Service Issues: XC90 D5 engine DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter)

[Rentagas]

Originally Posted by chb

If your longest journey in the week is not enough to regenerate the DPF then you would be better off cycling instead.

Yes, thank you. I do.
Which is why my xc90 is very low mileage. Unfortunately my bicycle can't carry six, tow a caravan or carry enough shopping for a week for six even with a trailer on the back.

Using a 2 ton xc90 to drive one person 5 miles to work and back each day would be a bit dubious however this is how many people use their cars. The engine barely warms up over this distance drinks fuel and the dpf silts up.

Fiat have recently stated that they have never marketed their fiat 500 as a city car for this reason, in response to complaints over £1500 dpf bills not covered by warranty "you've driven it wrong". See BBC watchdog.

I am concerned that euro 5 compliant dpf systems will throw up even more problems because of the much tighter controls over particulates in this standard.

Perhaps electric cars will catch on after all.

[JimG]

Originally Posted by Rentagas

Unfortunately my bicycle can't carry six, tow a caravan or carry enough shopping for a week for six even with a trailer on the back.

They don't make 'em like they used to.

[chb]

And who would tow a caravan for only 5 miles? Even the Dale Farm dwellers move their caravans more than that. Short journeys are bad for all cars, I commute 45 miles a day and am certain it is healthy for the car to drive that sort of distance. My V40 has done nearly 170'000 miles like this and the engine is still a peach.

[bobdabuilda]

Dale Farm Dwellers- I'm glad you phrased it like that seeing as they sure as Hell aint 'travellers'! Load up, load up, load up with rubber bullets.....

[RoyMacDonald]

Originally Posted by JimG

They don't make 'em like they used to.

Would a 12 seater with a beer bar bicycle do?

[JimG]

What more would you need!

[Kapil Bhatt]

dear all , my xc90 has a engine system maintenance requirement light and has entered into limp mode. it goes in and out randomly.took it to the dealer and he says i need a dpf replacement which they want to sell it for 1800 pounds. i am living in kenya and that is where the car is ,please help a way forward to permanently disable this feature as there are no regulations on emission and i cant efford to send my car to a dealer as they are ripping people off here in kenya. just a diagnosis they charge 150 pounds . then each hour on regeneration they charge 50 pounds. they slapped me with a bill of 400 pounds and then told me the dpf requires replacement. i am just fed up since i bought my car 2 years back from uk when it had 30,000 miles on the counter and then its done only 8000 miles in kenya.

[catbert]

i think theres a service on ebay where you post the ecu over, they map out the dpf regen and then send it back. the ecu comes off very easy, and im sure they will talk you through it. Then its just a matter of knocking a hole in the dpf to allow teh exhaust gasses to pass.

[strandprinsen]

Originally Posted by VinceLDN

"The other potential problem is the high temperature required, what effect will this have, one could speculate about oil being stripped off bores, valve seals, cam belts etc. failing earlier."

While the car had what they called manual regeneration at the dealership, I was informed by the service manager that it caused one of their extraction pipes to .... melt!

Glad to see I am not the only one suffering from this issue! I am not a unique case.

Jet2, what you say about mpg is interesting as I had noticed quite a change recently. MPG used to be much better in the 1st 6 months than the last 3.

My story is a bit complex as we bought the car in Belgium (LHD) and moved back to London in August, so I called our dealer in Belgium to check with them. The service manager was very helpful and immediately found the memo I talked about. When challenging him about it he fully understood and agreed that the DPF regeneration strategy is not compatible with our new life in London (short drives). He advised me to call Volvo Cars Belgium, which I did.

After their surprised of me having 2 copies of the memo (in French and English) they tried to explain me that it was not such a big deal to drive 10-20 minutes after every refuelling which I refuse to do.

I also challenged him on the last sentence of the memo (stating that Volvo does not intend to change this regeneration strategy) and explaining him that basically I was stuffed!
I finally told him that NO ONE explain me that "strategy" when I purchased the vehicle.
No reply came from him except the useless "go to your dealer"!

Dunno what to do really but this situation is not acceptable to me.

Hi, I also live in Belgium-Brussels and have a similar experience with the DPF-filter which was installed by a garage in central Brussels - I think with a contribution from the Flemish environmental authorities? - Anyways shortly after installation of this filter, I started getting the following message on the on-board computer of my XC90 D5 (2004 model): "engine service required" and each time the car started running on limited power (security mode) for some time - later I learnt that I just had to turn the contact key off and start the engine again (reset).
The garage first told me to "surveiller detecteur de pression". As it kept on appearing at regular intervals, I reported it again to the garage at the next 20.000 km service. As I insisted, they told me that I had to replace the détecteur de pression and on closer examination also the 'support moteur' or 'silent blocks'. This cost me 950 EUR ! (4 hours + spare parts). On leaving the garage I got exactly the same message again 'engine service required'. So the garage asked me to bring in the car again after the weekend for further investigations. And this time around they told me that now I had to have the engine turbo replaced (which would amount to 1050 EUR plus 4 hours labour).
I complained to Volvo Cars Belgium who told me off with a remark of the car being too old - although the problems started a long time ago.
Now I have a nasty feeling that all this trouble could be traced back to the installation of the DPF-filter. So even if I spent another 2000 EUR on the car, I would probably get the same problems after a while due to this damned filter. What do you think? Should l just give up on Volvo garages and have the DPF-filter uninstalled and see what happens? I suppose this would not be a big deal and far less expensive?
I think that it sounds very unlikely that all three spare parts should be faulty at the same time: silent-blocks, pressure detector and turbo? Any ideas on this?
PS: I was never told by the garage what to do in order to have the filter 'regenerated' - and the other day they told me 'it's a black box' - you don't know in what state it is by now and that it would have to be replaced when filled with diesel particles and soot - no mention of how to burn off the soot by going on the motorway for 20 minutes after each filling up or mixing additives in the diesel.

[RoyMacDonald]

Originally Posted by strandprinsen

Hi, I also live in Belgium-Brussels and have a similar experience with the DPF-filter which was installed by a garage in central Brussels - I think with a contribution from the Flemish environmental authorities? - Anyways shortly after installation of this filter, I started getting the following message on the on-board computer of my XC90 D5 (2004 model): "engine service required" and each time the car started running on limited power (security mode) for some time - later I learnt that I just had to turn the contact key off and start the engine again (reset).
The garage first told me to "surveiller detecteur de pression". As it kept on appearing at regular intervals, I reported it again to the garage at the next 20.000 km service. As I insisted, they told me that I had to replace the détecteur de pression and on closer examination also the 'support moteur' or 'silent blocks'. This cost me 950 EUR ! (4 hours + spare parts). On leaving the garage I got exactly the same message again 'engine service required'. So the garage asked me to bring in the car again after the weekend for further investigations. And this time around they told me that now I had to have the engine turbo replaced (which would amount to 1050 EUR plus 4 hours labour).
I complained to Volvo Cars Belgium who told me off with a remark of the car being too old - although the problems started a long time ago.
Now I have a nasty feeling that all this trouble could be traced back to the installation of the DPF-filter. So even if I spent another 2000 EUR on the car, I would probably get the same problems after a while due to this damned filter. What do you think? Should l just give up on Volvo garages and have the DPF-filter uninstalled and see what happens? I suppose this would not be a big deal and far less expensive?
I think that it sounds very unlikely that all three spare parts should be faulty at the same time: silent-blocks, pressure detector and turbo? Any ideas on this?
PS: I was never told by the garage what to do in order to have the filter 'regenerated' - and the other day they told me 'it's a black box' - you don't know in what state it is by now and that it would have to be replaced when filled with diesel particles and soot - no mention of how to burn off the soot by going on the motorway for 20 minutes after each filling up or mixing additives in the diesel.

The 2004 XC90 Euro 3 163 bhp D5 dosn't have a Volvo DPF filter. It's only fitted to the later Euro 4 185 bhp engine models.

Is it an aftermarket device fitted to meet some regs in Belgium?