Soot Filter Full - Sensor or DPF replacement Time
 

2.0D, Car has done 77k.

Soot filter full message came up about 1000 miles ago or so (pretty much immediately after service.) It then went away for a while before more recently popping up again, this time followed with yellow engine service light required. The engine service light comes on and off, sometimes the soot filter full - see manual message dissapears but yellow check engine light on dash is still on.

Fault codes read yesterday:
ECM-P246B00 Vehicle conditions incorrect for diesel particulate filter regen
ECM-P245500 Diesel Particulate Filter Differential Pressure Sensor Circuit High
ECM-P246300 Diesel Particulate Filter - Soot Accumulation
ECM-P246F00 Diesel Particulate Filter Restriction - Ash Accumulation
ECM-P245600 Diesel Particulate Filter Differential Pressure Sensor Circuit Intermittent/Erratic


I was looking at doing a forced regen but the VIDA clearly says don't if pressure readout exceeds 150. Mine was going from 8 to 30 to 180 back to 30 whilst at idle so decided not to carry out for moment.

Has anyone any experience with this? If DPF is started to be blocked is it a consistent pressure at idle or fluctuating? Will try and get a graph of this varying pressure to illustrate my point.

Current train of thought is that pressure sensor needs replaced or DPF needs replaced one being a lot more expensive than the other!

http://i.imgur.com/6n1ZxMp.jpg
Fault code timeline
(will get graph of values when next connected to car)

The Ford engines use the Eolys fluid which clogs up the filter. It was always said they need replacing at 80,000 miles, though some last longer.

The engine is D4204T which is PSA/Ford engine but not of heard of Eolys fluid before, shall have a read. Wasn't aware the DPF was 'wet'.

How does the 2007 2.4 D5 handle regeneration? I do mainly city driving and have never had a dash message, will it display one if it's required?

Found myself with a couple of hours after work this evening so investigated further.

-Opened VIDA, looked at conditions for forced regen (it's 100 pressure units btw as cutoff), then read pressure reading was now pretty much constant around 15 units.

-Checked oil level, oil level had risen since last checked about 2k ago. From 3/4 to closer to max.
From reading it appears this will be due to additional fuel put in the system to clean the filter that ends up in the sump

-Dropped out sump plug, new filter, new oil (4L 5W-30 for £12 at Halfords at present)

-Ran forced regen program via VIDA. However, mass of stuff in filter showed at 0 before the program ran. Started program, rev'd to 2800 or so for 9 minutes before entering cool-down part of program and finishing. No great clouds of smoke out of exhaust, and quicker than I was expecting. Wasn't sure it had done much and lights on dash quickly came on after next startup. Mass of filter afterwards 0 and % change ?error.

TL;DR Replaced dpf and differential pressure sensor, all error codes resolved

Long tale:-
So I jumped in and bought a 3rd part DPF around £140.

The exhaust mounting arm on the factory installed unit is welded on. The 3rd party DPF didn't have one so I ended up buying a generic volvo exhaust hanger which had 3 prongs of which I cut 2 off and used the closest one (£10.)

DPF Fitting:
As all work being done by me was being carried out on a flat drive without any lifts (one day, a man can dream), this added to the hassle somewhat. The DPF unit is held in by 4 nuts and bolts. 2 on the forward gasket and 2 on the rear.

Wheels were chocked and the front of the car jacked up and put on axle stands, with another set sitting under sills not taking any weight (because you can never be too careful.)

Attempted to remove the nuts with socket and a ratchet wrench. No luck. Swapped out to the torque bar still no luck. (The other problem being the DPF is part of hanging exhaust system so I whilst I put quite a bit of force on it, if you could use an infinitely long cheater bar you might get the nuts off but most likely stress/crack the output pipe from the cat.) Then moved onto trying to remove the nuts using a nut cracker, which after mangling the nut, no joy. In the end, got fed up and cut the nuts off with a dremel. Took about 5 mins and I wish I had done it to start with rather then waste a good fews hours on my back under the car but NVM.

Then DPF lowered down, temp sensor disconnected. Bottle jack put under the now rear hanging part of the exhaust to keep it at approximately right height. Temp sensor put into the new DPF. Exhaust hanger 'U' bolts moved to align with mount on car and tightened up. DPF sat ontop of trolley jack pad and jacked up to exhaust height. (This step probably isn't needed but it's awkward to lift when on your back under car, then locate bolts.) Put exhaust gaskets in then locate the 4 bolts in. Tighten nuts, torque. Reconnect adaptor for temp sensor. Run forced DPF, done.

Had my life been that simple I would have been happy however upon removing my DPF I discovered it wasn't really all that blocked or sooty, so the fault probably lay in the pressure differential sensor (giving circuit high error). I had however spent a few hours on my back trying to get bolts off, and I wasn't going to return the DPF so I just fitted it.

Pressure differential sensor
This sits behind to the right of the engine and would be really easy to access when the engine is on a cart right before it gets inserted into the car. Unfortunately not the case for me.

As per VIDA instructions, remove plastic engine cover, remove battery, remove battery housing, remove air filter housing.

This helps a little with access as you can now reach some tools around horizontally but the sensor is setup mounted as so:
2 metal tubes run from the DPF through bottom of engine bay to directly under where the pressure differential sensor is located. Then two, very short, rubber hoses are connected (using hoseclamps) to these and the two plastic prongs of the differential pressure (using hoseclamps).

Undoing these hoseclamps I found damn near impossible due to the lack of workspace. There just wasn't space to fit my fist, let alone a tool. Tried to rotate the sensor away but unsurprisingly one of the prongs snapped. Eventually used a small craft knive to cut the tubing away and using long reach pliers the tubes came off. (Both rubber hoses completely removed)

For reassembly, I cut two lengths (of slightly longer) rubber pressure line, (I/D about 6mm if i remember correctly). Jubilee clips on both ends (as there was room to fit a screwdriver across to tighen them). New sensor inserted in top, jubilee clips and tightened. Snapped back into wiring loom.

Reassembled air filter/battery. Engine on, all warning lights gone, scanned VIDA, all happy. :)


Summary:
Had a problem with DPF. It was either in DPF or pressure differential sensor. I guessed wrong, but my car now has a new DPF and pressure differential sensor fitted for under £200.

Diesels with a DPF are ment to be driven at a certain RPM on motorways etc to burn off the soot deposits in the DPF driving around town or short journies does NOT get the DPF hot enough to do this, short answer is if you do NOT do alot of motorway driving once in a while take your car on a motorway and drive at a steady 2000rpm for aprox 20 mins this gets the exhaust hot enough to burn the soot off, which is far cheaper than having to replace the DPF.

Okay guys, some of you are new to this forum if you do a search on this Section for "DPF problems" you will find the problems and solutions that have been talked about in the past and there are lots and lots........