[mike1967]

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!

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

 

[mike1967]

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

 

[mike1967]

As a recently converted owner of a 2011 SD, this is very handy info ... thanks again... I already have the cdp plus, didn't know it could monitor the dpf .. I'm on 21k so hoping I can put this all off for 3 or 4 years....

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,

 

[mike1967]

Yes Knt, you're absolutely right; it is indeed quite pricey :/



Wow, that's greatly informative mike, thanks! So, to wrap up, keep my mini till it's hit the 70k spot (maybe a bit more, although with the low mileage I do I won't need to), change oils every 6k miles, put cataclean every 3-4 months, and give it a good go once a week (maybe I won't be able to do it every week, but definitely every two weeks, or every three weeks a big trip, say 250 miles - at the same time monitoring with the OBD2 the soot particles). If it every happens that my DPF gets clogged earlier than this, I'll go in the highway and do some miles with revs up for sure. In any case, I'm always putting Shell V-Power; this, combined with frequent oil changes and cataclean should be OK for my age of car and low mileage I suppose, right? :/

Thanks a lot for the OBD2 that you proposed! I've seen many reviews and it seems great indeed! The problem I have is that it requires computer, and in particular a PC so I can't connect it to my MAC, thus I'll have to go with the more expensive Carly app

By the way does anyone know how many grams of soot (or soot + ash combined) can a MINI R56 DPF hold? (or to put it differently, how many grams of soot would make the DPF 80% full and thus needing a regen - lights on indicating DPF regen and everything)

one point you may of missed with the diagnostics, autocom will run on older laptops windows 7 8 and xp so cheap i use laptop not to much money, also the other key point is a carly app is bmw/mini only, where the autocom is any car on the road with a eobd socket, so in future when you fall out with your mini and buy something else you will be buying another diagnostics for that car two lots of money, ie buy the right future proof system in first place saves a lot of money and hassle,, also autocom will do a lot more than that app will, ie encode injectors or bsm or on some cars keys as well plus all the other stuff, ie its a profession garage platform rather than a phone run app.
its short start stop trips that hurt dpf filter, as pr the grams the autocom will tell you a percentage of how blocked the filter is its this the ecu uses when working out when to regen its self, if filter stuck at 80% and will not after regen lower to 10-20% means its full of none burnable residue from the regens it looks like red sand, find cars with high miles not washed wheels will show this colour on the front wheels and engine bay tell tail sign of dpf problems a head

 

[mike1967]

That's good to know mike, thanks! Maybe I will then invest in autocom, and just for the time being borrow the laptop of a friend or family to monitor the %, because it is indeed interesting. Yes, the thing is that next year I will be travelling a lot, as I'll do a daily 90 miles trip, but until then I'll do my best to try and thrash it every now and then in the highway. That's good advice on how to tell tail these problems btw :big_grin:

you can also mount the files for autocom on a memory stick and load it on to a windows pad as well and use via bluetooth or solid lead

 

[mike1967]

As per my experince Not ideal for diesel engines.

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

 

[mike1967]

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?

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

 

[mike1967]

Thanks for the help Mike! I was almost about to do this, but I thought I'd give this one a try

www[dot]amazon[dot]co[dot]uk/gp/product/B07RTS2ZDL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

(sorry for the [dot] in the URL, I still don't have 15 posts to paste one properly)

It's a diesel fuelling funnel that is supposed to be given with Ford Diesel cars (located in their boot), and it worked a treat! Flap opens exactly like I'm putting diesel in it, so whoever's interested I totally recommend that and it's just 14 quid!

I just did a 100 mile return trip to Guildford (no additives inside) but I'm sure the DPF was cleaned as much as possible. So, before I fill up my tank, I'll put some Wynn's inside so that it can lower the temperature in which soot is burned to 450 Celcius. Do you think that in city driving conditions (although 15-20 minute driving) would be enough to slightly regenerate according to these conditions?

Also, I'd like to put Cataclean inside when my tank reaches a quarter (as per the instructions), but would it be OK if I now put inside the tank the Wynn's DPF additive? I don't want to overdo it with both tbh.

Thanks a lot in advance Mike!

i just bought a vauxhall insignia 2.0cdti with 55.000 miles on it has been driven local all its life has a dpf problem already, these will damage them selves really badly if i was to keep driving it, done a check via autocom on dpf filter pressures and filter is 75% blocked its at that point where it will never clear it self as cant generate enough heat even when being driven at 70mph on a motorway for 2 hours, the bi product of this is it trys to add more diesel to regen but cant burn it this diesel ends up in the oil and this kills the main bearings all the time. my local engine builders the other day had 5 of these engines in with same problem main bearings screwed because or dpf and also the other stupid design issue the O-ring between the oil pump and oil pick up tube as this is part of the sump,, anyway i have done the ring and changed the oil and added seafoam to the fuel tank and added cataclean dpf cleaner as well and forced 3 regens with the software one after the other and have got filter cleared again,, the difference is i used a autocom and this on regen cycle takes 40 minutes per forced regen and holds the revs at 3400 revs while retarding the injection point and adding long cycles of fuel this is what turns the exhaust in to a furnace which is what is needed,, this next bit is my point here i know even after 3 forced regens chances are this car needs a new filter to be on safe side and will get one now i know everything else is ok on it,, the makers say 75000 miles replace the filter if dont what has happened to these vauxhalls will and does happen to all diesels run like it .. the gen 2 mini with the psa diesel engine the filters are cheap £115 the later n47 engines are more money but still are not for ever 75k is the designed capacity it does seem,, anyone who dont take this seriously or thinks i just made it up go search on line about what driving with block dpf filter will cause all makes are the same,

 

[mike1967]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your response, this is actually very interesting. I completely agree with you on the fact that diesels with DPF are not meant to be used for city-driving; for sure! I'd expect the 75,000 miles DPF change to apply only to those diesels that have highway miles or mixed city/highway miles (more of the latter than the former though), so generally speaking, yes, I would expect the DPF for a city-driven car to be changed much sooner, as it would create these problems that you say (and more of course). My questions here though would be the following:

- Wouldn't a service like Terraclean clean the DPF of its ash (off the car though) in a much cheaper rate than to renew it and get another 25-30k miles out of it, so that you can then change it at its 75k mark?

- Would an additive like Wynn's (DPF cleaner, not cataclean) that lowers the temperature to just 450 degrees be much better for this reason? Maybe even slightly regenerate in city-driving conditions (provided that the trip is at least 10 miles) as I suppose 450 degrees should be reached in city-driving conditions.

- Is it safe to force regenerate the car myself using Autocom (or Carly) ? I've heard some stories that the engine temperature kept going beyond 95-98 degrees to even past 100 for some fellas.

- Wouldn't a service like Terraclean clean the DPF of its ash (off the car though) in a much cheaper rate than to renew it and get another 25-30k miles out of it, so that you can then change it at its 75k mark? simply no it would not, dpf filter does not block up do to dirt as such its a very fine sand dust type stuff left from the very high temps the soot is furnaces at, its this that builds up, the filter is a saturation type and not a open type filter as such.

terra clean is more of a fuel system and inlet system cleaner costs a few quid, i get same effect if not better in my view by using seafoam and inlet spray and can in fuel tank and can in engine oil 50 miles before change, by far a better way and it really does clean out all the crud more so that a faint mist would on a heavy duty inlet track,
as for the view that a motorway car will not suffer as soon as a town car would, its heat and pressure and time that makes them work, i have had cars that at 70mph on motorway its barely reving above 1900 revs, which is barely enough to get a passive regen working,

- Would an additive like Wynn's (DPF cleaner, not cataclean) that lowers the temperature to just 450 degrees be much better for this reason? Maybe even slightly regenerate in city-driving conditions (provided that the trip is at least 10 miles) as I suppose 450 degrees should be reached in city-driving conditions. you want high temps its the heat that makes a dpf and cat work and also regens it when added to pressure, ie reving engine,


- Is it safe to force regenerate the car myself using Autocom (or Carly) ? I've heard some stories that the engine temperature kept going beyond 95-98 degrees to even past 100 for some fellas.[/QUOTE]
hmmm trouble is with all these terrible stories i always remind myself about stupidty of folk,, ie doing this with low engine oil, yep bang it goes, low water yep bang it goes, doing it on a totally shagged engine bang again, doing on a car with any fault all but the dpf full codes,, ie seen a muppet do it on a car with a faulty cooling fan, while regen in progress the fan must be running and will running for 5 minutes after, doing a forced regen with bonnet closed all adds a level of extra heat, could argue doing it on a very hot day would also add more heat load to the process, that said its designed on a healthy serviced car to do that function. i have done loads of them never had a problem,, as always while its doing it i'm checking it temperature and any strange noises of water leaking etc,, then if dont feel right just press the cancel button on the software and end the process and fix what needs fixing,
i will not comment on carly app never used one cant see it would be anywhere near as good as autocom or wurth snooper and i only use proper trade gear as such,
its funny seafoam also has some internet hits where people moan about it ie it broke my engine,, then you read between the lines and this idiot has just poured a can straight in to the inlet breather pipe on a diesel or a petrol engine and liquid dont compress,, where half a brain cells would make most be think just spray a small amount in see how its goes etc,

 

[mike1967]

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,

 

[mike1967]

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

 

[mike1967]

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.

 

[mike1967]

i cant comment on carly app never used one maybe someone else on here who has will be able to fill in the bits

 

[mike1967]

Mike, any chance that you know in about how many grams of soot the DPF is starting to get full and thus needs to take it to the highway for a run (passive or active regen to be involved)?

i've only ever used pressures before filter and after filter added to the amount of mileage covered between last regen and the percentage of which the software works out via the pressures ie the difference between the first sensor and and the after filter one, also i get mileage since last replaced the filter as well, anything more than 80k tops should be replaced as will never get pressures close enough , guess your app must have some form of method to guess the weight of soot in the filter maybe worth you asking the makers of the app how the weight of soot must treated,, as there is no way to weight it in the exhaust system then it must be a average set when designing it,, ie test car will full dpf filter then clean all the soot out by destroying the filter and weight the soot i guess,, they would have taken the pressure before and after filter first to have a beginning point,, but then there are cars with big filter and cars with small filters etc a lot of work to do,

 

[mike1967]

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

 

[mike1967]

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,

 

[mike1967]

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

 

[mike1967]

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?

my stance on it is this and honestly the amount of damage these ill thought about stupid filters cause is massive really is its borderline theft if you see it from a owners point of view ie perfect way to remove old cars as most dont see much north of 100.000 miles with same filter in volvo ford psa jag etc all put a mileage life on them clearly 75.000 miles on a car that spends all its time reving over 2000 revs ie passive regens, the trouble is when they are new yes they collect 99% of carbon but at 70.000 miles help to produce a dam sight more from engines that cant reach the high temps needed to burn the diesel correctly etc,
this all said euro 6 cars are so much better night and day with addblue in them,but still need revs to keep healthy.
cataclean works on a partially blocked filter by rising the temp in side the filter by the diesel burning off hotter, also a partially blocked dpf will cause turbo fails and head gaskets to fail also egr valves clog and that takes out the turbo etc also the burnt fuel bypasses the already carbon filled piston rings and ends up in sump and thins oil down added to this is carbon grinding away at it, really is a engine killer where they could of designed a better system where the diesel fuel had additives that atomises the particulates rather than collect it up for 4 months then burn it off like the dpf filters try,, oil changes on dpf cars 8k use a oil flush like seafoam i like the best melts the carbon,,
cataclean i have used a tin where mot gas check failed and all done add a can drive ofr hour 3k revs come back and goes through the gas test under what the book states its should be

 

[mike1967]

Yes, that is true indeed! Also, I coded the auto start stop to remember my last setting (as it was always resetting it, even if I turned it off), and cleared a few silly faults related to the anti-theft control. Regardless, all these could be done much cheaper using "autocom" as Mike suggested a couple of posts earlier, although you will need a Windows laptop, which I didn't have unfortunately :/

Mike, I couldn't agree more with you, and buying the diesel version to drive it in the city is something that I regret in the first place (although the upside of this is forcing myself to make a trip here and there in the weekends). However, do you think force regenerating the car very often will damage it (or any other mechanical components) earlier than it would otherwise? Or anything else we should be aware of (e.g. anything ending up in the oil?)

i have best of both worlds i got no problems with dpf causing any more damage to my latest car deleted and egr valve and 130bhp is now a lot more and the thing still does very good mpg to boot its not a mini by way, i know its mot failure but its only a visual check and done correctly you would never know, i drive 1200-1800 revs everywhere never have a issue also it goes through gas check under what it should be, also the oil is pretty much as clean as when i put it in, .sold both my clubman cooper d one 4 years ago other 3 years ago to people i know see them all time and service their cars for them, just because i done the deletes on them one is on around 140k at mo and still pulls like a house, but both cars were right cars came from bmw trade in through trade and owned by older people as such and were garage queens for first years of their life so by time i got them they were still untouched really but one did do its turbo and ended up rebuilding it 80,000 miles due to filter in oil feed think i paid £1200 for it back then non runner

 

[mike1967]

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