DPF desperate help..

[missmove38]

I'll try & cut down months of hell.
I'm a childminder and bought a zafira 6 months or so ago. Quite new..62 plate tourer..low mileage,was chuffed to bits.
On picking it up within a week the DPF fault light had come on. I was advised to drive it to burn particles off.
This has happened on and off since I've had it. I broke down for the 3rd time last week and have had enough.
Vauxhall have charged me £500 to have it cleaned. It's gone wrong already. They say it's my style of driving? It's back there as I don't know what to do..I've complained to the hilt and am getting nowhere. I haven't got endless amounts of money to keep getting it cleaned.
Does anyone have a 62 plate2 litre one..any ideas?..help? Please?

What sort of driving do you do? If it's mostly short and stop-start journeys, then the unfortunately reality is that diesels with particulate filters are not appropriate for your needs. I suspect that if you've bought a low-mileage one then it's had years of this too.

Useful blog article here blog.greenflag.com/2014/diesel-drivers-need-know-dpf/

If getting rid of the car is not an option then replacing the whole DPF might be on the cards, along with throwing in a long high speed run every couple of weeks.

What PP said. I used to work for a garage as a service advisor and the amount of low mileage urban drivers bringing diesels in for this issue was ridiculous. They're just unsuitable for that kind of driving. We used to advise people who were unfortunately already stuck with an unsuitable car to do the occasional motorway/dual carriageway journey for 30 mins or so once a week. It's really not ideal and a very crappy solution but if this isn't possible then the fault will continue to occur ☹️

I had dpf problems with a completely different make and model of car. Had a new dpf which Cost me in the region of £1500, let alone the problem of inconvenience with work etc, but i still had problems with it. I was told the same thing, it's the way I drive etc. But that didn't add up to me.

Eventually the garage realised that it needs a dpf fluid too. Apparently some dpfs do, some don't. The garage said that their recognised "how to" computer system didn't have the fluid in for my type of car, and it was when he spoke to he dealership that it came to light.

Since he put that fluid in I haven't had a problem, so I would suggest asking the garage if they have topped up the dpf fluid.

Thanks for the replies.
Well my main argument was that I was never told when I bought it that I had to drive a certain way..surely there must be some sort of protocol on selling these cars if they can't be driven normally? Anyway as I said I've been arguing/breaking down for months..stressful is an understatement.
I don't know re the liquid I can ask. It's currently stuck at the garage still and turns out the EGR balance is faulty so they are replacing it.
I do also do 2-3 longish trips a week so am cross it's played up so much

You want to take you car to an engine mapper and get a dpf delete, solves the problem all together and it will not return.

Just be aware that removal is illegal but it works well and will solve your problem

Well I had a call off Vauxhall on Friday. They are willing to swap the car over for a 16 plate one with 11k miles on it. Not as good spec which is what I'm being picky over but do you think a good move? 1.4turbo petrol

Your only other options are

1. Keep getting it fixed
2. Sell it and buy a petrol car.

So if the garage deal is better than those options, then yes I'd go for it.

To be honest I'm impressed they are offering you this option. It's not the garage that need to check that people are buying cars that are suitable to their lifestyles.

Having it fixed isn't an option at a cost of £450 a time.
Selling it isn't an option as there isn't anything around and I'd lose too much money
The garage are being as useless as usual. So they make they're 'cut' they've bumped the car up ridiculously high. This means I've failed the finance and therefore I'm back to square 1. Totally fed up and feel like they've again wasted my time.