Oldfallow, Staffordshire: Mobile DPF Cleaning
With mobile DPF cleaning, we come to the vehicle. No body shop, no filter coming off. A technician drives out to your address over in Oldfallow, treats the diesel particulate filter where it is, runs a DPF regeneration, and you hold on to the filter you started with.
You'll have a number by phone before anyone leaves, the clean opening from £299, and the visit taking typically around 2 hours.
The light is showing and the vehicle is down on power — that is how we usually come across people, and precisely what this page deals with.
DPF light on? What happens next
The DPF is not always what is wrong, and that goes first. A number of faults put the identical light on the same dashboard, which is why a visit starts with a diagnostic rather than with a clean.
The driving you manage in the meantime matters. That is the next thing.
- Amber light, car still driving as normal — a long constant run can yet sort it on its own. Costs zero, and worth a try before you ring anything.
- Once the vehicle is in limp mode, a long run will not reach it. The window has shut.
- Stop arranging long drives and get it looked at if the interior stinks of diesel or there is black smoke when you pull away.
The vehicle has been warning you already
By the time the light arrives, things have usually been going wrong for a while. It is belated news:
- dropping away on power, above all uphill
- you find the revs never reach where they once went
- the fuel consumption is worse
- silently, the stop/start bows out
- a diesel smell in the car, or smoke under acceleration
That is not proof on its own. The light beside them suggests a full filter.
What chokes diesel particulate filters around Oldfallow
For a DPF, the worst use is the sort you find across a residential suburb such as Oldfallow. A regeneration needs time and heat, and gets neither: not on the school run to Moorhill Primary School, not on Lansbury Drive at the morning rush, not on five minutes to Your Coop Food, and not on the dash to Cannock. The soot banks up rather than burning away.
Geography does not assist either. The M6 Toll is under 3 miles from Oldfallow and Lichfield is under 10 miles away, so unless something takes you out that way regularly, entire weeks slip past without the long steady run that would empty the filter alone.
Limp mode, and when DPF regeneration gives out
The motor is protecting itself, which is what limp mode is. The entire difficulty is that a sustained drive works by starting a regeneration, and under limp mode the revs will not rise and power is limited.
The standard advice — run it up the motorway — is sensible, until it is not. Once the motor is in limp mode you are beyond that stage, and the filter wants a clean rather than more driving.
DPF cleaning at the car round Oldfallow
The filter does not leave it. That is the bit most drivers do not expect: the job happens with the DPF yet fixed to the car, on your driveway, in a work car park, wherever the car can wait for a couple of hours.
A scan happens first — running data off the ECU, soot load by proportion and by mass, and a check of the sensors, glow plugs and associated components, so other faults are eliminated before any of it is cleaned.
Next comes the clean itself: solution in through the vehicle's own entry point, expanding inside the filter and lifting what a regeneration never can. Badly loaded filters sometimes take a second pass.
What the clean has freed is then driven off by a regeneration. Ride along with the motor and it turns into a monitored drive out of Oldfallow. Drop it and the regeneration is done on the spot, with running data verified once it is done.
Both reports are sent by email, so the figures from either end are kept. The second diagnostic is what verifies the change, puts out the light and notes whatever is still outstanding.
Where treatment is not the answer
Treatment fixes one thing: a filter clogged with soot and ash. It does little for:
- the wrong signal from a temperature sensor
- a stuck-open EGR valve
- a failure in the AdBlue system
- glow plugs or injectors blocking the regeneration completing whatsoever
- oil coming through the filter from a faulty turbo
That is what the first check is for. You are let know before all work starts, not after you have handed over, should it turns out to be one of those.
Two things more worth knowing. Having the filter cut out is not a solution — a vehicle without a functioning DPF will fail its MOT and driving it is against the law. And cleaning is sometimes searched for as DPF renewal: nothing is swapped, your original filter is cleaned in place and sent back into use.
DPF cleaning costs across Oldfallow
Treatment starts from £299, with the call-out charge on top of that for every visit — it pays for the call-out, the booking, the checks and the advice.
No flat rate would be truthful, so the figure is agreed over the phone once we have the vehicle and what the filter is likely to need. Two separate things shift it: what you run, and where you are — Oldfallow itself, out at West Chadsmoor, or farther out within the WS postcode area.
You are not charged for treatment that the check says will not help. The call-out charge still holds, because the visit, the diagnostic and the advice have happened.
Aftercare is taken in by a 30-day warranty: should the light reappear within it, an engineer returns to Oldfallow.
Very professional. Was at my house within 2 hours of making the booking. Explained everything very pleasant manner. would highly recommend.
The team wee extremely helpful. Ashley the engineer was very professional and carried out a fantastic service on my car. Would definitely recommend DPF Fixer to anyone.
A friendly and professional service, I was particularly impressed with the stress placed on understanding the way in which the exhaust emission control system works and the importance of regularly topping up the AdBlue tank.
Where we reach around Oldfallow, and what we clean
A single call-out service covers private cars, vans of any size and light commercials, heavy goods vehicles, construction and plant machinery and farm vehicles, and on every one the filter is done in place rather than carried anywhere.
Oldfallow is rarely a special trip: our engineers are along Lansbury Drive week in week out, and the same run picks up West Chadsmoor, Chadsmoor and the villages out past Cannock. It is the schedule, not the distance, that picks whether it is today or tomorrow, and coverage extends UK-wide — so phone still from further out through Staffordshire.
The area around Oldfallow
Oldfallow is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated approximately 8.6 miles from Lichfield and 115.5 miles northwest of London. Oldfellow is not the correct term, Oldfallow sits in a relatively high position at 183 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Oldfallow is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with nearby neighbourhoods including Broomhill and West Chadsmoor.
Usual questions on DPF cleaning in Oldfallow
- Can I just take it for a long drive?
- If you catch it early enough, and the motor is not in limp mode, sometimes. Ten minutes to Your Coop Food and back will not be enough; motorway speed, held for a stretch, will.
- The visit runs how long?
- Count on typically around 2 hours, with a second clean adding to that where the filter is severely blocked.
- What does it come to around Oldfallow?
- Beginning from £299, with a charge for travelling that pays for the check and advice on what to do next. The vehicle and your address both change the price, so we price on the phone.
- Do I have to be there?
- No. The car wants space to stand for a couple of hours; you need not stand with it. Wanting to be there is no problem: the regeneration then is done out on the move, monitored.
- When can someone travel to Oldfallow?
- It is often same-day or next-day, depending on what is now in the schedule. One ring to 0303 330 1830 and you will hear what the WS area has free.
- The filter — does it come off the motor?
- Not on the on-site service — it is done where it is. Getting a filter off or bolting one back on come to anything work we do whichever way.
- The light returns — then what?
- Covered by the 30-day warranty: aftercare, and an engineer coming back to Oldfallow.
Have a DPF clean booked around Oldfallow
Call 0303 330 1830 and say what the vehicle is doing — a light, limp mode, smoke, whatever it is. You will know a figure and a date before anyone leaves for Oldfallow. Anything emailed to enquiries@dpf-fixer.co.uk out of hours is picked up first thing.
SafeContractor approved, SSIP Approved, ISO 9001 certified and ISO 14001 certified, and any engineer carries public liability insurance.
Mobile DPF Cleaner is a trading name of DPF Fixer Ltd, which is rated 4.5 out of 5 from 1,989 reviews on Trustpilot. The rating is held by DPF Fixer Ltd.