Car bought with no dpf fitted - advice

dale1uk

dale1uk

dale1uk

Associate
Joined
15 Nov 2005
Posts
2,328
Location
Newcastle
I was speaking to my mate last night who a few months ago bought an e90 330d from an independent dealer. He was at a local BMW specialist yesterday who pointed out to him that the dpf had been removed. As I understand it not having a dpf is now an mot fail, so in essence has he been sold an unroadworthy car? I'm pretty sure the garage mot'd the car before purchase, which it should have obviously failed.

What's his rights and should he expect the garage that sold him the car to fit a new dpf?

Thanks
 
If it was a main dealer then I guess you could go back to get it sorted no problem but independent are probably not interested.
 
I guess the question is, has the DFP been removed by replacing with straight pipe, or by gutting the DPF and refitting the carcass?

If it's the latter it'll likely never fail an MOT, as there is nothing more than a visual check of the DPF.
 
From what I was told the dpf has been removed, so I took that as it's been replaced with a straight pipe, however I'd need to confirm that with my mate.
 
paradigm said:
If it's the latter it'll likely never fail an MOT, as there is nothing more than a visual check of the DPF.
Click to expand...

+1 this - although I believe it can also fail if there is large amounts of black smoke/soot coming from the exhaust (which shouldn't be an issue most of the time anyway)

sovietspybob said:
Surely not having it is a bonus, it'd only go wrong costing £££ at some point anyhow.
Click to expand...

It may be a bonus it not being there and not going wrong - but think about why it was there in the first place? (i.e. if everyone removed their DPFs/EGRs/Catalytic Converters, how much more air pollution would we have?).

Driven in the way that Diesels are intended to be used (i.e. long trips, motorway miles etc), then DPFs don't generally go wrong (and have a long life as a consumable part)
 
The only check for a DPF on the MOT is visual at the moment this could possibly change late this year with the introduction of fine particulate detectors at MOT stations if this actually happens.

Just leaving it as is and finding a half blind MOT tester would be the best option but if He does get it tested and it is picked up for not being present the MOT station is meant to report it to the DVLA so he could get caught out that way and end up with up to a £1k fine.

It will be costly for the garage to re-fit it. How hard it would be for him to prove it was not there at the time of sale I have no idea. If he can prove he was sold an un-roadworthy illegally modified car then he might have a case ?
 
DPF's going can prove costly, theres a lot of people removing them and mapping them out, it wouldn't be done if it didnt have a benefit. I think most places that do removal and remaps suggest increased power, torque and economy by doing it.

As you mention in the op however it should technically have failed an MOT.
I'd have this BMW specialist clarify whats been done and also have them check to see if its had changes made to the ECU also.

If bought from a dealer than you have far more rights than buying privatley, how long ago was it purchased?
 
I understand the benefits of removing the dpf, but I don't think he wants the black smoke side effect of doing so when pressing on. From what I've been told the car was also remapped (with an average/poor map) and the software amended to suit the dpf no longer being there. I believe the specialist hes using has put a stock map back on. The car was bought early October.
 
When you say removed, do you mean the whole of the DPF filter has been replaced with a straight pipe?

Or the car has simply had a DPF delete in which they remove the insides and then remap the ECU and the DPF is visually there.
 
Swifty55 said:
When you say removed, do you mean the whole of the DPF filter has been replaced with a straight pipe?

Or the car has simply had a DPF delete in which they remove the insides and then remap the ECU and the DPF is visually there.
Click to expand...

That's what I need to clarify with him. Obviously if it's been gutted and mapped to suit then it's understandable that the garage/mot station wouldn't of picked up on it.
 
dale1uk said:
That's what I need to clarify with him. Obviously if it's been gutted and mapped to suit then it's understandable that the garage/mot station wouldn't of picked up on it.
Click to expand...

Yes, if the DPF is still visible but it has indeed been gutted. Then the car will not fail an MOT as they only visually inspect to see the car has one.

May be worth taking it somewhere proper to get it mapped again?
 
Swifty55 said:
Yes, if the DPF is still visible but it has indeed been gutted. Then the car will not fail an MOT as they only visually inspect to see the car has one.

May be worth taking it somewhere proper to get it mapped again?
Click to expand...

Don't forget that an MOT test on a diesel, includes a smoke test.

So removing said DPF will allow particulates to escape and could possibly produce enough emissions to fail the smoke test.
 
Diagro said:
Would it be though?

Wouldn't the pressure sensor that activates a regeneration not actually detect pressure and never start a regeneration?
Click to expand...

Assuming that though, you would assume that if pressure was too low (i.e. below normal level of an unblocked dpf being fitted), that it may throw an error code anyway.
 
snapdragon69 said:
Cars originally fitted with a DPF don't smoke, it is a pre-requisite of the DPF that the engine's particulate emissions are below that of visible smoke.
Click to expand...

Why fit a particulate filter if there are no particulates to filter ?

And just because you do not get visible smoke does not mean you are not emitting enough particulates to fail an MOT smoke test.

I have tested lots of cars that failed the smoke test but did not give out visible smoke.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom