DPF - Am I being taken for a ride here?
Discussion
Took my daily (Ford Focus diesel) in for a new set of brakes and pads and a timing chain change this morning to a new garage which isn't my usual. Upon collecting the keys, I was advised that my DPF was blocked, with 'excessive back pressure through the turbo' and exhaust fumes were entering the cabin.
The car drives absolutely fine, and there are no warning lights on my dash. All I have to go on is their word of mouth. If there was an issue, then would this be something that I'd instantly notice? If not, then it seems odd to me that they would try and diagnose this while carrying out unrelated work.
I do at least one 100+ mile trip a week, often far more, so I would have thought it would naturally regen.
If there is a block, anyone able to give me a ballpark figure on what I can expect the damage to be cost-wise to get it sorted?
Cheers
The car drives absolutely fine, and there are no warning lights on my dash. All I have to go on is their word of mouth. If there was an issue, then would this be something that I'd instantly notice? If not, then it seems odd to me that they would try and diagnose this while carrying out unrelated work.
I do at least one 100+ mile trip a week, often far more, so I would have thought it would naturally regen.
If there is a block, anyone able to give me a ballpark figure on what I can expect the damage to be cost-wise to get it sorted?
Cheers
tomj_ said:
Took my daily (Ford Focus diesel) in for a new set of brakes and pads and a timing chain change this morning to a new garage which isn't my usual. Upon collecting the keys, I was advised that my DPF was blocked, with 'excessive back pressure through the turbo' and exhaust fumes were entering the cabin.
The car drives absolutely fine, and there are no warning lights on my dash. All I have to go on is their word of mouth. If there was an issue, then would this be something that I'd instantly notice? If not, then it seems odd to me that they would try and diagnose this while carrying out unrelated work.
I do at least one 100+ mile trip a week, often far more, so I would have thought it would naturally regen.
If there is a block, anyone able to give me a ballpark figure on what I can expect the damage to be cost-wise to get it sorted?
Cheers
Can you smell exhaust fumes?The car drives absolutely fine, and there are no warning lights on my dash. All I have to go on is their word of mouth. If there was an issue, then would this be something that I'd instantly notice? If not, then it seems odd to me that they would try and diagnose this while carrying out unrelated work.
I do at least one 100+ mile trip a week, often far more, so I would have thought it would naturally regen.
If there is a block, anyone able to give me a ballpark figure on what I can expect the damage to be cost-wise to get it sorted?
Cheers
It could be that they heard the exhaust struggling and smelled fumes rather than a plug in diagnosis.
If it is blocked it could be the fuel vaporiser isn’t working - it should inject diesel ahead of the dpf to burn off the soot. Fairly common failure on fords.
Take a look at orileysautos on YouTube - loads of vids about them.
Forscan is a good diagnostic tool and will show you dpf pressure sensor readings etc.
If it is blocked it could be the fuel vaporiser isn’t working - it should inject diesel ahead of the dpf to burn off the soot. Fairly common failure on fords.
Take a look at orileysautos on YouTube - loads of vids about them.
Forscan is a good diagnostic tool and will show you dpf pressure sensor readings etc.
Edited by LordLoveLength on Monday 3rd July 21:12
So, I completely forgot I got Forscan and an OBD cable to install cruise control a little while back.
Pre a high rev run out on the motorway, DPF Load and DPF soot load were reporting 94%. Post run out, 3% DPF Load and 35% soot load. DPF pressures never went above about 17kPa and this was under full acceleration, which I believe is okay.
Fumey smell I think has got less extreme, but not sure if that's just because I'm used to the smell after spending 45 minutes in the car with it.
Booked in with my regular mechanic for next Monday to check DPF and for any exhaust leaks.
Pre a high rev run out on the motorway, DPF Load and DPF soot load were reporting 94%. Post run out, 3% DPF Load and 35% soot load. DPF pressures never went above about 17kPa and this was under full acceleration, which I believe is okay.
Fumey smell I think has got less extreme, but not sure if that's just because I'm used to the smell after spending 45 minutes in the car with it.
Booked in with my regular mechanic for next Monday to check DPF and for any exhaust leaks.
Well,
Started the motor up on Thursday to be greeted with this absolutely horrible sound.
Seems to shift quite where in the rev range it occurs. Sometimes it makes the noise at idle (like in the video), but it seems to get further up the rev range as the engine warms up (to the point of being found at around 1.5k RPM after a few minutes). Interestingly it's also sometimes fixed temporarily by slamming a door or the bonnet - which suggests to me something is possibly loose!
Eagle eyed among you may also notice a LOT of soot around the turbo. Not great, I'm hoping it's just a case of a loose clamp which needs replacing when it goes in Monday. Seems to possibly be a semi-common thing with these Ford DLD engines.
Any other pointers anyone has which I might be able to give the garage are of course appreciated!
Thanks all
Started the motor up on Thursday to be greeted with this absolutely horrible sound.
Seems to shift quite where in the rev range it occurs. Sometimes it makes the noise at idle (like in the video), but it seems to get further up the rev range as the engine warms up (to the point of being found at around 1.5k RPM after a few minutes). Interestingly it's also sometimes fixed temporarily by slamming a door or the bonnet - which suggests to me something is possibly loose!
Eagle eyed among you may also notice a LOT of soot around the turbo. Not great, I'm hoping it's just a case of a loose clamp which needs replacing when it goes in Monday. Seems to possibly be a semi-common thing with these Ford DLD engines.
Any other pointers anyone has which I might be able to give the garage are of course appreciated!
Thanks all
stevieturbo said:
Maybe the camera is weird, but it looks like the heat shield right in front of you is moving.
Tighten it and likely noise may go away.
Sadly no luck. Took the heat shield off to see the state of the turbo underneath and the noise continued. Other side of heat shield was covered in a very thick layer of soot.Tighten it and likely noise may go away.
Whether that is a leak of old, or new hard to say. But as you mention the soot, so indeed is the compressor housing beside it.
You need to find that leak, diesels are dirty, but that is not normal dirt accumulation.
The noise just sounds like something loose, not an engine issue as such.
The video really does make it look like either the heat shield, or all it is bolted to is moving though. Must be an oddity of whatever camera it is ?
You need to find that leak, diesels are dirty, but that is not normal dirt accumulation.
The noise just sounds like something loose, not an engine issue as such.
The video really does make it look like either the heat shield, or all it is bolted to is moving though. Must be an oddity of whatever camera it is ?
stevieturbo said:
Whether that is a leak of old, or new hard to say. But as you mention the soot, so indeed is the compressor housing beside it.
You need to find that leak, diesels are dirty, but that is not normal dirt accumulation.
The noise just sounds like something loose, not an engine issue as such.
The video really does make it look like either the heat shield, or all it is bolted to is moving though. Must be an oddity of whatever camera it is ?
Thanks mate. I can't see anything obvious myself and this is as far as I'll confidently go with it, so I'll leave it to the garage tomorrow to have a deep dive.You need to find that leak, diesels are dirty, but that is not normal dirt accumulation.
The noise just sounds like something loose, not an engine issue as such.
The video really does make it look like either the heat shield, or all it is bolted to is moving though. Must be an oddity of whatever camera it is ?
Apparently it's not uncommon for the soot to build up on these engines after a clutch change - there's a clamp on the turbo underneath the heatshield which has to be removed and put back on for a clutch change. Appears to be a common cause of soot leaks in these DLD engines... Clutch was changed about 20k miles ago.
Edited by tomj_ on Sunday 2nd July 16:49
tomj_ said:
Apparently it's not uncommon for the soot to build up on these engines after a clutch change - there's a clamp on the turbo underneath the heatshield which has to be removed and put back on for a clutch change. Appears to be a common cause of soot leaks in these DLD engines...
Exhausts should not leak. Period.Even more so where there is a risk of fumes entering the cabin
Garage today gave the DPF a forced regen - they were fairly confident that too much pressure was why the turbo was kicking out soot. I probably should have just listened to the first garage...
Not sure if I was getting the wrong readings from FORScan when I deduced that it wasn't the issue before, but it certainly seems to have solved the horrible noise! DPF Soot Load now reading 8% instead of 33%. That's certainly a big improvement from the 94% it was showing this time last week.
Haven't gone far since picking it up, so it remains to be seen if the exhaust smell has also gone.
Thanks again for people's help, hopefully this is the last of those issues.
Not sure if I was getting the wrong readings from FORScan when I deduced that it wasn't the issue before, but it certainly seems to have solved the horrible noise! DPF Soot Load now reading 8% instead of 33%. That's certainly a big improvement from the 94% it was showing this time last week.
Haven't gone far since picking it up, so it remains to be seen if the exhaust smell has also gone.
Thanks again for people's help, hopefully this is the last of those issues.
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