Down Ampney, Gloucestershire: Mobile DPF Cleaning
Treating the DPF takes place at the vehicle, not at a body shop. Your vehicle isn't taken away and the filter doesn't come off. An engineer comes at your door over in Down Ampney, cleans the diesel particulate filter fitted to the car and carries out a DPF regeneration.
The visit lasts typically around 2 hours, the clean opens from £299, and the figure is fixed by the phone before anyone leaves.
If the light is already on and the car is short of power, this page is the right one. That is how most owners get to us.
DPF light on? What comes next
The DPF is not automatically what is at fault, and that leads. That light can arise from several faults, not merely one, so the visit opens with a diagnostic and not with cleaning.
How the motor is driven in the meantime counts too.
- Amber light, motor yet driving as normal — a long even run can still shift it on its own. Costs nothing, and worth attempting before you ring anything.
- Once the car is in limp mode, a long run will not touch it. The window has shut.
- Stop arranging long drives and get it looked at if the car smells of diesel or there is black smoke when you press on.
What the motor has been warning you
Symptoms have generally been growing for weeks before the light so much as appears. Last news, in other words:
- falling off on power, particularly uphill
- an engine whose revs will not rise as before
- fuel economy going worse
- the stop/start quietly giving up
- diesel in the car, or smoke on the way up through the gears
None of that is conclusive on its own. With the light with them, the filter is a fair assumption.
Why diesel particulate filters choke near Down Ampney
Being a village, Down Ampney throws up exactly the motoring a DPF manages the poorest. None of it goes on long enough or runs hot enough for the filter to finish a regeneration: the school run to Down Ampney Church of England Primary School, Oak Road barely moving at half past eight, ten minutes to Co-op Food, the dash to Kemble. The unburnt soot banks up rather than burning away.
Neither is far from Down Ampney: under 10 miles to the M4, under 25 miles to Gloucester. Neither is on the way to anywhere most weeks, though, so the journey that would empty a filter hardly ever happens.
The stage a DPF regeneration can no longer complete
What limp mode amounts to is the vehicle looking after itself. A long drive works by starting a regeneration, and that is just what limp mode blocks: power limited, revs held down, no regeneration available.
So the usual advice to run it up the motorway is good advice, until the day it is not. In limp mode you are beyond that stage: treatment is what will work, not more miles.
Where the motor stands is where the DPF is treated across Down Ampney
On your driveway, in a work car park, wherever the vehicle can wait for a few hours: the job takes place with the filter still bolted on, which is the bit most owners do not see coming.
A check happens first — running data off the ECU, soot load by percentage and by weight, and a check of the sensor readings, glow plugs and associated hardware, so other faults are cleared before a thing is touched.
Soot and ash that a regeneration on its own will never shift are freed second, by a solution put through the access port on that car, which opens out inside the filter. Sometimes a filter is loaded enough to take doing twice.
What the clean has freed is then cleared by a regeneration. Either it runs as a monitored drive out of Down Ampney, with you present, or it runs where the motor waits and the real-time data is read once done.
Then a second check, proving the change, putting out the warning light and listing anything still outstanding. Both sets of figures are emailed, so the before and after figures are recorded.
Where cleaning is not the answer
Treatment fixes one thing: a filter blocked with soot and ash. It does no good for:
- a pressure or temperature sensor showing a restriction that is not there
- an EGR valve jammed open
- an AdBlue system fault
- injectors or glow plugs that stop a regeneration starting in the first place
- oil passing through the filter from a failing turbo
That is what the first check is for. You are warned before the work starts, not after you have paid, if it turns out to be one of those.
Two more worth knowing. Leaving the filter hollowed out is not a fix — a vehicle without a serviceable DPF will fail its MOT and driving it is an offence. And cleaning is sometimes described as DPF renewal: nothing is swapped, your existing filter is cleared in place and returned into use.
What DPF cleaning runs to across Down Ampney
Any visit carries a call-out charge — coming out to you, making the booking, carrying out the diagnostic and passing on the advice. The clean itself starts from £299.
Publishing a flat rate would not be truthful. We agree it on the phone, once the motor and its likely needs are known. The place you are tells as much as what you drive: Down Ampney itself, Cerney Wick next door, or further out within the GL postcode area.
You are not billed for cleaning that the scan says will not work. Because the visit, the diagnostic and the advice have been done, the call-out charge still applies.
A 30-day warranty includes aftercare on the clean, and that includes an engineer coming back out to Down Ampney if the light comes back inside the window.
Great work by the team. Managed to restore my dpf to as good as new. Very reliable and great service by Darius. Highly recommended.
Had my Dpf cleaned today after after séseveral attempt from garage. It was a pleasant and professional work done by Liamf. I will definitely recommend at 100%.
Brilliant! Rang at 7:30 and they called me back at 8:05 without any voicemail from me. Came in the afternoon and sorted within 2 hours. Great team members dave and his colleague who explained everything to me.
Vehicles we clean, and where we travel around Down Ampney
The filter is treated where it sits on all of them: cars and estates, vans and light commercials, heavy goods vehicles, plant and construction machinery, agricultural machinery. Nothing is carried anywhere.
The same run that has our engineers on Oak Road most weeks covers Down Ampney, Cerney Wick, Eysey and the villages beyond Latton. Phone anyway from even further out around Gloucestershire. Coverage extends UK-wide, and the day you are given comes down to the calendar rather than how far away you are.
About Down Ampney
Down Ampney is a small village in Gloucestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 89 metres. Down Ampney lies near the villages of Latton and Cerney Wick, and is approximately 21 miles from Gloucester. Down Ampney has a population of around 266 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Down Ampney is also relatively close to the village of Marston Meysey, and is about 75 miles west of London.
Usual questions on DPF cleaning around Down Ampney
- Will a long drive clear it?
- If you spot it in time, and the car is not in limp mode, sometimes. It takes a long run at motorway speed, not five minutes to Co-op Food and back.
- How long does the visit last?
- Count on typically around 2 hours, with a second clean adding to that where the filter is badly loaded.
- The cost around Down Ampney — what is it?
- A clean begins from £299, and the call-out charge on top covers the visit, the scan and the advice. Both the vehicle and where you are shift it, which is why quoting goes by phone.
- Must I be there in person?
- No. The motor needs somewhere to stand for a couple of hours; nobody expects you to stand with it. The regeneration can be run as a watched drive if you would prefer to ride along.
- How soon can someone get to Down Ampney?
- You are offered often same-day or next-day, though it depends what is currently in the schedule. Ring 0303 330 1830 what is open across the GL area.
- Does the filter come away from the car?
- It is cleaned where it stands, on the call-out service. And neither does lifting a filter off nor bolting one back on is work we do.
- The light returns — then what?
- Aftercare comes inside the 30-day warranty, and that includes an engineer returning to Down Ampney.
Put a DPF clean booked across Down Ampney
Ring 0303 330 1830 and describe what the car is doing: a light, limp mode, smoke, whatever it is. Nobody heads to Down Ampney before you have a figure and a time. Outside phone hours, email enquiries@dpf-fixer.co.uk and it is picked up first thing.
All our engineers hold full public liability insurance, and we are SSIP Approved, ISO 14001 certified, ISO 9001 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.