Dpf Cleaning - Anyone Tried Halfords?

[Quoi]

The light on the dash of my Mercedes E320 tells me that the DPF needs cleaning. It happened 2 months ago and I ran some DPF cleaner through it and had the light turned off.
This time thinking it might be better to clean it so any one used a DPF cleaning service like halfords?
Was it worth it?

http://www.halfordsautocentres.com/car-care/dpf-deep-clean#tab10

[douglas9401]

They do a fine range of sponges and screen wash.
That's the best I can say for Halfords. I wouldn't let them near my pride and joy.

[gingejbee]

...and, if it really was your pride and joy, you wouldn't be using a dreaded sponge on the paintwork...!

[Buenchico]

Worth a read, I think:
http://www.hypermiler.co.uk/dpf-diesel-particulate-filter/halfords-autocentre-now-offering-dpf-cleaning-services-but-beware

[EDDIE51]

I thought they were self cleaning, there is a self clean program that cleans them by heating them up to a point where the 'gunge' burns off. Had 1 on my diesel Zafira it only came on twice in 3 & 1/2 years.

[EDDIE51]

Some DPF s do not have 'auto clean' but there is a way to switch the cleaning cycle on when the light shows it is needed, possibly yours is like that?

[tonyav]

Have you tried giving it a good run ( motorway or A road probably ) for around half an hour above 2,500 rpm, it may force a DPF regeneration.
Just a thought, when your car was last serviced was the correct engine oil used ?. It has to be a low ash oil in cars with a DPF.

[Hopkirk]

Sell your car and buy a petrol car.

[Quoi]

Thanks for your replies & the link.
The car was serviced in Dec last year (just before I bought it) with the correct oil and in the last two weeks it has been doing a 35 mile motorway twice a day. That should force a re-generation but I dont think it did.
I can get the forced re-generation done for nothing by a mate but I think its worth the £85 if anything goes wrong.
It is the deep clean option I was thinking about.
I think the list price for a new mercedes dpf is more that £1000!

[bhg481]

I'm surprised it needs a clean with the type of driving you've been doing recently. I went diesel in 1999 since when I have done around 300,000 miles and never needed a forced clean.

[EDDIE51]

If you run the 'cleaning cycle' correctly there should be no need at all for any other 'clean', the cycle works as I said by burning some extra fuel for a while so that the internal temperature of the filter is hot enough to actually burn off the soot leaving nothing. Soot is just Carbon and it burns off to CO2 and water leaving no residue. If you use the correct oil there will be no 'ash' to clog the filter just soot. Once a 'clean cycle' has started it is vital that you keep driving at a speed high enough to complete the cycle, stopping half way through can make it worse. The instructions for my car said to maintain 2,000 rpm for 20 minutes.

[chiaroscuro]

You don't have to drive at high speed, it's engine speed that matters. Try driving in a lower gear, especially in town, before doing anything else.

[TrickyTrev1960]

Tried halfords dpf deep clean on my Peugeot 308 hdi, the car is high mileage (167,000)it's worth stating that I didn't wait until the warning light was on permanent. Normally I've added JML dpf cleaner to the tank as soon as the warning light came on, however more recently this would only help for around 1500 miles and the last time although the light went out the car felt slightly sluggish when accelerating. After the halfords deep clean the acceleration was good and motorway speeds feel smother. As others have stated, using low ash oil and shorter oil change intervals (5k) will all help extend the life of your filter, it does work out expensive unless you can do an oil change yourself, but then again the alternative is even more expensive. I don't agree with some reviews slagging off the halfords treatment, usually if you don't follow good servicing regimes, it's rich to expect anyone to work miracles for £85.

[carcitycare]

here is the solution to your problem.
https://carcitycare.co.uk/dpf-cleaning/