Engine Light Of Doom... DPF

[Dellmassive]

Morning, I had my EGR pipe replaced on my 204 Swb Kombi about 2,000 miles back.
There had been the flashing glow plug light on a couple of times which apparently pointed to the system needing to be flushed.
Fast forward to a week or two back on a long journey back from France and the light comes back on flashing again..
Popped it back into the dealers and they said it needs flushing again. Which they've done and will be ready in a few hours.
Begs the question though, in a couple of months time when the Warranty is out and it happens again..

Theres something else going on here..... 2k miles is to soon for a reoccurring fault.

id assume that they didnt clean the EGR valve fully/properly, (last time) which is why the issues has come back so soon.

incidentally the VW manual states that the EGR "pipe" should be "replaced" if its removed. . . . . which is why you see so many new shiny pipes.

lets hope they do a better job cleaning it this time round.

 

[BIgben]

Theres something else going on here..... 2k miles is to soon for a reoccurring fault.

id assume that they didnt clean the EGR valve fully/properly, (last time) which is why the issues has come back so soon.

incidentally the VW manual states that the EGR "pipe" should be "replaced" if its removed. . . . . which is why you see so many new shiny pipes.

lets hope they do a better job cleaning it this time round.

I think they must have done a shoddy job last time, or just is beyond being able to be rectified by cleaning and now helping the engine limp through until it's out of warranty..

 

[BIgben]

As an update..
The dealers spent another day flushing the system. All done sir.. Until they took it for a test drive and the light came back on. After a bit of too and fro VW directed them to replace the EGR valve and front pipe.
I've got the van back now and its done a few miles without fault so all good so far...
I'll update if there is any change.

 

[TitanCamper]

Having driven 500 odd miles on motorway from Cornwall to Glasgow I parked up the van. The next day I drove into Glasgow (8 miles mainly 30mph zones) and on the way back got the yellow DPF light. Having half a tank of diesel, I know I need to now drive at 50mph / 2k rpm for x miles whilst chanting D...P...F....D....P....F....
It's not like I'm doing short 5 mile local running all the time.
Anyway the question is, how common is this?
I'm already getting fed up with the van after just a few months with sliding door leaks, drivers door seal peeling off and now a coolant leak. It's going into VW tomorrow for the above under warranty but if this DPF nonsense is common, it'll be in the for sale section shortly.

 

[czmate1999]

Hmmm, brand new van or nearly new?

 

[TitanCamper]

Hmmm, brand new van or nearly new?

Almost 2 years old with 70k. Bought from VW about 2 months ago.

 

[$immo]

I would guess that the drive down to Cornwall was pretty much all in 6th gear with the revs low. This constant Tickover cruising is what I find causes this. I had similar on route from Kent to Scotland.

Half way up or down, drop the gears and increase revs for a couple of miles to give it a clear out. Mine has never come back on (touch wood).

 

[Neil Nicholls]

Mines covered 55k now, and only had the dpf light come on once. That was when I was low on fuel, and drove through London. As soon as I filled with fuel, it did a regen and cleared itself.
I think a bit of hard driving now and again keeps them clear

 

[czmate1999]

Almost 2 years old with 70k. Bought from VW about 2 months ago.

hmmm, seems like you have some reasonable answers on here now...

Would this be an issue with the DSG as well?

 

[TitanCamper]

Thanks for the replies and will give them a go.
Not sure why this would be different for a DSG unless it's because it generally revs less?
If this DPF light is just a rare thing then fair enough but I'm struggling to get my head round the fact I even need to think about driving a pretty new van a certain way to avoid warning lights in 2019! (this is a moan at VW btw, not the helpful suggestions on here for which I am grateful)

 

[DXX]

I’ve been driving my Euro5, 16 plate, 180ps for approx’ 16K miles, generally at 1500 - 2000 RPM. I’ve never seen the DPF re-generation light.

 

[czmate1999]

Thanks for the replies and will give them a go.
Not sure why this would be different for a DSG unless it's because it generally revs less?
If this DPF light is just a rare thing then fair enough but I'm struggling to get my head round the fact I even need to think about driving a pretty new van a certain way to avoid warning lights in 2019! (this is a moan at VW btw, not the helpful suggestions on here for which I am grateful)

I wondered if the DSG had some smart mechanism to help manage the DPF process... do not know much about it tbh...

 

[TitanCamper]

I’ve been driving my Euro5, 16 plate, 180ps for approx’ 16K miles, generally at 1500 - 2000 RPM. I’ve never seen the DPF re-generation light.

Drove my T5.1 Caravelle the same way as well (same 180ps engine) and never had this either and did about 35k in it.

 

[robskiing]

Hi just come back from a 1200 mile round trip in France , the diesel preheat light started flashing and went into limp mode really struggled up some hills on the M2 and the engine was revving quite high I made it back to the midlands ok , stopped off then restarted the dreaded dpf light was on and the engine was making a harsh noise read previous posts about putting into 4th gear and keeping it at 3000 revs for about 20 mins this has still not removed the warning light .
My vehicle is a 150 dsg on a 17 plate and done 23k

 

[czmate1999]

Hi just come back from a 1200 mile round trip in France , the diesel preheat light started flashing and went into limp mode really struggled up some hills on the M2 and the engine was revving quite high I made it back to the midlands ok , stopped off then restarted the dreaded dpf light was on and the engine was making a harsh noise read previous posts about putting into 4th gear and keeping it at 3000 revs for about 20 mins this has still not removed the warning light .
My vehicle is a 150 dsg on a 17 plate and done 23k

Interesting - thought the DSG and DPF might be 'smarter'... ho hum. Another reason to make sure you get a good warranty with your vehicle!

 

[robskiing]

Just an update vw assist been out found out it's a split egr pipe so a new ordered and been fitted tomorrow. So that explains why my light didn't go out and he did say you only have to do 2000rpm to clear the soot

 

[Lukavell]

Good that you've got an answer but it's not great that a pipe has split already.

I've got a 17 plate 150 DSG Caravelle and we used it to move house in February. Its only about 1 mile between the old place and the new one. The van was fully loaded with all the seats out, I did about 10 trips before the DPF light came on. Took it for a high rev 20 mile trip and it's been fine since, including a couple more trips to move the last few bits over. It's done 12k miles so far.

 

[Insert Coin]

Unfortunately modern diesels aren't much good for short trips due to the DPF clogging up. But that's not a VW thing, that's pretty much any Euro 6 car or van.

I do a 3 mile trip to work and 3 miles home, always use premium diesel, always a shot of injector cleaner and have only had the light come on once in 15,000 miles.

 

[Longy]

As title really, was driving steadily through town here and aware that the engine was going through a regen as the revs stayed just under 1,000 rpm at the various traffic lights.What can you do though apart from grin and bear it as short of screaming the engine while slipping the clutch like a pensioners Micra in a Waitrose car park it's difficult to get the exhaust hot enough to cremate soot?

At this point things improved massively when the orange engine shaped icon popped up on the dashboard to tell me that a run up the Autobahn at 150 mph might make the DPF happy but wasn't going to stop the tell tale light hounding me to an early grave.

Got back home, read the handbook and apparently this engine shaped icon is to do with the exhaust but not specifically the DPF bringing myself to ask does the team think it's about time I got some sort of ECU reading device to find out what has happened or do I just throw myself off the top of the van and end it all?

Van's running fine BTW no limp home nonsense just this latest sodding light after a week of driving around with an Adblu message which finally went away yesterday... there's plenty of Adblu onboard BTW.

VW assist or do I have to bend over at the local dealership, cheers?

My l orange light came on driving from London to Cornwall, went off and then on again half way home, I called our local VW com service centre in Hatfield who were to busy to book me in for over a week. As we were due to drive up north this weekend I called out VW assist who diagnosed needed an exhaust flush at a dealers ? initially said OK to drive locally but not a 400 mile round trip ! I was told service centre would be e-mailed a rectification notice and would sort in 48 hours. Did not work they said the van had to be delivered on a low loader and VW assist were wrong to tell me that and they were just to busy ! ( not impressed !) Their service manager told me normal flush takes 2 hours and you often need a second one and if that dose not work a new part ? . As the van only has 12k mileage and only one more year of warranty I am feeling a little nervous that this could be an expensive problem if an ongoing and a regular occurrence.
One quick question oil level has dropped from top of dipstick to just above range at bottom in 3200 miles ( Mostly long drives ) is this normal ? car is booked into a different VW garage next week I was wondering whether to top oil up or show them as evidence if it is not normal and could be linked to exhaust issue ?