As emissions standards increased in 2009, DPF filters became the norm. In spite of their environmental benefits, the DPF filters in your car may become clogged if you don’t drive long distances. The reason behind this is that the exhaust never gets hot enough to burn off the soot.
As a result, you have to keep hiring professionals to clean or even replace them. As you can tell, when you have to keep cleaning and replacing the unit, the costs can easily add up and eventually become too expensive.
As a financially conscious person, you don’t want to spend all of your money on DPF, do you? The cool thing is that there are a number of things you can do to save some money. These things include:
Drive the car over long distances
As mentioned above, one of the reasons your car filter will clog is due to driving for just a short distance. The simplest and least expensive way to keep the filter clean is to drive the car at high revs per minute over a long distance.
By doing this, the soot obstructing the DPF filter is burned and the exhaust’s temperature is raised.
Driving on a motorway or a road where you can maintain a constant speed is ideal. You also should continue driving if a warning light appears on your car. This will assist in removing soot and reduce the need for costly maintenance.
Certain vehicles address the soot directly by increasing the fuel injection pressure to elevate the exhaust’s temperature. This procedure, known as “active regeneration,” results in a decrease in your car’s fuel efficiency and a shift in engine loudness. The soot is burned away as the exhaust temperature rises which saves you money down the line.
Also see: The amazing advantages that come with investing in gold today
Use the correct oil and high-quality fuel.
The quality of oil you use has a significant influence on the quantity and quality of soot that gets to your DPF. To stay on the safe side, use oil specifically designed for your diesel car. To ensure the engine doesn’t run short on oil, periodically check the oil level after adding the appropriate amount to the engine.
Besides the oil, you also should use premium fuel as it will burn cleaner and remove soot from the DPF filter more easily. Premium fuel may be costlier, but it will spare your car from high garage bills for filter replacement or clearing.
Clean the filter. Don’t replace it.
You must be wondering how you will save money by having your PDF cleaned instead of replacing it, but you will. As you can tell, cleaning the unit will be cheaper than replacing it.
You should note that cleaning the filter makes sense when the filter isn’t damaged. If your filter is worn out or too old, you have to replace it. If this is the case with you, ensure that you get a high-quality replacement filter from dpfpartsdirect.com.
It is difficult to determine whether the DPF is clean simply by looking at it because it is a closed unit. Thankfully, there are two ways to determine whether your DPF has been properly cleaned after it has been serviced and you receive it back from the shop.
To test your DPF, place it on the ground with the INLET side facing down. Tap the filter against the ground as you gently lift and lower it.
Your DPF was not cleaned correctly if any debris or more than a small dusting of beige ash comes out. It appears that your DPF was not properly cleaned if you notice black “ash” or rods that resemble pencil lead.
You can also do the pin test. Here, you start by sticking a “pin” into the DPF’s outlet side. Examine multiple cells to determine the depth of the filter channel and to gain a sense of a clean cell.
Next, place the pin gauge into a few of the DPF’s intake side cells. Draw a star pattern all over the filter’s face. Every cell should have the same depth as the side of the outlet.
It doesn’t always follow that the cleaning shop is to blame if they aren’t the same depth.
Certain DPFs have sintering or ash that, with time, turns cement-like and is nearly hard to get rid of. Sintering has the potential to erode a DPF’s flow efficiency over time. If this is what you are having, consider getting a new filter.
Also see: In what ways can the quality of powdered organic ashwagandha root be assessed?
Keep your car in good shape.
Scheduling routine maintenance for your car is necessary to assist with DPF filter cleaning. A typical service involves changing the oil, which helps to keep the DPF filter clean. All you need to do is to drain out the old oil and refill it with fresh, clean oil.
Maintaining the health of your car’s engine will protect against any malfunctions that might cause feedback and harm the filter.
You should always remember that exhaust systems consist of numerous interconnected parts. As soon as you notice a flaw, you should try to fix it or replace it to prevent additional harm to other internal parts.
Keep proper documentation
Maintaining the integrity of your DPF depends on your documentation. To determine how much ash and soot were removed, the DPF cleaning shop you select should keep track of the weight and flow of your filter both before and after cleaning.
You should observe a decrease in weight and an increase in flow with a clean filter.
If you observe one but not the other, there may be another issue with your filter, or it may indicate that the filter was not properly cleaned.
Keeping the right documentation also helps you know when you should schedule the next cleaning. This way, you avoid running your filters for too long than they should, and it ends up costing you too much money.
Also see: Know the Perks of Choosing Instant Personal Loans
Parting shot
These are some of the ways you can save money on your diesel DPFs. As you have seen, the key is taking good care of your car and being cautious of the service intervals.
When you need to clean or replace the filters, ensure that the work is done by an experienced professional who knows what they are doing.
For more such interesting content, keep reading ClickitOrNot.
Leave a Reply