Cann Common, Dorset: Mobile DPF Cleaning
With call-out DPF cleaning, we travel to the motor. An engineer comes at your address across Cann Common, cleans the diesel particulate filter while it is attached to the car, runs a DPF regeneration, and you end up with the filter you arrived with.
The visit runs typically around 2 hours, the clean opens from £299, and the price is fixed on the phone before anyone sets off.
The light is on already and the car is low on power — that is how we generally meet people, and what this page is about.
DPF light on? What to do
First thing: it is not necessarily the DPF. A clean is not where a visit starts. A diagnostic is — several faults show up as the same light.
Second thing: how you drive it between now and then makes a difference.
- Motor yet driving normally on an amber light — try a long steady run first. It costs nothing and frequently sorts the filter without a visit.
- Once the motor is in limp mode, a long run will not touch it. The window has shut.
- A diesel smell inside, or black smoke under the throttle, is the stage to stop arranging long drives and book it in.
Before the light, what the car was telling you
The light is late news. By the time it appears, the symptoms have normally been growing for a while:
- power tailing off, especially climbing uphill
- revs that will not rise the way they once did
- consumption that is worse than it used to be
- without a word, the stop/start gives up
- the cabin reeking of diesel, or smoke when you pull away
That is not conclusive by itself. It is a fair assumption the filter is full once the light is there too.
Blocked diesel particulate filters round Cann Common, and the why
Cann Common is a rural village, and the motoring that belongs to one is the worst sort for a DPF. Run through a normal week: Ludwell Primary School and back, Dinah's Hollow at a standstill before nine, a five-minute run to Lidl, a run to Gillingham (Dorset). Not much there runs long enough or gets hot enough to see through a regeneration. The soot banks up rather than clearing.
Where you sit does not assist either. The M27 is under 50 miles from Cann Common and Salisbury is under 25 miles away, so unless something takes you out that way regularly, entire weeks go by without the long steady run that would clear the filter alone.
Why limp mode prevents a DPF regeneration
What limp mode comes down to is the car defending itself. With output held down and the revs pinned, the regeneration the filter needs will not run at all. That matters, because starting one is precisely what a long run does.
The common advice — get it up the motorway — is sensible, right until it is not. Once the car is in limp mode you are the far side of that stage, and the filter requires cleaning rather than road work.
On-site DPF cleaning where the vehicle stands in Cann Common
Most owners do not anticipate this bit: the filter stays on. The job is done with the DPF still fixed to the motor — on your driveway, in a work car park, anywhere the car can stand for a couple of hours.
A check goes first — real-time data off the ECU, soot load by proportion and by actual weight, and a check of the sensors, glow plugs and connected components, so other faults are ruled out before a thing is started.
Soot and ash that a regeneration on its own will never move are lifted next, by a cleaning solution passed through the access port on that motor, which expands inside the filter. A second pass is sometimes called for on heavily clogged filters.
Next, a regeneration clears everything the clean freed. Either it runs as a monitored drive out of Cann Common, with you there, or it is done where the motor stands and the real-time data is read afterwards.
A second check verifies the change, clears the warning light and logs anything still open. Both reports are emailed, so you have the before and after figures to hand.
Where treatment is not the fix
A clean answers one thing: a filter blocked with soot and ash. It does no good for:
- the wrong signal from a temperature or pressure sensor
- an EGR valve held open
- a problem in the AdBlue system
- failed glow plugs or injectors, so not one regeneration ever completes
- turbo failure, with oil getting into the filter
Finding that out is the first scan's job. Where it is found to be one of those, you are warned before any work gets going rather than after you have paid anything.
Lastly, two things. A vehicle with the filter cut out fails its MOT, and driving it is against the law, so that is no solution. What gets looked up as DPF renewal swaps nothing: your own filter is treated in place and goes back into work.
What DPF cleaning comes to across Cann Common
The cleaning opens from £299. A call-out charge applies to every visit, and pays for the call-out itself, the booking, the scan and the advice that goes with it.
Quoting a flat rate would not be truthful. We fix it over phone, once the motor and its probable needs are established. Whereabouts you are tells as much as what you run: Cann Common itself, East Melbury nearby, or otherwise out within the SP postcode area.
A clean that will not help is not a clean you pay for, and the diagnostic is what says so. What still stands is the call-out charge, since the visit was made, the scan was run and the advice was offered.
Aftercare is covered by a 30-day warranty: should the light return within it, an engineer heads back to Cann Common.
Absolutely amazing job. Would highly recommend this company and the job they did was amazing. Cars never ran so good.
The 2 guys that arrived were very pleasant, thorough and knowledgeable. Quickly diagnosed the issue on my Qashqai and rectified, high price tag naturally but - you get what you pay for! Fantastic work, very thankful.
Had a clean. Didn't fix problem. Came back out. Still didn't fix the problem. Wast of time and £400.
Where we get to around Cann Common, and what we clean
The filter is cleaned on the vehicle on all of them: private cars, vans and light commercials, heavy goods vehicles, plant and construction machinery, farm vehicles. Nothing is taken anywhere.
Most weeks there is usually someone on Dinah's Hollow, so Cann Common hardly ever means a detour, and East Melbury, Melbury Abbas and the spots past Cann are on the way. Further out through Dorset is still worth phoning about — coverage is UK-wide, and it is the diary rather than the distance that decides between one day and the next.
About Cann Common
Cann Common is a small village in north Dorset, situated inland at an elevation of 161 metres. Cann Common lies near the villages of East Melbury and Melbury Abbas, and is approximately 17 miles from Salisbury. Cann Common has a population of around 296 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
Things Cann Common drivers ask about DPF cleaning
- Will a long drive sort it?
- If you spot it early enough, and the vehicle is not in limp mode, sometimes. It needs a steady run at motorway speed, not fifteen minutes or so to Lidl and back.
- Broadly how long does it run?
- Bank on typically around 2 hours, with a second clean extending that where the filter is severely blocked.
- What does it cost across Cann Common?
- Treatment begins from £299, and the call-out charge on top takes in the visit, the scan and the advice. We settle it on the phone, because the vehicle and your address both shift the price.
- Must I be around in person?
- The car requires a place for two hours or so. You need not be in it. Preferring to be there is welcome: the regeneration then is done out on the open road, monitored.
- How soon can someone come to Cann Common?
- Depending on the schedule, often same-day or next-day is usual. Ask 0303 330 1830 what is open across the SP area.
- Is the filter removed from the car?
- It is done where it sits, on the mobile service. We do not take filters off or bolt them back on, either way.
- Suppose the light returns?
- The 30-day warranty takes in aftercare, including an engineer returning to Cann Common.
Setting up a DPF clean around Cann Common
Call 0303 330 1830 and set out what the motor is doing: the light, limp mode, smoke, whatever it is. Before anyone sets off for Cann Common, you will be given both a price and a date. If the lines are closed, enquiries@dpf-fixer.co.uk lands with us and gets answered first thing.
Our engineers maintain full public liability insurance, and we are ISO 9001 certified, SSIP Approved, ISO 14001 certified and SafeContractor approved.
The 4.5 out of 5 Trustpilot rating, based on 1,989 reviews, is held by DPF Fixer Ltd. Mobile DPF Cleaner is a trading name of DPF Fixer Ltd.