[raf555]

Started getting the dreaded DPF warning symbol for past couple of weeks, so looking at having it removed from E90 330d!!

Anyone got any positive or negative stories they can share by going down the DPF removal route??

Thanks

[Falmouthboy]

Originally Posted by raf555

Started getting the dreaded DPF warning symbol for past couple of weeks, so looking at having it removed from E90 330d!!

Anyone got any positive or negative stories they can share by going down the DPF removal route??

Thanks

I understand that this is/will become an MOT failure if a car came with a DPF and it's been removed. Like the new Xenon rules, I'm not sure how the MOT centres will view this though and if they will check properly.

[raf555]

Originally Posted by Falmouthboy

I understand that this is/will become an MOT failure if a car came with a DPF and it's been removed. Like the new Xenon rules, I'm not sure how the MOT centres will view this though and if they will check properly.

How could they tell?

[Hartge]

Hi mate, I had my DPF removed after having problems with it, makes great difference but does result in some exhaust smoking when you boot it

[raf555]

Originally Posted by Shades

Hi mate, I had my DPF removed after having problems with it, makes great difference but does result in some exhaust smoking when you boot it

who did it for u?

did u have it mapped at same time?

how bad is the smoke?

[ade146]

Hi
I have had mine removed (E90 330d) after months of issues. I have my own gear to do forced regens plus once a week I do a 400 mile motorway trip. It was still a pain. The last straw was spending a couple of hours driving around with my diagnostic kit plugged in, wasting diesel trying to force a regen (successful). Few days later did 200 miles on the motorway for the dpf warning to come up. I could find no faults with the car 75k miles. I would say it has been much more of a problem since I removed the swirl vanes two months ago.
The car is much better without the dpf. Mpg has increased from 37ish to 42ish (42 before swirl vane removal). The car picks up much better off closed throttle. When you see what is in there it is obvious why.
It does smoke like an e46 330d. Maybe slightly worse at idle. They try to adjust the fuel map when they remove the dpf to prevent excessive smoke. I would guess this depends on how fussy your mapper is plus I think removing the swirl vanes makes it worse.
It doesnt smoke much under way at least no more than the afore mentioned e46. The car feels a fair bit quicker and you can hear the turbo through the exhaust exit oddly enough. Inside the car the diesel sound is slightly noisier although my engine cover is shot. I am glad to be rid of the dpf. Cost was £295+vat. Gut cat plus dpf remap. There are no errors seen in the diagnostics. The swirl vanes I would leave in. I still have them and probably wont put them back now but I would not be in a rush to remove them. The dpf though like egr, is a crazy idea.
Regards

[raf555]

Very informative.

I had my swirl flaps removed when I had all six glow plugs and controller changed last month.

The smoking is what's worrying me!!

Car is already mapped but doesn't feel like 285 BHP so is suffering loss of power so in a way I've no choice than go down the DPF removal route.

How come all DPF 'experts' say the smoke is minimal but if u comparing to e46 then they really are soot chuckers!!!

What's this fuel map?

[ade146]

Yes I had similar issues with glow plugs plus diesel leaking from the swirl vane o rings. Decided to blank them while the inlet manifold was off doing the other work. All easy enough to do just lots of bits to remove.
I felt I didnt have much choice with the dpf either. It doesnt do much in the way of short trips and I was unable to find a reason for the dpf warning. It was getting blocked though. On idle you could see back pressure numbers of 80mbar after I forced a regen it would be 7mbar. Now it is zero.
Yes its a 3ltr diesel and with no filter it will smoke like an e46 3ltr with no dpf. Why wouldnt it?
The more it over fuels the faster it goes within reason without the dpf it is probably a bit awkward for the pre programmed fuel map in the ecu. It is just a pile of lookup tables. If you know what you are doing you can change the numbers. How good you are at it would come down to experience. If your car is mapped that is what they did. I was told they had a fiddle with mine to make sure it doesnt smoke too much. I have no idea if it is true but it would seem reasonable. They did drive it I know that much.

[parapaul]

Ade, that price sounds very cheap for DPF removal and coding - just as a comparison, EcoTune in Scotland charge £865 for a DPF replacement pipe and coding, and that's not fitted.

Where did you get yours done?

[mistryn]

I would also be interested as the DPF is starting to annoy me in terms of constantly keep chek its regen properly etc

[ade146]

Originally Posted by mistryn

I would also be interested as the DPF is starting to annoy me in terms of constantly keep chek its regen properly etc

Yes I got fed up as well and I have a launch so I could sort out my own regens. In defence of ecotune they need to recoup the investment of development of the pipework. If I had the money I probably would have chosen that option. That way you still have the dpf to refit should you wish. Mine has been taken apart the insides removed and welded. The plus side is you cant tell its been removed. I saw what came out of there and it is a thick heavy metal cat plus a few inches of ceramic filter. It must create a fair restriction and it is hard to imagine it not blocking with age.

I had mine done by Permoveo near Cardiff. It did take them 3 days and I dont want to say any more on here except to say they did give me a courtesy car and I have clocked up a few hundred miles and have had zero problems since.

I believe there are other garages providing a similar service at similar prices. A local garage would have removed the dpf for £100 I just didnt fancy it. They wont alter the map for that but in truth it probably wouldnt matter. The main problem would be ecu codes saying dpf sensor invalid or something similar. It wouldnt come up on the dash though. Permoveo did do something with my map as Ive checked the ecu for errors and there are none.

Ass dynos are terribly inaccurate but mine tells me my car is performing much better without that bung in the exhaust. The exhaust temps are 100C cooler which must benefit the turbo.

[raf555]

My removal is booked in for Tuesday and they will be splitting the box where the DPF and cats sit and remove DPF (but leave in cats) and reweld the box back up.

Then delete it from software.

So after completion it's looks factory.

I was advised to keep the cat converters in.

I will also be getting the egr valve function deleted too.

[ade146]

That is interesting as the cat on mine was full of soot. I had a look at it and I assume it is the same as mine whereby the cat and dpf sit side by side in the can. I cant see a reason for leaving it.
The egr is problematic. What happens is the maf looks at how much air it is using and compares that to what it expects. If there is too much fresh air it knows there is a lack of egr flow. What gets interesting is that it then appears to use the anti run on valve to close the fresh air flow down and increase egr. I really dont know how they get around this as just deleting error codes wont cut it.
I have tried to ask intelligent questions surrounding this setup but have yet to hear a satisfactory answer. I have done some experiments by plugging in my laptop and causing egr restriction. Ont he laptop you can see a comparison between expected and actual maf flow. I think it would take lots of work to map it out properly.
If anyone has had the egr mapped out so the two tables match I would like to hear about it so I can do mine.

[raf555]

Originally Posted by ade146

That is interesting as the cat on mine was full of soot. I had a look at it and I assume it is the same as mine whereby the cat and dpf sit side by side in the can. I cant see a reason for leaving it.
The egr is problematic. What happens is the maf looks at how much air it is using and compares that to what it expects. If there is too much fresh air it knows there is a lack of egr flow. What gets interesting is that it then appears to use the anti run on valve to close the fresh air flow down and increase egr. I really dont know how they get around this as just deleting error codes wont cut it.
I have tried to ask intelligent questions surrounding this setup but have yet to hear a satisfactory answer. I have done some experiments by plugging in my laptop and causing egr restriction. Ont he laptop you can see a comparison between expected and actual maf flow. I think it would take lots of work to map it out properly.
If anyone has had the egr mapped out so the two tables match I would like to hear about it so I can do mine.

I have a number for a VERY knowledgeable guy on these dpf issues as he works in the automotive industry and specialises in dpf's.

if u want i can ask him to give u a call if u PM your number?

[pattie]

Omg get it done maxitune and ecotune recaps by ecotune Scotland very very helpfully guy is Stan, made a boo boo by using young back street mobile mapper as Stan described as cheap and nasty cowboy work arrrrrgggghhh..... Standapping in my opinion very specialist and dedicated to BMW my e91 330d on maxitune is like shit off a stick and better than I thought on mpg but run it mostly on ecotune for our lasses 7 mile commute to work and asentioned before @ £865 -10% discount for armed forces it's certainly cheaper than a visit to stealers for new dpf... Ooooooooh and as a bonus he mapped out the egr too for when I have bypass fitted plus assurance by Stan the man there are no issues with mot pass

Dazza

[Adil]

u shud get bmw or ur local indy to recondition/regenerate the dpf and see if that helps as theres a process u can go through to do it. If not try and replace with another one from scrapyard perhaps? my mate had to do this recently on his 520d. managed to get it for a fraction fo the price comapred to what bmw were charging and it came of a brand new car with only liek 1k on the clock.

[EssexIan]

I had my DPF removed earlier this year after the DPF blocked and then split before I could get it in to be cleaned out. Car now drives superbly without it but it DOES smoke everytime you open it up and back of car is covered with soot after a week! For me this kind of spoils the car now I'm afraid, I would rather have kept the DPF had it been an option.

My car was done using Ecotune pipe and software, as said it drives and runs faultlessly, be very careful of getting software that is just turning off the regen programme, there is rather more required than just that! I would highly reccomend Ecotune if you are going to remove DPF.

Best Wishes
Ian

[ade146]

Ian is it just at idle ? Mine is fine on the road but yes it does smoke if pulling away from idle and it can be significant.

I understand your thoughts on the ecu program but what do you think they do extra? I assume they adjust the fuel map but clearly not in your case

[ade146]

Ian why dont you contact a respected mapper and get it adjusted that way you should get more power plus they can adjust fuel at idle. There will be a way of adjusting it so it will smoke less. There is a maf calibration option on my launch.

[NickP]

Originally Posted by EssexIan

I had my DPF removed earlier this year after the DPF blocked and then split before I could get it in to be cleaned out. Car now drives superbly without it but it DOES smoke everytime you open it up and back of car is covered with soot after a week! For me this kind of spoils the car now I'm afraid, I would rather have kept the DPF had it been an option.

My car was done using Ecotune pipe and software, as said it drives and runs faultlessly, be very careful of getting software that is just turning off the regen programme, there is rather more required than just that! I would highly reccomend Ecotune if you are going to remove DPF.

Best Wishes
Ian

Did PMW do the work Ian?

[EssexIan]

Originally Posted by NickP

Did PMW do the work Ian?

Yes, PMW did the work, nice people to deal with!

In reply to previous posts:
The car smokes when it is WOT, not from idle or at constant speed or under light aceleration. There is much to be done other than turn off DPF regen, speak to Stan at Ecotune or Simon at e-maps either will explain what is really required, both being good at what they do!

Ian

[ade146]

Pretty much sounds like a non dpf diesel. No smoke no poke as they say. Some of this ecu mapping is smoke and mirrors and it isnt often I get convincing answers. There is software available that searches the map files for certain strings of text.