Mobile DPF Cleaning
Mobile DPF Cleaning in Chester
A DPF clean is the fix for a diesel particulate filter that has filled with soot and stopped clearing itself. We come to your home or work anywhere within about 25 miles of Chester, read the filter's real figures, run a forced regeneration and clean the filter on the car, then road test it. A clean is from £180, or £350 together with a Stage 1 remap, and the price is agreed before any work starts.
What a DPF clean involves
We start with the diagnostics, not the cleaning kit. We plug in and read the fault codes, the soot and ash figures the car is reporting and the pressure across the filter, and we check the sensors and the EGR valve that so often turn out to be the real problem. That tells us whether the filter can be brought back, and it is why the price we quote is the price you pay.
If the filter can still burn its soot off, we run a forced regeneration: the car is held at the right temperature for long enough to clear the filter properly, which a short-trip car never manages on its own. If the filter is too loaded for that, we clean it in place with a cleaning fluid that loosens the soot, then run the regeneration to burn off what is left. The filter stays on the car, so there is no exhaust to strip and no day without the vehicle.
Afterwards we read the figures again, road test the car, and only then clear the codes. If the numbers are not where they should be, we tell you why, rather than wiping the light and hoping.
When a clean is the right fix, and when it is not
A clean fixes a filter that is blocked with soot, which is the usual story on cars and vans doing short, stop-start trips. It does not fix everything that puts a DPF light on. A filter that is full of ash after years of miles cannot be cleaned on the car and needs replacing. A filter that has cracked or melted after a bad regeneration needs replacing too. And a failed pressure or temperature sensor, or a stuck EGR valve, will keep the light on however clean the filter is.
That is why we diagnose first. If the honest answer is a sensor, you pay for a sensor. If it is a clean, you pay for a clean. If the filter is beyond saving, we tell you that before any money is spent, and you decide what happens next. Our DPF and EGR solutions page covers the faults side in more detail.
DPF clean from £180, or £350 with a Stage 1 remap
A mobile DPF clean is from £180, with the diagnostics, regeneration, clean and road test included. If you want the car remapped at the same visit, a DPF clean and a Stage 1 remap together are £350. The remap is a normal Stage 1 map, written for your exact car and legal for the road: it keeps the DPF and every other emissions part working as it should. It is not a way round the filter, and we would not sell you one that was.
Every price is confirmed before we start. Send us your reg and what the dashboard is showing and we will tell you what is likely and what it will cost.
Why we will not delete a DPF
Taking a DPF off a road car is an automatic MOT failure, and tampering with emissions equipment is an offence, so it is not something we do on any car or van used on the road, whatever you have been told in the pub. A clean, a regeneration or a repair gets the existing filter working properly again, costs a fraction of a new one, and leaves the car legal to drive and honest to sell. If you were searching for a delete, this is the alternative, and it works.
Cars, vans and work diesels
Most of the DPF calls we get are short-trip cars, the school-run and town-commute diesels that never get a proper run, and work vans: Transit, Sprinter, Transporter, Crafter and Vivaro, loaded, idling and doing stop-start deliveries all day. Fleets are welcome; we can clean several vans at the yard in one visit and give you a note of the figures on each. Because we are mobile we can often get to you the same or next day, which matters when the van is the business.
Where we come to
We cover Chester and about 25 miles around it: Ellesmere Port, Deeside, Mold, Buckley, Wrexham, Frodsham, Winsford, North Wales, Heswall and the Wirral. Driveway, work car park or the yard, we bring everything with us.
Common questions
How much does a DPF clean cost?
From £180 for a mobile clean, with the diagnostics, regeneration and road test included. A DPF clean and a Stage 1 remap together are £350. We confirm the price before any work starts, and if the diagnostics show the filter needs replacing rather than cleaning, we tell you first.
How long does a DPF clean take?
It is done in one visit. How long depends on how loaded the filter is and whether the regeneration completes first time, so we tell you what to expect once we have read the figures. You do not lose the car for a day and nothing comes off the exhaust.
The DPF light is on and the car is in limp mode. Can you still clean it?
Usually, yes. Limp mode normally means the filter has gone past the point where the car will regenerate on its own, which is exactly what a forced regeneration and a clean are for. Do not keep driving it like that for weeks, as a filter that could have been cleaned can end up damaged. Send us the reg and we will come to the car.
Will the light come back after a clean?
Not if the cause has been dealt with and the car gets the running it needs. A DPF cleans itself on a steady run of twenty minutes or so every week or two; if the car never gets that, the filter will load up again however well it was cleaned. We explain what the car needs, and if your driving is all short trips we will say so honestly.
Is a DPF clean the same as a forced regeneration?
No. A forced regeneration makes the car burn off the soot it can still burn. A clean uses a cleaning fluid to shift the soot a regeneration cannot, then regenerates to finish the job. Which one your car needs depends on the figures, and we do whichever is right rather than the dearer one.
Can you remove the DPF instead?
No, not on a road car. It fails the MOT and it is an offence. What we do is clean, regenerate or repair the filter you have, so the light goes off and the car stays legal.
Do you clean van DPFs?
Yes, and they are most of the work. Transit, Sprinter, Transporter, Crafter, Vivaro and the rest, at your yard or wherever the van is parked. Fleets can be done in one visit.