Tickham, Kent: Mobile DPF Cleaning
The vehicle remains in place — on-site DPF cleaning comes to it. No garage, no filter going anywhere. A fitter travels to your door over in Tickham, clears the diesel particulate filter where it is, performs a DPF regeneration, and you hold on to the filter you arrived with.
The visit takes typically around 2 hours, the clean starts from £299, and the number is agreed on the phone before anyone travels.
Written for the position most owners are in: the light showing, the car starved for power, and the job still to fix.
DPF light on? What happens next
First thing: it is not necessarily the unit. Plenty of faults put the same light on the identical dash, which is why a visit starts with a check rather than with a clean.
It matters what you manage with the motor between now and the booking.
- Car still driving fine on an amber light — attempt a long even run first. It costs nothing at all and regularly sorts the filter without a visit.
- That window has gone once the car has slipped into limp mode. A drive will not help now.
- Get it checked rather than driving it — diesel in the car, or smoke on acceleration, has gone well past the long-run stage.
The vehicle has been telling you already
By the time the light arrives, things have normally been going wrong for some time. It is last news:
- climbing uphill, the power tails off
- the revs no longer pull the way they used to
- the fuel economy is down
- without a word, the stop/start packs in
- diesel in the car, or smoke on the way up through the gearbox
None of that is evidence by itself. The light alongside them suggests a full filter.
Why diesel particulate filters clog near Tickham
Being a rural hamlet, Tickham produces just the motoring a DPF copes with worst. The school run to Lynsted and Norton Primary School, Nouds Lane at a crawl at half eight, a few minutes to Sainsbury's, the hop to Teynham — none of it runs long enough or gets hot enough for the filter to complete a regeneration. Instead of clearing, the unburnt soot builds up.
Where you sit does not assist either. The M2 is under 3 miles from Tickham and Canterbury is under 15 miles away, so unless something carries you out that way routinely, weeks slip past without the long steady run that could empty the filter alone.
DPF regeneration, and the stage limp mode ends it
The motor is defending itself, which is what limp mode amounts to. The entire catch is that a proper drive works by triggering a regeneration, and once in limp mode the revs will not pull and power is limited.
Running it up the motorway is the usual advice, and it holds as far as a point. Beyond that point — limp mode — road work will not be enough, and the filter requires a clean.
Where the car stands is where the DPF is treated across Tickham
The filter does not leave it. That is the detail most drivers do not anticipate: the job happens with the DPF still fitted to the motor, on your driveway, in a work car park, wherever the vehicle can stand for a few hours.
A scan happens first — running data off the ECU, soot load by percent and by weight, and a look over of the sensors, glow plugs and connected hardware, so other faults are ruled out before a thing is started.
Then comes the clean itself: cleaning fluid in through the car's own entry point, expanding inside the filter and freeing what a regeneration will not. A second pass is sometimes required on badly blocked filters.
What the clean has loosened is then driven off by a regeneration. Either it is done as a monitored drive out of Tickham, with you present, or it is done where the car sits and the real-time data is checked after.
A second check proves the change, resets the warning light and logs anything still outstanding. Both sets of figures are sent over, so you have the before and after figures recorded.
Where treatment is not the fix
Cleaning fixes one thing: a filter clogged with soot and ash. It does little for:
- the wrong figure from a temperature sensor
- an EGR valve held open
- the AdBlue system playing up
- a regeneration that simply never completes, because of glow plugs or injectors
- the turbo putting oil into the filter
Which is why the scan happens first. You are let know before all work begins, not after you have paid, should it turns out to be one of those.
Lastly, two things. A vehicle with the filter gutted fails its MOT, and driving it is illegal, so that is no remedy. What gets searched for as DPF renewal replaces nothing: your own filter is treated in place and goes back into work.
DPF cleaning costs around Tickham
Every visit attracts a call-out charge — getting to you, setting up the booking, carrying out the check and giving the advice. The clean itself starts from £299.
Publishing a flat rate would not be honest. We agree it over phone, once the vehicle and its expected needs are clear. What you run and where you are both shift it: Tickham itself, over at Loyterton, or otherwise out in the ME postcode area.
You are not billed for a clean that the scan says will not work. Because the visit, the diagnostic and the advice have taken place, the call-out charge still stands.
A 30-day warranty takes in aftercare on the work, and that includes an engineer heading back out to Tickham if the light comes back inside the period.
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%.
Daniel was very professional and honest. You should be proud to have him as a valuable team member. I will be willing to recommend DPF fixer to anyone that needs your service in the future. Thank you all so much Bobby.
Incredibly prompt arrival, the gentleman didn't want a brew at all he just got on with the job in hand. I was impressed with the lack of mess left behind, Definitely recommend them.
The vehicles we clean and the area we reach round Tickham
Cars and estates, panel vans and light commercials, HGVs, plant and construction machinery, agricultural vehicles — a single on-site service across all of them, and on all of them the filter is treated in place rather than carried anywhere.
The same round that keeps our engineers on Nouds Lane most weeks picks up Tickham, Loyterton, Norton Ash and the spots beyond Teynham. Farther out across Kent is even so worth phoning about — coverage is UK-wide, and it is the diary rather than the distance that decides between this day and the next.
The area around Tickham
Tickham is a small hamlet in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of around 45 metres, and is located near the villages of Lewson Street and Loyterton. Tickham lies approximately 11.8 miles from Canterbury and 42.6 miles from London, making it a rural community within commuting distance of larger cities. Tickham has a population of around 335 people, residing primarily in semi-detached houses.
Things Tickham drivers ask about DPF cleaning
- Will a long drive clear it?
- It may, provided you spot it early and limp mode has not begun. That means motorway speed for a steady run, rather than a short trip to Sainsbury's.
- The visit runs how long?
- Bank on typically around 2 hours, with a second clean adding to that where the filter is badly blocked.
- In Tickham, what does it come to?
- Opening from £299, with a charge for travelling that covers the diagnostic and advice on what to do next. The vehicle and your address both move the number, so we settle it on the phone.
- Have I have to be there?
- The motor wants a space for two hours or so. Nobody expects you to be in it. The regeneration can be carried out as a supervised drive if you would sooner come along.
- When can someone come to Tickham?
- It is often same-day or next-day, depending on what is currently in the diary. Ring 0303 330 1830 what is available across the ME area.
- The filter — does it leave the vehicle?
- On the on-site service, no: the filter is treated in place. Getting a filter off or bolting one back on come to anything a job we do either way.
- And if the light comes back?
- Aftercare comes inside the 30-day warranty, and that includes an engineer returning to Tickham.
Put a DPF clean booked around Tickham
Call 0303 330 1830 and set out what the motor is doing: light, limp mode, smoke, whatever it is. Nobody heads to Tickham before you have a figure and a date. If the lines are closed, enquiries@dpf-fixer.co.uk lands with us and gets dealt with first thing.
ISO 14001 certified, SafeContractor approved, ISO 9001 certified and SSIP Approved, and every engineer holds public liability insurance.
DPF Fixer Ltd is rated 4.5 out of 5 from 1,989 reviews on Trustpilot. Mobile DPF Cleaner is a trading name of DPF Fixer Ltd; the rating is held by DPF Fixer.