Best DPF Monitoring App?

[T6 Syd]

I think you are doing very well. My CXHA 150 2017 dpf is at 57% ash content, nearer 59/60 g at 107,000 miles. It was a rental van before I got it with dubious service history. I expect that the ash content increase may accelerate with more miles, but hopefully I'll get near to 200,000 miles with care.

Would it be a definite need for replacement when it gets close to 100% or does a dpf flush clear out some ash as well as shot, and if it does then does the counter reset?

 

[aaron204]

Hi all

Looking for some help on issues i'm having with my 2017 T6 204 DSG.

I've owned the van for 1 year now, mileage is 157k, as far as I know it's standard in terms of engine work. It was owned from new by a VW specialist - Type 2 detectives, so I'm pretty sure it would have been looked after and serviced on time, it then went to another VW enthusiast owner for a short period before I bought it.

Since i've owned it, it's been using about 1 litre per 1000 miles (I understand VW say anything less than 1L per 600 miles is 'normal'). I also noticed straight away it's quite keen to do regens. Just a week or so into my ownership the engine light came on and I was advised by local garage the EGR was blocked and required a new one. I had this work carried out along with a DPF clean. The van is still using oil, and doing frequent regen cycles. I then found this thread and downloaded the DPF monitor app.
I have attached a typical snapshot showing the frequency of regens and measured levels. As you can see, it's doing a regen approx 12 minutes run time, this was on a motorway cruise at 70 mph, and the levels on DPF monitor are jumping straight from 20% to 80%, and the soot mass calculated jumping from 6g to 24g triggering a regen.

I've got the van booked in for further diagnostics this Friday. But I wanted to post this up to try and get some clues as to what might be going on. The jump in values seems off to me, possible sensor? Glitch in the app? As far as I can tell the van is running fine, smooth, seems to have the power I'd expect and no smoke, or oil in coolant.

Thanks

Aaron

 

[mmi]

I have attached a typical snapshot showing the frequency of regens and measured levels. As you can see, it's doing a regen approx 12 minutes run time, this was on a motorway cruise at 70 mph, and the levels on DPF monitor are jumping straight from 20% to 80%, and the soot mass calculated jumping from 6g to 24g triggering a regen.

At first glance it looks like the DPF is clogged - based on the differential pressure vs. exhaust temperature. I would expect to see less than 150 hPa at those conditions. However, it's difficult to estimate/compare because 70 mph is a serious load and thus fuel and air intake varies hugely.

Was the engine ticking over at any time during the "recording" - as the minimum recorded is quite big 85 hPa, also the recorded maximum of 870 hPa seems to be on high side unless you were driving really hard.


(1) Please make a screenshot when cold engine is ticking over - the differential pressure should be less than 20 hPa.
(2) If you have time make another screenshot after a (minimum of) 15 minute drive so that DPF has warmed up (input temperature about 180-220C)
(3) Stop the engine and with ignition on make yet another screenshot - to see any imbalance/offset in reading without exhaust flow.

 

[WinFreak]

Hi all

Looking for some help on issues i'm having with my 2017 T6 204 DSG.

I've owned the van for 1 year now, mileage is 157k, as far as I know it's standard in terms of engine work. It was owned from new by a VW specialist - Type 2 detectives, so I'm pretty sure it would have been looked after and serviced on time, it then went to another VW enthusiast owner for a short period before I bought it.

Since i've owned it, it's been using about 1 litre per 1000 miles (I understand VW say anything less than 1L per 600 miles is 'normal'). I also noticed straight away it's quite keen to do regens. Just a week or so into my ownership the engine light came on and I was advised by local garage the EGR was blocked and required a new one. I had this work carried out along with a DPF clean. The van is still using oil, and doing frequent regen cycles. I then found this thread and downloaded the DPF monitor app.
I have attached a typical snapshot showing the frequency of regens and measured levels. As you can see, it's doing a regen approx 12 minutes run time, this was on a motorway cruise at 70 mph, and the levels on DPF monitor are jumping straight from 20% to 80%, and the soot mass calculated jumping from 6g to 24g triggering a regen.

I've got the van booked in for further diagnostics this Friday. But I wanted to post this up to try and get some clues as to what might be going on. The jump in values seems off to me, possible sensor? Glitch in the app? As far as I can tell the van is running fine, smooth, seems to have the power I'd expect and no smoke, or oil in coolant.

Thanks

Aaron

That all sounds identical to my journey with my 204, the oil consumption, and regens etc. New egr installed on mine too, then a year later the small turbo went. Replaced those and cleaned the dpf, the oil consumption has improved and regens now go normal from 6-11g and then jumps to 24 so I'm thinking the dpf isn't great still.

Van has now been with VW for adblue issues that appeared since the turbo has been fitted so haven't seen it since mid Jan but that's separate to the whole dpf thing!

 

[ShooglyStu]

Thanks again folks. This has been released to the App Store this evening. Please do switch from the Beta to the App Store version going forward.

Is there an Android version?

 

[aaron204]

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

I'm almost certain there was no idling between those screenshots. Those screenshots were taken driving back across europe, so it may have been a little more than 70 mph, possibly around 80 mph.
Re high hPa, I looked at the max differential pressure on the drive in this morning, if you give it full throttle underway it goes all the way up to 999 hPa, i've no idea if that is normal.

The DPF was taken off and cleaned out by the local garage at 153,620 miles, so about 3500 miles ago, which didn't seem to make any difference in frequency of regens, although at that point I didn't have the DPF app, so wasn't measuring it as closely. How well they managed to clean it out, or how quickly it may have clogged up again I don't know.

Please see attached new screen shots as suggested in your post. I also tried doing another round of measurements this morning but as you can see it started another regen on the way in, making the same jump in readings, which I find odd. Interestingly, when it runs a regen cycle the rate it cleans is consistent with a linear reduction in %.

Thanks!

 

[mmi]

Re high hPa, I looked at the max differential pressure on the drive in this morning, if you give it full throttle underway it goes all the way up to 999 hPa, i've no idea if that is normal.

Perhaps the app just maxed out - couldn't show 4 digits? Anyways, not easy to compare max values not knowing all the affecting factors: e.g. engine revs, actual engine load (vehicle speed), intake air flow, fuel flow, EGR position, exhaust temperature. Thus the request about more controlled test points (idle).

Probably not a good comparison but the highest pressure across the DPF I have recorded is "only" 400 hPa (mbar) accelerating from 3800 rpm/70 mph uphill, guzzling at the moment 54 litres/hour, exhaust gases at 650 °C, EGR closed, etc.

The DPF was taken off and cleaned out by the local garage at 153,620 miles, so about 3500 miles ago,

Please see attached new screen shots as suggested in your post.

Well, the results are not what I would expect to see from a clean DPF. E.g. the cold DPF right after DPF regeneration

I would expect to see something like 5 hPa - that's what mine does when cold (though have only 50000 miles). However, we don't know how the app processes the data (which PID, scaling, offset) - so are the readings accurate.

Anyways, the behaviour of soot values - calculated vs. measured suggests that ECU gets confused. Normally the soot calculated and soot measured go in sync without any sudden jumps.

Presumably the measured soot is based on measured pressure difference across the DPF and whenever the pressure gets "too high" the ECU forces DPF regeneration (by altering the "soot calculated" to trigger the DPF regen - hence the jump. The same can be seen when doing a forced regen - the "soot calculated" is set to trigger the regen.

Observed normal values for your engine are:
Soot calculated from approx. 5-6 grams to 24 grams (DPF regeneration trigger point)
Soot calculated from approx. -6 grams up to 5 grams.

(1) Verify the DPF differential pressure sensor. There was a recall to renew the sensor on 2016 vans.

I'm fairly confident it's the high DPF differential pressure reading which leads to almost continuous DPF regenerations - however, is it the sensor or the DPF itself at fault is not clear​

(2) Worst case scenario is that high oil consumption expedites DPF clogging

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Since i've owned it, it's been using about 1 litre per 1000 miles (I understand VW say anything less than 1L per 600 miles is 'normal').

Re the oil consumption check this please

2017 204 Bi-Turbo Engine Swap by VW Main Dealer

Hi, long time reader first time poster here. I am finally getting my engine swapped under warranty from VW. Engine is ordered (paid for by VW) and hopefully installed within the next week or two. Question is, what else is worth swapping / upgrading whilst the block is out and easy to access...

www.t6forum.com

 

[aaron204]

Thanks for your detailed responses, this is really helpful info. I'll pass this information onto the garage tomorrow when they have it in for diagnostics.

Re the TPI, It appears the person who posted about this successfully got VW to pay for the repairs in 2024 on a 2017 van, so I trust it was out of factory warranty but I assume VW must have acknowledged a faulty design hence their offer to pay for the repairs detailed on the TPI?
This is good news, as its the same engine and model year van as mine, however his had covered 80,000 miles at point of claim, where as mine has covered 157,000 miles. Do we know if there is a cut off point, i.e at a certain mileage or age would they just argue wear and tear? Do we know if they also require full VW service history?

Thanks!