Hdi Particulate filter

[Ren25]

I know this one has been alluded to in another post but I thought it neede one of it's own.
Does anyone know the story about the supposed secret container with the magic elixer on Hdi's that cleans the particulate filter?
It seems to be a bit of a mystery.

[phantom]

yep sure do
fire away!

[littlebig]

Go straight to the source. http://www.peugeot.com.au/PEUGEOT/AU...i_work_00.html

[Ren25]

And as far as I can work out that tells us diddly squat

[Stuey]

I thought it had a heater element that simply more completely burned the particles.

[r5e]

OK, this matter has been discussed at length in my own forum. The DPF(Diesel Particulate Filter, or as Peugeot say - FAP, which is the same thing in French) is commonly an excuse that manufacturers are using to tell people not to use biodiesel, hence my interest in it and the discussion in my forum on how it works and why they say this. Hopefully from this perspective, my understanding of it may answer your question.

In the bad old days (not long ago in Oz - prior to Jan '06), distillate (which we call "diesel") had quite a high sulphur content, up to 500ppm. The European specs demanded less sulphur of 50ppm, so finally Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel (ULSD) was introduced here, allowing many of the Euro manufacturers to import their cars to Oz.

Sulphur in the exhaust, apart from causing acid rain, makes it very hard for emissions reduction technology to work, as it clings to and fouls such things as catalytic converters and DPFs. So, now that we have ULSD we can start to use such technologies.

When diesel is combusted, there are unburned particles of soot present in the exhaust. These exit your pipe as smoke. The size of the particles vary and are not very good for health. The very small particles are the worst kind and recent studies are showing them to be very dangerous. A DPF is great, as it traps these unburned particles so they don't end up in the atmosphere or lungs.

So, how does it work? Very simply it has a mesh screen that traps the particles. It also has a sensor which measures the pressure/airflow to tell how blocked it is. When it reaches a certain measured point, it will heat the filter to burn off the particles stuck in it.

How does it burn off the particles in the filter/self purge? Simply by raising the temperature. It does this by injecting extra fuel into the engine, thus raising the exhaust temperature to a point where it is hot enough to burn the particles. There is a slight penalty on fuel economy when this happens, but it is worth it overall.

I hope that sheds some more light on it for you. If you were curious as to why they say DPF and biodiesel don't mix, it's because biodiesel burns much cooler, so the temp at the exhaust is about 100° cooler, so it will have difficulty getting hot enough to purge the filter. However, what they don't mention is that biodiesel has significantly less particulates, so the filter won't need purging. This is a bit of a simplification, but it gives you an idea anyway.

There has been a lot of discussion on this matter here, which may also explain the DPF a bit further, if you are interested.

[Stuey]

Thanks; now that you've written that I do remember reading about it in CAR magazine a while back.

[Ren25]

OK so I'm dumb, spell it out to me. Does this mean there is no magic elixer, but we are just puting more diesel into the PF to "burn it out", or what? We are getting a lot of technical guff here but no real answers to the question put.
Forgive me but I am just a simple Pug D driver.

[littlebig]

Check out this URL for some the PSA schematics and explanations. Hope it helps. http://www.peugeot.com/tradition/inn...chnologie.htm#
Click on HDi Diesel Engines, then clik on 'P' in the Automobile glossary. Then, click on PEF (Particle Emissions Filter) in the glossary word list to get the good oil from Peugeot.

Happy clicking!

[Ren25]

Originally Posted by littlebig

Check out this URL for some the PSA schematics and explanations. Hope it helps. http://www.peugeot.com/tradition/inn...chnologie.htm#
Click on HDi Diesel Engines, then clik on 'P' in the Automobile glossary. Then, click on PEF (Particle Emissions Filter) in the glossary word list to get the good oil from Peugeot.

Happy clicking!

Excuse me mate but where exactly are you coming from?

[SLC206]

Originally Posted by Ren25

Excuse me mate but where exactly are you coming from?

He's a little confused perhaps.

Try this link to go there directly:

Particle Filter Technology

Anyway, the previous post by r5e, whilst excellent, left out a bit of vital information. The magic elixer is injected (when the clogging is detected to be of sufficient levels) to bring down the temperature required to combust these soot particles, and then the extra fuel is added, creating the combusting environment which eliminates the particles.

That is, the mixing of the magic elixer, extra squirts of the diesel injectors and the soot particles, results in a high temperature combustion process that clears all the soot out of the particulate filter and "regenerates" the particulate system, all controlled by an ECU.

[Ren25]

Now we are getting somewhere! So we have to take the car to a Peugeot
dealer? Or can someone else do this servicing? I'm a little wary of actual dealerships as I think we pay a lot for the bling.

[SLC206]

Originally Posted by Ren25

Now we are getting somewhere! So we have to take the car to a Peugeot
dealer? Or can someone else do this servicing? I'm a little wary of actual dealerships as I think we pay a lot for the bling.

What does your manual say about the whole thing, Ren?

I'm not even sure that the '00 406 HDi uses that particular system (unless you're referring to another car).

[littlebig]

Hey Mike, it's OK mate. There is no conspiracy. The PSA HDi gear we have bought with our hard-earned is clever, clean and economical. Do we really NEED to know more than that?
Well, curiosity ....
Yes there is an "elixer". And 'hands off' cause it is 'at the back'.
Yes, there is a "shot of fuel" when the filter is causing back pressure.
Yes, the engine burns really hot for a few seconds, causing the soot to combust cleanly.
And it is all managed by computers, and we don't even need glow plugs any more.
I love it all!

[littlebig]

Originally Posted by SLC206

He's a little confused perhaps.

Thanks for the direct link. My browser didn't give me that info, so, yeah, I admit it ....... I'm

[LeePower]

Originally Posted by littlebig

Hey Mike, it's OK mate. There is no conspiracy. The PSA HDi gear we have bought with our hard-earned is clever, clean and economical. Do we really NEED to know more than that?
Well, curiosity ....
Yes there is an "elixer". And 'hands off' cause it is 'at the back'.
Yes, there is a "shot of fuel" when the filter is causing back pressure.
Yes, the engine burns really hot for a few seconds, causing the soot to combust cleanly.
And it is all managed by computers, and we don't even need glow plugs any more.
I love it all!

The HDI still has glowplugs, needs a outside air temp of arround minus 2 or 3 degree C to make the ECU require there use though.

[littlebig]

O.K. I stand Corrected.
No glow plugs as in "turn-the-key-and-wait-for-the -light-to-go-out-or-you'll-burn-the-bloody-things-out" glow plugs.

[Trevor G]

Originally Posted by SLC206

I'm not even sure that the '00 406 HDi uses that particular system (unless you're referring to another car).

You're right :-)

The particulate filter (FAP) was introduced to 2005 diesels by pewjet and sitrone. So the 406 doesn't have one :-(

[Ren25]

Originally Posted by Trevor G

You're right :-)

The particulate filter (FAP) was introduced to 2005 diesels by pewjet and sitrone. So the 406 doesn't have one :-(

Well thank God for that.