V70: Engine Safety Recall Notice

[chunderground]

Have done a lot of reading up on the DPF on all makes and the following is the general consensus.

All manufacturers of euro IV compliant dpf diesels have regeneration problems if :-

1]the car runs on cheap diesel :- use low particulate diesel such as shell v-power and Bp Ultimate to eradicate problems

2] If the car is used on short runs and the revs rarely go above 2500, Run the car in lower gear with revs of 3500 for twenty mins to clear DPF of soot once every 400 miles.

3] The driving style is gentle and pedestrian. Give it some welly and apparently the engines loves it.(I drive like a granny so this one is hard for me)

I personally have had no problems but I use V-power diesel now as it appears to be worth the extra cost. Car runs quieter and has not regenerated since using it.Mpg seems to be 2mpg better but early days yet!

V-power also has added Liquified gas rather than bio diesel.Bio diesel is supposed to be the cause of oil levels rising as it gets into the sump during regeneration and does not evaporate.

[andy_d]

pardon the "err" question here,
isnt one of the MAIN reasons for buying a diesel the overall reduction in fuel costs ,,,
so to use the supposedly cheaper to run car "properly" and avoid this nightmare you have to fill up with The most expensive diesel there is....

,,,,eer isnt that the main reason why a Lot buy a diesel just shot cleanly in Both Feet ?eek.

[Clan]

often, filling up with the more expensive Vpower or whatever is more economic long term ... petrol or diesel ..

[chunderground]

not saying its good news just saying that is how it is.
AA advise buying petrol cars for school run vehicles owing to dpf problems on short runs.

[Nick44]

Originally Posted by chunderground

Have done a lot of reading up on the DPF on all makes and the following is the general consensus.

All manufacturers of euro IV compliant dpf diesels have regeneration problems if :-

1]the car runs on cheap diesel :- use low particulate diesel such as shell v-power and Bp Ultimate to eradicate problems

2] If the car is used on short runs and the revs rarely go above 2500, Run the car in lower gear with revs of 3500 for twenty mins to clear DPF of soot once every 400 miles.

3] The driving style is gentle and pedestrian. Give it some welly and apparently the engines loves it.(I drive like a granny so this one is hard for me)

I personally have had no problems but I use V-power diesel now as it appears to be worth the extra cost. Car runs quieter and has not regenerated since using it.Mpg seems to be 2mpg better but early days yet!

V-power also has added Liquified gas rather than bio diesel.Bio diesel is supposed to be the cause of oil levels rising as it gets into the sump during regeneration and does not evaporate.

Hmmm.
1/ I only ever buy Shell or BP fuel.
2/ Don't do any short runs, and it's automatic transmission.
3/ My car does 90% of it's miles on the Motorway, and shall we say it's driven err,,, briskly.

I still have almost 3/4 inch OTT on the dipstick.
Not had a chance to get to the dealer yet, but I think I will combine the visit with the next service, which is not quite due yet, but at least I'll get some new oil in it.

[chunderground]

I apologise for my misinformation concerning shell V-power which I thought did not contain Bio Fuel but I was misled by other motoring threads.

if manufacturers do not fix this problem I think there will be a mass market for disabling DPFs. I would far prefer it if motor manufacturers found a fix but 3- 5 years on there is no fix in sight. I would think that the cost of running back to the manufacturers dealer for new DPFs / engines / turbos (the two latter items lubricated with what is effectively vegetable oil) every few thousand miles would be unacceptably expensive to the majority of owners.
Volvo claim it is the bio diesel (vegetable oil) component which is getting into the sump which will not evaporate out.
With the expensive 0w-30 oil volvo spec for the engine it is laughable that they refuse to change the oil when it has been diluted with vegetable oil.
It is now a legal requirement that all diesel fuel has to contain 7% bio fuel.
The DPF engines were designed before this was a legal requirement.
The excess fuel getting into the sump was supposed to evaporate before causing problem. Bio fuel (vegetable oil) does not evaporate. Which is why we now are having this problem.
So the EU created the problem by insisting on DPFs being fitted to diesel engines and the UK government completed the stitch up by insisting on a 7% bio fuel component.
We have been stitched up good and proper the EU and UK legislators and the motor manufacturers.
End of Rant

[dan 244]

Originally Posted by chunderground

Have done a lot of reading up on the DPF on all makes and the following is the general consensus.

All manufacturers of euro IV compliant dpf diesels have regeneration problems if :-

1]the car runs on cheap diesel :- use low particulate diesel such as shell v-power and Bp Ultimate to eradicate problems

2] If the car is used on short runs and the revs rarely go above 2500, Run the car in lower gear with revs of 3500 for twenty mins to clear DPF of soot once every 400 miles.

3] The driving style is gentle and pedestrian. Give it some welly and apparently the engines loves it.(I drive like a granny so this one is hard for me)

I personally have had no problems but I use V-power diesel now as it appears to be worth the extra cost. Car runs quieter and has not regenerated since using it.Mpg seems to be 2mpg better but early days yet!

V-power also has added Liquified gas rather than bio diesel.Bio diesel is supposed to be the cause of oil levels rising as it gets into the sump during regeneration and does not evaporate.

I to only use BP Ultimate, nothing else in the two years we have had the car, mine is also auto, so not much choice of gear changing at high reves, we do do several short journeys, say 5 - 10 miles, and drive progresivly but not mad, and still 20 mm of fuel in oil. I think it is dificult to drive it hard everywhere, as it is so responsive we wouldnt have any front tyres left.

[X84man]

I had a 2005MY V70 D5 Geartronic (163bhp non-DPF) as my company car and eventually enjoyed over 40 mpg once it had run in. After my 3 years were up I replaced it with the current shape 2008MY D5 SE Sport Geartronic (185bhp DPF) and am getting 31mpg for the same driving style. I have calculated that a third of this reduction is due to increased body mass, another third due to poorer shift strategy (alleviated by manually shifting), and the rest due to poor post-injection calibration.

I work in the auto industry as a powertrain engineer (over 20 years experience) and know that injection systems, control strategies and simple attention to detail by the calibrating engineer are big variables. The post injection calibration supplies fuel injected just after the combustion to go into the exhaust to collect on the DPF which then burns off the soot particles accumulated upon it. Unfortunately if this is not correctly calibrated by the engineer doing the ECU mapping, unburned fuel also hits the cylinder walls and makes it past the piston rings and into the lube oil. The fatty acid methyl esters making up the bio-component required of today's diesels do indeed have a higher boiling point and thus accumulate in the lube oil especially if the overall drive cycle is a slow speed one. Test data that I have access to has shown that one German manufacturer's diesels will have under 10% lube dilution (of fuel) whilst another German manufacturer's diesels running the same drive cycles can have up to 30% dilution. Luckily,these bio-esters are also reasonably good at lubricating but they can cause piston deposits as they will degrade over time.

In my Volvo's instance, I am summarising that Volvo have not paid sufficient attention to detail and have a poor post injection calibration with this engine. This appears to have been rectified with the recent engine and injector upgrade as Virgin-contracted chauffers driving V70/S80 vehicles I have had contact with are reporting much improved fuel consumption compared to earler incarnation (>45mpg).
Hopefully when my car gets accepted for its recall, the software update will also improve my fuel consumption.

[Nick44]

Hi All,
As the starter of this thread, I thought I would report the following. I called into my dealer this morning on the way home from a job as I was passing anyway, no appointment, not expecting me.
Service dept could not have been more helpfull and courteous, gave me a coffee and a biscuit and did the oil level correction and software change there and then.
Dealer? Parkside Volvo, Orpington, Kent. Always been treated very well by them even though they don't get my regular servicing work.
Please see post on the General Forum by Mike_Brace "I've been banned from my Volvo Dealership"

Couple of things came from my visit this morning that I thought I would pass on regarding the oil dilution question, as explained to me by the service manager. The reason Volvo specify such expensive oil for the engine is precisly because fuel dilution is "known" as the high quality oil specifed can cope with this no problem.
Secondly, on my printed out job sheet it says the following, I quote.
"A modern diesel engine with diesel particulate filter (DPF) and regeneration functionality dilutes the engine oil to some extent, depending on the customers driving style and the fuel quaility.
Due to the properties of the bio diesel and with increasingly frequent availability of diesel with a higher blend ratio of bio diesel in the market, dilution of engine oil is increasing.
In order to create a margin for this type of natural dilution, the oil level must be maintained to two thirds between min and max on the dipstick when changing the oil.
Volvo recommends that the engine oil level is checked every 1500 Miles"
End Quote.
Service Manager also said, which I found to be a complete hoot, that when Honda had this problem, they simply retrofitted shorter dipsticks.
Gotta love the oriental inscrutability.

[Nick44]

anyone interested in this thread, there is a lot more info and action to be found in the S80 '98-'06 / S60, V70 & XC70 '00-'07 General section under "Diesel DPF recall"