Hi new to fords, have bought a 09 1.6tdci 109bhp brought into ireland from england dpf focus 3 wks ago. About a week ago on the dual carriage way doing 75 and had to slow down to 60 car started to chug didnt lose power it just sort of got a kick from the front. Brought it to a mechanic and was told dpf fluid needed replacing as it was empty. Got it refilled today but driving home car started chugging again does it take time for the stuff to work or should it be instant its going back into them tomorrow but I dont know if its just a time issue or something more to worry about?? Thanks in advance.

Well my 1.8 tdci focus is doing the same thing I was told it could be dirt around the injecters I am going to put some treatment into the diesel to clean the injecters and hope that it works if not I'm going to bring it back to my mechanic and he will probably have to take the injecters out and have them reconditioned which I hope is not the case.

If I was you I'd buy something to put in with the diesel to clean the engine I bought one called elf from micksgarage still have to use it but will be doing that tomorrow. Best of luck if you find the solution before me please do tell :)

Also could be dirty diesel aswell be careful were u get it from unlike old cars the cheap diesel will affect your 09 focus

Hi thanks for the reply. Have had mine with a diesel specialist and had injectors/fuel filter and fuel looked at to make sure this was not the problem which it turned out it was not as it didn't show on the live feed only problem he could find was no dpf fluid in the tank. Car has 83000 miles at what stage does it need a dpf replaced does anyone know?

the DPF fluid only aids combustion of the soot in the DPF but this only happens at high temps, the fluid helps reduce that temp a bit.

If the DPF doesn't get up to temp for long enough to burn the soot away the DPF fills up with that soot, this in turn makes in all but impossible to get it up to temp as its effectively clogged up.

Lots of short stint driving or city driving will cripple a DPF filter as it never gets a chance to "regenerate" on its own and the forced active regenerations wont work either.

you need to get a good long run on a motorway running at a high RPM, times vary from person to person but a 4th gear @ 60mph run for 15ish min should do it but you need to keep it high, allowing it to cool down by stopping, slowing down too much or reducing the RPM by using a higher gear will stop the process . The problem if its blocked is you cant get those temps high enough to sort it out.

even if you do regenerate properly, the soot that gets burned off just turns to ash which will also clog up your DPF filter so that's pretty crap as well, its about 75k before it should be a problem I think

I had my DPF gutted just recently, bugger that stress and hassle for a laugh!

in saying all that, you should get a bunch of DTCs and a warning light before you got to that point so perhaps its something else.

Have had it on a dealership diagnostic and only two faults showed, one sayin can't regenerate dpf an second was to do with alternator. He put the fault down to no dpf fluid in the tank near the back of car. They took it for a long spin an said a bucket load of crap came.out of it this morn. When I drove it home it chugged. I usually drive 100 miles a day. So maybe a motor way blast in 4th gear for say 20 mins at 60mph would do it?

@ Dee will I have to stop the car after the 20 mins blast or can I just pop it into 5th an continue my journey? If I have to stop how long will I need to stop?

im no expert but I thought the DPF should have removed the possibility of crap flooding out the back, its designed to stop it and burn it turning it in to ash. perhaps it would but I cant see how.

The dpf regeneration error ties in with that, the car is saying its having issues doing it, the fluid running empty would help explain that, the question is, has it gone too far and is it clogged up too much.

once you get temps up high it will do it itself, the forced regen is when its getting bad, so yeah, if you can get up to speed, keep the RPM high for a good amount of time it will do the job, no need to stop or anything. just keep going as normal.

If your driving 100 a day 50 each way that's more than enough miles to do it, it could unfortunately just be full of ash.

Do you know if its a Euro stage 4 + DPF or a stage 5? I know the stage 4s (mine) is crap and need replaced once full, the stage 5 doesn't have any fluid to refill in the first place but im not sure if they need replaced or not.

I have no idea just that the fluid got replaced today. Its a focus mk2.5 if that helps any lol. Do you know how much this dpf replacement costs. Im thinkin since england brought in the no dpf filter your car will fail a mot then ireland wont be to far behind with a similar law. Ive seen online costs anything from 300-450 to get the dpf removed and remapped.

If it has fluid its a 4 if its a 5 then their pulling your leg about filling it.

Removing the dfp is not a good idea but getting it gutted is impossible to visually see, assuming your not pumpping out a ton of crap that is

Ive seen the tank to be filled so I guess its a 4. Would the dpf been clogged make the car chug when going

From say 75mph down to 60 and then continue to chug like it wants to cut out? Thanks for the replies so far Dee.

i honestly don't know, as soon as I learned about the DPF I planed to get it removed, I figured it was a worry I could do without. Im sure others on here would be better equipped to say for certain whats up with it but the fact your getting a regen warning suggests for whatever reason its not regenerating, if its your driving style, you might be able to fix that with a few burns, but if its not, and its full of ash, as will happen at some point, your kinda stuck and will need a new one or gut it.

But if I was to guess some more, id have thought the issues would have been going up to 75 rather than coming down from it so perhaps the dpf issue, which may be there as well is just a distraction to another problem. Can a dodgy alternator drop enough current / voltage when slowing down to hamper it perhaps?

I only got my car fairly recently with about 55k on the clock, ive literally spent the past few months modding it but more importantly taking care of all the issues the 1.6tdci has. EGR valve was the first, DPF the second, oil pan / pickup / banjo bolt filter is next along with checking out the injectors for leaks. Im determined to make sure the turbo stays in once piece an not littered down the M74 in pieces. :)

Update: had it in ford today. Dignostic showed low fuel pressure. They cleaned the fuel lines and this has supposedly cured it will know tomorrow when I take it up the m9. If its not fixed im told the fuel tank has to be dropped and lines again cleaned with a new fuel filter put in. Will let you know how it goes tomorrow.