Hello all. Need a bit of advice, father in laws 1.3 multi jet doblo is having dpf issues, he has bought a new unit. Is it a DIY job to fit? Or do I need to plug in to a computer and tell the engine it has been changed?

Bit of back ground, he had dpf issues to the point where the car wouldn't start. We did an oil change and cleared the fault on the comp. few months later (last week) the car went into limp home mode. Went into the local garage where they changed the oil and cleared the fault (took the car out of limp home) but were unable to regenerate the dpf. He has now bought the new unit and asked me to fit it, is it a plug and play bit of kit or are there settings to alter in the ecu?

I am aware it is due to his style of driving, lots of stop start in town, even when on a good stretch he try's to stay below 50 to conserve fuel.

All and any advice would be most welcome.

DIY is possible BUT you do need to have the engine ECU informed of the new DPF and this requires the appropriate dealer/independent diagnostic kit to do this.

Changing the oil in a Fiat car fitted with DPF one MUST MUST MUST also inform the engine ECU of the oil change. NOTE! This is not the same as having the service interval counter/computer reset. Failure to reset the oil change in the engine ECU will result in DPF failure because the engine ECU will deem the oil quality to be insufficient for the engine to safely undergo the regeneration process.

As I side issue I would ask who has been servicing/oil changing the car and have they done the correct oil change engine ECU procedure and not just the service computer? If not then this is probably why the DPF become so clogged it was not recoverable.

His driving style is killing it, plodding round town & gentle runs mean it is unlikely to regen itself hence it gets blocked. The death of the small diesel is coming soon and I can't wait.

Agreed the way needs to be told the dpf has been replaced , not sure if this allowed but I use a product called "dpf power clean " in my qubo it's sold by a firm called duxback I do 4 miles a day in mine and about 3 at weekends have had the car since sept and regularly check for codes etc and have had no probs whatsoever, it lowers the temp that the ash and soot burns off at to around 250 deg and really works , we swear by it at work they also do a product that clears blocked dpf's aswell which have also tried and works very well you do have to soak it for 10 hrs though , hope this helps
Keifer

Probably helps but there again, the mileage you do is a DPF killer. Surely the fuel consumption gain is far outweighed by the extra cost of the car in the first place plus all the grief caused by the DPF so a petrol would make more sense. Plus you don't have to glove up to refuel.

I was half tempted by the petrol but after running a c1 before that I couldn't stomach the higher road tax cost , and just couldn't find a petrol one anywhere around this area , it gets put on main dealer diagnostics every few weeks anyway, if it looks like it's starting to get loaded it will be forced .