A Diesel Particulate Filter or DPF is a device designed to remove diesel particulate matter or soot from the exhaust gases of a diesel engine. The DPF is designed to burn off the accumulated soot by active means such as a fuel burner which heats the filter to combustion temperatures. This is accomplished by the engine programming to run when the filter is full, in a manner that raises exhaust temperature. This is known as ‘filter regeneration’. For a filter regeneration to be carried out successfully the vehicle must have a minimum of ¼ of a tank of fuel at all times as the process will take place without warning and uses fuel to aid in the regeneration. The regeneration process occurs at road speeds higher than can generally be reached by driving around town, vehicles driven exclusively at low speeds in urban traffic can require the odd trip at higher speeds (motorway speeds) to clean out the DPF. If the driver ignores the DPF warning light and waits too long to operate the vehicle above 40 mph, the DPF may not regenerate properly, you will notice a reduced performance with your vehicle and continued use of the vehicle past that point may result in the DPF needing a clean out treatment or replacement. It is important to understand why the DPF has blocked or failed possible reasons for DPF failure are: poor fuel quality, poorly operating or blocked injectors, faulty EGR valve (Exhaust Gas Recirculation), incorrect engine oil, service intervals exceeded and split or damaged hoses. The vehicle will need to be filled to maximum with fuel to and an oil filter and oil change will need to be carried out. Multiple additives will be used for the cleaning process to make sure all of the built up soot is removed. A DPF clean out can take up to 4 hours and the process is quite complex but once complete your vehicle performance will be back to normal! Here at AE Services we can clean out the DPF so that you do not need to have a new DPF as these filters are very expensive.