Technical Ducato 2.3 2014 Euro5 DPF replacement aftermarket new or used

[tomson]

I've moved to Czech Republic where car undergo quite strict emission tests.

Cars without DPF or damaged DPF simply won't pass test. It's not like in the UK (if things hasn't changed recently) or Norway, where if DPF is visually present and car has an engine intact it will pass.

I haven't realized that I don't have DPF until I couldn't find any parameters using Multiecuscan. I've checked ECU only to find out that DPF was removed. I've reprogrammed it back, so I could check diff pressure sensor reading. It's 0mbar on idle, on high RPMs it sometimes goes to 1-2mbar, which says that DPF must be empty inside (even though it looks untouched).

Now, I am trying to understand if there are any reputable aftermarket DPFs on the market or I should rather get an used one. New one from Fiat is prohibitively expensive.
DPF doesn't just need to be present, it must pass rigorous particle emission tests.

Do you have any experience with aftermarket DPFs, e.g. Asso?

 

[theoneandonly]

When looking for Euro 6 dpf's for another member we came accross aftermarket euro5 DPF's but that was in UK almost 2 years ago. As you say things have moved on. Good luck searching and be very carefull in getting precisely the right model (plenty of oportunity to allow someone else to get it wrong, ie they make asumptions) .

 

[tomson]

With Ducato it's fortunately very easy to distinct EURO6 and EURO5 DPF's as these are entirely different design/size.

What's important is the condition and quality of the internal ceramic fill and this is not really possible to assess without the emission test really.

Ceramic fill might look ok, but if it's made of a poor material it will either crack soon or might not burn particles properly (not an expert here, but DPFs design and special layers actually make soot ignite with much lower temp).

 

[tomson]

The main difference of aftermarket DPF is material.

Cheaper ones: Cordierite
Expensive ones: Silicon Carbide

My gut feeling is that Cordierite wouldn't last long therefore I wouldn't risk buying it, unless you consider it biyearly subscription cost to pass the MOT emissions, by simply replacing it every time.

 

[tomson]

In the end I've bought used OEM in pristine state, programmed it into ECU and it works great.

Don't forget to reset the DPF in Multiecuscan, that way it will assume average level of soot and trigger active regeneration within some distance e.g. ~100km.

If you don't do that, your DPF might clog up, especially if it's not new or cleaned to the pristine state.