UKC

Been having problems with our VW T5 since driving to France last week. Not long out of Dunkerque then engine management warning light came on so we took it to a VW garage in Hazebrouck. They replaced some sensor (bill in French so we don't understand it other than it was a sensor)

All good and the van is fine for the next few days. Several days later we drive up to the Col du L'iseran (excuse spelling!) to do some ridge traverse. On the way back down the engine didn't start heating up until we reached the valley. (the col is the highest in Europe at just over 2700m)

All still good. Next day we are driving the van around short distances and starting and stopping a lot looking for a spot to go paragliding. After coming down from the Col du Mount Cenis, the Diesel Particulate Filter warning light comes on, not long followed by the glow plug light, then the engine management warning light.

We drove the van back to Termignon where we are based (not too far) and looked up stuff on internet which suggested we should blast the van along a motorway, revs up over 2000 and for atleast half an hour. We drove the van down to St Jean Mauriene but couldn't really boot it due to the roads and it was mostly downhill! The garage there, did some sort of 'engine update' and told us to drive on the autoroute at over 60mph for atleast 30miles. This we did, but no joy, lights still on. We are now booked in to get the DPF replaced this Friday at a cost of 1000 euros!

Neither of us speak French well enough to communicate brilliantly with the garage folk and we are wondering if anybody is well versed enough in engine/motor issues to advise whether it's sensible/not sensible to ignore the warning lights and carry on pottering about for the next week or so and then driving all the way home back to Scotland on the 18th and leave getting the van sorted until we are back home in Scotland and better able to understand what the mechanics say?

PS - the garage told us that the DPF was 90% saturated.

In reply to Sonya Mc:

I don't, but the AA does:
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/fuels-and-environment/diesel-particula...

In reply to digby: Read that already and it doesn't anwer my question which was, considering that the DPF is already 90% saturated and needs replaced, is it possible to keep driving the van like this, in particular, home to Scotland and leave getting the DPF replaced until we get home?

In reply to Sonya Mc:

No experience with VWs....drive a diesel alfa romeo.....but theres oodles of stuff discussed about italian dpfs.

Take about 6000 miles to 'fill up'.........less if its all slow driving or low rev stuff.

Just because youre 'full' doesnt mean u need a new one....they regenerate themselves in right conditions.

Id take it out when roads are empty and drive 50/60 miles at high revs.....mpg will take a battering but it should sort it out.

In reply to Sonya Mc:

Sorry! You're obviously a good googler and will have no doubt already found lots of sites.

In reply to Sonya Mc: I drive a diesel nissan, and had the particulate warning light come on after a fortnight pootling round the south west. I got shut by belting along in 4th on the Atlantic Highway (!) for a bit, but the manual says if it stays on after driving at relatively high revs for an unspecified period, the engine management system will basically stick the car in "safe" mode until it gets professionally sorted. I wonder if your engine isn't getting hot enough because of the earlier EMS related jinks, but I'm no mechanic.

In reply to Sonya Mc:
If it helps there's lots of companies that will remove your DPF and change the ecu so the van runs as normal.

In reply to Sonya Mc: I sell VW cars and DPF's are torture. Once they hit 90% they are shagged although from what you said about driving it I'm surprised it got to 90%.

From my little knowledge of the warning lights unless any of them are red or flashing you should be fine to keep driving it but if any of them turn red or start to flash you could end up with a giant bill as you may cause alot more damage to the engine.

If you get it back to the UK the bill will more likely be over £1200, at least that's what my garage charge on Polo Bluemotions so depending on the exchange rate it may be cheaper to get it done out there.

DISCLAIMER: I am a lowly sales person and not a mechanic so I may be talking absolute bollocks!

In reply to monkeymark: And to regenerate the DPF in VWs it's 30 minutes at constant revs of over 2500. The trick is being consistent, you could drive it at 40 in 1st around town and because of all the start stopping it wont regenerate.

Stick it on a long straight road and you could only be doing 30mph if the revs are right and consistent.

In reply to Ridge: I was quoted £450 just for this privaledge, and thats without a custom de-dpf being made. Just not worth the money in my opinion.

I had my last car remapped, and this caused no end of trouble with the dpf. the light came on four times in 150miles. every time i had to blast it along in high revs to sort it, but just gave up after that and got the remap wiped.

I would have presumed that you would have tried to cause an automatic regen, but if not try that. but certainly dont get it removed. The only reason i looked at getting it done was because it was a 2011 car and wouldnt need an mot for 3 years. if you remove it, yes cheaper in the short term, but when your mot comes it will still be a new dpf (£1000) and the code put back on your ecu (£450), so an overall cost of (£1900 + custon de-dpf) worth it.....nope.

try to get it to regen, driving round in high revs, if it doesnt work, then get a new dpf, dont even think about taking it out and touching the ecu

In reply to Sonya Mc:
Thinking of changing car soon for newer diesel and the more I read about DPFs, the less I want a car that has one....hope you get it sorted without too much drama.

In reply to monkeymark: Thing is, once the warning light came on, we drove the van back to campsite (all pretty much downhill so engine doesn't get a chance to burn off the soot) and then we drove all the way to the garage (again downhill) I think the fact that we didn't try and regenerate the DPF straight away made the percentage rise so high.

We tried regeneration on advice from the garage (after they did some sort of update) but it had no effect whatsoever. Like you said, by this point it was f*cked as it was at 90%.

We've put up a similar post on the VW forum and someone has suggested that if we were to keep driving the van around all these wee French back roads and hilly roads where you can't get the revs up, then there is the danger that the DPF is fully blocked and can set the engine on fire! Not worth risking, so we're keeping our appointment on Friday and getting it replaced. Quite gutting when the van is only just over 2yrs old and has only done 20k on the clock!

Have a question for you seen as you're a sales person. What do you know about warranties? The van will be 3yrs old in Dec of this year, so will the van and it's parts still be under warranty? Or does the fact that we didn't consult the manual and kept driving when the DPF warning light came on, mean that we invalidated the warranty if there is one?

Thanks for everyone's replies. Most helpful.

In reply to Sonya Mc:

I'd say that at that level the warranty should still be valid - certainly worth a call and loads of 'disappointment' - not fit for purpose etc

We had a Toyota that was a nightmare at about 10,000 miles - light came on and wouldn't go off, no matter how much of a thrashing down the motorway it got. After some faffing around and failed fixes it got a 'software update' that did fix it. Some much for a) the validity of the warning light in the first place and b) home mechanics

In reply to martinlird:
I don't think dpfs are part of the MOT, it's purely on emissions. More by luck than judgement our two new diesels don't have dpfs, and judging by the problems people are having I wouldn't want one.

In reply to Sonya Mc: Unfortunately the DPFs are not covered by the warranty. At least they aren't on cars, I'm assuming commercials are the same. The DPF is classes as a consumable item meaning it's treated like oil or screenwash. If you have had the van serviced at VW franchises then you might be able to get factory goodwill which may contribute towards the cost. It's hard enough to get in this country when you are speaking the same language so you might struggle to get it in France.

Sorry that I can't help.