Broken down 2 days after DPF work. [Help]

[Tommmygunnn]

Currently sat at a services after being towed by Rac to a safe place off the motorway.

Booked my car in on Friday and paid to have the DPF gutted and a remap (after repeated issues getting blocked and going into limp mode with EML and Glow plug light).

Collected car later that day, felt great after leaving the garage, felt like a different car, was very happy. 2 mins after pulling onto the dual carriageway on the way home the DPF light came back on the dash. Car still felt good so I called the garage and the bloke said it could be a sensor, told me to disconnect battery, then connect and after around 10 miles the light should go out.

Anyway the next morning I did that and had to set off on a long journey for an emergency. Car felt okay with the light on so would get it sorted when back home (currently in Liverpool).

Car started normally today to go back home so I set off, car felt slow and sluggish just driving through residential area, 2 mins onto the motorway (5 mins after setting off) the car lost all power (felt like limp mode but no EML light or Glow plug light and actually ground to a halt. (luckily managed to get it onto hard shoulder just in time. Car turns over sounding awful, and cuts straight out.

Rac bloke tested it and there are no fault codes detected at all. DPF light still on dash.

Currently sat in cold and waiting for a recovery truck wondering why the **** I had to have a dpf on my car. Any ideas what it could be guys? I thought if the dpf was gutted and mapped out, then the dpf light should never be seen again? Also the rac guy said he could tell the dpf had been removed, but couldn't see it welded back together.

Help is appreciated. Am getting it towed to the garage tonight and have told them it's on its way back.

 

[TonyMoneo]

Currently sat at a services after being towed by Rac to a safe place off the motorway.

Booked my car in on Friday and paid to have the DPF gutted and a remap (after repeated issues getting blocked and going into limp mode with EML and Glow plug light).

Collected car later that day, felt great after leaving the garage, felt like a different car, was very happy. 2 mins after pulling onto the dual carriageway on the way home the DPF light came back on the dash. Car still felt good so I called the garage and the bloke said it could be a sensor, told me to disconnect battery, then connect and after around 10 miles the light should go out.

Anyway the next morning I did that and had to set off on a long journey for an emergency. Car felt okay with the light on so would get it sorted when back home (currently in Liverpool).

Car started normally today to go back home so I set off, car felt slow and sluggish just driving through residential area, 2 mins onto the motorway (5 mins after setting off) the car lost all power (felt like limp mode but no EML light or Glow plug light and actually ground to a halt. (luckily managed to get it onto hard shoulder just in time. Car turns over sounding awful, and cuts straight out.

Rac bloke tested it and there are no fault codes detected at all. DPF light still on dash.

Currently sat in cold and waiting for a recovery truck wondering why the **** I had to have a dpf on my car. Any ideas what it could be guys? I thought if the dpf was gutted and mapped out, then the dpf light should never be seen again? Also the rac guy said he could tell the dpf had been removed, but couldn't see it welded back together.

Help is appreciated. Am getting it towed to the garage tonight and have told them it's on its way back.

I had to drive for about a week for the dpf light to stay off, that's normal don't stress about it. Mapping it out (aka doing a dpf delete) is not an easy task. I had to change tuners because the first guy that mapped my car just couldn't get it right. Limp mode every now and then due to "broken lambda sensor" and the dpf light kept coming back. Not saying it's your tuner but in my case it was.

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[DieselJake]

Probably limp mode due to over/under boost, car should sort it's self out hopefully.

 

[Tommmygunnn]

I had to drive for about a week for the dpf light to stay off, that's normal don't stress about it. Mapping it out (aka doing a dpf delete) is not an easy task. I had to change tuners because the first guy that mapped my car just couldn't get it right. Limp mode every now and then due to "broken lambda sensor" and the dpf light kept coming back. Not saying it's your tuner but in my case it was.

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Problem with this though is the car not only has the light, but also lost all power again and came to a halt on motorway. I would understand if the car ran perfect but still had the dpf light on.

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[Tommmygunnn]

I called the garage this morning and asked if he had gutted the DPF out and he said no thats not what people do, we drill a big hole through the filter. This isn't what I asked for, I have a feeling some of the honeycomb filrer has possibly been sucked into the turbo or something like this.

He said they're not gutted out as there would be no back pressure and the car wouldn't be drivable. Can anyone confirm if this is true??

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[LawrenceH]

Pretty sure that the turbo provides all the back pressure you need, anything past that is (performance-wise) a hindrance. Could it have all collapsed inside and blocked it completely?


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[desertstorm]

In a modern diesel which you have they usually have a cat followed by a DPF. If you were worried about back pressure you could leave the cat which would provide a small amount. On higher mileage engines on some cars removal of all the back pressure in the exhaust can lead to some oil weeping past the turbine seal. However the car would still be driving. They have probably chosen to drill a hole through the monolith as this is easier and quicker for them.
A decent tuner will know what they are doing with the DPF functionality and you should never see the DPF light or fault codes again.
If the DPF is blocked there is little chance that anything has been sucked back up to the turbo. Although on your car the DPF appears to be very closely coupled to the turbo.
http://www.oemepc.com/audi/part_sin.../253/subcategory/253057/part_id/259827/lang/e
Not quite sure how they have drilled a hole through it without cutting it open anyway due to the im and out pipe angles.

 

[TonyMoneo]

In a modern diesel which you have they usually have a cat followed by a DPF. If you were worried about back pressure you could leave the cat which would provide a small amount. On higher mileage engines on some cars removal of all the back pressure in the exhaust can lead to some oil weeping past the turbine seal. However the car would still be driving. They have probably chosen to drill a hole through the monolith as this is easier and quicker for them.
A decent tuner will know what they are doing with the DPF functionality and you should never see the DPF light or fault codes again.
If the DPF is blocked there is very little chance that anything has been sucked back up to the turbo.

Why would a high mileage engine leak oil if all the back pressure is removed?

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[desertstorm]

The thing that stops oil leakage on the turbine side in a turbo is a seal . This seal works on differential pressure. In the centre housing of the turbo the oil pressure is anything from 25 PSI upto say 80 PSI.
http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ID/2184/Turbo-Tech-Turbo-Troubleshooting.aspx
On an older turbo these seals will have worn and more oil is likely to be leaking past them. Indeed in a DPF equipped car it's possible that the DPF is partially clogged by oil leaking from a worn turbine seal. Oil isn't burnt off in a DPF the same way as soot is so collects .
With the removal of the DPF the back pressure being exerted by the DPF is gone. This can make the difference between a small leak that's hardly detectable to driving around with plumes of blue smoke out the exhaust.
This would be seen at idle/ low revs when there is minimum back pressure.

 

[Tommmygunnn]

Thanks for all the info so far its much appreciated.

I find it starnge that the car ground to a halt on the motorway, and then would not start again, all with zero error codes displayed by RAC full scans.

Also no fault codes since leaving the garage after having the work completed. Has he messed up my ECU whilst trying to map it all out?

My main leg to stand on is that the DPF light came on 5 mins after leaving the garage, so whatever he's done has most likely caused the following issues causing the breakdown.

 

[desertstorm]

It's pretty much a given that the work he has done has caused the issue you have now. Of course he may try and wangle out of it and say it's another unrelated issue. Not the first time somebody would try that one. I have heard of some people doing cheap DPF deletes and all they actually do is drill the DPF through with small holes. They hope that the ECU is fooled into thinking that there is still a DPF present as back pressure is still seen and as there is a straight through path through the DPF it hopefully won't block up.

 

[Tommmygunnn]

An update from the garage he says that the cat was the issue and it was blocked. Says theyve taken it out and replaced a gasket or a seal.

This sound honest? Still find it strange no fault codes displayed after breaking down on motorway and car then not starting.

 

[desertstorm]

If the exhaust was blocked then you probably wouldn't get any fault codes. The engine can't work because there's no where for the exhaust gas to go.
Probably due to them attempting to drill the DPF rather than actually remove the complete monolith. The parts either broke up and blocked the exhaust or there was debris left in there and this has blocked the DPF.
See how it goes . I assume it was a cheap job.

 

[Tommmygunnn]

Update:

Got the car back on Friday, garage state it was the CAT that was shafted and was nothing left of it and that is what had blocked the dpf after the work that they did. He kept saying the CAT is in front of the DPF... Is this true? I thought the cat is a bit further down the system, whereas the dpf is pretty much in the engine bay. I'm thinking it's more likely them drilling the dpf that has ****** the cat...

I also complained about them drilling the dpf rather than gutting it, and now they have apparently gutted it and showed me the welds too. (why not do it like this in the first place).

Anyway the car felt great, however on the motorway at about 85/90 mph there is a horrible vibrating coming from near the engine feels close to the DPF location. (Sounds like a helicopter rotary sound). Bit concerning. Other than that the car actually feels much better. Any ideas what that could be?

 

[desertstorm]

The cat is in front of the DPF. They are together in the same part of the exhaust . The cat is in front of the DPF as the exhaust gas gets heated in the cat due to the exothermic reaction that happens there. This raises the temp in the DPF.