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

[Razer]

Thanks for the info, do you do the 9k oil change yourself or get the dealer to do it? If dealer, what sort of price?

On modern diesels do you still need to drain water out of one of the filters like the old days or has this now been dispensed with?

Back to the original topic then, should i let the particulate filter sway my judgement of which engine to get?

[GMcL]

That is your choice but thanks to this forum at least forwarned is to be forarmed, or whatever that phrase is.

You now know that going down the D5 Euro4 route you will experience at times heavier fuel consumption if you are doing a low mileage and the car decides it needs to regenerate.

You know the 185 engine is apparently a lot smoother than the Euro3 163 D5.

You also know you can RICA the Euro3 car to produce more power than the standard Euro4 D5 185 for around the 600GBP mark and it won't significantly harm your insurance premium (though will affect the warranty if the car is less than 3 years old).

So, you pays your money and makes your choice.

I haven't reached the first 6k oil change yet with this car so no idea what Volvo will charge. If it's something stupid then I think I can handle an oil and filter change. Castrol 0-30w synthetic oil and a genuine filter (& sump washer).

It would appear I am contradicting myself by saying a diesel should be bought by someone who does a higher mileage etc... and me only doing 12k per annum. The reason for me buying diesel is because 12k is my current annual mileage.
In my job it's possible that next year I may cover upto 50k so I have to hedge my bets when buying a car.

[tangey]

I want to thank the contributor here who pointed me in the direction of this thread.

I have an S60 D5 from new Dec 2006, and have had a load of headaches with this soot filter.

My car is currently in Limp mode for the 2nd time and is waiting to go back to the dealer to get manually regenerated.

I have trained myself to very quickly go for a long drive as soon as I see the "soot filter full" message, however this time I delayed by 5 miles and 1 cold start, and that appears to have been too much.

My driving is 90% 1.5-2 mile trips, most of my driving would be without the car reaching full warm up temperature. So neither the automatic nor "enriched" periods are being given a chance.

My problem is, I don't and shouldn't need to know ANY of this. If Volvo or anyone else is selling a car that needs to have manual intervention based of certain driving standards they HAVE to tell me this. I understand that they have emmision standards to reach blah blah, but if they cant do that cars that are frequently "small-run" then they should say so.

I have never heard of ANYONE have this issue before, and I live in Northern Ireland which is FULL of diesel cars. I can't for one minute imagine that I an the most conservative diesel driver ever known to man, my previous car was a 3.0 petrol Mondeo ST220, so I can and do drive vigorously.

[shimon340]

those 1.5 to 2 miles trips and the car never reaching operating temperature is going to far more far than simply clog the particulate filter. it is never getting full enough to reach light off temperature and begin oxidising the carbon. further, such short journies will also be wearing your battery very quick

this isnt specific to volvo, rather any car going on such continuous short journies and never warming up is going to have problems

[Patrick lince]

If 90% of your journeys are 1-2 miles, try walking or buy a bicycle!

[oilburner]

I have heard exactly the same problems on other makes too. I was forever glad that my old Vectra C didn't have the dreaded DPF judging by the problems I've read about.

Although, given my long distance commuting I probably wouldn't have the clogging problems, I would still resent losing 50% of the fuel economy for 10% of the time. Seems crazy to me.

I think that really the EU shouldn't have enforced the Euro IV standards until the technology actually existed to meet it without all the problems DPFs have.

The problem I see with the EU is that they set arbitrary standards without regard as to whether it is technically possible or not and leave it to the manufacturers to sort out the mess. i.e. the EU doesn't mandate the use of DPFs, but that is the only way manufacturers could find to meet the Euro IV standard, and so were forced to use it regardless of any critical issues.

If your Volvo D5 is having these kind of constant DPF problems then blame the EU, not Volvo.

I'll be sticking with my Euro III D5 for a while I think...

[Ron_XC90]

Originally Posted by tangey

I have never heard of ANYONE have this issue before, and I live in Northern Ireland which is FULL of diesel cars. I can't for one minute imagine that I an the most conservative diesel driver ever known to man, my previous car was a 3.0 petrol Mondeo ST220, so I can and do drive vigorously.

@tangey, this is a common problem with diesel engines with particle filters. I have had 2 Peugeot's before, both with 2.2HDI and FAP and same issue with those engines.
The DPF or FAP, whatever the manufacturers call them, can only do their job properly at high temperatures.
Only short distances is not sufficient to "burn off" the particles and regenerate the filter

[RoyMacDonald]

Two years ago I bought a Mk 5 Golf 2.0 liter Tdi and I had the option of having it with or without a DPF although it still met Euro 4 with or without. However VW's recomendation was not to opt for the DPF version if you lived in a city as the DPF would get clogged up so I didn't get the DPF version.

When I saw the new D5 engines had it as standard I assumed that Volvo had sorted out the not for city use issues. I am shocked to find they haven't, and I wouldn't be getting one if I used for such, but I think that Volvo should make the limitations of the technology clear to prospective buyers.

I normally use my XC90 for long trips only and leave it in a heated garage connected to a battery conditioner, and use alternative transport for short journeys. However I am a fairly moderate driver and don't normally exceed the motorway speed limit so wonder if I would be able to keep a DPF clear given I don't go over 2500 rpm even when I'm accelerating.

[Timbo_1975]

Firstly if you are doing just 50miles since the last manual clean of the DPF, then why arent you walking, or taking public transport?!

Secondly, ALL Euro 4's with a DPF, of either type i.e. afterburn (in the case of the D5) or AdBlue urea type (VW's and PSA's) ALL require specific driving for the ECU to perform the self clean, ALL of which require cruise conditions, medium to high load and over 2000rpm for the ECU to implement it.

It is quite obvious if you research the difference between Euro 3 and 4 technologies on how it works, and the likely impact on re-sale value a euro 4 car currently has.

As an example 50k mile Euro 3 Pug 308's / 407s etc are worth about £1000 more than a later Euro4 car purely beacause of the dpf replacement cost, which is needed at circa 60k miles.


Tim..

[Timbo_1975]

In reply to RoyMacDonald- you may like to drive for max mpg, but it is really not good practice, with any engine to not work them hard now and then.

Tim.
.