I suggest next time you do a motorway run and force a regen you drop a gear and floor it.

On a previous BMW I had this would create a plume of smoke and instantly drop both soot and ash levels by a significant margin. I suspect the start/stop driving you've done in between have partially achieved this.

That BMW in question was sold with 204k miles last year and on the same DPF from new. I did have it 'professionally cleaned' (read - jetwashed on my drive) at around 120k due to failed thermostats not providing the correct regen condition.

revs not needed or recommended for regeneration.

what you need is:
- cruise control,
- 50mph or more,
- fuel; more than 1/4 tank
- enough time
- IIDTool ideally so you can monitor

. Cheers, Greg
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2011 Vogue SE 4.4 with lots of toys in Stornaway

When I got the DPF full warning on mine I headed out to the motorway from Gainsborough which is a torturous route through country lanes. I thought the motorway was best so I could get to a constant 60mph to give it time etc. The route through the lanes I was only driving gently to minimise soot build up, after approx 8 miles the warning went off, no need for the motorway, no need for revving it to death. BMW i3 Electric Car
2012 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8 (now gone)
2006 VW Touareg 3.0 TDi V6

Having read much on here before I chose not to rev it to death either. I was though expecting to see a massive drop in the soot levels due to gas temps and running at a constant speed for longer than required according to the manual. I will be out in it again before it goes in for the smoke test which will mean plugging the IID back in and monitoring what's going on. Obviously that's not an ideal way to drive as I don't want to find myself fixated on where my soot levels are, what I need is to get the confidence that the car is doing what it's supposed to do 2011 TDV8 Vogue SE

In the 18 months I had mine, the orange warning came on only once. A lot of my driving is the worst kind for the DPF, typical journeys being 2 miles or less for much of the week. The system did seem to look after itself with no intervention other than that one occasion. BMW i3 Electric Car
2012 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8 (now gone)
2006 VW Touareg 3.0 TDi V6

My car is still currently in the garage having a fair few issues put right, managed to speak with them today and it would appear that one of my inlet manifolds has a small crack in it, not enough to show with a high pressure smoke test but enough to show a boost error when under load. So it seems that although rare so far, the inlet manifolds can have an issue with cracking. Hopefully this will be the end of my car trying to hide itself in a plume of smoke and save me a lot of embarrassment when it has decided to do it on more than one occasion. 2011 TDV8 Vogue SE

@Dennij.

Thats exactly what happened to mine. Pax inlet manifold cracked. Being Plastic, they expand due to the high pressure of the turbos. Mine was £1600 to replace one - some say replace both at the same time as it's injector harness off etc.

All was well for several months but now have runaway regen demands (1800 in 10 minutes ) which LR MD don't know how to fix! going in to LR indie next week.

I would suggest an oil change if your fuel/oil dilution is over 5%. Cant do any harm.

Hi Dolphinboy, car is still with the garage, so far they have carried out the turbo drain mod and replaced the secondary turbo. Now the inlet manifold is being replaced along with oil change and finally an MOT. At this rate the repair bill is going to come to more than I paid for the car  2011 TDV8 Vogue SE

Why a new secondary turbo? I had mine changed a year or so ago as it was the source of one of my oil leaks (others were oil cooler and oil pump plug)...
Is it at Green Oval? 2011 4.4 TDV8 Vogue SE Buckingham Blue with Ivory and clear glass = "Rory"
New Defender D300 90 on order so "Rory" will be going to a new home....!
1974 Series 3 Lightweight = "Millie"
My preferred specialist: www.glenrands.co.uk
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From what I have been told, the seals had gone. The garage in question won't fit refurbished units as they have had issues with these in the past so a new one was ordered and fitted. Car is at my local indy up here in Cumbria, he looks after both my Land Rovers and has always carried out quality work. 2011 TDV8 Vogue SE

Today I was finally able to collect my FF after spending almost 8 weeks at the garage. Initially it went in for a high pressure smoke test to see if they could find a reason why I would get this sudden smoke engulf the car and throw the red DPF message. Work carried out consisted of the turbo drain modification, a new second turbo (seals gone), the L/H inlet manifold (small crack)and all injectors removed and tested (all passed). The bill was eye watering and in reality, probably more than can be justified on a vehicle of this age and mileage but it is what it is and hopefully, all the issues I've been having should now be resolved. The return drive was only short but I was able to get the revs above 2,500 and there was no hint of smoke whatsoever, before I would have left a plume similar to Chernobyl so that's a positive start. I need to put some miles under it's belt now and see how it performs so will report back in a few weeks/months depending on what I find. 2011 TDV8 Vogue SE

I feel your pain on the bill and I didnt have the turbo drain mod done
I stuck it on a 0% card
Hope it's all sorted  2011 4.4 TDV8 Vogue SE Buckingham Blue with Ivory and clear glass = "Rory"
New Defender D300 90 on order so "Rory" will be going to a new home....!
1974 Series 3 Lightweight = "Millie"
My preferred specialist: www.glenrands.co.uk
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Cheers Dr Rob, I'll keep the post updated either way, hopefully it'll all be positive from this point forward, I just need to get the confidence back with the car now so I'm not constantly looking in my mirrors every time I come to a stop waiting to see if the cloud of smoke is going to appear. 2011 TDV8 Vogue SE

Well I’m not sure that I’m out of the woods just yet. Took the car on a 150 mile round trip to check everything was ok, around 100 of this was on the motorway sitting at 65 with cruise set. I had the IID tool plugged in and was monitoring what was going on. The exhaust temperature sensors showed that the temperatures were rising indicating a regeneration was taking place, however, at best I only managed to drop 1g of soot from the DPF. According to the IID there have been no successful regenerations which makes sense as my grams reading gets to 20.8 then drops down anywhere to 19.6 at best. All this time the oil dilution rate is increasing meaning at this rate I will be doing an oil change every 700 miles or so. It’s as though the regeneration switches off but the temps continue to rise, up to 620c on one sensor, plenty of heat to burn off the soot so not sure why it’s not happening. The smoke on acceleration above 2,500 has gone and the DPF isn’t filling up at the same rate it was before so I guess that’s something. Not sure where to go with it now.

Picture shows results when I parked up at home.

Click image to enlarge

I’d just run it around with the IID unplugged and if no DPF warnings then relax
Monitoring it will send you loopy  2011 4.4 TDV8 Vogue SE Buckingham Blue with Ivory and clear glass = "Rory"
New Defender D300 90 on order so "Rory" will be going to a new home....!
1974 Series 3 Lightweight = "Millie"
My preferred specialist: www.glenrands.co.uk
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