DPF regeneration - can I force it ?

[taposh]

http://www.eurocarparts.com/other-filters1

Thanks. The price for my specific model is 400 notes. However it also come up with a diagnostic tool which I may look into.

 

[lordksmith]

Thanks. The price for my specific model is 400 notes. However it also come up with a diagnostic tool which I may look into.

Sorry, £400, I thought yours was same as mine:Oops: "never assume"

 

[mercedes13156]

I had someone round the other day with a 906 Sprinter with much the same problem. I read the codes. Looked at the live data stream which showed a partially full dpf but with stored codes. Turns out the dpf had filled up over the course of local journeys and caused a code to store. In the meantime the dpf regenerated itself on the next decent run and had continued to work properly. I cleared the codes and he's not been back. (iCARSOFT980)

 

[taposh]

I had someone round the other day with a 906 Sprinter with much the same problem. I read the codes. Looked at the live data stream which showed a partially full dpf but with stored codes. Turns out the dpf had filled up over the course of local journeys and caused a code to store. In the meantime the dpf regenerated itself on the next decent run and had continued to work properly. I cleared the codes and he's not been back. (iCARSOFT980)

Thanks for that. May consider investing in a icarsoft980. Is it sophisticated enough to have functionality for doing forced regen ?

However having the ability to measure DPF fill levels would be useful.

The end to my little story is that I took the car on another burn (40 miles up M4) and the code/lights didnt clear. Took it to local garage for a forced regen and on picking up they did advise the DPF was nearly cleared - so another burn would have probably done the trick. Another very expensive lesson in my Merc ownership.

 

[mercedes13156]

The icarsoft 980 is a diagnostic tool. It won't allow you to force a regeneration. It will however allow you to remove the stored faults. It's not a STAR. If you clear the codes then rescan you clearly see what's come back and there's your problem. It also provides live data for every system in the car. For instance you can see which ABS sensor is reading zero if you roll it forward and back a few feet. For example you can see live rail pressure, exhaust gas temperature, boost pressure, ATF temperature, gearbox solenoids working......... It took me 40 minutes to quicly look at an E Class last month. Buy one and be amazed.

 

[taposh]

.........For example you can see live rail pressure, exhaust gas temperature, boost pressure, ATF temperature, gearbox solenoids working......... It took me 40 minutes to quicly look at an E Class last month. Buy one and be amazed.

Hello again, I was just looking back at the last post to get the details of the icarsoft to start looking into getting one.

However the last line of the diagnostic examples got me thinking - the gearbox solenoids.

My car is a manual, and I am assuming most people have auto's. Would having a manual gearbox (and the cars lack of control over it) have any bearing on perceived ability/inability of the car to do regen's ??

 

[turbopete]

Hello again, I was just looking back at the last post to get the details of the icarsoft to start looking into getting one.

However the last line of the diagnostic examples got me thinking - the gearbox solenoids.

My car is a manual, and I am assuming most people have auto's. Would having a manual gearbox (and the cars lack of control over it) have any bearing on perceived ability/inability of the car to do regen's ??

none at all. to a fair extent even with the autos, the gearbox and engine are run from seperate ECU's with only a small amount of parameters (throttle position, engine temp, and possibly 1 or 2 more) being used by both ECU's. the gearbox ECU will neither know nor care if the DPF is doing a regen or not, as its irrelevant to the gearbox.
the possible plus point with a manual is if you get to a point where the car goes into limp mode, the autos can in some cases lock themselves into second gear (possibly more on older cars) and limited power, whereas with a manual, you still get limited power but NOT limited gears, so no major issue limping back home. i tried my 203 on private ground in limp mode and it would still do 100mph! (eventually)

 

[A.J.]

That has sort of answered my question. My question was what is the ideal speed to run and create a regeneration of the DPF.

One or two people on this site have suggested that you just need to give it a highish speed blast, yet others say around two thousand revs is the ideal.

The question taposh asks is interesting. The taxi drivers in our town just do mainly shortish trips and then sit in the ranks with their engines ticking over until the next fare comes along. Surely that is the worst thing you could do but they don't seem to have the problems that some of our members appear to have.

What the definitive is way to keep our DPF's alive and kicking ??

 

[C350Carl]

The taxi drivers keeping the engine running allow it to get up to temp. The problem is when you're only doing a few miles and the engine can't get up to temp to allow the regen process to start.

When the car does it itself the rpm will sit at 2krpm when driving at 70mph. If it's doing it and I bring the car to a standstill the idle rpm is around the 8-900rpm mark and not the usual 600.

 

[taposh]

Been a while but have been meaning to post this final update on my DPF regen saga, and as a final thanks for all the little bits of info which have helped greatly in getting some resolution to what I need to do.

As per the recent posts, I decided to invest in the iCarsoft980 to do some decent diagnostics and actually measure my soot buid up.

Between the last forced regen at the indie and getting hold of the device it was probably about 4-5 weeks. After the recent experiences I had drastically reduced the wife's use of the car on the commute - down to 3 return journeys a week max. And just one of those things - as easy as it sounds, we didn't have an opportunity in that time to do a burning run. So had a feeling it DPF content was going to be high.

Anyway, got the unit, plugged it in and as predicted DPF fill level was showing 95%. So planned to do a burn that coming weekend. Here the icarsoft was starting to show its value - just being able to measure whats the cars actually doing took away the paranoia of the inevitable 'is the EML about to come on !'.

So the next day I needed to run some errands and needed to use the car. However I needed to do about 4 or so 7-10 mile journeys in traffic - so not burning runs, but the by the final couple of runs the engine temp was a solid 85-90C. Also I noticed on those final runs the ECO mode was staying yellow. So I figured the car may be trying to do a forced regen. So with the unit plugged in I drove the final run home, caning it when possible, got home, parked in the drive with the engine running - having had the ECO on yellow all through the last journey.

So I sat and gazed at my stats.........

Lo and behold I could see the DPF levels go down as I monitored it using the icarsoft ! I think I may have held the revs high for a bit for good measure (2k for a couple of mins) but nothing more than that. After about 10 mins of glaring at the screen the DPF content was down to 0 !

So I've been plugging the unit in about once a week since to get an idea of how fast our driving patterns fill the DPF so been able to know when its getting to the 95% or so level. Since that last regen it's done a forced regen twice since then - first of those when my wife was on the way back from Ealing (to Harrow) in traffic on A roads - so no high speed/high revs, but engine temp was up - the second was a couple of 10-15 mile journeys and again, no real high speeds, but ECO staying yellow and engine temp was up.

So the key indicators for forced regen seem to be it only kicks in when the DPF has reached 100% and then needs the engine temp to be >80C. And looking for the signs with the ECO status. One thing I did notice is when the regen is going on there are periods when the engine RPM is still only hovering around 800 - I was previously looking out for high revs at idle as a sign of regen going on so probably missed a few over the last couple of years.

Just for general maintenance I would highly recommend the icarsoft. Well worth the 90 quid or so I got it for. Just a shame the car's own diagnostics and user interface aren't able to provide more info about the DPF state and regen. As per other threads I guess it's not a big enough problem for merc for the extra development.

 

[Crazydadz]

Similar issues with fault code dpf frequency

Hi guys.
Taposh post has been very beneficial since I've seen similar issues with eml bringing up dpf frequency fault on basic code reading device.
Taposh, thanks for sharing all of your experiences.
I have a question. Since I first had fault code, I've been erasing the code each time it reappeared - approx every 2 days for a week.
2 days ago I came to London (from Leicester) which will no doubt have caused the car to do a regeneration on the motorway, however, to my surprise, the same fault code returned.
Do you guys think the car has done a regeneration or not?
This post and others suggest the regeneration has probably been done and codes remain in the car system as a way of 'keeping dealership tills topped up'.
Is this the case or do I need to be worried, and therefore have a forced regeneration at my local Mercedes-Benz dealership?
Guidance on this matter would be really appreciated eternally.
Thanks.

 

[V6Matty]

it may have tried to do a regen but if the dpf is already very full then it may not complete fully, as your only in Leicester the if you can pop and see Jay at Mercland in Nuneaton, or you could come up to Nottingham and see MB Centre, it will be much cheaper than a dealer visit and both will give you a very good service.