Technical Oil changes and DPF

[Kermie]

Hi. I'm looking for some advice re oil changes and the dreaded DPF please!!! The car is a 62 plate Qubo with 1.3 MJ.

A bit of back story which may or may not be relevant. The last oil change was back in April at a new (to me) garage. Whilst in Italy in October, the oil light came on in amber flashing mode and a quick look at the owner's manual suggested degraded oil. Given that there were no other symptoms (oil was clean and black, and consistently at the same level), and given the relatively recent oil change, we surmised that the 'new' garage might not have reset the oil change counter back in April, so (after reading up here) we did the brake presses, etc. to reset the counter and the light duly went out. The situation was then closely monitored and all looked good...

Roll forward to the last couple of weeks and I've noticed that the mpg is currently quite a bit less than we would normally expect; about 50 as opposed to about 57. I've therefore been reading up and I'm now concerned that the DPF might not be regening properly. Could this be related to the oil light coming on back in October, do you think? Did anything else need to be reset at the same time as the oil counter? Any wisdom or reassurance would be very gratefully received.

As a result of my recent reading up about DPF regens, I'd very much like to know when this is happening and that all is well. I only have a cheapo OBD2 BT adapter and the free Car Scanner app at present (with which I've successfully reset an error code, but nothing else). The combination doesn't seem to want to show me any DPF related data (the fields remain blank). Is it my cheapo adapter that's at fault? It's one of these:

ELM327 OBD2 Bluetooth OBD-II Car Diagnostic Scan Reader Tool Mini Android Torque | eBay

This super mini ELM327 Bluetooth OBD-II OBD2 car diagnostic scan tool designed for our Android head units This device can also worked with Windows phones and Windows computers. Simply plug into the OBD car diagnostic port and it will connect to the unit via Bluetooth.

www.ebay.co.uk

Many thanks for reading what's turned out to be quite a long post! All help is much appreciated. Thank you!

Edited to add: Within the last couple of weeks a check glow plugs warning has also been seen briefly when cold starting. The car is still otherwise starting as normal and we've to date done nothing about the warning and brief accompanying amber flashing coil symbol. Might this be related? The car has also just passed an MOT. Mileage is about 67k and the car is generally only used once or twice a week. Thanks again!

 

[Googlebot]

The glow plugs not working can indeed stop a regen occurring, or mean repeated ones.

The oil counter was probably not reset as you surmised.

Cheap adapters and apps work, but as you have already found out, they aren’t very useful if you can’t see all the data.

I would start with a copy of MES and go from there, it could save you a fortune.

 

[bugsymike]

You will definitely get more information with a good scanner, also it will allow activation of other useful things such as Regens etc. many on Forum use MultiEcu Scan tool and can advise better re that than me.
It is possible the drop in fuel consumption and the glow plug warning may be related to the colder weather and now only using vehicle for short journeys.
Baring in mind the issues with DPFs and short journeys etc. it may be worth trying the advice we have given on Forum re that point.
I have three diesels on the road and regularly use DPF cleaner in the fuel as my daughter does with her VW Golf 1.6 diesel as none as are doing long trips these days.
If yours specifically indicated a heater plug failure, I had this come up on a 1.6 Doblo where two had failed, I replaced them all , but had no issues starting the vehicle even before that.
As has been mentioned by @Googlebot failure can affect Regens.

 

[clayts450]

Also worth noting on the MPG front we are now in 'winter diesel' season which naturally results in a decline in economy figures. This runs from 15 Nov to 15 March.

 

[Kermie]

Thanks so much for the replies. I naively had no idea that the glow plugs would affect anything other than the starting! Time for a new set me thinks!

I've just watched a YT video where glow plugs were changed in a Blipper and it appears that the turbo makes access somewhat awkward without a host of socket tools/attachments. This might therefore perhaps be one for the local mechanic to kindly sort for us! About £100 in parts and 1.5 hours in labour, would you think?

Thanks again. Really appreciated!

 

[Googlebot]

Thanks so much for the replies. I naively had no idea that the glow plugs would affect anything other than the starting! Time for a new set me thinks!

I've just watched a YT video where glow plugs were changed in a Blipper and it appears that the turbo makes access somewhat awkward without a host of socket tools/attachments. This might therefore perhaps be one for the local mechanic to kindly sort for us! About £100 in parts and 1.5 hours in labour, would you think?

Thanks again. Really appreciated!

Ducato plugs were about £13 each, not familiar with that model. About 2 hours on mine.

 

[Kermie]

Hello again. I just thought I'd provide a little feedback in case it proves useful for anyone else. I eventually persuaded my cheapo scanner to show an error code for glow plug #4 by turning on all of the error reporting options. Fortunately this is reported, and certainly looks, to be the easiest to change, so that's a job to look forward to in the new year! More crucially, my fuel economy issue has resolved itself and so it would seem that the glow plug fault isn't, at least at present, having a bearing on the DPF regen. I think I just simply happened to notice it physically happening for the first time! I've done quite a lot of reading about DPF regen and glow plugs and there are certainly reports of them being linked, but there are also a lot of contrary opinions too, including that of my local mechanic. It therefore seems to be a bit of a mystery! A DPF in progress light would certainly be very helpful!

Thanks once again for all the help and advice.