fit for purpose.
Vauxhall Driver Assist tell me that the above situation is considered by Vauxhall to be satisfactory. I find this quite unacceptable.
I've heard that some sort of chip can be fitted that will help to remedy the above. If so, why isn't Vauxhall fitting it?? Does such a chip impact on the warranty??
Is my experience fairly typical?

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Dan

· #2 · Feb 15, 2013

Do you mainly do town type driving? I was led to believe it needs a good run out - 60+ mph to regenerate.

I know some garages (Not Vauxhall) offer a DPF removal / bypass system but obviously not advisable within warranty. The chip is probably a 'remap' that changes settings in the computer about when and how to do a DPF regenerate. The article below suggest some ship companies are simply turning off the icon on the dash:
http://www.evolutionchips.co.uk/Diesel_Particulate_Filter_Removal_DPF.html

Mike L

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 16, 2013

Thanks for that; I'll take a look at the site you mention, but I don't want to prejudice the warranty.I don't do a lot of town driving, though I do the usual sort of trips to supermarket, etc, that most people do. Every week I will do at least one longer drive and that is the worry i.e. that I don't have to do many miles around town to trigger the dpf cleaning cycle. In the last 500 miles the dpf has gone off 4 times!! Of the 6600 miles now on the clock, I reckon that around half will have been towing my caravan. I tend not to rev the engine high; rather I will change up to keep revs around 2000 to 2500 rpm. Maybe I need to red-line it now and then.
The contamination of the oil is going to be a real issue.
I wonder if Vauxhall is working on a better solution as the currentdpf design seems to be a real liability; though not one confined only to Vauxhall as I've seen similar problems written up on other makes forums.
I've put a fuel additive in the tank (by Wynn's) that is supposed to reduce the temp at which the particles burn off and thus reduce if not eliminate the need for the cleaning cycle to be activated. Not covinced it has worked though.

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Busterboy

· #4 · Mar 2, 2013

My DPF did a regeneration and then decided it needed to do another one 318 miles later. This is ridiculous.
Myroutine over 5 daysconsists of 26 miles per dayof driving at 60mph and 7 miles per dayof town driving.

Totally unacceptable situation

Rigor

· #5 · Mar 2, 2013

Mine is 2.0 150bhp and I installed a chip from TDI Tunning. Now I have 189bhp and got 6mpg extra in town and going to work driving have'nt try in motorway yet. Better acceleration and lower rpm. Because its removable it will not void your warrantee. Check on their website for full information and you can call or chat them as we'll for questions.

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Emma1976

· #6 · Mar 2, 2013

I got to be honest I don't understand most of this but my husband has antara on motorbility and we had it for 2 weeks and the dpf came on unsure what it was we rang garage for them to tell us we need to drive up a motorway at 60-70 mph then it will disappear so we thought rite ok it's new then 13 weeks later and after the 6th time the car actually broken down as I was going 60-70 up the motorway I thank good my children or husband wasn't in the car it would have been worse for my husband as he wheelchair so can you imagine he would have to crawl out if the car on motorway anyway I phoned rac they sent a flatbed to tow us home he then decided it was to dangerous to drive and took it to the garage after 3 days I picked it up for them to tell me that it was blocked and if it happens again then just go more 70-80 mph for bout 30 mins that should solve it I'm fuming we put petrol in and most of it goes running up and down on a bloody motorway love the car hate the dpf x

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Busterboy

· #7 · Mar 3, 2013

Have a look at some of the articles on the Google link below...Will my engine go bang or will it burst into flames.
WhenI bought the carI never fully realised what an exciting experience it might be.

I hope nobody on the island of Jersey has bought a Vauxhall asthe maximumspeed limit on there is 40mph, so guaranteed engine distruction there then, butI can find no warning orreference to thison Vauxhalls website

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_rn=5&gs_ri=psy-ab&cp=12&gs_id=1r&xhr=t&q=vauxhall+dpf&es_nrs=true&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=vauxhall+dpf&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43148975,d.d2k&fp=c25e45b6675ac0af&biw=1600&bih=776

Edited by: Busterboy

antarabill

· #8 · Mar 15, 2013

as a newbie I dont know.where I should enter posts. Perhaps this is the place.

Spantara

· #9 · Mar 24, 2013

I have had my Antara since September last year. To date it has never done a regen. I don't use it a lot, mainly because I am away a lot on business and, living just 3 minutes walk from work, I don't need it to commute. I have done 4,000 Km. in 9 months aand nearly all of that on motorways, which I think is the key to avoiding problems with the regen.
If your roads don't permit motorway speeds, then drop a gear and increase the revs from time to time. Towing a caravan should help too as it is important to increase the exhaust gas temperatures to burn off the soot. Obviously if your driving is of the start-stop around town variety you will soon see the regen cycle starting. If it does, or rather when it does, keep on driving until it is over is the advice I have heard. Irritating? I am sure it is but so would buying a new DPF be, as well as expensive.

Hope this helps // Stephen

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Annieantara

· #10 · Apr 2, 2013

We have had our 2.2 diamond since Thursday, The dealership informed us of the DPF and said to drive in 2nd gear for about a mile and that would burn it clean. Not sure if the car needs to be warm first.

gregc

· #11 · Apr 3, 2013

DPF regen will only work when the car is warm it does not matter what gear you drive in so long as its a lower gear than normal and about 3 - 4K RPM

Big Jason

· #12 · Apr 3, 2013

Anything over 2000rpm is good for a regen

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Annieantara

· #13 · Apr 4, 2013

Thanks, will bear that in mind when the time comes

TheCoosTail

· #14 · Apr 4, 2013

Not sure if this is connected or not, but I believe it may be. Had my Antara for a week now and today when I switched it off and was walking away after locking it I heard a noise. At first I thought it was my neighbour cutting his grass but I soon discovered it was the fan in the car. Is this normal? Is this possibly happening due to me stopping and turning the car off mid-clean? I know you have to run the car at higher revs/ lower gear etc. during this process but how can you tell? I saw no indicator on the dash telling me so.

smino

· #15 · Apr 4, 2013

was it the rad fan or the interior fan running. when i first had my volvo after i turned it off and locked the doors i would also hear the fan running,then found it to be the interior fan. never got to the bottom of it but changed the setting on the heater and it never come back on again .so maybe some may be able to shed some light in it.

Grumps

· #16 · Apr 4, 2013

TheCoosTail said:
Not sure if this is connected or not, but I believe it may be. Had my Antara for a week now and today when I switched it off and was walking away after locking it I heard a noise. At first I thought it was my neighbour cutting his grass but I soon discovered it was the fan in the car. Is this normal? Is this possibly happening due to me stopping and turning the car off mid-clean? I know you have to run the car at higher revs/ lower gear etc. during this process but how can you tell? I saw no indicator on the dash telling me so.

Your correct the cooling fan is a sure sign a regen was taking place. The engine burns extra fuel to make the engine run hot to clean the DPF. When you switch the engine off the fan kicks in to cool the engine and turbo.

smino

· #17 · Apr 4, 2013

just out of curiosity how many miles has the car done?

TheCoosTail

· #18 · Apr 5, 2013

Approx 3500, it had 3350 when I bought it and I have done the rest the last week. How often do these Re-Gens occur? Also is there no way to tell whilst driving? I have read elsewhere that some Antara owners have been recommended to "keep driving" until the Re- Gen is complete, not sure how correct this is though. This surely cant be right is it? Not sure having to extend your journey or make special short journeys just for a Re-Gen to complete its cycle is very environmentally friendly or convenient for anyone. Edited by: TheCoosTail

Inchindown

· #19 · Apr 5, 2013

TheCoosTail said:
Approx 3500, it had 3350 when I bought it and I have done the rest the last week. How often do these Re-Gens occur? Also is there no way to tell whilst driving? I have read elsewhere that some Antara owners have been recommended to "keep driving" until the Re- Gen is complete, not sure how correct this is though. This surely cant be right is it? Not sure having to extend your journey or make special short journeys just for a Re-Gen to complete its cycle is very environmentally friendly or convenient for anyone.

There doesn't seem to be a fixed cycle for regeneration. Some people report they get them about every 300 miles while others say they've had them happen around 500 miles. I've even heard of reports that there have been no regenerations. I'm a little sceptical about that though, as it is easy to miss that a regeneration is taking place.

I had my first regeneration at about 510 miles. The only way I new was the instantaneous MPG figure on the trip computer had dropped from around 33 to about half of that. I also noticed when I took my foot off the gas, the instantaneous figure went to around 70 mpg instead of the usual 999.

The trip computer is only available on the SE Nav models I believe, so I'm not exactly sure how to detect a regeneration on the Exclusive models. Only thought I have is if you are driving mostly around town, you need to get on a bit of open road occasionally and select a gear/speed combination that will push the revs up to 2000 and maintain that for at least 20 minutes.

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Grumps

· #20 · Apr 5, 2013

TheCoosTail said:
Approx 3500, it had 3350 when I bought it and I have done the rest the last week. How often do these Re-Gens occur? Also is there no way to tell whilst driving? I have read elsewhere that some Antara owners have been recommended to "keep driving" until the Re- Gen is complete, not sure how correct this is though. This surely cant be right is it? Not sure having to extend your journey or make special short journeys just for a Re-Gen to complete its cycle is very environmentally friendly or convenient for anyone.

The Regens take place every 300-500 miles it seems according to the info coming from other owners.

You can tell a regens taking place looking at your fuel computer but if you have an exclusive you won't have it

Oops just posted at the same time as Inchindown but normally as posted above you can see by the instantaneous fuel consumption reading.

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