I have the same problems with my 2008 1.9 diesel Eleganza and have noticed other threads on this forum referring to it – indeed I was about to start another myself as my local (and trusted, but not especially Fiat familiar) garage is stumped by it. :doh: It "appears" to indicate a clogged DPF.
I've owned many Fiats (and Alfas, and Lancias) over the years and have always found their dealers relatively poor – yes, there have been exceptions – but thanks to retrenchment my nearest is now a 50 miles round trip away and over the phone they simply told me I needed a new DPF at a cost of £600-700 depending on the engine !!!!! Plus labour !!!!! Which I find unacceptable on a car with just 65k miles on it. :slayer:
After resetting the warning light, my garage did a bit of research which offered two possible, cheaper solutions. The first was to drive the car at a steady 50-60km/h for 30-35km which it "might" un-clog the filter. The second was to remove it and clean it with 'special' solvent, although that could damage the emissions system leading to yet higher expense. And they didn't want to take the risk.
I was – and still am – ready to sell my Sedici after just six months ownership because of this and other faults (see my Sedici Electrical Woes thread), when a chance visit to a motor factors yesterday found a bottle of Wynn's Diesel Filter Cleaner which claimed to rid the DPF of the detritus. I immediately emptied an bottle into my nearly full tank and drove for 30 miles and the previously poor acceleration, especially in the lower gears, greatly diminished although it still wasn't back up to original, turbo-charged ooomph. However the warning light, which had come back on five miles after leaving my garage, hasn't gone out and things still aren't back to 'normal'.
If anyone has an affordable and
effective solution that won't also damage the engine – which, BTW, always seems to emit a high-pitched whine accelerating from cold-ish – I think many of us would be grateful and relieved to hear about it.