How to Clear a Blocked DPF Filter?

Blocked DPF filter can cause several potential issue, cleaning a blocked DPF with the help of 3 methods that ı will mention below, will keep your exhaust and engine healthy.

Diesel Particle Filters (DPF) becomes blocked because of build-up of soot in the filter. Eventually, if the exhaust of the vehicle does not get hot enough, the soot inside the exhaust can build up to a dangerous level, disable the performance of the car and potentially damage engine components.

Clearing the DPF of the vehicle increases exhaust airflow, performance and reliability as the vehicle will be able to ‘breathe’ freely.

Passive Regeneration

This is the most common method of clearing a DPF and your diesel vehicle will be doing it all the time without you realising. On long trips, the exhaust naturally get hots enough to burn off the soot inside the exhaust. But, this is not the most effective method and if you do not drive your diesel vehicle on the highway often, it’s inconvenient.

If you have mostly driven your diesel car around town and notice that the DPF is becoming blocked, take the car out on a long, highway journey in an attempt to burn off the soot. On the highway or dual carriageway, use a low gear (5-speed use 4th and 6-speed use 5th) to increase the engine revs. The engine regeneration will not occur if the fuel tank is lower than one quarter, and any other engine faults that is occur will stop the regeneration process.

Active Regeneration

Active regeneration can be triggered by the vehicles ECU and increases the amount of fuel being burnt by the engine, this is to increase the temperature inside the DPF and burn off the soot.

This process can be noticed by a higher RPM, smoke from the exhaust and on some models, a warning message. Don’t turn off the engine until the regeneration process has completed as this will interrupt the process and allow the DPF to cool down, meaning the soot will not be burned off and the DPF will become more blocked.

DPF Cleaning

DPF cleaning is the most effective way to clear a blocked DPF. Flash cleaning a blocked DPF will completely remove the build-up of soot and exhaust residue, ensuring performance and economy.

A flash cleaning of your DPF completely remove PM10 residues, oil and cerium. A flash clean ensure the safety of the DPF so no damage is occur during the process.

Another DPF cleaning solution is to use a heat method. This method heats up the DPF so that the Soot can naturally burn off once it has reached a high enough temperature. However, this has some disadvantage; there is a risk of damaging the integrity of the filter due to cutting and welding, melting the cerium of the filter walls due to high temperature, and risk of thermal shock to metals.

Ultrasonic DPF cleaning treatments are affective at deeply cleaning the filter cells, remove soot and residue buildup. However, ultrasonic treatment poses some risk of damage to the filter from the vibrations and has a poor efficiency on very dirty and larger filters

Chemical additives are cheap and easy cleaning solution but are often ineffective at cleaning the DPF as residues are not eliminated and more residues are created by the chemicals themselves, further blocking the DPF.

So, a flash clean is the best possible way to clear blocked DPF. This method has no drawbacks and will make the DPF perform like a new. Increasing the vehicles performance, fuel economy, emission and overall health. Suitable for all vehicle types flash clean is great for heavy-duty diesel vehicles such as heavy-duty but also ideal for cars and vans. Fort his method you should have a DPF cleaning machine.