Economical cleaning of DPFs, rather than expensive replacement

Diesel particulate filters reduce exhaust emissions and are installed on all new cars with diesel engines. After they are filtered out, the soot particles are burned out of the filter at regular intervals to prevent it from clogging up. However a certain exhaust gas temperature is required for such regeneration. This temperature is not reached particularly by cars used for short trips. The result: The particulate filter clogs up increasingly reducing engine performance. At the bottom line, the engine can quit operating altogether, making it necessary to install a new particulate filter. This can happen after driving as little as 10,000 miles. Normally the service life of a particulate filter is significantly greater than 60,000 miles. In addition to the mileage, the quality of the fuel also plays a role: The lower the quality, the quicker the particulate filter clogs up.

A new filter costs several thousand dollars, making manual cleaning well worth while. This is why LIQUI MOLY has developed its diesel particulate filter cleaner. It's use does not require removal of the particulate filter. It is only necessary to remove the pressure or temperature sensor in the exhaust system. Then the probe can be inserted through the opening and the cleaning fluid sprayed directly into the particulate filter. The active ingredients dissolve the encrusted soot. The next step after the cleaner, is to spray in a purging agent.  This fluid distributes the dissolved soot in the filter to facilitate burning it out later. Including the reaction time for the cleaner, the entire process requires a maximum of one hour. Then it is necessary to start the regeneration process of the filter manually or to run the engine for a while at increased speed to activate the cleaning cycle. This burns out the dissolved soot and clears out the filter.

"Workshops can make points with their customers by offering this cleaning service and helping them to avoid high costs", says Sebastian Zelger, Director LIQUI MOLY USA. "This underscores the workshop's competency and helps increase customer loyalty." Typical candidates for particulate filter cleaning are cars used frequently for short trips such as taxis. "On such vehicles, we recommend cleaning the particulate filter at every maintenance." Such preventative maintenance helps keep the particulate filter from clogging up in the future.

The diesel particulate filter cleaner from LIQUI MOLY is a real problem solver for professionals, in contrast to "cleaners" available in the form of fuel additives. "Such products can reduce soot formation, at best, and thus delay filter clogging", added Sebastian Zelger. "But they don't really have any true cleaning effect for the particulate filter."