dpf regeneration i think

[michaelburrows]

i have a 62 plate 2.0 tdci focus estate. i think ????my car has just done a regen that was noticable. i went to pick wife up  from work   car only did about a mile from cold then i hward the engine fan going. thinking strange i stopped and got out of the car and something smelt like it was burning     i put the back of my hand near the exhaust and it was really really hot.  i parked at wifes work and left engine running because fan was still going and still smelling. the engine felt mildly rough too.  then the fan stopped  the smell went and exhaust got back to being fairly cool.  i assume it has done a regen. the first i have noticed in 6 months.  i usually do a lobg trip to yorkshire and back once a month so probably usually regenerates itself then if it needs to. but just done two weeks of town driving stop start etc. so was this a regen and is it normak to do this after two weeks stop start or does it mean dpf may be reaching knackered time.

[DickP]

Hi

I would also like to know when and what conditions a DPF regen can occur.

I have the same engine in my Focus mk3 and have noticed a couple of occasions in traffic whereby the car exhaust starts emitting smoke but the car does not yet read as fully warmed up on the temperature gauge.  The smoke starts and stops abruptly rather than reducing like steam / condensation would whilst an exhaust is warming up.  It has also done this when fully up to temperature but associated this with a DPF regen.

I also noticed that occasionally a wide throttle in third or fourth can emit the same smoke for a few seconds before it suddenly clears again as well.

I once had an Astra J as a company car which when going through a DPF regen would pump out clouds of white smoke.

Am I witnessing the effect of short regeneration cycles?  Or is it a symptom of a sticky EGR?

If it is of any use, my mileage is circa 1,500 miles a month.

Thanks,

[michaelburrows]

oh dear. i hope this isnt going to get complicated.  i didnt notice any smoke during this possible regeneration. i can o ly assume that if it was the filter must have been getting to blocked and needed to desoot. 

[michaelburrows]

by the way dickp. im so glad you have same car.  does youres also have the bad pullaway if you try pulli g away with a few revs.  mi es a nightmare to pull away on a gradient  .i can give it no more than 1200 revs and pyll away slow otherwhse a few more revs and as i lift clutch it feels like my foot has slipped off clutch and revs drop back to tickover basically. have to initially pull away slow . but after cats rolling no prob. it accelerates away ok.

[DickP]

Hi

Yes I have the same issue.  Mine is a 140 ps rather than the 163 (but think it's the same engine in different tune?).

I have ran Forscan on mine and found that the pedal sensor is very accurate and works well, so it must be to do with the engine map and emission controls.  I suspect it is associsted with the EGR valve needing time to shut before the engine can then respond.

I have also found on Forscan that the clutch pedal sensor has two positions, one at 25% and another at 75%.  This may also influence how the engine behaves depending which reading is being given at a given load demand.

I did find disabling the hill start assist helped reduce the flaw in the mean time however.  I also found that when the car is laden it behaves far better, almost as if they did not change the map from the Mondeo when they put it in the lighter Focus.

I am considering taking mine to a reputable tuning / mapping company in Leeds who have a dyno to get it remapped to behave better (and maybe disable the EGR).

[michaelburrows]

id be very keen to know the results of a remap to rid the problem.  i also turned off hill start assist after   it may have been you  suggested it.  i thought it behaved better. but it may have been wishfull thinking. i absolutely hate being on a gradient and pulling away. i took to fords for a chat about it and any said they had never heard of any issues.i had heard a pcm update may be the prob so got ford to check for updates and install which they said they did but still no better. i actually quite hate the car for this reason. i contacted a mappi g company who said after i had explained the issue i wanted mapping out but they even said it may not cure it and to get ford to sort problem first. anyway keep me informed of any improvements you may come across.

[DJ_Andy_M]

Hill start has got absolutely nothing to do with clutch or DPF. It just applies the brakes for a few seconds to allow you to pull away without using the hand brake. Your pull away issue sounds more like driver error.

The EGR valve closes over 2000 rpm.

You shouldn't be seeing smoke on a DPF regen either unless its very backed up. And white smoke is generally a sign of diesel not being burnt which is another problem entirely.

Do you guys do motorway runs at least once a week? Do you only do short journeys? Short journeys and DPFs/EGRs do not play well together. The DPF gets full up quickly, and the EGR valve so will get caked up

[DickP]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply Andy.

I disagree about driver error on the pull away.  The car sometimes will drop the rpm as drive is taken up, even though I have not reduced the position of the accelerator pedal (or if anything, I have increased the request for more throttle).  I have not experienced this issue on any other car I drive.

On further experimentation I have found that the engine responds to pedal inputs without any hesitation when not in gear, say at standstill and in neutral with clutch pedal up or in gear with clutch fully down.  Once in gear and driving, there is then a dead zone on the accelerator pedal travel which does not exist when the car is not in gear / driving the wheels.

Since my earlier post i have not seen any further smoke so may not be an issue.  The car is used for city driving circa 20 miles per day commute, with an additional 40 miles twice a week on evenings.  Due to work, the car is also used sporadically for visiting sites which may be anywhere from 50 to 200 mile round trips per week which is in addition to the commute.  Weekends can be anything from 30-300 miles.

Thanks,

[michaelburrows]

yes totally and exactly the same as youres ***** p.  i have been driving for 43 yrs and by now i thi k i know how to do it quite well. dj andy m obviously has no experience about the problem we experience with our cars.  there is most def a problem somewhere and it is a very well documented fault. however what the answer is i dont know. and it seems no one else does either. some say its a mapping issue and once remapped its all good. others say its an egr issue.some say its because we dont drive around on full throttle or on motorways all day. others say???driver error. anyway this topic has deviated slightly from the original question ref is my car doing a regen.  but hey id love to sort the bad pull away too.

[TomsFocus]

It IS a mapping issue, whether it's the EGR or the anti-stall etc, it's all down to the mapping as that's what controls everything on modern cars.  

The problem is there are loads of maps on the ECU for various conditions and components so a simple remap may not adjust the map that's causing the issues. 

It's exactly the same as the DPF regen 'jerk' if a regen starts when you're cruising on the motorway at a steady speed.  It's awful on the 1.6 and I've read the 2.0 does the same thing.  Yet German cars don't jerk like this as they can map in a smooth transition of the fuelling and the EGR etc so the driver doesn't notice at all.

Now I know Ford doesn't have the budget to spend on mapping that VAG does, but the poor mapping is so noticeable I really wish they'd spend a little more on it!