2013 Relay 3.5T DPF urea problems

[Didcot2DniproAid]

It is entirely possible these questions have been asked and answered already - please forgive me - I'm new here!

I'm Bob, the founder of Didcot to Dnipro, we are a humanitarian Aid Group who collect aid in the area around Didcot and transport it to the Dnipro region in Eastern Ukraine. We have a 2013 Relay van that has already done trips to Dnipro (about 4000 miles return trip), which performed perfectly until we returned from the last trip. On the return trip, we noticed a really bad smell from the exhaust, but no warning lights came up and it seemed to be performing normally. About 10 days after our return, it went into "limp home" mode and said the DPF was clogged. Several people looked at it and said we needed a new DPF filter - and refused to undertake a cleaning using a fluid injected into the DPF.

Eventually, we found someone who would do this, and, after doing it, the vehicle seems to be normal again. However, this raises some questions:

- How do we determine how much urea is in the tank? No alerts about low fluuid levels...
- How do we ensure the vehicle goes into "regen", when, after 4000 miles of mostly motorway driving, I would have thought it would have done this - several times possibly? We havent seen any alerts saying it is regenerating...
- Any tips/tricks for maintenance to try and ensure a trouble free next trip in about a weeks time?
- What sort of "end of life" milage is expected from these vehicles? The turbo has been reconditioned, though we had to re-use the oil feed pipe (after cleaning it) because there were none available. Currently, it has done 235,000 miles.

For a luton body curtain side van of its vintage, we have been astounded by the fuel economy we have been getting (around 21 mpg) fully ladden (okay, over loaded!)

Thanks in advance for any help on these questions.

[Rp0thejester]

I'm sorry for asking but do you have a website I can lookup or a charity number I can search?

[PaulC5]

I think you might be getting mixed up with the DPF additive and adblue (urea) additive. I think being a 2013 van you might not have a blue hdi engine which uses adblue but this can be confirmed if you post your VIN. The DPF additive when topped up fully should last around 80k miles. The DPF can be cleaned or replaced but I think when this is done it might need a diagnostic to tell the van this has been done and this also applies to when the DPF additive is topped up or you will continue to get warning messages of a low level. During a DPF regen messages are not given but if you wanted to know when they happened a diagnostic might tell you when they have occurred.

[RichardW]

We're there any fault codes other than FPF blocked? As you say it should happily regen under those driving conditions. Is the external temp display working? This may be the transit engine, so it might have the fuel vaporiser in the exhaust which are prone to getting blocked causing regen issues.

[Didcot2DniproAid]

Hmm, I can’t seem to see how to reply to individual messages - thank you all for your replies!

To Rp0thejester: Don't be sorry! We are not a registered charity; we just get on with doing what needs to be done. Currently, there are four of us who do everything, collect, clean, repair, pack and drive - as well as day jobs. Administering a charity would just put more work on us for little or no direct benefit - as well as the time and effort to register a charity. We tried JustGiving to raise some funds, but, for the same reasons we are not a charity, these were not successful - it pays to have social media skills and a network to make JustGiving work in my opinion, but we did do a blog, which is still available at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Didcot2Dnipro

To PaulC5: The van definitely has a urea tank - the guys who fixed the blocked DPF told me this much. It is pre-AdBlue - which is also urea based - so I'm told. They didn't think the tank could be refilled - officially, this may be true - but I suspect someone may have figured out how to get around buying a replacement tank complete with pump and how to check the level. The VIN is VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff].

To RichardW: Yes, this is the Ford based engine. I am waiting for a diagnostic device to arrive from someone who is lending me one, so at the moment, I don't have the actual codes, just the lights and messages on the dash. I have heard that the fuel injectors can be troublesome, so I will check this out when the diagnostic tool arrives. Thank you. I specifically chose a vehicle that used the Ford engine so that if spares were needed in Ukraine, they could be sourced easily. While the Citroen Relay is not that common in Ukraine, the Transit, Peugeot, Fiat, and Iveco, as well as the Opal/Vauxhall Movano from the same era are. Given the Ukrainians are quite adept at making things work, this seemed like a good choice. I have had Citroens since 1972, starting with the Dyane 6 - which I loved and still have some brand new parts for, though sadly, not the car to fit them too - so when this Relay came up and was in my budget range, I decided to grab it.

[RichardW]

From what I can see off the VIN this doesn't have the Eolys DPF additive (which is not urea based). It does however, have the injector in the exhaust. Get any fault codes and live data and take it from there - but the life of the injectors seems to be about 100k, so it's well due a 2nd replacement!

[Didcot2DniproAid]

Thank you RichardW. I'm guessing these injectors are reasonably pricy?
The code scanner should be here early next week... assuming Royal Mail are actually going to deliver it and not just leave it in a pile in a sorting office somewhere. I will run a scan as soon as I get it and I might just get another injector anyway - I don't want a "limp home" mode forced on us while we are in in or on the way to Ukraine! Most of this load is desperately needed winter gear (already late) and even more desperately needed medical supplies. We need to get this all on its way, it’s not helping anyone sitting in my lounge, hallway and spare bedroom or the lock-up garage!

[RichardW]

It might not be that of course... But have a look at O'Riley's Autos on you tube, he's got lots of vids about them getting blocked on transits. You can check they are clear with a pressure gauge ( he uses a Mitivac).

[Didcot2DniproAid]

Thanks RichardW, I will check it out.