Week, Devon: Mobile DPF Cleaning
Cleaning the DPF happens at the vehicle, not at a workshop. Your car is not taken off and the filter does not budge. A technician arrives at your place across Week, cleans the diesel particulate filter on the motor and carries out a DPF regeneration.
You'll know a price by phone before anyone departs, the clean opening from £299, and the visit taking typically around 2 hours.
The light is showing and the motor is short of power — that is how we usually meet people, and what this page deals with.
The DPF light is on. What now?
First thing: it is not always the unit. That light can come from a number of faults, not merely one, so the visit begins with a scan and not with treatment.
The use you do in the meantime matters. That is the second thing.
- Worth a shot before you ring anything: amber light, vehicle driving fine, just one constant run, no charge.
- A drive will not shift it now — limp mode means that window has already gone.
- A diesel smell in there, or black smoke under hard acceleration, is the point to stop booking long drives and book it in.
Signs the car has been showing you
Symptoms have usually been growing for some time before the light even appears. Late news, in other words:
- less power, particularly climbing uphill
- revs that will not pull the way they once did
- the fuel consumption is down
- a stop/start that has meekly given up
- smoke under the throttle, or a diesel smell inside
That is not conclusive by itself. With the light, it is a fair bet the filter is full.
Choked diesel particulate filters round Week, and the why
Week is a rural hamlet, and the motoring that belongs to one is the worst kind for a DPF. Look at a normal week: East Worlington Primary School and back, West Burridge Cross at a halt before nine, a five-minute run to Sainsbury's, a hop to Kings Nympton. None of it there runs long enough or is hot enough to see through a regeneration. The soot collects rather than burning off.
Neither is distant from Week: under 25 miles to the M5, under 25 miles to Exeter. Neither is on the way to anywhere most weeks, though, so the run that would scour a filter hardly ever gets made.
The moment a DPF regeneration can no longer run
Limp mode is the motor looking after itself. A sustained drive works by starting a regeneration, and that is just what limp mode rules out: power limited, revs kept low, no regeneration on offer.
Running it up the motorway is the usual advice, and it holds right up to a point. The filter needs cleaning rather than road work once the car has slipped into limp mode.
On-site DPF cleaning where the car stands across Week
The filter does not leave it. That is the bit most owners do not expect: the job is done with the DPF yet bolted to the motor, on your front, in a work car park, anywhere the car can sit for a while.
Nothing is started until other faults are ruled out. That requires a check first: real-time data off the ECU, soot load by percentage and by actual weight, and a check of the sensor readings, glow plugs and associated parts.
A cleaning fluid next is injected through the entry point on that vehicle, expanding inside the filter to lift soot and ash a regeneration alone will never shift. Sometimes a filter is blocked enough to require doing twice.
A regeneration follows, driving off what the clean has lifted. If you are there, that is done as a monitored drive out of Week; if not, statically where the car sits, with the real-time data verified afterwards.
Both read-outs are sent by email, so the figures from either end are kept. The second check is what verifies the change, clears the light and notes whatever is still showing.
Where a clean is not the fix
A filter clogged with soot and ash is the one thing cleaning fixes. It will not reach:
- temperature or pressure sensors flagging a block that is not there
- EGR valves that hang open
- the AdBlue system going wrong
- glow plugs or injectors blocking the regeneration starting in the first place
- turbo problems, with oil getting into the filter
Which is why the check comes first. Turning out to be one of them means hearing it before work gets going, not after handing over for it.
A couple more worth bearing in mind. Leaving the filter gutted is not a solution — a vehicle without a functioning DPF cannot pass its MOT and driving it is against the law. And cleaning is sometimes searched for as DPF renewal: nothing is exchanged, your own filter is treated in place and sent back into use.
The price of DPF cleaning in Week
A call-out charge applies whatever follows, and covers the visit, the booking fee, the scan and the advice given. Treatment itself begins from £299.
The figure is settled on the phone, once we know the vehicle and what the filter is apt to need. No flat rate could be truthful. Two things shift it: what you run, and where you are — Week itself, over at Romansleigh, or otherwise out in the EX postcode area.
If the diagnostic rules treatment out, there is not a penny to pay for it. The call-out charge still holds, because the visit, the scan and the advice have been done.
If the light reappears inside that window, an engineer heads back out to Week — the work carries a 30-day warranty including aftercare.
Recently had the DPF cleaned by Liam. Good communication throughout, and he clearly answered all questions. The van is now up and running nicely.
Great service, friendly technician identified issue and explained what was needed to have done, when this was done he would come back to reclean system.
Fantastic service, extremely quick at coming out. The engineer was absolutely brilliant, showed me all the fault codes and explained everything. Highly recommended.
What we clean, and how far we go around Week
Whatever it is — private car, panel van, light commercial, HGV, plant, construction machinery, agricultural machine — the very same call-out service holds, and the filter never departs it.
The same run that has engineers on West Burridge Cross most weeks covers Week, Romansleigh, West Worlington and the spots beyond Meshaw. Coverage is UK-wide, so even further out through Devon is nonetheless worth a ring, and what settles between today and tomorrow is the calendar rather than the distance.
About Week
Week is a small hamlet in inland Devon, situated near the villages of Odam Barton and Cheldon, at an elevation of around 154 metres. Week lies within the wider countryside of the South West region, approximately 18.8 miles from the city of Exeter. Week is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Week is a relatively small community, with a population of around 272 residents.
Questions Week drivers ask about DPF cleaning
- Is a long drive enough on its own?
- Sometimes, if you spot it early enough and the motor has not dropped into limp mode. Ten minutes to Sainsbury's and back will not do it; motorway speed, kept for some time, will.
- Does the visit last long?
- That is typically around 2 hours, though a heavily clogged filter can require cleaning twice, which runs on.
- Cost in Week — what is it?
- Beginning from £299, with a charge for travelling that pays for the check and advice on what to do next. Both the vehicle and where you are change it, which is why quoting goes by phone.
- Have I got to be present?
- Nobody expects you to stand with it — the vehicle only wants space to wait for a couple of hours. If you would sooner come along, the regeneration can be carried out as a watched drive instead.
- How soon can someone travel to Week?
- You are in for often same-day or next-day, though it depends what is now in the calendar. One call to 0303 330 1830 and you will hear what the EX area has open.
- The filter — does it come away from the vehicle?
- It is treated where it sits, on the on-site service. That job — a filter off, a filter back on — is not something we do.
- And if the light comes back?
- Taken in by the 30-day warranty: aftercare, and an engineer heading back to Week.
Booking a DPF clean in Week
Phone 0303 330 1830 and set out what the vehicle is doing: light, limp mode, smoke, whatever it is. Before anyone sets off for Week, you will be given both a price and a time. Beyond phone hours, email enquiries@dpf-fixer.co.uk and it is picked up first thing.
Full public liability cover is carried by all our engineers, and we are ISO 9001 certified, ISO 14001 certified, SafeContractor approved and SSIP Approved.
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.