Girlfriends Zafira broke down last night. Conked out. Wouldn't start.

Management light had came on at the weekend and luckily her neighbour used to work for Vauxhall so he plugged in his fault code reader and it came up with air intake problem. He said that means egr is stuck open. Fair enough. Told this to the RAC guy who came out. Took EGR valve off and it was full of soot and generally in a shit state. He cleaned it all up with various chemicals and got it to a decent state. Refitted. Started car and it fired into life.


However there is now a horrendous hissing noise from under the car. I can only describe it as an air line type noise at a garage. RAC guy was a bit puzzled and said it seems like there is a blockage in the exhaust. Not much gases coming out the tail pipe so seems logical to me. There is no power and even though she tried to drive it home it couldn't make it up a slight hill so had to get towed by RAC. I'm thinking blocked dpf rather than something in the exhaust. Has anyone had this before and can you actually clean/unblock a dpf? I will try and get a video of the noise this evening.

 

I've heard of people taking them off and jet washing them through. Never seen it done mind as normally if the cars been serviced properly it
Would have had a regen with the diag computer come service time. Could try a forced regen but
Sounds like it's well too late for that

 

Cut it open, gut the insides out and re-weld.

Will pass the MOT as its only a visual check. You don't need it to pass the emissions

 

If the egr valve has been sticking open hence the intake system air leak detected code the DPF will be overloaded with soot. If you neighbour can get hold of a Tech2 get him to see what the soot content is. It may say 109% full etc also the kpa reading will be high. Try and get him to do a static regen and see if this helps but if its really blocked you may split the rubber/plastic hose that goes to the dpf differential pressure sensor.

 

Also it will be worth checking the engine oil as they also have a habit of dumping diesel into the oil if a regeneration is interrupted .

 

If you gut the dpf
Get on Vectra C forum, plenty of capable guys on there that will map egr and dpf out...
Presume it's a 1.9 Cdti 150?

Easy 200 bhp with a map and you'll never have carbon build up issues...

 

Thanks gents.

 

pray you don't need a new one as the local dealers used to charge £1200 to all the cabbies who didn't let the engine get past 1200 rpm

also, after stu's recent discovery that some maps have the dpf deleted altogether, i'd be wary of someone who promises the world for a fiver

 

You want the DPF deleted!

£50 to get it cut out, gutted and re-welded, beer money for somebody with the right equipment to turn it off on the car.

Sorted

 

I have taken them off in the past and as said used a jet wash to blast them out clean. My advise to you is try this first BUT make sure you dry it out before you run the car again as it will sharp soot up if not dry. I usually give them a good ten mins with a airline shoved inside and then put it somewhere nice and hot to finish it off before fitting again.

 

https://www.vectra-c.com/forum/showt...pping-Services

Teapot is in Suffolk...
There's a few forum mappers dotted over the country who have spent a lot of time researching and tweaking the maps...
It's time that most other mappers wouldn't put into the cdti lumps...
Worth registering and dropping a pm to a few of them...

 

Right. Mr Vauxhall neighbour got under the car last night. He said before I even started it up, is it making a mad hissing noise so he had an idea already. He reckons it is a pipe of some description that has split. We are going to jack it up this evening to have a proper look. He said its not a blocked DPF as that is at the front of the engine and exhaust gases are getting out under the car by what looks like a flexi pipe. So in essence I have no idea what has happened but he does.

 

will be the small dpf pipe that has split, reason its split is because you dpf is blocked, I doubt you will be able to force regen as its gone to far, they do have to pass the emission check, its defo not just a visual check!

 

It's just a smoke yet though.
Any diesel running without any major issues should pass it regardless of the EGR, DPF or CAT.

 

Agreed, car will still pass without it

 

I was going to say the dpf pressure hoses split on these if the dpf pressure goes too high. Dpf off, pour a treatment in and leave overnight.. pressure wash through. Then forced static regeneration.

I'm the service manager for a Vauxhall dealer - we have to do it more than you could imagine.

Matt

 

Thanks Matt. It definitely the DPF itself. Removed the pipe that bolts onto the dpf underneath the car. Started her up and voila. She now actually idles and revs and the horrendous noise has gone. So either dpf is completely blocked hence why no exhaust gas could get through the rear exhaust system or the internals in the dpf has collapsed. I now need to buy a new DPF I assume?

 

I'm not up on how vauxhall work theirs, if it's passive it'll need removing and either cleaning or changing.
If it's active you will need the error code clearing and a regen forced.
My e90 330d came up with the dpf error and ran likes turd, so i took it for a drive till warning came up, killed ignition for 10 then ragged it for a bit till warning came up again. Repeated process and been spot on since. It was very blocked and felt like it had lost 2/3 of its power, that said i know the dpf had only been replaced 8k ago before the issues, so might have had more chance than yours maybe.
Remove and coding out was on the cards though otherwise.

 

I've never seen one not clear through. Worth taking it off and put in a couple of bottles of dpf cleaner in, and then pressure wash it the day after. I think you will need the codes reset and then take it for a blast - 50-60mph in 3rd and stay there for 10 mins or so.

Matt

 

Which dpf cleaner/treatment does the job and where can I get some? Am all for trying this as its got to come off anyway. Be a god send if I could just pour some chemicals on it and then jet wash it out and refit.

 

We use forte dpf cleaner. It's not specufiallcy designed to pour straight into the dpf. ..but we do and it works. Stand the dpf upright and pour 2 bottles in the inlet. Depending how blocked it is you may not see anything come through overnight.... but then give it a good blast with a pressure washer.

We do this on some that are so blocked they won't rev and it always clears them enough to let you regen them.

Matt

 

Just remove the insides, it will be blocked again within a year

 

As said if there is a dpf related code in the ecu the ecu will abort any kind of forced regeneration as will a high KPA reading from the second sensor.
If the dpf differential pressure sensor hose has snapped its usually on the plastic part of the pipe around the steering rack area.
If you take the car for a run once you have flushed out the DPF the coolant needs to be at 80 degrees or above. Since the zafira b does not have a temperature gauge you can access it via the radio by doing the following.
Radio on
Press and hold settings till a beep is heard
Depending on the radio display type there is two different ways of getting it to show.
If it has the small two line display (tid) screen press the bullseye button a few times till you see a number with OT and another number next to it with a V so it will look like 80 OT 0V
The number next to the OT is the operating temperature.
If you have a higher series screen.(BID)/(GID) etc press the BC button on the radio till the same os displayed on the screen.
For a regeneration to take place on the move the engine speed must not drop below 2500rrpm As this will keep the dpf nice and hot and get to its target temperature of approx 620+ degrees.
If you have a trip computer set.it to the instant reading as this will most likely indicate the regeneration is taking place the the reading will drop quite a bit whilst its doing it.
Once done you may see a few puffs of smoke from the exhaust.

A forced static regen runs the engine upto 3600rpm and can sit there for upto.an hour. When the actual cleaning process is taking place doing it this wah a audible change in the tone of the engine can be heard.

 

I don't understand the logic in trying to thrash a car to clear a DPF. It just won't work.

You need the engine at a reasonable speed 2000rpm - 3000rpm with a low load... say cruising down the motorway at 60mph.
That way there will be an abundance of oxygen left in the cylinder to aid the regeneration process.

Caning the car down the motorway will stop the car even trying to regenerate and won't get the exhaust anywhere near hot enough to help it burn off the soot.

 

Brick acid....I've heard this being used to very good effect as long as you wash it through a lot afterwards.
2500rpm stated seems a bit high. Between 1800 and 2200rpm is enough flow to regen.

 

I always used to take them for a run down the A556 in either 4th or 5th depending on gearbox so the engine speed at 70mph was over 2500rpm. By the time I had got.from Davenham roundabout to Sandiway golf course the dpf had done its regeneration.
I would have Tech2 or MDI depending on car type connects so I can see the data list and the temperature etc.
Although from what I can remember from one of the TSB's was "once a regeneration has been successfully completed a vigorous road test is recommended and some light smoke may be seen from the exhaust after the regeneration"

 

And dpf's are supposed to save the planet lol

 

Yeah your car breaks down more so you drive less

 

Hi All,


Right then. Mechanic got the dpf off on Saturday. All the insides had collapsed and was completely blocked. £350 later I now have a new DPF - not a Vauxhall one as they wanted £980 + VAT


Oil and filter change plus a new back box. Service and engine management lights reset and all is now ok.

 

Told you £1200

Bonus having a Vauxhall neighbour eh

 

Post here again when you get DPF issues...

You could have gutted your original ( cost £0.00 ), a remap deleting the DPF, EGR, plus a map tweak... ( £200 at most )