depolination

[Tynwald]

My C5 is just over 18 months old and over the past few weeks I have started to see depolination faulty anyone got any idea what to do to sort it.

The past week has also seen the engine stop for no reason!!

This is dangerous help please?

[myglaren]

Are you sure it is depolination and does the aircon work as it should - never seen any reference to this previously but it would seem to indicate a clogged pollen filter, which is in the passenger footwell behind the carpet and under the dash towards the centre of the car. Replacement is simple and the filters cost around £16~18.

I'd be more inclined to think it was an 'antipollution' fault you were seeing which can have many causes but is often linked to poor engine performance.

How do you use the car? Lots of short trips where it never warms up can be an underlying factor and probably one of the simplest and cheapest 'cures' is to heave it down the motorway for a couple of hundred miles at a steady pace, which will burn out all the accumulated rubbish from the exhaust system including the cat and particle filter if one is fitted.

The standard procedure to trigger the particle filter regeneration is, with the engine up to operating temperature, drive at 4,000 revs and 40 miles per hour for ten minutes, which will initiate the procedure. Carry on driving at that speed/revs for a further twenty minutes. If you break off at any point regeneration will cease until the same conditions are achieved.

The regeneration procedure can be noisy and produce lots of smoke, this is normal.

This is all presuming it is an HDi and has the antipolution system in place.

As said, there are many other things that can initiate the antipollution indicator and probably the best thing, after trying the 'Italian Tune-Up' above is to hook your car up to a Lexia and see what fault codes have been registered.

More details of the car/engine would help to narrow down the problem though.

At 18 months old it should still be under warranty so I'd let the dealer worry about fixing it, whatever it is!

[RichardW]

Agree, Steve, sounds most likely the particle filter is blocked. Manual should cover the procedure for getting it to regenerate - it shouldn't be as severe as 4k rpm @ 40 mph!! However, I suspect this is gone past that, and will need to go to the dealer for a forced regeneration..... If it's used mostly around town, then need to find out what's requried for a regen, and get into the habit of taking it for a run sufficient to get regen every couple of weeks.

[myglaren]

The forced regen is pretty expensive and a bit suspect. Has been known to melt the tarmac under the car and to destroy plastic parts on nearby cars, I'd sooner have the car moving with a good airflow over it.

I'd personally opt for a few good runs on the motorway at night, when you can maintain a good speed and get the engine revs reasonably high.

I omitted to say that the speed/revs are a minimum figure that has to be maintained for the required time.

[Tynwald]

[It is the antipollution warning I also get the esp up and then "engine oil level low" switch off the engine and back on all OK.

Do you know what this could be?

[Tynwald]

Forgot to add I do motorway driving most days.

The ESP thing shuts down the engine even on motorways, just a bit scary!!!