Soot filter regeneration problem 2009 TDI

Car: 2009 Sportwagen TDI with 2600 miles.
Problem: CEL, Glow plug and soot filter light on (won't go out)

Currently at VW dealer till Monday (no TDI tech on duty on Saturday)
Soot filter read 30% clogged. Automatic regen occurs at a 15% level.

After searching the forum I've discovered that these lights on mean a "dealer regeneration" needs to be performed. My question is, why was the filter allowed to become this clogged? Why didn't the automatic regen occur before or at least the soot filter light light up indicating that a customer regen should be performed (driven at higher speads). I had just driven 500 miles the day before. No other fault codes were indicated.

Perplexed in Virginia

They either changed you out to 505.01 oil, you used LSD, or you unknowingly fueled up with bio and the DPF couldn't get temps hot enough to regenerate.

I'll be interested to hear the prognosis. I'm sure it's not 505.01 oil as the previous poster suggested. How could it be! Your not due for your first change for another 7400 miles! I think some of us have oil on the brain!

The engine oil is original (oil hasn't been changed yet, only 2600 miles), filled up at same station I have for 5 years (had 2003 TDI before this), it is ULSD , at least it's labeled that way at the pump, and is not bio.

Ted Hurst said:

I'll be interested to hear the prognosis. I'm sure it's not 505.01 oil as the previous poster suggested. How could it be! Your not due for your first change for another 7400 miles! I think some of us have oil on the brain!

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That post had nothing to do with oil wars

It's called deductive reasoning. If if oil is the factory fill, then you can go ahead and check that one off.

If you trust your fuel source, it might be a factory defect.

First thing is what are your driving habits? The computer and engine need to be operated in a certain regime in order to let the regen take place. If your driving habits are such that this can't happen, then that might be the reason. Read up here on what is needed for a regen to happen and see if that conforms or conflicts with your driving style.

I suppose I have a typical driving regime. I'm about 5 miles from town, so the engine warms up pretty well before around town driving. I've been on a few interstate trips. However, from what I understand, if the filter is "somewhat" clogged the soot filter light turns on for a "customer regen" procedure. Why didn't this turn on before this? I also just completed a 500 mile trip the day before.

If you went on a 500 mile trip yesterday I am going to guess that you did a fair amount of highway driving. On my 09, I run at about 2 grand going a little over 60mph. Thats right in the burn off range. Were you turning at least 2 grand for a good portion of your trip? If so, you should have been cooking out the DPF. I cant remember the amount of time the manual said it needed to complete the regen, does 30-45 min sound right?
I also had the glow plug light come on while my wife was driving the car. She noticed a power loss after it came on. Dealer tracked it back to loose intake charge piping.
Perhaps you had two things go wrong, or one is throwing the other. Either way it will take the some code reading / tracking by the dealer to help narrow down the problem.

Jim

The manual says regen following a PDF warning light will be done in 15 min. at 37 mph+ (above 2000 RPM, 4-5 gear). Since the OP did a 500 mile drive, there should have been no light and no problem with a normal regen. My guess: sensor error/malfunction.

OOps, looks like the last page of replys have been deleted. Would you believe a new DPF is on order They could not perform enough regens to burn off the accumulated soot. Still waiting on ananswer as to why it accumulated in the first place.

KOATDI1 said:

OOps, looks like the last page of replys have been deleted. Would you believe a new DPF is on order They could not perform enough regens to burn off the accumulated soot. Still waiting on ananswer as to why it accumulated in the first place.

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Interesting; I'm going to change my theory. I think the original DPF/Oxidation catalyst was defective; perhaps not enough catalyst material to make the required high temperature during regenerations.

KOATDI1 said:

OOps, looks like the last page of replys have been deleted. Would you believe a new DPF is on order They could not perform enough regens to burn off the accumulated soot. Still waiting on ananswer as to why it accumulated in the first place.

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Please report the costs listed on your invoice after this work. You should not have to pay because of warranty, but you still should be able to see what the charge would have been.

Part numbers would be a huge help too.

I know someone with a Dodge truck with a DPF. The filter clogged to 80% !!!! before he took it in, and somehow it tells him how full it is (EVIC Display like the Jeep's have I guess). The sensor that tells the ECU how full the DPF is... had a bent pin from the factory... never read right... new DPF had to be installed....

Glad I am emissionsless.

Can anyone tell me if VCDS can tell us what kind of shape our DPF's are in on these cars? I have 2 of them now and would like to see what I can find out in VCDS.

Rod Bearing said:

Can anyone tell me if VCDS can tell us what kind of shape our DPF's are in on these cars? I have 2 of them now and would like to see what I can find out in VCDS.

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There are two useful measuring blocks VCDS exposes. I don't recall their exact numbers, but under 'engine' they are up in the one-hundreds:

1. DPF pressure differential (Delta-P). This is the pressure difference across the DPF according to its pre- and post- sensors. If you read this under some standardized operating condition it should be directly proportional to your soot accumulation. The standard operating condition I use is: engine fully warmed up, tranny in 'Park', RPMs at 2000 (as measured by VCDS). If you monitor this number fairly frequently (say, once every day for 300 mi) you'll have a good idea what your peak Delta-P is before a regen takes it back down to almost nothing. Long-term increases in either this max Delta-P (shortly before a regen) or the min Delta-P (shortly after a regen) would, I think, indicate that your DPF is losing the ability to completely burn off accumulated soot.

2. Miles since last regen. If you monitor this block frequently enough to read it at least once before it flips back to zero you can back-calculate the mileage at which your last regen occurred, and thus you can determine how many miles you're getting between regens. For me (i.e., for my driving style and conditions) that latter number is always almost exactly 300 mi. YMMV.

Note that there is also a block for Carbon Mass Accumulated, but I am deeply suspicious of this number. There doesn't appear to be a sensor for this in the DPF, so I believe it is a modeled number rather than a measurement. And the number usually makes very little sense...it can be high when Delta-P is low, or low when Delta-P is high, or anything in between.

I got the car back after 5 days in the shop. Kind of complicated.

The tech tried to do a manual regen, the numbers came down some. During a second regen try, VAG com told him to stop the regen.
The VW Tech Line told him to replace the DPF and check the fual quality which they couldn't do because the car ran out of fuel during the regens and they had filled it back up.
After putting in a new DPF, the ash load dropped but the calculated ash load stayed high.
The tech then looked for a vacume leak because there was also a MAF and dropped pressure fault code.
He eventually tracked it down to a cracked inter cooler that was an installation fault.
A new intercooler was installed and after 3 road tests and a 500 mile drive I just came back from, everything is fine.
I'm still not clear as to if the cracked intercooler was somehow to blame all along and the old DPF was fine. They sent the old one in to the vendor to be checked out.
Good thing it was on warrenty, would have been $3300