Buying a second-hand C30 - DPF worries?
 

Hi all,

I've been looking into purchasing a second hand C30 around the 80-95k miles mark, but the cars I've been to see both have no reference to the DPF having been changed or anything at all. I'm a bit concerned that, with the Volvo advice being that they should be changed every 75k miles, I may face an immediate bill of having to get the DPF replaced soon after purchase.
The dealers don't have any more information re: the DPF so I have to assume neither have had any attention.

Long story short: is this a valid concern?
Is there anything I can do allay my worries?
Should I pay a bit more and go for a car more around the 60k miles mark?

Appreciate the advice.

Ta,
Ben

If you absolutely must have a diesel engine then go for either a D3, D4 or D5... those are Volvo engines and have a DPF that is designed to last the life of the vehicle.

The "other" diesel engines in this car are the 2.0d and the 1.6d (which are extremely common to find) but are peugeot/ford engines that have a DPF that needs replacing at around 75,000-80,000 miles. Avoid these engines, unless you want to spend a lot of money "fixing" the problems inherited from the previous owner. If you are happy to fix these problems, then once those problems are fixed, the engine should be reliable.

In this day and age, those cars will have been traded in by previous owners because they've reached a point where they keep going into limp home mode due to blocked EGR/DPFs etc, and it is so much easier for a person to just offload the car and buy a brand new one on a PCP or lease agreement.

Society is getting to the point where they shun second hand cars because they don't have £2000 up front to pay for it, so they take a "no deposit" brand new lease deal instead...

Most people don't look after their cars so you really have to be careful when picking up used diesel cars of this age and mileage.

The overall cheapest to run engine in C30 is the 2.0i petrol (reliable mazda engine), which has no cambelt to change as it runs a timing chain and its pretty good on fuel and has nice performance.

Obviously no car is flawless, but if you are looking for a second hand C30 where the engine just works and is cheap to run, then 2.0i petrol is the one to go for.

I'm not saying the 2.0d is a terrible engine, I'm saying that the people who often buy it don't look after it and just trade it in when the DPF gets blocked... then the next person comes along and buys a car that is fine on the test drive, but goes into limp home mode a week later and then has to deal with taking the car back to the dealer, multiple diagnostics etc etc....it's just not worth the gamble, in my opinion.

Hi T5R, thanks for your reply. That's interesting to know, the car I was originally looking at was a 2009 DriVe model, but no mention of it being a D3/D4/D5 so I agree, it probably would be quite a risk.

To answer your Q, the reason I wanted to the diesel was because I currently drive over 400 miles a week to work and back - mostly motorway - and my current petrol car is basically on it's last legs. So it made sense to upgrade to a diesel. Liked the look and the economy of the DriVe diesel C30s. But would be happy to go for the slightly less economic D3/D4/D5 C30 if it meant I had the peace of mind that if the DPF was well looked after then it'd do me for as long as I want it.

Given your intended use then a diesel engine would make sense. Also worth noting that a lot of the 1.6d and 2.0d engines have "wet" DPFs that require a seperate tank to be topped up with a special fluid that helps burn off the soot trapped in the DPF.

The seperate tank needs re-filling approx every 36,000 miles and will go into limp mode when that tank is empty.

The D3/D4/D5 engines dont have that system so are less of an expense in that regard, and you shouldnt need to replace the DPF at all if the engine has been looked after and not been used for short journeys. Whereas the 2.0D and 1.6d require a new DPF as part of the 80,000 mile service.

Personally, I'd still do that commute in the 2.0 petrol as they will do 40mpg on a run. Though I am generally anti-diesel.

Hi Ben, I recently had the same dilemma - I also commute 300 miles a week, so a petrol would be a bit expensive to run. I too was very concerned about the DPF renewal issue, especially as most of the cars I was looking at were around the 70k mile mark... In the end I opted for a D5 S40, which is basically the same as the C30 under the body, and I have to say I'm delighted with it.

The economy is no where near as good as you'd get with a 1.6D Drive - probably half to be honest (!), but the lack of the DPF renewal means that I'm possibly £1k up to start off with, as that seems to be the going cost of replacing the DPF.

I guess another option would be to put LPG on a 2.0 petrol and get a reliable and cheap to run car, but that would require a £1500 investment up front, and it would occupy quite a bit of boot space - even if you fitted a torroidal tank.

As I said, I opted for a D5 in the end, but the D4 is said to be a superb engine, almost as powerful and more economical, so if you can find one of those, I'd jump at it.