How do I know DPF Regeneration is happening?

[Flowboy]

Hi
T280 2013 125; 105K miles.
How do we/I/you know when our DPF is regenerating? Am I correct in thinking that Ford were insane in not providing some kind of dash lamp that says it's in regen' mode? There is only the "end of the world" DPF failure lamp, i.e. when it's too bloody late & the DPF is clogged.
The handbook is useless, other than it says when doing a forced regen, not to switch the engine off, which is crap because how do you actually know it's in progress in order to avoid switching off in the middle of it?
Or have I missed something?

To try & keep the thing sweet, I have done a few forced regen's, due to most of my work being more local with short trips. So I make sure to give it a good long run pretty regularly, to get fully hot, sometimes with a dpf cleaner (for what they're worth). Last week did a one day 300m round trip. The cab smelt pretty unpleasantly smoky to me for several days after that, which has never happened before. I read that some folk say they can smell the regen but if you're on a motorway, surely you're leaving the smell behind you? I'd be worried if the fumes were actually in my van.
Anyway, it gets about 8 or 10 of these blasts a year, 200m to 600m. Hopefully they do some good, I could do without the cost of a new DPF, or all the limp mode aggro.
Oddly the previous regen I did on a shorter trip & it must have got pretty hot, at the end, queuing at a junction, there was a lot of whitish smoke coming out from under the van, to the extent that I got out to check it wasn't on fire! It seemed to be coming from the silencer. Nothing obvious & it stopped smoking after a bit. I wondered if the DPF heat had set fire to soot in the silencer. Still mystified as it's never happened before or since. The van otherwise runs pretty well, no smoke from exhaust.

[tranmx2]

About 6 weeks after getting the van.
Had light grey smoke which soon went whitish. Some times could not see the road behind. Lasted about 1 week. Could not find why.
Got Forscan Elm 327 with something.
DPF Soot was 300%.
On Forscan is DP DPF differential pressure. Pressure before and after the DPF. Forscan also shows exhaust temps.

The smoke was coming out of the tail pipe the exhaust pulse could be felt = no or little blockage. So there seemed to be no blockage.
Reset the DPF with Forscan = 0% soot which has increased over the weeks of use.

There are vids on youtube and info' re' the DPF.

I did not find info' re' when the regen starts - is happening - has finished.
There were some references to % like it started when there was 50% soot.
There was reference to exhaust temps.
In my case could be a failed regen = 300%. The system does not auto' reset to 0% soot.
Prior to my getting the van it had not been used much in 3 yrs.

It seems the van needs to be going at 40 mph for 20 or 30 mins for the regen' to start and finish.

[gt_addict]

Before I got forscan app on my phone and the OBD bluetooth reader then the only way i knew the regen was happening was the tone of the exhaust note. It went deep like it had a sports exhaust on it. Now I have the app and reader i have the option set on the live data to show when the regen is happening. Also the DPF soot load readout. It starts at 97% and stops regen-ing when it reaches around 20%. Never understood why it doesn’t run for longer to get the soot load down.

[WarrenB]

Hi
T280 2013 125; 105K miles.
How do we/I/you know when our DPF is regenerating? Am I correct in thinking that Ford were insane in not providing some kind of dash lamp that says it's in regen' mode? There is only the "end of the world" DPF failure lamp, i.e. when it's too bloody late & the DPF is clogged.
The handbook is useless, other than it says when doing a forced regen, not to switch the engine off, which is crap because how do you actually know it's in progress in order to avoid switching off in the middle of it?
Or have I missed something?

To try & keep the thing sweet, I have done a few forced regen's, due to most of my work being more local with short trips. So I make sure to give it a good long run pretty regularly, to get fully hot, sometimes with a dpf cleaner (for what they're worth). Last week did a one day 300m round trip. The cab smelt pretty unpleasantly smoky to me for several days after that, which has never happened before. I read that some folk say they can smell the regen but if you're on a motorway, surely you're leaving the smell behind you? I'd be worried if the fumes were actually in my van.
Anyway, it gets about 8 or 10 of these blasts a year, 200m to 600m. Hopefully they do some good, I could do without the cost of a new DPF, or all the limp mode aggro.
Oddly the previous regen I did on a shorter trip & it must have got pretty hot, at the end, queuing at a junction, there was a lot of whitish smoke coming out from under the van, to the extent that I got out to check it wasn't on fire! It seemed to be coming from the silencer. Nothing obvious & it stopped smoking after a bit. I wondered if the DPF heat had set fire to soot in the silencer. Still mystified as it's never happened before or since. The van otherwise runs pretty well, no smoke from exhaust.

That's always frustrated me. As gt_addict says above though, the only way I can tell it's doing a regen is the exhaust note. The first time it did it shortly after I got the van I thought the exhaust was blowing slightly. I've never noticed any smoke from the exhaust whilst it's doing it's thing though. Having said I was being followed by someone a couple of weeks back, they said they had to drop back a bit as there was light blue/white smoke coming from the van and it was making their eyes water a bit. As it's not burning any oil I'm guessing it could have been doing a regen.

Apart from one issue a few years ago that was traced back to a frayed wire on a temperature sensor that meant it couldn't auto-regen I've never had any issues with it getting clogged. A few winters back I was doing lots of short journeys, the engine was never really getting up to temperature but it didn't seem to mind. If you do a lot of short journeys I think as long as you keep an eye on the levels you should be ok. Mines very nearly on 176k miles now and the DPF has never been touched.

[Flowboy]

Reviving old thread a little (can't believe this was 2022!) Just was thinking about it again today
Can't say I've noticed the exhaust note change, I am a little deaf tho... Will try & listen out for it in future.
Tempting fate now but the DPF has been ok as far as I can tell. I'll try running the the ELM327 next time I'm on a longer run, I ought to download the forscan too.
Usually I think it is recommended to best be revving to 2k-2.5k rpm for forcing a regen to take place (obv when already at full running temp on a motorway) & keep it up for at least 20 mins. I don't know if this is a hard & fast rule.
Seems unlikely it will auto regen in low rev town use or tootling on a motorway under 2k revs (?)

[gt_addict]

I’ve found that you can’t force it to regen unless it reaches its predetermined soot level. If I monitor it and it’s around 90% occasionally I can get it to regen with some lead foot (which I assume chucks a dose of soot into it).
Once its doing a regen its best to keep it (as you say) 2 - 2.5k rpm to help maintain exhaust temps, on a good stretch of A-road or motorway with as few interruptions as possible.

Another character of it trying to regen is if its low revs and you out your foot down (say approaching a roundabout but its clear enough to go) it kinds of bogs down then surges aggressively. But thats a slight difference really.

Best to get the forscan app and bluetooth obd reader and monitor it if you’re worried.

[metalworker0]

i don't know if mk7 works like this, but know the ecoblue models of custom and mk8 do ,If you have heated mirrors some people have put in an LED light that lights up when the heated mirrors are on ,
AS during regeneration .. the heated mirrors turn on, plus the heated screens are automatically on. to place more load on engine , which equals more heat to help with regeneration.

all the best.mark

[Flowboy]

Thanks for that both of you,
mine is late MK7 & not ecoblue but useful to know the need for the ecu to put extra load on the engine in various ways, which kind of ties in with running it at higher revs than needed.
Hopefully useful for anyone who finds this thread.