Hello Guys

Have been looking online at the DPF system that forms part of the TDCI emissions and wonder as I only do a limited number of miles at stop/start driving should I be adding a product to help the DPF regenerate?

I got the car about 7 months ago from ford direct with 4500 on the clock. I only use BP Ultimate Diesel and only refuel once every 4-6 weeks (yeah I only only work 10 mins from where I live in rush hour traffic lol - well worth getting a diesel and I have only done 1500 miles) and I can remember someone saying that Redex will damage the filter. Before I heard this I did use a bottle of Redex Advance to flush through any crap in the tank etc.

On a side note I also added a bottle of Extralube ZX1 to the oil tank, the oil was recently changed so is it worth buying some more ZX1? (sounded like good stuff and can even be added to the fuel tank to lubricate the pistons etc)

Your advice is as always much appreciated

graham

To be honest I think you may have made a mistake by buying the 1.6tdci as if your car ever fails a regen you could soon be ending up with a huge bill from Ford, judging by you have already done 1500 miles you have almost definatly had one or 2 you may wish to speak to Ford though about what requirements there are for the DPF to prevent a huge £1k+ new DPF in the future.

With that driving style you really shouldn't have got a diesel - especially one with a DPF - end up costing you thousands when it breaks.

No product that I'm aware of that can help - just take it for a blast down the motorway every few weeks (when I say blast I don't mean speed, I mean driving at high revs for continuous amount of time [3rd/4th gear] so it heats up and burns off the deposits]

WELL

Did not know about the DPF needing heat to regenerate and now am all worried that this car's DPF is just gonna break :-(

I took my 1.6tdci for a 40 minute spin at high revs up and down the motorway mainly 60mph in 3rd to get 4000rpm+, gonna spend the next 3 hours cleaning the fly corpse's from the paintwork.

Been doing some research online and went to my local dealership earlier.

Online I found an article that talks about a pre-warning light that tels the driver the system needs regenerating, there is a light on the car panel that illuminates yellow when you turn the key to the ACC position. This has not lit up or anything when driving i just noticed it looks like an exhaust with specks in it.

At the dealership (Jennings Stockton-on-Tees) I spoke to one of the service desk chaps. He said that he does not like the DPF system and that it should regenerate on its own. He said that at the 1st major service (at 2 years) they run a regeneration as part of the service and that at the 3rd major service (at 6 years) they replace the DPF at the cost of around £1000!

ADVICE - Should I just buy a petrol Zetec S or S1600? I dont do many miles although this could change with doing supply work in september. I have found the diesel to be a slow and sluggish pain in the !Removed!. I had a 2007 Zetec S before going for the 1.6tdci titanium and like it although it only did 30mpg!

I think you may loose money but you wanna question the fact how long will a diesel last vs a petrol, the fact you even on low mileage will spend less per mpg even though the initial outlay is more but you have already made that so in other words do the maths if your PX value is enough to cover the difference in MPG and the cost of buying the ZS then maybe but to be honest now you have the car I would stick with it yes £1000 is a lot but bear in mind you could loose that in depreciation from fraud dealership.

unfortunately you can't make the car to a regen (ford can) so your motorway trip may have worked but it may not off, i usually find mine to be quite smart about it and Iv never had an issue although only recently have I started doing shorter journeys.

Remember that now you have a diesel you will be getting 55-60 mpg where as the 1.6 petrol will only get you the 30ish.

Also your comments about sluggish it may actually be your DPF causing that as my 1.6 after a good regen can easily keep up with my parents 2.0 petrol CC.

Ant

when OHC engines came in everyone was shocked that the timing belt would need changing at 60,000 miles at a massive cost of labour (300 odd quid) but now we just suffer it. i reckon with DPFs itll be the same thing - we are currently at the "painful" stage but in a few more years we will come to accept replacing a DPF as an additional cost of running a diesel. not saying its right or wrong, just my thoughts.

1.6 petrol 45-50mpg does me fine. Diesel would be ok but i just dont do enough mileage to justify the extra costs for an extra 10mpg to make sense.

many thanks for all the replies, I had seen a petrol 1.6 titanium at a local dealer for £11000 and was seriously considering it. However as people point out the decision should have been before I bought a Diesel in the first place. Now that I have one it would be rather silly to get rid of it just incase the DPF ever broke/needed replacing. Bloke at the ford garage said just drive it as normal and dont worry about it. One of the posts above says that only ford can clean the filter which means by driving at lower revs etc is not going to leave the filter dirty.

There is this product which I found online and is £25ish on Ebay although probably just one of the great motoring rip offs

http://www.dieselparticulatefiltercleaner.com/

The way I now see it is to hang on to the car and if the warning light should ever come on before I am ready to sell the car I will just part ex it sooner. I am looking forward to the new titanium with microsoft active sync and the newer tricks/gimmicks so it would make more sense to wait.

PANIC OVER (for the time being)