What Is A DPF & Why Should I Clean It?
A Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) is an integral filter in a diesel vehicle’s exhaust system. It captures and traps potentially hazardous soot particles and build up. All modern diesel vehicles from 2006 onwards come with a DPF. This is designed to ensure harmful chemical substances are not being released into the atmosphere.
DPF works at an higher temperature, 600-650°C, using a series of post-injections of fuel.
On the walls of the filter there are some noble metals which act as catalysts to facilitate the whole process. During the post-injections some fuel slides along the cylinder walls and flows into the oil sump. This contaminates the DPF progressively over time and endangers the functioning of your engine. For example, the turbine can break leading to the flowing of the oil in the DPF.
Why Should I Clean My DPF?
Overtime, soot, residuals and oil deposits can form in your DPF. They start to clog up.
Contributing Factors To Clogging
There are a number of contributing factors as to why DPF’s clog up. These include:
- Quality of Fuel – using Bio Fuels can contribute to extra soot build-up as Bio Fuel may not burn as clean as regular diesel fuel.
- Quality of Engine Oil – using incorrect oil specified for your engine can significantly add to the amount of soot build-up in your DPF
- Temperature– Filter regeneration requires the temperature of a DPF filter to be around 600c. These temperatures will only be reached at high speed, long trips. Therefore, low speed driving will not reach high enough temperatures, causing the filter to block faster
- Style of Driving – Diesel engines are not designed for short journeys and low-speed driving. Therefore, inner city driving can cause a faster build-up of soot as the regeneration process is less likely to occur.
- Year Model/High Kilometre Vehicles– as a vehicle with DPF systems age and begins to wear out, filter regeneration becomes harder to complete
How To Clean Your Diesel Particulate Filter
DPF cleaning additives are chemical solutions that claim they will adequately clean a DPF without the need to remove and clean the DPF professionally. DPF cleaning additives are only a temporary fix and a band-aid solution. The only true way of cleaning a DPF, especially for city drivers, is to get it professionally removed, cleaned and serviced. If you are looking for a professional DPF clean that will bring back your DPF’s original efficiency with verified results get in touch.
Getting your DPF regularly cleaned will guarantee many more kilometres and years of service on your vehicle and filter, restore engine performance and increase fuel efficiency. Getting your DPF back to its original condition is based upon a number of contributing factors, including the vehicles previous service history and overall care of the vehicle by its owner etc.
The frequency between each DPF clean will vary based on whether your vehicle coincides with the variety of factors as outlined above. Furthermore, the frequency of your DPF clean will vary by manufacturer and level of vehicle usage.
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