Nissan X Trail 2005 Diesel

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Florene Pothoven

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Aug 3, 2024, 5:17:34 PM8/3/24

to grahliensureas

I bought a one year old Xtrail a couple of months ago. I had done about 2k miles including a lot of towing and it performed great, but I then took it recently to the Isle of Mull with the van and the DPF light came on after about 500 miles solo driving on the island, which means you have to drive at 50mph+ until it goes out. Not easy on an Island with mainly single track roads. I did succed in getting it to go out, but it then came back (still on the Island) about 500miles later. again I got it to go out. Do these filters block up more quickly on low speed / power use? I am not happy with this as it seems to prevent me from taking the car to remote areas.

The sting in the tail is that if you can not get the light to go out it goes into limp home mode and you have to go to a Nissan dealer. The nearest one would have been Dumbarton which was 2 ferries and 2 hours drive away. Plus a cost of between 100 - 250 to "regenerate " the filter

I wonder if the speed needed for the X-Trail is >50km/h which would be more achievable. However to maintain even this minimum speed on a small island for 20mins is not going to be easy!

My father-in-law bought a 2nd user Ford Galaxy with DPF that was faulty (changed under warranty fortunately) and the dash light kept coming on despite him following the regeneration procedure to the letter a number of times.

All the Citroen/Peugeot HDI engines have the dreaded diesel particulate filter and eventually every diesel engine will be required to have something similar so that it can meet Euro1V and EuroV emmission levels. My C5 went in for MOT recently and recorded a zero reading on the smoke test - thanks to the dpf.

The PSA regeneration system seems to be different to that of Nissan. On Citroen/Pug engines a software programme in the engine control unit does the regeneration of the filter automatically every 300 or so miles depending on the level of clogging pressure across the filter. While regeneration takes place, incoming air is no longer cooled by the intercooler but is instead heated to raise the temperature of the exhaust gases. In addition, Citroen and Peugeot HDI's have a fuel additive called Eolys fluid and a measured amount of fluid is injected into the diesel tank at each fillup. The Eolys tank contains 3 litres of cerine based fluid and is said to be good for 100000 miles. Eventually, the dpf becomes blocked with the ash from the Eolys fluid and only then does the lights flash and the messages appear, shortly followed by 'limp-home mode'.

Is'nt it stupid that you have to burn fuel to save the planet! Neil, I did notice the computer read out mph drop, I assumed it was the speed, but I suppose the ECU is overfueling the engine to heat up the exhaust, there is a warning in the handbook about high exhaust temperatures.

p. s. what I am trying to find out is, can you burn off the soot at any time - a fast motorway trip, or, as I assume it only happens whan the DPF light is on and the ECU is overfueling causing the exhaust gasses to get much hotter than normal.

FWIW we have a 2006 XT, bought 18 months ago with about 6k on the clock, done about 24k since, whole range of driving from town, towing & motorway, and never seen the DPF light. I suspect that having a heavy right foot somehow helps with this, and I'd agree with the earlier post of driving at higher revs rather than aiming to get up to 50mph. I don't see how road speed can make a difference, surely it is engine speed that is important here?