If you have a particulate filter installed on your car, regardless of whether it is petrol or diesel, you can save at least 1,000 euros every 50,000 kilometers if you drive it at higher revs.
In order to reduce the emissions of noxes, the car manufacturers installed a particle filter on the cars. Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF), as the name suggests, is intended for diesel engines. And Gasoline Particulate Filter (GPF) are for gasoline cars.
These filters are designed to filter particles up to 0.01 μm, resulting from fuel combustion. These residues are burned inside the DPF due to the high temperature of the exhaust gas. And micronic residues are removed by the pressure generated by the exhaust system.
But, the main problem with the DPF system is that it can get clogged if you don’t drive the car properly.
How do you know if you have a clogged particulate filter?
Most of the time, when the DPF gets clogged, an error message will appear on the car’s dashboard.
„You can tell that it is no longer working properly when you can no longer turn the engine over 2,000-3,000 RPM (rotations per minute). Generally, an orange warning light in the form of an engine lights up on the dashboard, and you notice that the engine power has dropped a lot. At the same time, it can emit black smoke and walk jerkily”, explained mechanic Robert Marin, for ProMotor.
What do you do if you have a clogged particulate filter?
This DPF system is designed to regenerate. Basically, the longer and harder you drive the car, the better the particulate filter will be cleaned.
„A particulate filter can last up to 500,000 kilometers. But if you drive the car with understeer, then it will clog even after 100,000 kilometers. And if you drive day by day, around the city, with the car under revs, you can wake up with a clogged DPF even after 50,000 kilometers“, explained mechanic Robert Marin.
To regenerate the particle filter, you only have to drive the car at high revs.
„If you drive for 30-50 kilometers, with the car in 3rd or 4th gear, so at least 2,800-3,000 RPM, then you can regenerate the DPF yourself. Basically, you’re going to get a lot of hot air in, which burns off the particles, and you also have pressure on the exhaust, so you get rid of the residue”, explained Robert.
If it doesn’t clear, then the second option is to clean the particulate filter. This operation generally costs from 600 lei upwards and requires a trip to a service.
How you can save 1,000 euros every 50,000 km
If, however, you’ve been driving your car with the engine down for a long time, then it’s possible that your filter can no longer be saved. So it will have to be replaced.
“The cost of this filter is, in general, around 4,000 – 5,000 lei. And you have to get it again. Because at second hand you don’t know what you’re getting, how good it is, how it went with it, etc.”, added the mechanic.
To avoid this cost and save €1,000 every 50,000 kilometers driven, then you need to accelerate more. You basically have to ignore the car’s notification when it tells you to shift into a higher gear.
„Shift to 2,300-2,500 RPM. Ignore that Shift UP notification. Because car manufacturers introduced it out of an obligation to reduce fuel consumption, but it does more harm to the car in the long run. If you drive around town and shift as the car says, at 1,500-1,800 RPM, you can clog the filter in less than 50,000 kilometers. But, if you turn it a little more, you can avoid this expense. Basically, you save 1,000 euros every 50,000 kilometers“, concluded mechanic Robert Marin.
Of course, this means higher fuel consumption, probably by 0.5L or 1L per 100 km. So, an additional cost of approximately 250-500 lei.
2023-09-04 10:38:46
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