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Good Afternoon, I am a newbie to the forum, as I am to Chevvys too. My wife has just had an Orlando 2.0 Vcdi LT in Silver Auto, nice car very impressed.
However, I am also all too new to problematic diesel particulate filters,or should I say DPF's that you have to intervene with TWICE !! within the first 2500 miles of the cars life. I will explain my experience just to get some feedback as to whether anyone else has had the same.
At 1600 miles the DPF light came on the dashboard. Naturally, I called my local dealer and spoke to the service technician, who although very pleasant, gave me the distinct impression that he was getting totally brassed off with having to repeat himself to numerous customers., about the same issue.
He asked how my wife drove the vehicle, which I explained that it was her car, and as she doesn't work hence only uses it for taking our daughter to school and using it around town, parent visits etc etc, the type of normal activity that you would expect from your missus car. He basically went on to explain that the car isn't designed for this type of use and that I needed, and I quote, to "thrape the arse off it' down the motorway in fourth gear for about 10 miles at 70mph or until the DPF warning light extinguishes.
Apparently the car needs to have a good run over 2000rpm at least every 1-2 weeks to force a regeneration programme within the exhaust system and basically burn off the soot particles collected by the DPF.
I questioned how this is possible in an automatic car that at 70mph is only touching 1700rpm in 6th gear. Hence why he said to use it in manual mode and keep it in fourth or fifth gear.
I was somewhat concerned, because this is not the type of driving style that my wife would ever entertain, so I did it for her and sure enough the light went out and the MPG significantly increased again (Sorry forgot to mention previous that this was also a telltale sign of the filter being blocked)
Everything now seemed fine again, although we were still somewhat bemused that our new car needed this kind of aggressive user intervention. We had previously driven a Peugeot 3008 which for 12000 miles had never shown any signs of DPF issues (and it did have one
Anyway some 900 miles later, yesterday at approx 2500 miles, white smoke started billowing out of the exhaust and the MPG went through the floor. Sure enough another 'Thrape Arse'up the motorway and everything seems fine again.
Has anyone experienced these kind of issues. I am not at all concerned that there is anything wrong with the car as such, as I have since read up and researched DPF's on vehicles and all of the above is quite normal. However it does seem somewhat contrary, that a DPF is placed onto the vehicle to cut down emmisions, but every 1000 miles you have to burn quantites of diesel at break neck speeds to get the darn thing to clean itself.
Any comments, experiences would be greatly appreciated. I feel that this whole issue of DPF is going to become a massive can of worms for the manufacturers and I understand BBC Watchdog are running an article about it on this Thursdays programme.
However, I am also all too new to problematic diesel particulate filters,or should I say DPF's that you have to intervene with TWICE !! within the first 2500 miles of the cars life. I will explain my experience just to get some feedback as to whether anyone else has had the same.
At 1600 miles the DPF light came on the dashboard. Naturally, I called my local dealer and spoke to the service technician, who although very pleasant, gave me the distinct impression that he was getting totally brassed off with having to repeat himself to numerous customers., about the same issue.
He asked how my wife drove the vehicle, which I explained that it was her car, and as she doesn't work hence only uses it for taking our daughter to school and using it around town, parent visits etc etc, the type of normal activity that you would expect from your missus car. He basically went on to explain that the car isn't designed for this type of use and that I needed, and I quote, to "thrape the arse off it' down the motorway in fourth gear for about 10 miles at 70mph or until the DPF warning light extinguishes.
Apparently the car needs to have a good run over 2000rpm at least every 1-2 weeks to force a regeneration programme within the exhaust system and basically burn off the soot particles collected by the DPF.
I questioned how this is possible in an automatic car that at 70mph is only touching 1700rpm in 6th gear. Hence why he said to use it in manual mode and keep it in fourth or fifth gear.
I was somewhat concerned, because this is not the type of driving style that my wife would ever entertain, so I did it for her and sure enough the light went out and the MPG significantly increased again (Sorry forgot to mention previous that this was also a telltale sign of the filter being blocked)
Everything now seemed fine again, although we were still somewhat bemused that our new car needed this kind of aggressive user intervention. We had previously driven a Peugeot 3008 which for 12000 miles had never shown any signs of DPF issues (and it did have one
Anyway some 900 miles later, yesterday at approx 2500 miles, white smoke started billowing out of the exhaust and the MPG went through the floor. Sure enough another 'Thrape Arse'up the motorway and everything seems fine again.
Has anyone experienced these kind of issues. I am not at all concerned that there is anything wrong with the car as such, as I have since read up and researched DPF's on vehicles and all of the above is quite normal. However it does seem somewhat contrary, that a DPF is placed onto the vehicle to cut down emmisions, but every 1000 miles you have to burn quantites of diesel at break neck speeds to get the darn thing to clean itself.
Any comments, experiences would be greatly appreciated. I feel that this whole issue of DPF is going to become a massive can of worms for the manufacturers and I understand BBC Watchdog are running an article about it on this Thursdays programme.
