I have a Citroen DS3 1.6 HDi (2015). So a couple weeks ago I had a service light show up with the warnings saying "additive level too low", "risk of particle filter clogging". Great, but it wasn't unexpected, I bought the car 2 years ago and it was 9 years old at the time. The lovely people on this forum will know that all issues show up around the age of 10. This was one of them.
After a quick google search, I realised even if I could fill up the additive pouch, I'd need a Lexia diagnostics tool to tell the ECU about it.
First mistake: I decided I could just take the car to a garage who has a diag tool and could fix it same day. But as soon as I arrived I should've just left, it was such a shady place... They told me £300, but no guarantees they could fix it, sometimes it means other problems. Ok, I told them to try, so they filled up the pouch, cleared the fault, but told me the issue came back after ignition (turns out they just cleared the fault code, without resetting the counter, idiots). They recommended me taking it to a Citroen dealership, for various BS reasons. At one point he offered he could just remove the DPF, and problems will go away, which is of course super illegal and the car would fail the next MOT anyway. Oh but they "only" charged me £150 for the refill. What a rip off!
After realising I can't trust them, I decided to do it myself. My next move was buying a Lexia-copy off ebay. I also couldn't trust the shady garage that they filled up the pouch with the correct additive (yes there are many types I know, and they don't behave nicely when mixing, the garage said they used some "universal" additive). So I bought a new pouch, wasn't original part, but otherwise compatible. For anyone deciding to do this on their own, there are some great videos how to do this. You only need to jack up the car at the back, because you don't even need to go under the car, everything's visible from the side. Take my advice and wear some gloves and safety goggles because that nasty additive will squirt everywhere. So here's the first good news: after I fitted the new pouch, cleared the P15B3 fault, and reset the counter, the service light was gone, yayy! This is only the 2nd weekend since the service light, no big deal.
However, as I got all fault codes from my Diagbox, I also noticed a P1445 fault, "Quantity of additive injected into the particle emission filter has exceeded maximum threshold. The particle emission filter must be changed". I don't know if this fault is triggered by the previous one, I know it is another counter in the system. However, given the age of the car, other videos in this topic also recommend cleaning the DPF at this point. So that was my next job. For anyone deciding to do this on their own, there are many, many, many, many videos online how to do this. It should be 3 bolts to undo, take out, clean, put it back in, eaaasy, right? But you shouldn't believe everything you see online kids... Here's my story. Don't want to scare anyone off, by all means give it a try! But have realistic expectations.
So 3 bolts, here's the assembly drawing, I needed to remove the DPF clamp (19), exhaust clamp (13) and the pressure sensor pipe (17). Everything (by that I mean everything) was sooo rusty, nothing would move. I had no luck removing the pressure pipe, it's completely stuck, and after many attempts I completely sheared off the 19mm nut. So I decided to disconnect the pipe at the sensor, take out the entire pipe with the DPF, cut it off, and I bought a new pipe already. Annoying as hell, but fine. Next the exhaust clamp. The bolt was so rusty that couple roman age coins are in better shape. After excessive use of penetrating oil, persuasion with a hammer, cursing, and literally kicking it with my foot, I managed to get it loose. Next the DPF clamp, that's further up so it was less rusty. But after loosening it, the nut was spinning with the bolt, with absolutely no space to hold onto it. What a nightmare. Eventually I just had to cut it all off, and replaced with another M8 bolt. I also replaced the M10 bolt for the exhaust clamp. After that, putting it back together was indeed only 1 hour, dream job like in those YouTube videos.
It's not over yet! All bolts and clamps completely removed, cool. Check out those videos I mentioned, at this point the DPF literally falls into your hands by gravity. Mine? Nope. Stuck, completely, not even a single bit of wiggle! Here's what I tried:
* rotating, twisting,
* penetrating oil at the clamp,
* hammering the side,
* putting a spanner into the exhaust end to increase leverage for twisting,
* jacking up under the DPF to take off the weight then twisting,
* using the car jack and a spanner as seesaw (with the support from the engine) to push the DPF down at the exhaust end. It bent the 22mm spanner...
No, I don't want to take the entire catalytic converter assembly out, given it was impossible to undo 3 bolts even to get here.
So here I am, with the 4th weekend wasted, I'm forced to give up. This car turned my life into a misery and my bank account into negative.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Obviously this post is mainly an expression of frustration, a word of warning for similarly naive noobs like me out there, and perhaps it'll find someone who can give me an advice of what to do next.
At the same time, anyone interested in buying my DS3, in otherwise perfectly good condition?
Thanks, Daniel, 27, shoe size 42EU
