Particulate Filter System

[Jordanjl]

Right, I've had a diagnostics run on my 320d m sport so see if there were any faults before remapping.

The diagnostics has found

- Particulate filter system/ faulty

- Glow plug, cylinder 3/ actuation faulty

- Glow plug, cylinder 3/ actuation faulty

- Oil pressure sensor

Now of course I know the particulate filter system should be treated as more of a priority and would hopefully also correct the oil pressure sensor also. Just wondered if anybody could shed some light?

Many thanks!

[bcef]

Particulate filter systems rely on effective glow plugs to work properly. If the glow plugs are not working they can affect the system. To get the full story, see the Straight Six magazine for April, published by the BMW Car Club GB. There is a full article on the subject. In the meantime, either take your car on a 40 mile 70MPH drive on a motorway or park it where its safe and run it for 20 minutes at 1500 revs. This should shift the soot from the pariculate filter, and clean up the glow plugs. Diesel cars ove 40K miles have problems with both particulate filters and glow plugs - not only on BMWs but on all cars. I would never buy a diesel powered car. Get a petrol one and switch it to gas. No dirt in yiur exhaust then, and an E38 728i will do the equivelant of 55 to 65 MPG. Costs around 2 grand but I usually get my money back after about 8 months. On my 4th conversion in about 280K miles.

[Guest jeffthro]

Particulate filters are a nightmare. Basically, as bcef says above. I had a part time job at a garage a couple of years ago, and I was regularly sent on the "Forty minutes at fifty miles a hour" runs to heat up and clear the filters on diesels. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't, the difference between a £100 bill and a £600 one. If you don't do a substantial mileage including regular 50+ mile runs, don't buy a diesel. End of.

Its just another example of these so called environmental concerns which end up being more damaging than progressive, like the electric cars that are so much more damaging during their production than a standard small petrol engined vehicle that its six years before they become more environmentally friendly. (Plus, of course, the batteries need replacing after eight years when the cycle starts all over again anyway.)

[Jordanjl]

Cheers guys, done some research into it and I have 2 options and just wondered which would be best in your opinions...

1) force a regen by holding 3500 revs for 10 mins on motorway

Or

2) by the pipe to replace the filter, however would this affect my road tax/insurance etc?

Cheers!

[Guest jeffthro]

Don't know about point 2, except I should think you'd need to replace everything at MOT time, but Point 1, it needs a lot longer than 10 minutes. As I said previously, 40 minutes at 50 mph, in 3rd or 4th equating to about 3,000 revs, was the standard requirement. Basically, everything has to get nice and hot so all the sh*t literally burns out.