DPF Tampered With

[PVD]

I bought a V70 Drive from a car dealer, on the journey home the car was losing power and struggling to get up hills. As soon as I got home I rang the dealer, he took the car back from me the next day and took it to his regular mechanic. When the car was returned to me a week later he informed me the DPF had been baked to clean it and gave me a copy of the receipt from his mechanic which states on it "remove and professionally clean DPF £200"
The car has driven well for the six months since then until it developed a rattle.
I took the car to my mechanic, he informed me the DPF has been cut open and re-welded. He said someone has almost certainly removed some if not all of the gibbons and altered the cars computer software so that it did not show up as a fault.
I am looking at a bill of £700-£800 to put it all back as it should be.
I wrote to the dealer on Friday and he has not yet responded. If I were to give him the benefit of the doubt, it is possible he has been conned by his mechanic and was completely unaware of what was done to the DPF. The mechanic on the other hand is guilty as a puppy sitting next to a pile of poo.
I would welcome any thoughts or suggestions from members here on what to do next if you have any similar experience.

[Zebster]

How is your mechanic so sure that the DPF has simply been gutted? The cutting and rewelding could have happened if the DPF really was removed for the claimed 'professional cleaning'. You need more evidence, like checking the DPF differential pressure readings.

I wouldn't be surprised if the DPF had been removed though, as thousands of diesel cars were modified like this. No doubt it still happens thanks to the legal loophole of not being an offence to undertake the work (at least in the UK) and only illegal to then use the car on the roads.

What year/engine is it?

[id5]

Originally Posted by PVD

...I would welcome any thoughts or suggestions from members here on what to do next if you have any similar experience.

If it was brought from your average second hand car dealer then you may just have pay for it yourself. It is past the six-month point of where the dealer is automatically liable for repair. The dealer can now just claim that you had the work done or did it yourself. You would have to prove that you had not had any work done on the DPF, and that would just about be impossible.

[ITSv40]

Originally Posted by id5

If it was brought from your average second hand car dealer then you may just have pay for it yourself. It is past the six-month point of where the dealer is automatically liable for repair. The dealer can now just claim that you had the work done or did it yourself. You would have to prove that you had not had any work done on the DPF, and that would just about be impossible.

Yes, time to suck it up and put it down to experience.

[PVD]

I am still within the six month time limit but if you read the consumer rights act this does not make a lot of difference I can still claim after that period.
I had a word with a volvo main dealer, they suggested taking the car to a specialist they use in Worcester, they think he will be able to pin point when the software was altered which should give the smoking gun.
My mechanic is very honest and straight forward if he tells me the DPF has been tampered with then I have no doubt it has. Zebster, he did mention something about differential pressure readings! I can't believe it is not illegal to tamper with the DPF, the car has been put back on the road knowing it breaches emissions regulations. IF it had not started rattling I would not have found out until it failed its MOT come September. I image what I will do is have the DPF replaced I can then examine the present one to see what has been done and take it from there.

[id5]

Originally Posted by PVD

I am still within the six month time limit but if you read the consumer rights act this does not make a lot of difference I can still claim after that period...

It makes a massive difference. If the six months is not yet up then the garage has to prove that it was not in that condition when it was purchased. If it is after the six month period then you have to prove it was like it when you brought it.

[classicswede]

If you are mostly driving in rural areas and or motorway you are best off as you are. The DPF is only there to collect the crap in town driving and let it out in big lumps on the motorway

[Zebster]

Originally Posted by classicswede

If you are mostly driving in rural areas and or motorway you are best off as you are. The DPF is only there to collect the crap in town driving and let it out in big lumps on the motorway

Until MoT time when the obvious cutting and welding gives the game away, along with visible smoke when the accelerator pedal is floored during the opacity test... it's currently a £1000 fine if the MOT tester reports you.

[Whippy]

Originally Posted by classicswede

If you are mostly driving in rural areas and or motorway you are best off as you are. The DPF is only there to collect the crap in town driving and let it out in big lumps on the motorway

Someone else who doesn't understand how a dpf actually works. Well done.

[dingov70]

Originally Posted by Zebster

Until MoT time when the obvious cutting and welding gives the game away, along with visible smoke when the accelerator pedal is floored during the opacity test... it's currently a £1000 fine if the MOT tester reports you.

As an MOT tester , we DO NOT report people for such things !

We can fail a car for tampering if we can clearly ascertain it has been for naughty reasons . BUT if a vehicle presenter provides a proper invoice declaring it has been opened /cleaned & rebuilt , we have to accept the evidence UNLESS the vehicle fails the smoke test .

Based on present limit plate values you may not actually be able to see the smoke , but the smoke head will & it's the machines readings I observe & base any failure on , not my own eyes .