Removing DPF filter from a Ford Mondeo

joneve · October 2014

Anyone got any experience of doing this or have an idea of cost.

Had no end of trouble with mine, already spent nearly £400 trying to fix an "Engine Malfunction" message on my Convers+ screen - Probably going to cost another £400-£600 for the garage to get to the DPF, test all the individual components (vapouriser etc), figure out which bit is at fault and replace it. And if it's too blocked/fucked, then the whole DPF will need to be replaced anyway, which will cost anywhere up to £1700 if the various posts/info online are anything to go by.

But the bloke at the garage said that although they don't do it, you can remove the whole thing altogether and get the ECU remapped so that it gives the correct reading necessary to pass it's MOT - so I'm thinking about going down this route, but would all depend on cost and legality!

Any help/advice/info greatly appreciated!

Iamnobody · October 2014

I heard on the radio that they intend to clamp down on this. I'm not sure if it is currently illegal or not - I know of one garage that advertises the removal service for £350.

joneve · October 2014

Yea, my colleague mentioned about it yesterday, so I wondered if I needed to act fast, as I assume they can't do much about it if it's already done before they start clamping down!

wibble · October 2014

joneve said:

Yea, my colleague mentioned about it yesterday, so I wondered if I needed to act fast, as I assume they can't do much about it if it's already done before they start clamping down!

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/miscellaneous/2013-12/diesel-particulate-filters-to-be-tested-in-mot-from-february/

capo4th · October 2014

Thank you for fucking up the environment even more we look forward to breathing more polluted oxygen

Iamnobody · October 2014

Well I drove past said garage this evening and the sign isn't there anymore...

spark240 · October 2014

Yes...been on the radio..illegal to drive without it.

musicegbdf · October 2014

This is a big issue.
Most diesel drivers have been sold a lie. We were told we were better for the environment with lower co2. We pay more for diesel than petrol and told to thrash the car up the motorway for 30 miles a week to keep the dpf working. Great for the environment that.
What sir you only use it to take the kids to school, go to the local shops, ferry the kids around, that is not what your car is designed for.... WTF.
7 litre V8 next time for me

holnrew · October 2014

capo4th said:

Thank you for fucking up the environment even more we look forward to breathing more polluted oxygen

You can't really pollute oxygen itself.

mike_l · October 2014

Take the car for a good thrash up the motorway and stick in 4th gear, otherwise you don't get the filter hot enough to regenerate.

It needs to be somewhere around 600 c. whereas a normal exhaust is around 450 c.

If you still have a light on, get the filter changed, and get the fluid filled up (don't do this yourself the fluid is fucking evil).

For some idea when the lads in our workshop do a "forced regen" they literally hold their foot on the throttle for around 10mins until the filter is hot enough to regenerate.

crunchman · October 2014

That's one of the reasons I've got a petrol. For the type of driving we do a DPF would clog up.

Given the number of absolutely stinking diesels I cycle behind in London, especially older ones, DPFs are there because they are necessary. Official figures are that 4,000 people a year die prematurely in London because of air pollution. I think it's 29,000 across the UK. Diesels give off lots more NO2 and lots more particulates. If they are going to be driven in cities at all then they need DPFs at a minimum. Ideally the car tax needs to change so it charges for the amount of nitrous oxides and particulates as well as CO2.

The big problem in London is the taxis. There are not many private cars in central London on weekdays, but these days all the taxis are diesels. They need to put new emission standards in for taxis.

There are other issues as well:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/10862975/Emission-tests-substantially-underestimate-pollution-pumped-out-by-diesels.html

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Health/article1461995.ece

Ultimately I think there needs to be a move away from diesel.

FX_Munkee · October 2014

To try and answer the question without getting into the good or bad environmental points.
You will need to have the ecu modified so that it doesn't error when it sees the incorrect reading from the pressure senors at the DPF. If you're doing that you might as well get it remapped as well. You've just removed a massive blockage from the exhaust so you can run much more fuel and air now, which will give you more power and/or better fuel economy.
Oh and if you're remapping you might want to see if they can shut down the EGR so that the exhaust gasses stay in the exhaust and don't get shunted to the inlet, causing all sorts of wonderful crud getting deposited in the inlet manifold.

As for the legality of this, the new MOT regs. state that "if a DPF was fitted as standard, it must be present" but the DVLA haven't given the testing stations any info on which cars did have them fitted from the factory (they're still working on the list!). So it's down to the tester knowing that it should be there! Also if you have a thing that looks like a DPF but may or may not contain anything of substance, they cannot open it to check.

crunchman · October 2014

FX_Munkee said:

To try and answer the question without getting into the good or bad environmental points.
You will need to have the ecu modified so that it doesn't error when it sees the incorrect reading from the pressure senors at the DPF. If you're doing that you might as well get it remapped as well. You've just removed a massive blockage from the exhaust so you can run much more fuel and air now, which will give you more power and/or better fuel economy.
Oh and if you're remapping you might want to see if they can shut down the EGR so that the exhaust gasses stay in the exhaust and don't get shunted to the inlet, causing all sorts of wonderful crud getting deposited in the inlet manifold.

As for the legality of this, the new MOT regs. state that "if a DPF was fitted as standard, it must be present" but the DVLA haven't given the testing stations any info on which cars did have them fitted from the factory (they're still working on the list!). So it's down to the tester knowing that it should be there! Also if you have a thing that looks like a DPF but may or may not contain anything of substance, they cannot open it to check.

Did you read the stuff about how bad diesel fumes are? These things are there for a reason.

FX_Munkee · October 2014

crunchman said:

FX_Munkee said:

To try and answer the question without getting into the good or bad environmental points.
You will need to have the ecu modified so that it doesn't error when it sees the incorrect reading from the pressure senors at the DPF. If you're doing that you might as well get it remapped as well. You've just removed a massive blockage from the exhaust so you can run much more fuel and air now, which will give you more power and/or better fuel economy.
Oh and if you're remapping you might want to see if they can shut down the EGR so that the exhaust gasses stay in the exhaust and don't get shunted to the inlet, causing all sorts of wonderful crud getting deposited in the inlet manifold.

As for the legality of this, the new MOT regs. state that "if a DPF was fitted as standard, it must be present" but the DVLA haven't given the testing stations any info on which cars did have them fitted from the factory (they're still working on the list!). So it's down to the tester knowing that it should be there! Also if you have a thing that looks like a DPF but may or may not contain anything of substance, they cannot open it to check.

Did you read the stuff about how bad diesel fumes are? These things are there for a reason.

Did you read the bit about " without getting into the good or bad environmental points" ?

crunchman · October 2014

Diesel fumes kill people. You can't ignore that.

FX_Munkee · October 2014

I just did.

joneve · October 2014

mike_l said:

Take the car for a good thrash up the motorway and stick in 4th gear, otherwise you don't get the filter hot enough to regenerate.
It needs to be somewhere around 600 c. whereas a normal exhaust is around 450 c.

If you still have a light on, get the filter changed, and get the fluid filled up (don't do this yourself the fluid is fucking evil).

For some idea when the lads in our workshop do a "forced regen" they literally hold their foot on the throttle for around 10mins until the filter is hot enough to regenerate.

Cheers @mike_l . Took it on a 40 mile blat up the Motorway after the garage put two bottles of the stuff in it before, and the light came back on during the journey. Never took it out of 4th. Took it back in the following day and the garage did more diagnosing - and came to the conclusion that it's one of the 4 parts of filter not working, which is causing the re-gen to fail, but they didn't have any time to book it in until about a week later - at which point they would basically take the whole thing apart and test the individual bits, find out which was faulty (if any) and then replace - which I'm sure would have been another £500-£600 and no guarantee that it will fix it.

They reset the fault code, and then drove it like I stole it for a good week or so on all journeys we did. Was fine for nearly 3 weeks until the message popped up again earlier this week - so I'm now not sure of the best course of action. Came across this site yesterday: http://www.ceramex.com/ so I don't know if that's an option or what the cost would be. I've enquired with a local garage who carries it out (or at least sends the filter off to be cleaned by the ceramex people).

Having looked into it a bit more - I know removing it isn't an option now. Cheers to those on their high horses for pointing out that diesel fumes are bad - I don't WANT to get rid of the filter, but at £1700 to replace - if you're happy to wire me the money, I'll gladly get the faulty one replaced. Just trying to find a cheaper solution, since I really don't have neearly £2k to replace on the car.

With regards to filter clogging because of our driving - the Mrs. has Netball training/matches which involves a 15-20 blat up the motorway 3 times a week, which should be more than enough to keep it clear along with the other various longer drives we do.

The absolutely fucking retarded thing is, if you drive it using the "change gear now" lights that pop up on the dash when you should change gear, it's basically the worst thing you can do for the DPF, it would seem! It's a shame, as I love my Mondeo, but this has put me off buying another.

crunchman · October 2014

Sorry if I went off on one. I just get fed up having to cycle behind diesels belching out clouds of black smoke. I think the air in London is worse now than it was when I first moved here 25 years ago.

mike_l · October 2014

@joneve the DPF's are great if you do large mileage's, but quick, short run's around town really fucks them up.

If the garage hasn't changed the differential pressure sensor then that should be done. And I've never seen an individual part of a DPF filter that could be changed seperately....

The bit's outside (the diff pressure sensor, and the pipes to that) or the catalytic converter (which isn't the DPF).

Fuzzdog · October 2014

The (completely unofficial, of course) advice from my local friendly MOT guy is don't get it removed, get the guts knocked out of the inside with a hammer, remap to turn off the warnings, and refit. They're not allowed to do any checks on it beyond "Yup, that looks like a DPF and no lights are on".

joneve · October 2014

mike_l said:

@joneve the DPF's are great if you do large mileage's, but quick, short run's around town really fucks them up.

If the garage hasn't changed the differential pressure sensor then that should be done. And I've never seen an individual part of a DPF filter that could be changed seperately....

The bit's outside (the diff pressure sensor, and the pipes to that) or the catalytic converter (which isn't the DPF).

Cheers mate.

Yea, I think they meant the bits outside like the diff pressure sensor, vapourizer etc that can be replaced, but who know's they could be fleecing me!

I'm going to get some more of the DPF fluid added at the very least and drive another tank around like I stole the fecker to see if that burns off all the crap - and like I said, depending on the cost - I may go down the cleaning route from Ceramex.

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Removing DPF filter from a Ford Mondeo

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