I’ve just bought an A3 1.6 TDI Quattro, c3 months old (16 plate) with about 5k miles on the clock from an Audi dealer (it was a demo car). Over the last few years we have done about 8k miles which consists of mainly shorter journeys during the week (10-20 minutes) with some longer weekend trips (30 miles +) and then odd longer journey interspersed (say 200 miles once a month or so). We did talk this through with the dealer, but no mention of DPF… (neither did a BMW dealer that we spoke to either to be fair) …
I’ve had it less than a week, and so after having done the first 60-70 miles I’ve had one instance of the fans staying on after I’ve arrived back home and switched off the engine, which I understand is the cooling down of the engine / DPF after an active regeneration is disrupted. This was after probably a 40-50 mile round trip on A roads that morning, followed by a few shorter journeys in town later in the day. After doing a bit of reading online, the next two evenings I took the car out for a longish drive on the A roads for about an hour or so each time, trying to keep the revs over 2500 to try and allow it to resume its regeneration, which I assume it did (!) although I don’t know how to tell if this had happened except some odd mpg readings ranging from 15 to 300, and I noticed it idling at about 950 once (compared to 800 usually), but no more fans once off. As I say I’ve had it less than a week so it’s impossible to make a long term judgement, but
I’ll be honest, before I bought it I wasn’t aware of a DPF or the implications, so I’m getting a bit paranoid that I’ve been sold a dummy! Having spent the last few days frantically reading everything I can on DPF, I’m hoping some of your nice chaps can reassure me that I’m not in for a world of problems! From what I’ve seen, a lot of problems seem to be with older diesels with a DPF, so I’m hoping technology has improved enough to try and minimise the issues – is that a fair assumption? I’ve read that avoiding supermarket fuel can help, so I can live with that, but is there anything else I should be thinking about? Do I just put it to the back of my mind and forget about in the knowledge that it will take care of itself, and just be prepared to take it out for a longer drive if I ever interrupt a regen, and hope I don’t really have any problems?
Hope you guys can give me some advice or reassurance! I see quite a few diesel VW, Audi, Merc and BMWs about parked near me, or driving in London, so surely everyone can’t be doing 20k miles per year!
Cheers.
I’ve had it less than a week, and so after having done the first 60-70 miles I’ve had one instance of the fans staying on after I’ve arrived back home and switched off the engine, which I understand is the cooling down of the engine / DPF after an active regeneration is disrupted. This was after probably a 40-50 mile round trip on A roads that morning, followed by a few shorter journeys in town later in the day. After doing a bit of reading online, the next two evenings I took the car out for a longish drive on the A roads for about an hour or so each time, trying to keep the revs over 2500 to try and allow it to resume its regeneration, which I assume it did (!) although I don’t know how to tell if this had happened except some odd mpg readings ranging from 15 to 300, and I noticed it idling at about 950 once (compared to 800 usually), but no more fans once off. As I say I’ve had it less than a week so it’s impossible to make a long term judgement, but
I’ll be honest, before I bought it I wasn’t aware of a DPF or the implications, so I’m getting a bit paranoid that I’ve been sold a dummy! Having spent the last few days frantically reading everything I can on DPF, I’m hoping some of your nice chaps can reassure me that I’m not in for a world of problems! From what I’ve seen, a lot of problems seem to be with older diesels with a DPF, so I’m hoping technology has improved enough to try and minimise the issues – is that a fair assumption? I’ve read that avoiding supermarket fuel can help, so I can live with that, but is there anything else I should be thinking about? Do I just put it to the back of my mind and forget about in the knowledge that it will take care of itself, and just be prepared to take it out for a longer drive if I ever interrupt a regen, and hope I don’t really have any problems?
Hope you guys can give me some advice or reassurance! I see quite a few diesel VW, Audi, Merc and BMWs about parked near me, or driving in London, so surely everyone can’t be doing 20k miles per year!
Cheers.
) id often park it in the garage and it would do its 'thing' 
