Euro 5 emission regulations effectively made Diesel Particulate Filters compulsory on passenger cars from 2009 on. With this diesel fleet now aging, PDF issues are becoming increasingly common and replacement DPF supplier EuroFlo has highlighted the main reasons why. 

Top five reasons for DPF warning lights to come on as identified by the EuroFlo Technical team are:

• Frequent short journeys where the engine fails to reach optimum operating temperature.
• The use of the wrong specification of engine oil. Low ash, low sulphur oil must be used on DPF equipped vehicles but many motorists and some garages ignore the warnings.
• Problems with the EGR valve, such as stuck or fouled EGR components. EGR failure can contaminate the inlet with oily “wet” residues, causing excessive dense soot loading.
• Turbo failure. Oil passes through turbo seals into the exhaust housing and the burnt oily residue enters the DPF, causing an excessive build up of soot.
• Where fitted the additive tank is allowed to run low or to completely empty. When this happens attempted DPF regeneration will be unsuccessful and a blockage is likely.

The technical team also stresses that simply changing the DPF without resolving the underlying problem is likely to be only a short term solution.