BMW DPF cleaning - guerrilla style! [All Diesel BMW, F10 530d]

When your DPF is blocked and the car won't perform a re-gen, then chances are a good highway thrashing is not going to solve the problem any more and the DPF will have to come off to be properly cleared of clogged up soot. Replacements are outrageously expensive and professional cleaning is not cheap, plus the DPF must be sent away, but it is possible to do at home for very little money. You just need a suitable place to do it and be prepared for the mess...

A guide on removing the DPF for F10/F11 is here.

1. Compressed Air Blowout - This is the first step we took and may be all that is necessary if the DPF is not completely blocked. The only way I've seen so far with air compressed at enough pressure to clear stuff from the DPF is to use a 'bead-blaster' or 'bead-seater' designed for blowing tyres on wheel rims at about 90 psi. I doubt a tyre-shop is likely to let you use their equipment to blast a load of soot out of a DPF, as it is messy business, but if you know someone or have access to one then it's very effective. The DPF needs clearing out backwards, so secure it to the floor somehow (or get someone wearing ear-defenders to put their foot on it) and aim the bead-blaster into the flexi-pipe leading to the exhaust.

2. Cleaning Solution - This is a much deeper clean than just blowing the DPF out and will take a couple of days with it removed from the car.

• Seal the front end of the DPF as water-tight as possible. Re-fit the sensors to their holes and block off the small metal tube. Use thick plastic material to seal the large front opening of the DPF, tied tightly around the rim. Chances are it will still leak some liquid from around this aperture.
• Obtain suitable DPF cleaning-solution. I first used Wynn's Professional Off-Car DPF Cleaner, which cost me £27 for 5L. Quite pricey, but it certainly does the job. The Wynn's solution does smell very similar to a couple of cleaning products that were already available to me at work, both made by Autosmart, but I'm sure other companies make similar - TFR (Truck Film Remover), a strong de-greasing and cleaning solution, and G101, a very strong soap solution, so if you have access to these products it may be cheaper to get a few litres of each of them instead. I ended up using about 5 litres of neat TFR and the same amount of neat G101 after most of the Wynn's had leaked away and we have since cleaned out the DPF from an E81 120d, which worked a treat.
• Place the DPF in a bucket and leave the solution to soak into the DPF over at least 12, but preferably 24 hours. Even if it is impossible to stop fluid leaking from the DPF, the bucket will fill to a level where the pressure equals out and the DPF can be fully filled with solution as long as you have enough.
• Remove the plastic and jet-wash the DPF out from back to front, with the lance into the exhaust outlet. Be careful where you do this as it is very messy, with a lot of thick black soot being ejected, so try and do it directly down a drain as it cover a large area if done onto the ground. If you do not have access to a pressure-washer, then you could try flushing it with buckets of water poured in quickly, but this is not going to be as effective.
• Rinse the remaining soap from the DPF by leaving a hose to run through it and / or pouring buckets of water through. This will minimise the car 'blowing bubbles' once the DPF is refitted and still has soap / moisture inside!
• Leave the DPF to drain and dry out for as long as possible and refit it to the car.
• Give the car a 'spirited' highway drive, preferably in 3rd gear if it is manual, to blast remaining loose debris from the DPF. If the car was showing error codes for the DPF only and these have been reset, at this point the car should begin to re-gen by itself.

F10/F11: DPF Replacement / Removal - EASY GUIDE!

If you are removing your DPF and re-mapping, or if your filter is clogged past the point of a re-gen, then you will need take it off. Getting the DPF / catalytic-converter off an F10 is easier than it looks and is totally doable at home without a set of workshop ramps. I managed with a jack / axle-stand and without removing the exhaust or any of the engine.

1. Safely raise the car.

2. Under the car, remove the centre under-tray that covers the exhaust joint to the DPF by undoing a series of 8mm screws.

3. Loosen the collar-bolt at the joint between the front section of the exhaust and the flexi coming from the DPF using a 14mm socket.

4. Slide the exhaust back about an inch until it pops out of the sleeve in the DPF. [It may help here to pop the exhaust out of the centre rubber-hanger to give more rearward movement.]

5. Under the bonnet, unplug the two O2-sensors and the Lambda sensor, then pull the hose off the metal-tube that runs to the pressure-sensor. Free up the wiring.

6. Remove the upward-facing O2-sensor using a 14mm open-ended wrench.

** Access to the bolts and sensors may be easier with the plastic air-inlet loosened and moved out of the way. **

7. Loosen the collar-bolt joining the front of the DPF to the back of the turbo using a 13mm socket on a long extension and move the collar forward away from the DPF.

8. Remove the upper nut and lower bolt holding the bracket to the rear of the DPF using a 13mm wrench.

9. Remove the two bolts holding the bracket to the back of the engine-block using an E10 double-hex socket, or an 8mm ring-spanner and fully remove the bracket.

10. The DPF will likely be solid in place, so the best bet is to wiggle it from underneath car until it breaks free and can be safely lowered down.

11. With the DPF free, getting it out of the engine-bay is still not a walk in the park. The lower O2 sensor and/or Lambda sensor may need to be removed to get the angle required to slide the body of the DPF down past the steering-knuckle and foil heat shield, which may need to pressed in towards the body a bit to give enough clearance. Eventually, the DPF can be manipulated down through the gap and drop down under the car, so watch out if you have it raised a fair bit off the ground.

12. Re-fitting is a reverse of the above steps. Note, all but the lower O2-sensor should be fitted after the DPF is secured in position. The easiest way to reposition the DPF is get someone to hold it from below high enough for you to get hold of it from inside the engine-bay and lift it up into position, rather than one person trying to reposition it from underneath.

UPDATE: F10 off road with DPF issues... E46 Touring joins the stable!

So, quite an eventful couple of months... first I rectified the hi-beam headlight issues on the F10, only for it to then fail the MOT on emissions due to a blocked DPF and new regulations. Work on my house meant that I had no time to sort it and needed a car, so ended up buying an E46 318i Touring for the princely sum of £400. It's got 102k miles, MOT until October and is purple... enough said.

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F10 DPF / Emissions woes...

New UK emissions rules [info here] for diesel cars are extremely choking [excuse the pun]. The law states that diesel cars made after 2008 must no longer adhere to a generic CO2 value, previously 3.0 m-1, but instead must produce emissions lower than the manufacturers plate value... in BMWs case this is 0.5 m-1. Therefore, to pass a UK MOT test on emissions the car must now produce 1/6th of what used to be considered acceptable! There is still a generic value to test to, only halved at 1.5 m-1 and easier to pass, but this only applies when there is no 'manufacturer plate-value' and sadly the F10 has one.
To make matters worse, any emission of black smoke from the exhaust pipe on a post-2008 vehicle fitted with a DPF is an instant fail!

My first emissions test produced just shy of 1.8 m-1. In past years this has been well within the acceptable limits, my Dad's 2004 Audi A4 diesel producing nearly 2.8 m-1 and passing for instance, but since April 2018 the limit is 0.5 and my 1.8 is well over. I ran a bottle of CataClean through and gave the car a good 20 mile run up and down the motorway, then returned to the test-station for another go. This time I rolled just under 1.5 m-1 of CO2, an improvement but still well above the permitted 0.5. Besides, it was pointed out to me that the car was emitting a puff or two of black smoke during the tests, so it didn't really matter and this only pointed to one thing... a blocked DPF.

After trying a re-gen through software, I realised that the DPF would need to come off the car to be cleaned out / replaced before this was going to happen. A new DPF from BMW is £1596 +VAT... so lets not even go there. Used or reconditioned DPFs.. hmm, I decided to give those a pass too, along with cheap spurious models that I've heard nothing but bad things about. No, instead I will have to clean out the heavily clogged one I have now, so watch this space as I will post results soon.

Yeah, a lot going on and you can see why I needed a cheap runaround!

BMW F10/F11: Clogged/blocked Washer Pump Filter - EASY FIX / FILTER REMOVAL! [E90/E92/F07/F30 etc.]

Windscreen washer jets not working, but the pump can still be heard OK? Then you have a very common case of clogged filter. Due to the supposed inaccessibility of the bottle on later model BMWs I have read stories of high dealer bills, daunting inner-wing removal and even back-feeding the washer-hose with bleach to gradually unblock the gunged up filter... but before you try this read on, as it is an easy fix after all.

GUIDE:

1. Fully turn the steering to the right to give access behind the driver's front wheel to work. [Removing the wheel will give more access but is not necessary.]

2. Remove the 6 screws holding securing the rear half of the felt wheel-arch liner in place using an 8mm socket. This will allow access without removing the arch-liner completely. Four of the screws are located in the wheel well itself and two are located underneath next to the sill.

3. Remove the plastic 'mud-guard' trim on the outside of the wheel-arch that adjoins the felt arch-liner. This is done by pressing the centre-pin of the 3 plastic clips through the clip and then removing the clips with a panel-popper tool. [It may be possible to do the job without removing this trim piece, as the clips are very hard to get out and prone to breaking, but visibility and access are certainly improved].

4. Peel the felt wheel-arch liner out from the rear lip of the wheel-arch and if possible tuck it behind the wheel. The washer-bottle should now be visible to the rear of the front wheel. It sits in a tight gap between the outer and inner wings of the car body itself and access is very limited. [This is unlike E39, E60 etc. where the bottle sits left-to-right across the rear of the wheel-arch and access if much easier!]

5. Remove the windscreen washer hose from where it enters the pump and move it out of the way.

6. Slide a long flat-screwdriver in between the washer-bottle and the outer wing and prize the pump upwards until the spout is clear of the bottle and the pump can wedged up and out of the way.

7. The clogged filter should now be sitting in the washer-bottle where the spout of the pump fits. Use the flat-screwdriver to prize the filter up and out of the bottle. It should now be removable by hand or using long-nose pliers / tweezers.

8. Clean the gauze filter using water and lightly brush it with a sponge-scourer or stiff brush. [I find an old toothbrush works perfectly.] It is likely clogged with a 'gel' like substance that builds up supposedly due to the use of incorrect washer-fluid as well as dirt from the bottom of the tank if the washer has been run without fluid in for a while, but should clean up pretty easily.

9. Carefully slot the filter back into the washer-bottle and press it back into place using long-nose pliers / flat screwdriver or both, making sure it is fully seated.

10. Slide the pump spout back into the filter / washer-bottle, making sure it is fully seated and rotated to the correct position with the spout for the windscreen-hose pointing to the side of the car.

11. Refit the washer-hose, trim, wheel-arch liner and wheel. [Reverse steps 1-5.]


www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=930107
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=737416
http://forum.bmw5.co.uk/topic/120732-f10-windscreen-washer-not-working/
http://forum.bmw5.co.uk/topic/124943-f10-washer-problems/

E60: Blocked Washer-Pump - Quick Fix.

No water from windscreen washer-jets? Chances are it's a blockage in the pump filter. This is not a difficult job, rather a very easy one, so avoid unnecessary cost and fix it quickly yourself.

Check Fuse: 
Fuse 18 is the corresponding fuse. If the washer pump is dead and making no noise then this is the first thing to check. If it is still making a whining noise, then you have a blocked pump-filter.

** The headlamp washer system only functions when the headlights / sidelights are turned on. **

FIX:

Windscreen Washer System:

** The washer bottle is located just in front of the N/S (passenger) wheel-arch liner. The filler-neck is just behind the N/S headlamp and you can see the hose go down into the bodywork and rise up to where the tank is. The tank CANNOT be accessed from above, even when the headlamp is removed. It is much easier to peel the arch-liner back and work from inside the wheel-arch. **

** Obviously water will spill out of the washer bottle so just allow it to drain. **

1. Remove the 3 screws from the N/S/F plastic wheel-arch liner circled in the photo so that it can be peeled back out of the arch rim, one on the near edge, one along the bottom and one by the brake air-duct. It helps to turn the wheel full-lock one way or the other to give more room.

2. Gently pull the washer-jet hose connector off the spout on the side of the windscreen washer-pump. [It's the smaller grey one, furthest away in photo].

3. Reach in and grip the windscreen washer-pump, then gently turn it from side to side while lifting it upwards until the spout on the pump is free of the tank [it may need tilting towards the wheel to get out].

4. Unplug the wire-connector from the pump by depressing the clip on either side and sliding it upwards. The pump can now be removed from inspection if necessary. [Alternatively, leave the wiring connected and place the pump somewhere out of the way].

5. Gently prise the rubber base the pump sits in upwards out of it's collar in the tank, being careful not to detach the plastic-filter from below it and have it drop into the tank.

6. Remove the white plastic filter from the rubber piece and give it a good clean. [It's usually congealed screen-wash clogging it as in the photo, rather than detritus].

7. Refit the plastic filter to the bottom of the rubber base and carefully lower it vertically back into the tank.

8. Refit the pump as a reversal of steps 4 to 1.

Sticky residue wrapped right around the filter-gauze
had stopped flow into the pump completely.

Headlamp Washer System:
The process is the same for the larger headlamp washer pump, though the hose-connector at the bottom in the second photo is sturdier and needs the clip pushing up from undernath to slide the hose off.

Headlamp washer has a much bigger filter, I guess to get more
water into the bigger pump and higher pressure spray.

E60: Oil Leak Verdict.

More bad news for the 5 Series I'm afraid. Got it up on the ramps at work with five mechanics and as many torches to finally see where the bulk of the oil is coming from. In this post [http://beemerlab.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/e60-bad-oil-leak-was-it-running-too.html?m=0] my attention was solidly on the turbo oil-feed and return pipes, but further investigation has revealed that no oil is dripping from them and if they are leaking then it is only a seep, which is eventually building up on the underneath of the pipes. The main oil leak it would seem is running down the front of the engine. Unable to see where though or trace where the oil is running from due to the belts and pulleys covering the front of the block so well, I tentatively assumed it was coming from the front main crank-seal - oh dear. It stands to reason that swirl-flap damage could have unbalanced the crank somewhat and caused the front main-seal to leak, but this theory is stopped by two factors - 1. If oil was leaking so badly from the front crank-seal, it would be hitting the pulley and have the trademark 'spray pattern' in a circle around the main-pulley, and 2. If swirl-flap damage had unbalanced the crank enough to let this much oil out, then the engine would be a bit more recalcitrant that is being!

Pressurised oil?

So where is the oil coming from? We blasted the entire front of engine with brake-cleaner and stood back to watch where the oil arrived from. Thankfully we watched it pool and run down from above the main-pulley. The other lads suggested the usual suspects - rocker-cover gasket or a loose oil-way at the front of the block, but there is no denying signs of fresh oil are present everywhere on the engine where there is a gasket or seal. This means the oil is being forced out of these joints somehow by pressure building up in the crankcase and would explain how oil that cannot be from the frontal leak has made its way onto things that are nowhere near it, i.e the turbo feed/return pipes. It also explains my other big problem - oil entering the air-inlet. The worst case scenario is the main turbo-seal dumping oil right inside it. This makes for both a lot of oil getting blown into the engine, but also gives a smoke-machine effect out the back, the latter of which I have no signs of as yet.

Smoky CCV [Crankcase-Ventilator]?

I removed the rubber-hose that recirculates the CCV (crankcase-vent) back into the turbo while the engine was warm and running. Thick oily smoke was billowing out of the CCV, which I duly replaced [eBay £35], though it did not affect the problem and holding a hand in front of the smoking pipe for a minute leaves an oily residue. It would appear the oil is getting into the air-inlet by condensing down the CCV recirc pipe into the turbo impeller. This is definitely not normal CCV behaviour and finally gives a sure sign off abnormal crankcase pressure. Finally, with the car on ramps and the underbody-protection fully off it became clear that oil was dripping pretty bad from the back of the engine and pretty much everywhere else, even the sump.

Verdict:

I started another thread on BMW Land [http://www.bmwland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=163497] and the torrent of 'I told you so' replies came in and backed up my fears about piston 6. The rings are stuck inside the piston and not making good compression. The lack of power isn't really being picked up under normal driving, but the blow-by is so bad that it's allowing combustion pressure straight into the crankcase, hence burnt oil and exhaust smoke pouring out of the CCV. You wouldn't think a swirl-flap bouncing round could cause the rings to do this, but check the picture below. Well, you live and learn. This weekend I will be stripping the sump off the car and then, of course, the head is coming back off, which means more new bolts and another new gasket, coming to about £120. Sadly, even BMW cannot tell me exactly which piston my engine has from neither my reg. or VIN, so I will have to pop it out the top of the block and identify it before ordering one as they're over £200, but this means the car is off the road at least another week. I managed 268.5 miles between engine rebuilds... 

Photo courtesy of http://bmwspecialistreading.co.uk/

E39: Replacing / Unclogging the Washer-Jet Pump

If you think your pump is faulty then check this post first - Windscreen Washer-Jet System Problem.

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Removing the pump is easy, but getting to it is quite involved due to the amount of under-car panelling the E39 has.

PROCESS:

1. Jack up the o/s front of the car and detach the plastic mud-guard by removing the 3 hex-head screws that hold it to the wheel-arch. using a 7mm wrench.

2. Lift off the plastic under-tray that sits to the rear of the wheel-arch by removing the 5 plastic-studs around its edge. If you lack a took for pulling out this kind of stud then lever the head of the centre-pin out a few mm with a flathead screwdriver and then slide it clear with pliers. The body of the stud should now slide out easily.

* The car may need lowering to remove the under-tray and re-lifting, as the jacking-point lies in the centre of it.

3. Remove the 7 hex-head screws around the inside of the wheel-arch. as well as two at the leading edge of the under-tray, unseat the inner wheel-arch from around the lip of the wheel-arch itself and pull the plastic inner-arch down out of the way.

* The water-tank for the windscreen and headlight washer-system is located just behind the wheel-arch, below the front of the driver's door. Not the Intensive cleaning-system, which has both the tank and pump under the bonnet.

4. Unplug the wire-connector from the pump in centre of the tank**, by sliding a flat screwdriver into the clip and lifting it upwards.

5. Pull the slim hose-connector clear of the central pump** and allow the tank to drain.

This is a good point to test the washer system one last time to make sure it isn't a blocked hose and the pump is getting no water.

6. Gently twist and pull the pump upwards about an inch out of its mount, then remove the black rubber-bush it sits in.

7. Flush the tank several times by pouring water into the filler-nozzle under the bonnet and allowing it to drain through and clean around the lip of the pump-mount. Check the pump for clogging.

8. Replace the rubber-bush to the tank and, using the new pump if necessary, reverse the procedure.

** The pump in the centre of the tank with the slim hose is for the windscreen washers. The left-hand pump with the larger hose is for the headlight washers.

*** The black connector on the inner corner of the tank is the level-indicator probe. This is also a push fit and the best place to drain from, after removing the wire-connector as above.