DPF light on this morn.

[Leslie]

Here we go 3rd issue this year lol, only got diff replaced no time ago and new rad and water pump in Feb.
Gave it 30 mile run at 2.5 to 3k to help force a regen and after a restart was away but appeared back within 4 miles couple of 2 mile journeys last night were a bad idea

[Greydog]

I have an E70 3.0d which so far has behaved itself
The only experience of EGR/DPF issues has been one of our sons has a 3.0d Toyota Pickup most of his journeys are short which was the basic cause of his problem a drastic drop in performance. He/we cleaned the EGR first, it was clogged solid so solid it was a full day's work, not just the Valve but inlet manifold and several vacuum lines were clogged or restricted. We replaced the vacuum lines and really cleaned the rest put it all back and off he went for a test drive when he floored the throttle, he left a Black cloud like a special effect from Harry Potter movie :rofl
Less than a week and issues were back this time DPF light on Toyota explained that he had 2 glow plugs down and if a glow plug isn't operating it doesn't regenerate?? The Toyota solution, replace the Glow Plugs and DPF £££, we replaced the Glow plugs here and he had the DPF Professionally Cleaned he has covered around 40k since and no lights or issues. His truck always started first time every time and never showed a fault light until the DPF cried enough. His truck has a full Toyota history but as it never showed warning lamps, they just did the service and stamped the book? Now once a week he gives it a blast up the M23 and back which seems to keep it in good health plus I have the Toyota software on the laptop now so we can run a diagnostic now and then to be sure.
So long winded way of saying if BMW are like Toyota you must have all glow plugs operating for a Regen to occur

[Sameh]

Hi Leslie,
I have that same problem of the DPF few month ago.
First thing in a BMW the glow plugs got nothing to do with the regeneration of the DPF. I thought the same at the beginning and I was arguing with everyone. In a BMW the DPF regenerates in a completely different way. Anyway you can get the DPF professionally cleaned but it is not cheap.
this is are the condition that will make the DPF regenerate.
you have to get your coolant temperature up to 75 degrees Celsius or 167 F. you will only achieve that if you are idling and revving your car at 3-4 thousand RPM for about 3 min or so. once your coolant to 75 degrees or more you need to clear the fault code and request regeneration and drive for half hour at a minimum speed of 35 MPH
all the best

[Leslie]

Thanks lads I did a bit of research last night and I believe it's to do with bmw putting a lifespan on the DPF and that life is now up hence the warning. The car is driving 100% at the minute and it comes on exactly 10 mins into a drive. The stats were replaced and temp was checked last night and it's in the 80's so all good there.
Basically I need some way of resetting the DPF life to get rid of the warning, on 162k now. as a new dpf would be the price of my car. If csrly could do this I'd get it but not sure if it can anybody know? My cheap code reader says there are no faults!
Car doing up to 34 mpg and revs to 4k no problem so not blocked or in limp mode.
I give it a weekly 5 miles iin sport at over 2k after a 5 mile warmup and never had any dpf bother before

[X5Sport]

Or as BMW officially tell you, fully warmed up and then run for at least 20 minutes at 40mph or faster - a nice stretch of motorway or dual carriageway is needed. Using ‘sport’ mode and a manual shift will help keep the rpm up (on my 8sp that means 6th). Your glowplug system must be working properly as well. The car uses them to artificially raise the gas temperatures. It also adds an extra fuel injection burst to allow remaining fuel to support burn-off. The exhaust temp must be at least 350°C for anything to happen, and full burn-off needs 600°C (which is why your fans will all be running flat out to stop damage to the car when you slow down). If these conditions are not net, or the sensors indicate a problem then regen will not happen.

If you have an appropriate scanning tool you need to check the ash levels and to check back pressure, O2 levels and EGT. Back pressure at idle must be less than around 35mbar and at 2000rpm less than around 75mbar (figures depend upon engine). You may need multiple regen requests however if your car is high mileage (more than 140k) then it may need removing and bench cleaning (basically knocking the ash out with solvents. Plenty of specialists around who can do this significantly cheaper than BMW. If you do use the multi-regen approach via a scanner, you should have your oil changed as well due to excess fuel entering the oil.

And as you suspect, a new OEM DPF is expensive! For my X6, it was about £1,400 plus fitting plus VAT last time I asked. Less than half that if non-OEM, but still expensive.

[Leslie]

X5Sport I typed above at same time I thinks it's more a service life issuie bmw has put in and it needs resetting

[X5Sport]

It wouldn’t surprise me, but anything over 140k is going to need a clean before long. The ‘design life’ is based upon ash and from what I can see, if that hits 100g the DPF needs a proper clean (remove and compressed air/furnace treatment) or replacement. There are wet flush systems around as well but some DPF manufacturers say not to use. No idea why but I suppose that could make it worse! BMW do offer a DPF cleaning service but no idea how expensive that is

It’s also worth getting a check done on the two exhaust mounted sensors (exhaust pressure & differential pressure) to see if they’re OK. A code read should ping those up if not playing.

[Leslie]

You may well be right and it's life is how full of Ash it is, I need a proper code reader to find this out and if it is it will need to come out which is a major ballache.

[Leslie]

Looking to get a code reader one that will recode batteries and monitor / reset dpf life too any recommendations, looked at icarsoft says it will do all of this but comments of youtube says they do not ! looking at foxwell 510/520 etc any body have an ideas ? Its all very confusing Don't want to buy something then find I need the next level up to do what I need ... Have found a bit of talk about this dpf code that appears after 10 mins after a certain amount of regens and the only way to get rid is to reset the dpf hours but I need to find some actual codes so need a bmw specific tool.

[Alan Gunn]

Had both makes of scanner and both good.
Sold them on and now have to put up with my m8's cast off 2019 snap-on but don't have a lot of use for any to be honest as he does any work i need.

[X5Sport]

You will also need to clear the DPF warning before forcing a regen. If the light is on, it blocks any regens in software.

[Leslie]

Light goes of in 15 secs just leaves a warning triangle, if it was a real issue I'd expect it to stay on, wil fail mot over here no doubt though. There is a foxwell 530 out not it seems but doesn't support battery type change only registering new one useless springs to mind.

[Leslie]

Got codes checked and have code 452A particulate filter predicted life warning as suspected.

[X5Sport]

Bast1ds!! A clean and a reset worth a try then

[Leslie]

Oh and 5 heater plugs, heater plug controller transfer box oil wear warning and my cheap code reader could find none of these ,think I need a new car soon lol