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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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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.

 

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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!

 

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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

 

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The Carly app will allow you to force DPF regen but pricey app.

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

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,
www[dot]ebay[dot]co[dot]uk/itm/Bluetooth-TCS-CDP-Plus-Autocom-Car-Truck-Auto-OBD2-OBDII-Diagnostic-Tool/202691983104?epid=2228156619&hash=item2f31623700&enc=AQADAAAC8FjVrDbVsZ8oH%2F8PNHtt9VX4%2Fw7FZcmMuqsX8uaFEduVCWOkxVjTM1Wp430%2FViJjaxQTHKEx6pJOn7dcvlRZtPXatNxCfamzdN9CeZdu9IiEusxEuawtJThmTwsjIVFuK0w%2FjhLRgm5y%2FRfrUZFPz9jTKqdMFoS59zg9B93WQUhfZRxm2dgtJZC9Al9pG5BVLv9JFnOzpf1BFtI84kdTtWth7YqcqnVgPgEMNjYTXvlvEHFm0eYM5AdGQTahE3hj167VGul5aUuqcA5K6RArOb%2FbfMUnsmECXYaHbGVyDCs1VUszQqbEyuZCQKMEUCuH0WsURpwNzLDzLS0g58fWZUAiuK8IQQlThRSV3MDlb9CybDqHZ1p8%2FPJXZ7MBjzUbyeQ7pJ4YeOSpmTazoeSOEtW9XIg%2B4lqKSrAwuaqXFeAIBIFWTI60eBuSLE7fCn0ODeEPQgaRcki914GQaYlSWhEnlOn%2FaYSLqDdb4agHcllLr9UWuHChNm%2BeT3zWgRO6RZcdKUHKLj110a0qyOQeqzwm6OK%2FS0RiYj6izzLhClivNuvRzlJof1zYV2zyNXgrFRM8za273n8pdkJVTh%2B3ZGfkvQ0C9hnYZ9RKZ2LpxjbqPiYCjaAodYO0rVvmgQtCKQpDIke4087RIY9xU6oUUsRyAtF0xn4O169py7Hvg7o%2F05CYjn5QtD%2BYPtK217Be5AVE1UfS8i8%2BIflEnwbWpz5oNARHUGfmUUorq50SH9VNn0%2Ff8Wi3J3HHNhi4o4Y21M4zl9800gF%2FGdnJoqbTR2XJbmq0sYW0kC0Hav1YI2f8X%2BEeYN1Qi6Bf4osLWLp3Gbfo%2B9Zf2i7cIZZ3nRJAhzxirTV9g9LYhBmPOkb%2BvmLTWnOU8fRBhFOcwMa6u3D9Th%2FzDf2MjO62O2QfGW94eWFMxTvTofSje12nN6VsYM4Wu280b%2FOwFsvBv01dLKpVvy3GlEBHqU4xyqlhOS45590N9xmhsnjsIg8QmmhGKho7&checksum=202691983104f4ebf46b5e1447d8ad8525699bced13b[/url]

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)

 

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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

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:

 

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As per my experince Not ideal for diesel engines.

Thanks for the reply tom! You mean the driving routine or the OBD proposed by mike1967?

+In an earlier post you said you did not have a turbo ,you do .Also latter (Mini Ds with the BMW engine)dont have the aditive tank.

Thanks for the info stormbringer, it was more of a question actually, I wasn't sure if it's supercharged or turbocharged. They don't? Good god.. so only peugeot engines had that EOLYS type of additive, whereas next ones didn't have anything? OK that's more persuasive now for me to do some trips every week :/ Irony is that I sent two emails to MINI and I still haven't gotten any response on how regen works, how many mph, revs, miles etc. to do.

 

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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?

 

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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

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!

 

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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,

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.

 

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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!

 

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

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)?

 

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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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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

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?

 

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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

• 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:

• 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?

 

[minimeD]

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??

 

[minimeD]

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

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?

 

[minimeD]

So by the sounds of it you've made good use of that expensive app even without using the other functions it has .

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?)

 

[minimeD]

Hi guys,

For the 5th time, I get the same result. That is:

• Regeneration window of 14 minutes

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?