DPF Temp Sensor Location

[Mark4190]

Hi All,

This is my first time posting here.

I have a 2010 Avensis 2.2 D4D Estate which is all in all a great car, it owes me absolutely nothing after purchasing it from  a family friend last year and has been a reliable motorway machine over the last 12 months!

Unfortunately though it now has the dreaded blocked DPF issue, I had the issue about 3 months ago but I managed to clear it with some 4K RPM driving down the motorway and a bottle of CataClean but due to my commute on the M60 the issue has come back. I have been recommended by a friend who works in the auto trade that a bottle of Normfest DPF100 will do a better job at cleaning the DPF than any fuel additive as it's sprayed directly in the DPF.

It's worth saying I have had it professional diagnosed and have been quoted £300-500 for a fix so if I can spend £25 and it last 6 months it's worth it in my eyes.

I am wondering if anyone can point my in the direction of the DPF temp sensor probe and if so could it be accessed without having access to a ramp?

Any help is much appreciated.

Apologies if this this in the wrong section.

Cheers!

[furtula]

Easiest would be to go to japan-parts.eu, enter your VIN there, and find the DPF, so you can see where the sensor is.

 

[Mark4190]

Thanks for your reply, I'll give that a go!

Has anyone had any experience with any foam/aerosol sprayed directly into the DPF to clear soot deposits? Any success stories?

[Gerg]

I'm likely telling you stuff you already know, but, just in case....

I don't have a Toyota diesel, and I'm no expert on this, but I think it's worth figuring out if you have :-

1. A DPF that is blocked with soot (most likely). 

In ideal conditions the soot would normally be managed by a mix of passive regeneration (through high engine speed/load), or an active 'regeneration' involving the deliberate overfuelling of the engine (so using excess diesel as an accelerant to get the DPF really hot:  ~ 500 - 600 degrees C), which will convert the soot (bulky) into ash (much, much less bulky).  The soot is not supposed to stay unburned in the DPF for long, but the ash is caught in the filter further down, and stored.

Or,

2. A higher mileage (100,000+ miles) DPF that has collected the ash produced from repeated regenerations (soot incineration), and may now be full of ash - which the manufacturer would have expected to need a DPF replacement as a high-cost service item. 

(1) Would require a different cleaning approach to the DPF being full of ash (2).  It also may be brought about by another, underlying, engine problem.  e.g. You clean/replace the DPF and the fault returns soon after, because the engine is unable to successfully, actively regenerate through, say, a pressure sensor fault.  So the soot will never get turned to ash when an active regen. is needed and the DPF will block up again.

(2) Can come about through normally operating engine reaching a higher mileage.  A successful (usually off-car) cleaning puts you back to a similar position as a new DPF, hopefully.  Some companies claim success with removal (exhaust dismantling) and ultrasonic cleaning/jet washing the DPF.

This link I just quickly found might add some insight (although the writer has put a simple mistake in the first sentence, but it seems good otherwise) :-

https://www.hartridge.com/blog/3-differences-between-doc-dpf-and-scr-filters

Hopefully this might help explain what your cleaner spray is trying to do.

How many miles has the car done?

Excuse the long post!  Happy to be corrected on any of this, of course.

 

[Mark4190]

The car has done 145K, I know very high! Motorway miles has been most of it's milage.

[furtula]

Even if your commute is slower, you can always downshift to a lower gear to get desired RPM's for cleaning the cat.

There's no need for the car to be going high speed for this.