[Oliver87]

Hey, so I've bought my first bm. It's a 2011 318d anyway it's sticking a fair amount of white/ light grey smoke out and it smells a bit from the exhaust. From what I've read it looks like the dpf could have been removed, just wondering if I'm getting the right end of the stick or not really. Or if it's more likely to be something else? As I'm a massive newbie not only to BMW's but also to diesels I'm probably way off the mark and would appreciate any input.

[therealdb1]

Welome to the forum and BMW ownership.

You could ask the previous owner what they have done to it if you do not have the facility to interrogate the car yourself.

If you purchased the car from a dealer take it back to them and see what they say. If the DPF has been removed they should not have let you drive away in it.

[Oliver87]

Thank you, I'm gonna drop it by the garage on Saturday and get them to see what the deal is, I'm hoping it's an dpf delete and nothing more sinister.

[aaronblack]

Welcome to the forum and BMW!

To my knowledge as long as you're not losing coolant the white smoke can be condensation. Does it still give out smoke when fully warm?

[Tambohamilton]

Originally Posted by therealdb1

Welome to the forum and BMW ownership.

You could ask the previous owner what they have done to it if you do not have the facility to interrogate the car yourself.

If you purchased the car from a dealer take it back to them and see what they say. If the DPF has been removed they should not have let you drive away in it.

+1. DPF is an MOT requirement for your car, so the garage shouldn't have (aka it's illegal for them to) sold you a car without it.

White smoke doesn't sound great though - double check for any signs of coolant consumption, water/oil mixing etc.

My partner has a 118d, and it runs clean as a whistle - no smoke, nothing. Never touches a drop of oil or coolant. Not saying they'll all be exactly like this, but I think that's what yours *should* be like

Good luck with it!

[Silver Streek]

As above, mine doesn't smoke at all, all smoke is generally captured by the dpf. The only thing I see is the white steam which is water vapour when the engine is warming up as on all cars petrol or diesel. All clean when the engine is warm.

On a diesel white smoke is generally either water (steam) or unburned diesel.

[Oliver87]

So I'd bought the car privately, and took it to a friendly local garage for its initial check up and a few odds and ends doing (service oil and filter brakes and a wheel bearing stuff like that) so I took it back there and asked what they thought. They said the dpf was definitely present and they thought it was just the dpf trying to do a regen since it could have been stood before I got it and I hadn't really taken it on a proper run and it's not managing to do a full cycle. So they said get on dual carriageway and keep a steady 50+ with at least 3000 revs and it should clear. After about 1/2 hour or so doing that (it could have cleared before to be fair) it was clear and hasn't done any smoking since. I'll update if it comes back but hopefully it's all good now. Thanks for the welcome and help.

[Tambohamilton]

3000rpm!? 2000 would be plenty. I'll pull up the info on regens from ista sometime... Basically you need the engine to be fully up to temperature and cruising with some load for a reasonable length of time for passive or active regens to complete. If everything is in decent nick, it shouldn't give you any issues.

Gladd it's running better now at least!

[rasa bmw]

as above ,also check your coolant temps via hidden menu,,should get over 88 degres to 95 degrees,,if it dont then stats/stat are needed..no need to drive holding gear and revs high,,will still regen with coolant above 75 degrees ,but for car to be running properly and mpg etc,,needs to be getting to correct temp..

[btslo]

You can install this and check when the last regen was performed and the condition of your DPF: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...l.expert&hl=sl (need an OBD adapter though)

[Oliver87]

So after the long motorway trip to get it to regen everything seemed ok for a while then it started playing silly buggers again, my mechanic said he would pull it out and clean it manually, it wasn't going like it should so he cut it open to have a better look, then rang me saying I've got good and bad news (naturally I browned myself and ran straight round) he showed me the dpf and the thing looked well over 95% blocked and he then showed me the other side (the cat or cat like thing just before the filter) it looked like melted cheese. So good news definitely dpf causing issues bad news to far gone to bother saving and needs a new unit. I ordered a new unit it's been put in and completely problem free so far. He reckoned the diesel for the regen wasn't getting into the dpf because it was too blocked and was happening before which caused the melted cheese effect. It's like driving a completely different car now so I'm a happy camper. Thanks for everyone's input on the issue 👍

[Tambohamilton]

Glad it's running well again.

Do keep an eye on it though; dpf issues are seldom caused by the dpf itself. They're normally caused by (at best) a lot of short journeys preventing regens or at worst bad turbo etc causing excessive soot which the dpf can't regen fast enough. It may be worth checking that regens are running as expected for a while, to rule out something else going wrong...assuming there are no other fault codes being thrown. Good luck!

[Oliver87]

Cars done 200k engine has been replaced 20k ago with one that had supposedly done 80k dpf was original though, only other code it threw up straight after the dpf being replaced and the car being told it had a new one was an egr, it's since cleared. I'm gonna order a new egr in the next month for piece of mind though mate.

[Rich_D]

Take it for a spirited drive, stop, let it idle for a couple of minutes, if it stinks there is no DPF, my old 330d was awful TBH