Can I drive with dpf delete tune with dpf still installed?

So I got my 2012 jetta yesterday. Love the car already but extremely itchy to get it tuned and deleted. Can I drive the car with the dpf still installed but tuned for no dpf? Planned on doing the exhaust at a buddy's shop half hour from where I live and was wondering if I'd be able to send the ecm out to get tuned and then when I get it back and put it in then drive to my friends to put the exhaust on it? I know if I drive it much the dpf will get clogged up but will it hurt anything?
Thanks in advance!

You can drive with the DPF delete Tune, with the DPF still in. But not the other way around. The car will attempt to do a Regen and you will get a bunch of extra fuel dumped into the exhaust expecting to be burnt in the DPF and its not there and bad things can happen. Hella smoke and maybe fire out the tail pipe.


I had mine tuned at a shop then drove it about 30 miles down the road and did the parts install myself. Had no issues at all.

Any Messing with Emissions equipment is for "off road use only"

How long do you think it'll run that way? I'm considering similar, but it's a couple hundred miles of driving tuned without a physical delete.

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Here is TDIClub's position statement on f'ing with emissions equipment:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=396162

voilsb said:

How long do you think it'll run that way? I'm considering similar, but it's a couple hundred miles of driving tuned without a physical delete.

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Any messing with emissions equipment is for "off road use only"

Im told you can do many hundreds of miles, but you need to watch EGT's pretty closely. Suggest using the Torque app to look at all 4 sensors.

Is it a double standard that we can't f' with our emissions equipment but VW can? I wouldn't be halfway surprised if a Malone tuned car ran cleaner than an OEM one.

Assuming you drove fast enough, often enough, do you think the passive regens spurred on by sufficient exhaust heat would be enough to keep the DPF clean, or would it be doomed in a matter of xxx miles?

chaoscreature said:

Is it a double standard that we can't f' with our emissions equipment but VW can? I wouldn't be halfway surprised if a Malone tuned car ran cleaner than an OEM one.
Assuming you drove fast enough, often enough, do you think the passive regens spurred on by sufficient exhaust heat would be enough to keep the DPF clean, or would it be doomed in a matter of xxx miles?

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Depends. Are you going to do a good, long DPF regen right before you change the calibration? Is EGR off or on?

The danger is if it needs to regen and it cannot the DPF could overload, heat up, and enter an uncontrolled regen which will melt down the DPF core.

My assumption would be most of the DPF delete tunes also turn off both the high and low pressure EGR's as well.
My intuition tells me that it would be impossible to completely regen a DPF by purely driving around, even driving around enthusiastically for a long time...

Uncontrolled regens can happen with even a relatively light soot load. I've seen it happen... you just need some amount of soot, heat, and oxygen and it can get ugly fast.

Great info. My car went in to limp mode a week after I did the EGR Delete. I think the DPF got killed when the plug I used on the down pipe came out. My question is will the car automatically come out of limp mode when I install the new Buzzken down pipe and Malone DPF Delete Tune?

1854sailor said:

Here is TDIClub's position statement on f'ing with emissions equipment:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=396162

Click to expand...

and by the way this is routinely Violated......

You're fine. I drove maybe 500 miles with a tune before I could get time to install exhaust.