Mobile DPF Cleaning around Ightham, Kent
Sorting the DPF is done at the car, not at a body shop. The technician turns up at your place across Ightham and sets up. The diesel particulate filter is treated still on the motor, a DPF regeneration comes next, and you hold on to the filter you started with.
Reckon on the visit lasting typically around 2 hours. The clean opens from £299, fixed by the phone before anyone sets off.
If the light is showing and the motor is down on power, this page is yours. That is how most drivers get to us.
Your DPF light is showing — what next?
Not the DPF, automatically. Opening thing to say. A number of faults put the identical light on the very same dashboard, which is why a visit opens with a check rather than with a clean.
Second thing: how you run it between now and then matters.
- Amber light, motor yet driving normally — a long steady run can yet shift it on its own. Costs nothing, and worth a try before you call anything.
- Once the car is in limp mode, driving will not shift it. The window has closed.
- Get it seen to rather than driving it — diesel in the car, or smoke on the throttle, has gone beyond the long-run stage.
What the vehicle has been showing you
By the time the light arrives, things have usually been going wrong for a while. It is late news:
- pulling uphill, the power falls off
- you see the revs never reach where they used to go
- worse fuel economy
- a stop/start that has meekly packed in
- smoke under the throttle, or a diesel smell in the car
On its own, none of that is evidence. It is a fair assumption the filter is full once the light is on as well.
Why diesel particulate filters choke round Ightham
Being a village, Ightham produces exactly the use a DPF copes with the poorest. Run through an ordinary week: Ightham Primary School and home, The Street at a crawl before nine, a quick trip to Co-op Food, a dash to Borough Green & Wrotham. Nothing there goes on long enough or is hot enough to finish a regeneration. The soot banks up rather than burning away.
Neither is a long way from Ightham: under 3 miles to the M26, under 25 miles to London. Neither is on the way to anything most weeks, though, so the run that would scour a filter simply never happens.
Why limp mode stops a DPF regeneration
Limp mode is the motor looking after itself. The entire difficulty is that a sustained drive works by starting a regeneration, and under limp mode the revs will not climb and power is limited.
Sensible advice, that motorway run — up until the moment it is not. Beyond that stage — limp mode — driving will not do it, and the filter wants cleaning.
Where the motor stands is where the DPF is treated across Ightham
The filter does not budge. That is the detail most people do not anticipate: the job takes place with the DPF even now bolted to the vehicle, on your front, in a work car park, wherever the vehicle can stand for a few hours.
The ECU is read first, showing soot load by percentage and by mass, along with a look over of sensor readings, glow plugs and related components, so nothing is touched while another fault is still open.
After that comes the clean itself: a cleaning solution in through the vehicle's own access port, spreading inside the filter and loosening what a regeneration cannot. Sometimes a filter is loaded enough to require doing twice.
Next, a regeneration clears everything the clean freed. If you are there, that is run as a monitored drive out of Ightham; if not, in place where the motor stands, with the running data read after.
A second check confirms the change, puts out the warning light and notes anything still showing. Both reports are sent over, so you keep the before and after figures to hand.
What a DPF clean will not touch
Only one fault is answered by cleaning: the filter clogged with ash and soot. It does no good for:
- temperature or pressure sensors showing a restriction that is not there
- an EGR valve held open
- AdBlue system failures
- faulty glow plugs or injectors, so not one regeneration ever completes
- a turbo pushing oil through the filter
That is what the first check is for. When it proves to be one of those, you are warned before any work starts rather than after you have handed over anything.
Lastly, two things. A vehicle with the filter hollowed out cannot pass its MOT, and driving it is illegal, so that is no remedy. What gets typed in as DPF renewal swaps nothing: your filter is cleaned in place and goes back into work.
Costs for DPF cleaning across Ightham
Treatment starts from £299, with the call-out charge on top of that for every visit — it takes in the call-out, the booking, the checks and the advice.
The figure is settled on the phone, once we have the vehicle and what the filter is going to need. No flat rate could be truthful. The motor moves it, and so does the location — Ightham, Basted, or a spot further out in the TN postcode area.
You are not asked to pay for cleaning that the check says will not work. What still applies is the call-out charge, since the visit took place, the scan was done and the advice was offered.
Aftercare is taken in by a 30-day warranty: should the light come back within it, an engineer heads back to Ightham.
Engineer arrived within 2 hours of my phone call! He was polite and helpful, explained everything and did exactly what he said he would, perfect!
Super company. Professional from the first phone call. Nic was friendly, professional and explained everything that was done. Responsive to emails and great aftercare. I would recommend.
Andras was excellent. He arrived on schedule, was knowledgeable, professional and courteous and took care of our car. So far the clean seems to have worked and we hope it continues to so we can avoid the hugely expensive DPF replacement.
The vehicles we clean and the ground we cover around Ightham
A single mobile service spans cars and estates, panel vans and light commercials, HGVs, plant and construction machinery and agricultural machinery, and on every one the filter is treated in place rather than moved anywhere.
Our engineers are along The Street week in week out, so Ightham is rarely a journey of its own, and the same run takes in Basted, Ightham Common and the places out past Oldbury. Coverage reaches UK-wide, so further out around Kent is nonetheless worth a ring, and what decides between today and tomorrow is the diary rather than the distance.
Ightham itself
Ightham is a small village in Kent, situated on the banks of the River Medway at an elevation of around 85 metres. Ightham lies within the South East region of England, approximately 23.5 miles from London, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Ightham is surrounded by nearby places such as Oldbury, Basted, and Ightham Common, and remains a quiet residential community.
What Ightham drivers ask about DPF cleaning
- Will a long drive shift it?
- Sometimes, if you catch it early enough and the car has not dropped into limp mode. Fifteen minutes to Co-op Food and back will not do it; motorway speed, held for a while, will.
- How long does the visit last?
- That is typically around 2 hours, though a severely loaded filter can take cleaning twice, which adds time.
- Cost in Ightham — what is it?
- Starting from £299, with a charge for travelling that takes in the scan and advice on what to do next. Quoting is done by phone, since what you run and where you sit both move the price.
- Have I need to be around?
- No. The vehicle requires a spot to sit for a couple of hours; you do not need to stand with it. If you would rather come along, the regeneration can be run as a supervised drive instead.
- Can someone travel to Ightham soon?
- Depending on the calendar, often same-day or next-day is usual. One ring to 0303 330 1830 and you will hear what the TN area has available.
- Does the filter leave the car?
- Treated where it stands, on this service, so no. Getting a filter off or fitting one back on amount to anything something we do in either direction.
- What if the light comes back?
- Included by the 30-day warranty: aftercare, and an engineer heading back to Ightham.
Set up DPF cleaning around Ightham
Call 0303 330 1830 and describe what the vehicle is doing: a light, limp mode, smoke, whatever it is. The figure comes first, and so does the time, before anyone heads off for Ightham. Anything passed to enquiries@dpf-fixer.co.uk out of hours is answered first thing.
Our engineers carry full public liability insurance, and we are SafeContractor approved, SSIP Approved, ISO 14001 certified and ISO 9001 certified.
As a trading name of DPF Fixer Ltd, Mobile DPF Cleaner operates under the company whose Trustpilot rating is 4.5 out of 5 from 1,989 reviews.