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MINI, Diesel & DPF maintenance in city driving conditions

34K views 107 replies 10 participants last post by  Xenon 
#1 ·
Dear MINI owners,

It's been two weeks since I bought a used 2013 (63 plate) 1.6 Mini Dooper and so far I love it! :big_grin: As a first time DIESEL owner, I'm concerned about its driving routine, as well as how to keep it in tip top shape. It only has about 40k miles and it's fully serviced, so everything inside it is like new, and I'd like to keep it this way. Reading so many things about DPF problems and what could go wrong I am a little worried, as I mostly use it for city driving (4-5 sub 5 mile trips). Of course, I do my occasional trips (perhaps once or twice a month - I'd say maybe 50 miles each way in highway driving), but I'm not sure if that's enough.

From what I've been reading, the last example is ideal for maintaining the DPF at its best condition; not so much, however, the former. First of all, is there any rule of thumb regarding its use (miles in the highway per month, speed, revs etc.), or how often it regenerates? Moreover, is there anything I can do to maintain it at its best even in city driving conditions? e.g. Any additives I can purchase (either from MINI or from other manufacturers that MINI recomments)? Higher revving maybe, or something else? I've been reading some nice reviews about Wynn's DPF cleaning solution (an additive you put in the tank)

Any other Dooper owners using it mainly in city driving conditions or any suggestions? :big_grin:

Thanks to all of you in advance!
 
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#3 ·
Thanks for your prompt response and info knt, much appreciated! Will try to do that. M27 would be great for that (I live in Hampshire), so I'll find a planned route 10-20 miles and back.

By the way, by doing these trips, is it guaranteed that regeneration will happen? Or does it happen e.g. every 300 miles or so?

Finally, have you tried any additives? Would you think that they help? e.g. maybe reduce the time needing to regenerate or the mileage I need to do to burn the soot? So far I've read mixed feedback.
 
#5 ·
Thanks a lot knt! I'll wait for mike's answer then! :)

Yes, I've seen this additive before in a Tesco's, it seems to be more popular than Wynn's, but I'll go to Halfords today to have a look at a greater range and ask for their help in choosing the one.

By the way, I came across this app & OBD2 package from Carly (www[dot]mycarly[dot]com/en/app/bmw/), and it has the ability to monitor the DPF (how many grams of soot there is in there), see that live as you're driving and even perform a force regeneration (although it just points to the ECU to do that when all conditions of temperature and mileage are met). I think that would ease my mind a little bit to monitor when it starts to become clogged (but before the light comes on) so that I can take it for a good ride on the motorway! :)
 
#6 ·
dpf filter has two air pressure sensors one in front of filter one at rear, these tell the ecu how blocked with soot the filter is and at a point around 80% it will tell ecu to regen the filter, it does this by changing ignition points via the injectors and runs engine rich with fuel to generate heat within the exhaust system and turbo and engine,, driving the car at 3000 revs for more than 20 miles on a motorway once a week is good to keep clear, all of the above is fine when the filter is under 75000 miles old, the problems start after this mileage as the filters are designed with 75000 as a service replacement item, the additive tank they also run needs replacing every 45k or filter will block, also bare in mind turbo's are designed to last 80-120k based on engines with unblocked dpf filters, when filters block they will soon take out the turbo, 100k car with factory filter blocked is just waiting to destroy your engine as when turbo fails those engines go in to diesel runaway, ie cant not stop them from eating own oil and reving to red line until it breaks, below link is a dpf element by far cheapest option on the psa 1.6 hdi engines, also a link for the best dpf and injection cleaner i have found its call cataclean dpf,, but nothing will clear a 75k plus filter as its the residue produced from regens that black them and will not burn a way
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Diesel-P...oper+D&hash=item4d621f0b35:g:uqcAAOSwrlRZzqcC
cataclean
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CataClea...686541&hash=item4b216d6b39:g:DrIAAOSwxAhawlxE
 
#7 ·
Thanks a lot for your response mike, much appreciated! You're absolutely right, I was reading this article (www[dot]dieselnet[dot]com/tech/dpf_ash.php) that explains how ash is building up in the DPF, and in the 75k miles you mention, about 70% of the DPF is ash already, so many more regens will be needed more often, whilst other things will start having problems due to it as you mentioned.

Thanks for both links. The first is for an older model, as I have the R56 (63 plates), so it's the facelift version with the BMW engine. Regardless, a DPF from ebay costs about 125£, but it's the labour that will cost much anyway (if I keep my car past the 75k-80k miles mark). I have the 1.6 cooper D, so I suppose that I don't have any turbo (I thought only the SD was turbocharged, right?) ?

As far as the cataclean is concerned, thanks a lot! I found from Halfords (www[dot]halfords[dot]com/motoring/engine-oils-fluids/fuel-oil-additives/cataclean-diesel-500ml), so I'll go there today to pick it up; it's just 15 quid, so not so bad.

The directions in the ebay link say:

"Empty entire contents of bottle of Cataclean Diesel into fuel tank. Then drive for at least 15 minutes and refuel when necessary. Recommended ratio of one 500ml bottle of Cataclean Diesel to approximately 15 litres of fuel."

So, I suppose I'll use two bottles, as my tank is about 35 litres of fuel filled already. When it says drive for at least 15 minutes, does it mean (I suppose) on the motorway? or even 30 mph unstopped city driving?

Last but not least, when you say "driving the car at 3000 revs for more than 20 miles on a motorway once a week is good to keep clear", should it be continuously, or can I break this down into 10 miles each way? So that I can plan my route accordingly, 'cause 20 miles could roughly take me from Portsmouth to Southampton :D
 
#9 ·
whoops sorry i take some of what i said before back,, i thought yours was a psa diesel ie pre march 2010 as its the later one its got bmw own engine ie N47 with the timing chain at rear of engine and dry dpf filter, the life of filter is same, as before, your engine uses a timing chain ar rear of engine very common between 70-100 for chain to stretch and cause big problems, running these engines on a partially blocked dpf filter will/can increase wear to chain by this mainly, ie when ecu try's to clear a dpf filter that is so blocked with old sand type dust from all the pre regens in its life the extra diesel that gets added by it can reach a high enough temperature so ends up in the engine oil this also washes more soot carbons in it this acts like a rubbing paste and the diesel thins the oil all adds up to a really bad day..
the later dpf filters are sealed unit and cost more, might be able to have it professionally cleaned via a hot wash and heat machine specialist job some company's advertise on ebay.
6k oil changes on those engines can help a lot especially north of 40k miles. timing chain replacements on those need engine or gear box out £1800-£2500 bills have been reported on her from a few people, if chain slips teeth £4 plus as destroys the engine.
as for diagnostics tools you will not find anything better value for money than AUTOCOM CDP PLUS will put link for a idea below, this will regen dpf will allow you to view soot levels and force regens and also when change the filter reset the adaptations for it, its laos works on most cars on the road to 2016 ish on many levels reads all p-codes,
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bluetoot...=202691983104f4ebf46b5e1447d8ad8525699bced13b
 
#11 ·
with live data it will show you percentage and time since last regen on the filter, and how many miles since last changed filter,
you might like this next bit, now i have not try'd this yet but can see how its possible, a friend of mine same age and specialises in bmw diesels mainly, i was speaking to him about n47 diesel and timing chain and replacement he told me he can change just the chain without removing the engine or gearbox i tried to get him to tell me more but he changed the subject after everytime i ask how,, but he did say its possible as he has been doing it for a long time,
so the only way i can come up with would be this, remove rocker cover mark top sprocket mark front crank pulley at tdc, then lock the chain tensioner with its lock pin, after this would need a chain link tool to remove a link from old chain leave chain on engine then do same with new chain and link one end to the old chain and get someone to rotate the engine clockwise while someone holds and keeps pressure on the new chain being fed in to the top sprocket while feeding the old chain out then re join the new chain with chain link toll job done new chain fitted,, i worked this out with what he did sort of say, i know in perfect world having the guides done as well and timing reset with lock tool. but in all honesty the guides dont wear and a new chain will put timing back perfect anyway but the down side is the bottom sprocket not knowing how worn that is,, i would say a 100k engine the sprocket will be so worn on a 70k car you could get away with it,
 
#18 ·
i have never thought that about my autocom does most things use it all the time, there are 3 different types, lesser one has only part of micro processor boards in it. also knowing how to use it and use sub menus etc helps
 
#20 ·
Hi again guys,

I bought a CataClean Diesel solution as mike1967 proposed to put in every 3-4 months, but I also bought a Wynn's DPF cleaner treatment to put once every 3rd-4th tank. The problem I have is that there's a metallic flap blocking the bottle (or anything actually) from going into the fuel tank (not sure if it's just with the Diesel model or all models and makes). I bought a plastic funnel from Halfords, but it doesn't open it. So, I suppose that it has a sensor that detects the diesel pump nozzle and unlocks? If so, how can I temporarily bypass that to put the additive into the tank?

Any thoughts?
 
#21 ·
my clubman had that and would not move i found i could pour the additive over the metal tongue and it fell in to tank as such, another way is next time go fill up sticking it in then ie push pump nozzle just in and pour the additive over the top as such
 
#26 ·
or there is a 3rd way delete it and the egr valve but technically mot failure but at present there is no way to tell if filter is there or not as long as keep exhaust looking like a factory one, ie cut the old filter on its welds then re weld back after knocking filter out, then a £170 remap and software delete, this changes the car so much and makes them a pleasure to own, and also the oil stays clean i know of a few cars been done back 2007 and still on road now with over 200.000 miles on them and engines still use no oil etc,
 
#27 ·
Dear Mike,

I can't thank you enough for the wealth of knowledge that you share with us in this forum! For my complete lack of mechanic experience with cars, I'd avoid this, but damn, that would be a dream; a diesel car with no worries about its DPF! By the way, do you know of any map that would help reducing these particles? (i.e. if you can't burn them, reduce 'em! haha) or any map for what matters; my Dooper is still in its default map, so I suppose that there's always a more efficient one.

==================================================================
Just to sum up everything for those not reading all previous posts, advice shared so far are the following:

- Frequent oil changes (if mainly city driving, check that often - maybe every 6k miles) and good service/maintenance needed.
- A good all-in-one additive like Cataclean could be used every 3-4 months (put it when you have a quarter of diesel left in your tank).
- If possible, give it a nice go once a week for 20/30 miles, revs up above 2.5k.
- The previous could be combined with a forced regeneration (provided that your car is in good condition - no faults etc.) that can be made using AUTOCOM (see mike's post above) - I'll use Carly soon and let you know if and how well it works. That's 'cause I have ordered this already, otherwise I'd go with mike's suggestion.
- The estimated average "good" life of the car is 75k miles, after that DPF will soon need replacing, along with timing chain in n47 models and/or turbo a bit down the road.
===================================================== Credits go to mike!

Guys to be honest, my hair almost got grey reading and searching through these things. So much that it takes off the super fun that is driving this thing up and down (especially in country roads with many turns). What I'll do is to monitor the particles (soot) using Carly (since I bought this anyway, otherwise AUTOCOM) to see when regeneration is due (or to force one if I am to take a trip and passive regeneration won't help much), and keep it in tip-top shape by always giving it a V-Power fuel, CataClean once every quarter and frequent oil changes. But aside from that, I can't do much and if I'm not lucky it will fail anyway. Sometimes we're so deep into looking for these failures to come that they take away from the super fun driving these lovely MINI cars!
 
#28 ·
Sometimes we're so deep into looking for these failures to come that they take away from the super fun driving these lovely MINI cars!
ha ha welcome to my world it would be nice to own a car and just drive it with out a care in the world, i remember all all the nasty repair jobs that have done in the past and how how some faults keep coming to the top, i know a guy who does custom maps for dpf egr and 50/50 eco and power map ie brings the power band lower so get a big hit of power early in the rev band, i've a had a lot off him over the years he's a automotive electrical repairer, all the cars he has done for me have gone through mot emissions checks lower on the gas machine, which is bi- product of getting the amount of fuel and air/boost just right within the map,,
was speaking to him last week he thanked me for sending a guy off here who had a gen 1 cooper s mini and had modified it big time but had fitted bigger injectors off something else to find they would not work with the competition ecu this bloke had taken it to a couple rolling rolling places and they told him it cant be done,,, dale and the rolling road company he works with sorted it out,
big difference between people who copy code and people who can make code as such, and also repair and clone anything hmm except the mini bc1 as its silly protected
i will drop his number here for anyone who needs something like what i said above doing, a bonus ball is is that he can also do a send your ecu's in by post and he flips them around fairly fast, i always use this service ie UPS over night it,
DALE PHONE NUMBER 07807 222262
 
#29 ·
added point if ever you have driven a bmw n47 engine with dpf and egr and map on it its like stepping on a landmine with the torque also mpg is better, due to this, egr valve adds carbon dioxide to the air inlet this is a inert gas and gives now power from re burning it, so delete the engine replaces this 20% with air that does have a burn factory and remap adds to this as well, also the oil in the engine without egr is cleaner, then add dpf goes lack of back pressure and unwanted heat etc and no more regens cost fuel to boot, you should alaways ask for a copy of factory setting from the ecu ie the first write a tuner produces so if in future need to reset back to factory and stick a dpf back on it you can ,, mot is visual check at present the gas test always reads less than if it had it fitted still and no smoke is the key part of any increase in power, i have never had a smokey one off dale before (on a healthy engine or course) as he knows what the boundaries are.
 
#30 ·
A quick update

Hi everybody,

One week after my last post the Carly adapter arrived! I can say that it is almost perfect! Why almost? Because it provides all information I need (plus much more I don't actually, but maybe others would) except from the % of how full the DPF is (it only gives the grams of soot/ash the DPF is filled with, but not actual percentages.

I did 1 hour of city driving (with an already regenerated DPF through my last trip - the soot levels were down to 6 grams), and this is what it looks like (attachment 1). From 14:22 (6 grams of soot) till 17:15 (17.8 grams of soot), there were 9 grams of soot added. But, what I noticed is the fact that there seems to exist a threshold at right about 18 grams, reaching which the car causes a kind of regeneration / soot-burning to reduce these soots, or at least keep them right below that. I don't know if anybody can find/assume why. It was city-driving only, mainly 2nd or 3rd gear (revs usually between 1700 and 2500 revs, speed between 26 and 34 mph, engine already warm constantly around the 85-86 degrees mark throughout all this ride).

In attachment 2 is the level of soot (for only a small time window) benchmarked against the revs, whilst in attachment 3 is the level of soot compared against the exhaust gas temperature upstream of the particle filter (in Celcius). I don't know if you guys can explain this?

By the way I should mention that I started recording right as I have filled up my tank, putting 1 bottle of Wynn's DPF cleaner (if that helps at all anyway). Also, there's only 13 grams of Ash in my DPF, so I suppose that it is still in good condition, right?

What do you think?


P.S. The Carly adaptor has already paid its money as it helped me code the auto start/stop button to remember the last setting (i.e. if I set it to off, then next time the engine starts it will remember that it is "off") and it has a few other codings that I'll do, such as how many seconds the light indicator to stay on etc. etc.

P.S. 2 I'll monitor this again in my next ride to let you know some more
 

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#31 ·
i cant comment on carly app never used one maybe someone else on here who has will be able to fill in the bits
 
#34 ·
Hi everyone,

I thought to share my experience with the DPF (according to its monitoring with Carly, at least for those who use it), as well as some question marks I got and a general advice. Here it is:

1) First of all, Carly measures the soot/ash in grams, although I guess that it's just an estimation based on the sensors before and after the DPF (those measuring the pressure). It is solid and robust, as no matter when I measure it, it always gives me the same grams (i.e. it never gives me a measurement and then when I go back I have a different measurement or whatever. That said, I don't know how exactly it measures the grams inside, but it's consistent)

2) It took me a while to understand what kind of thresholds are good or bad for a MINI Cooper 1.6D DPF, but here's what I've found so far:

* 18 grams of soot is the limit where active regeneration starts happening (so that's why it hardly passes the 18g threshold). This happens even in city driving conditions, although it only gets down to 16g at most, and then up it goes again until it reaches 18g. It usually takes me about two weeks of city driving in stop/start conditions to reach this limit from say, about 3 grams.

* Usually 25 grams is where the DPF light comes on the dashboard to give you an indication to get into a highway and offload it (it has never happened to me so far)

*Between 30 and 40 grams of soot, regeneration while driving/standing is possible

* Though between 40 and 44 grams regeneration is only forced (i.e. through Carly or a different OBD2 connector) and only through driving conditions (i.e. not while standing)

* Anything from 45 grams and above it goes to limp mode.

I've never surpassed the 18.5g threshold, so I can't guarantee anything about the above limits, but that's what I've found searching around in several forums, articles etc.


3) If you force regeneration through Carly, and for the 1.6D facelift Cooper model at least, from the time it actually starts regenerating, it needs exactly 10 minutes and then it stops (no matter if it still has soot to burn). That period is actually 14 minutes from the time you actually push it to regenerate (i.e. it needs about 4 minutes of highway driving to start actually regenerating, as I pushed the button while standing right outside a highway - done that twice). You can see my first attached picture.

4) If you see the first graph, it regenerates really fast! i.e. in 10 minutes it dropped down from 18 to 7g. But... the second time I tried regenerating, it was going really slow, i.e. in 10 minutes it dropped down from 7.5g to 5.50g (it was regenerating the whole time as the "requested regeneration mode" was on in Carly). Thus, my take is that it depends on how "essential" the regeneration is, as in order to heat the DPF and burn that thing, it usually also injects diesel, so it either didn't inject diesel to save fuel, or it was just burning real slow for reasons of efficiency (?) i.e. not increasing the DPF temperature at a really high value.

5) The revs don't play so much of a role. If you see the graph no.2 that I upload here, with blue is the histogram of the revs recording in the first regeneration (where it burned the soot really quick), and with orange the revs of my second regeneration (where it was burning the soot real slow). In the former case, the revs were usually between 2500 and 2700 and occasionally around the 3000 mark, whereas in the second regeneration, the revs were more around the 3000 to 3250 mark. Moreover the engine was already at temperature, as well as the DPF, as the second regeneration was enabled while I went to a roundabout and back on the same highway, thus the temperature was already up from the previous trip.

6) As you can see, passive regeneration after the requested one did not do anything (although I'm not sure if this is mainly because a forced regen was requested before), but it roughly kept the soot at the same level for the time driving the car.


That said, my first general advice would be don't get too frustrated with your DPF, but monitor that maybe once a week, and if it's near the 18g threshold, just take it for a ride and have a coffee at a city near you that involves at least 15 miles of highway and you'll be fine :)

My second general advice would be, while Carly is nice in itself, the app costs about 50£ and the adaptor another 62£ and it doesn't show you the % of soot in the DPF. Mike has proposed the AUTOCOM which, among other things, has some really powerful tools including the DPF. So if you have a Windows laptop, and you don't want to spare 100+ quid for Carly, this is your option to go! (Thanks a lot Mike!)

P.S. For those wondering, the first trip was 15 miles of (normal to a bit busy traffic conditions) highway, and then a roundabout and back (another 15 miles).
 

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#35 ·
devils advocate i have regen'd thousands of diesels over the years and on a 50k car where it is showing the dpf warning on the dash or has gone slow off the mark at least a 40 minute 3400 revs forced regen will improve it and its all about the heat just cant see how 10 minutes under 3k would induce enough heat, guess time will tell keep us informed,, the best £300 anyone could spend is make it gine and egr and drop a 40 bhp extra low down map on it completely transforms the car and also the chain last longer on n47
 
#36 ·
Hi Mike, thanks again for your thoughts! All I did was put a bottle of Wynn's DPF cleaning (which reduces the temp of soot burning to approx 450) and also had the aircon ON in order to increase the load and took it for a nice 15 mile highway drive each way (2,500 revs and up, which means either 4th gear or sometimes 3rd gear if the traffic was getting jammed). I am by no means expert in this and only say what I observe so take it with a pinch of salt! :) My car still has only 42k miles on the clock (so, also a low amount of ash too) and in perfect working condition (i.e. fully serviced, no faults found, thermostat OK etc.) so maybe there's a combination of all the above that counts I suppose. In any case, my point is only concern about the DPF if you see the light on, as my hair got grey from what I've been reading in several forums.

Also, the 10 minute window is the time frame I observed with the forced regeneration, this doesn't mean that the car does not regenerate after that. So maybe, what you say is whilst thrashing the car (i.e. 3,500 revs) for an extended period of time (i.e. as you said about 30 minutes more) it keeps regenerating and burning more soot (whilst, for instance, I pushed it to force regenerate again a second time after the 10 minutes window passed)

That said, and whilst this has never occurred to me, is there a DPF symbol that comes on the dashboard, or is it a generic engine symbol indicating that? Moreover, the tuning you mentioned sounds really good, could you give us some more details? :D
 
#37 ·
aircon works the other way round ie when its on it sets the cooling fan running to cool it down, when its heat that turns exhaust in to a furnace to reduce the soot,
basically they cut the dpf filter in a way that cannot be seen and remove the dpf filter and blank off the egr valve then add a 50/50 remap and map out the dpf filter and egr valve, the egr valve adds exhaust gasses and carbon in to the inlet,, by removing the engine replaces the inert carbon dioxide with oxygen and that adds more power also it allows the turbo to spool up early, but its a mot failure to have this removed, that said all mot stations i have worked around only do a visual check so as long as it looks like never been tampered with they will pass it, ironically all the cars that i have seen mot's with it done the gass figures are a lot less than with the filters. as the filters only really work 100% when new and between new and 75k they just get worst. all the cars i have done this to do better mog nicer to drive and the engine oil stays cleaner as nothing causing back pressure forcing carbon and unburnt diesel in the sump, this tends to cost around £300 -£500 depending on the car etc,
 
#38 ·
Hi guys,

Just another update on this matter. Did two more regens (forced through Carly) and the same pattern appeared. That is, 14 minute regeneration windows. Now, for some more (perceived) insights:


Regeneration #1

275506

  • The regeneration lasted 14 minutes
  • Revs were on average on the 2,500 mark
  • It dropped all the way from 12grams (about 40% of DPF capacity) to 2 grams
  • I had put CATACLEAN diesel in this run (I use it once every 6 months)
Regeneration #2:


275507

  • The first regeneration lasted 14 minutes
  • Revs were on average around the 3,000 mark
  • It dropped from 12 grams to 6.5 grams
  • I forced another regeneration right after that, which only lasted 10 minutes, but probably because it cleared the DPF.
These said, I've got a question that you could probably help me with:

As this is mainly a city car, and based on my sub-5 miles daily trips it needs about 2 weeks to reach the 12 grams mark (40% of DPF capacity - at about 80% the light comes on). Is it safe, if I "force" regenerate it through Carly (or any software for that matter) every two weeks? I usually take the A3, do 20 miles of highway driving, then roundabout and another 20 miles back, where I usually regenerate on my way back. Do I make any harm on the engine or any other components this way? or is it safe? I mainly do it as I want the car to be always on the safe side (DPF loading wise) and I don't want it to get clogged by not doing any highway trips. What else do I need to make sure to check that everything remains in good condition, aside from fluids (coolant, oil) that are probably affected by regenerating that often?
 
#40 · (Edited)
Is doing that many forced regen safe for other car parts?
Actually, it's a million dollar question @knt, 'cause even if I did this mini trip to clean the DPF without forcing the car to do it itself, it would simply keep filling with soot; probably until it gets near the 80% mark (and just before the light comes on) for the car to force it. In my very small experience, passive regeneration is super slow :/ So, even if mechanics or someone else tells you to just take it for a harsh ride every x weeks, or every y miles, it doesn't necessarily mean that it regenerates (or at least you have to monitor it). Fun fact, once I tried to see when it self regenerates, 40 miles of highway, with 40% of DPF loaded with soot, and it started doing it somewhere around the 35th mile. Thus, it did so by the time I almost got into the city, which is rather useless, as I would have ended with an almost loaded DPF by the time I reached home.

Long story short, DIY regenerations are awesome, but are they safe?? :)
 
#41 ·
on the early ones you can just slowly pour it on top of the metal flap not sure on later fillers try a drop see. or add to a jerry can with fuel and pour it in
 
#42 ·
Hi Mike,

Are you talking about pouring Cataclean? If so, it did miracles for my car (or at least my perception is that) and for cleaning the DPF super fast (as you can see from Regeneration #1 - 12 grams to almost nothing in just one regeneration). I didn't try to put it this way, as I was afraid it might end up on the floor, so I bought myself one of these fuel funnels (actually this one) and worked a treat!

Regarding the forced regenerations, do you think it's safe to exercise them with any software every two or three weeks? I would assume that it is, as it's like instead of letting the software choose, you kind of choose it yourself, but does it make more harm than it's trying to prevent at the end? What do you think?
 
#47 ·
Hi guys,

For the 5th time, I get the same result. That is:
  • Regeneration window of 14 minutes
275545


Between 14:42 (where the data start) and 14:45 I was driving to the nearest highway exit, so 3 minutes of city driving. Then, approximately between 14:45 and 15:06 I was on the highway with a speed of between 60-70 and 4th gear trying to keep the RPMs as high as possible whilst maintaining a constant speed (I achieved that as there was no traffic at that time). This means 21 minutes of pure motorway driving, or about 23 miles. I suppose that this would be perfect for passive regeneration, right? Well, apparently it wasn't, 'cause as you can see the soot was slowly but gradually increasing during that time. So, I stopped at a parking spot and forced regeneration through Carly and driven for another 23 miles of highway back home. In just under 14 minutes, it dropped the soot from 11 grams (this is approximately a 38% clogged DPF) to just over 3 grams (just under 10%).

So, in my small experience I believe that there are 3 possible outcomes:
  1. Passive regeneration doesn't work or doesn't exist in my '63 plate Mini Cooper D
  2. Passive regeneration needs at least 24 miles of highway driving to be triggered [I shall experiment with that in the near future, i.e. make the round trip ~ 48 miles of highway driving without force regenerating it myself]
  3. Passive regeneration is a mild forced regeneration through the ECU (e.g. instead of injecting lots of diesel in the DPF, it only injects small amounts) when the soot increases above a given threshold
In any case, the 14 minute regeneration window seems to be fairly consistent, plus in my manual, where the DPF maintenance is, it says that regeneration only takes a few minutes to be achieved.

One observation is for sure, softwares such as "Autocomm" and "Carly" work (I've tried the latter, Mike has tried the former).

So, the only question that remains is the following:
  • Is it safe to force regenerating your DPF (bi)weekly?
 
#48 ·
every time you force a regen some diesel blows past the and ends up in the engine oil ie after a forced regen you should change the oil on a very blocked filter, best letting car do passive regens ie 60 minutes at over 2500 revs 40 minutes at 3400 as per designed replace filter at 75.000 miles
 
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