DPF Cleaning FAQs

It is the process of removing the soot and ash that builds up inside your diesel particulate filter over time. Clear the blockage and the filter, and your engine, breathe properly again.

Our mobile clean and diagnostic runs £220 to £275, depending on make, model, how badly the filter is blocked and your location. Either way it is a fraction of a replacement DPF, which can run into the thousands.

We do a standalone diagnostic health check for £150. Same full 12-point check we run on every job, plus a written report telling you exactly what is wrong and what it will cost. No clean, no obligation. Useful for a second opinion before you pay another garage, or when the warning light is on and nobody has told you why. See the diagnostic health check →

Most cleans are done in 60 to 90 minutes, depending on how badly the filter is blocked.

No. Done properly, it is completely safe and actually protects your engine by restoring correct airflow and backpressure. The risk sits with cheap DIY methods, not a proper professional clean.

Usually, yes, when the limp mode is caused by a blocked DPF. Worth knowing: active regeneration will not start while the car is in limp mode, so the filter cannot clear itself. That is exactly where our forced regeneration comes in.

Yes. The whole service is mobile. We come to your home, your workplace or the roadside and clean the filter while it stays on the vehicle.

Often, yes. A clean DPF lowers your emissions and clears soot-related warning lights, both of which help at MOT time. If there is a separate mechanical fault, we will tell you honestly.

It resolves the ones caused by soot buildup, which is most of them. If a light points to a different fault, our diagnostics will find it and we will explain what is needed.

We assess it honestly first. If a filter is genuinely past saving, we tell you straight and talk you through replacement or a referral. We will never charge you for a clean that was never going to work.

As a rough guide, every 150,000 miles or whenever your driving conditions call for it. Lots of short, cold, stop-start journeys clog a DPF faster than long motorway runs.

Cars, vans, taxis, light commercial vehicles and fleets. Diesel DPF systems are what we do all day.

Yes. Every job comes with a 30-day performance warranty. If the same issue returns within 30 days because of our service, we come back and re-inspect it free of charge.

We are based in Watford and cover Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex and North West London, out to Milton Keynes, Oxford, Reading, Guildford and Cambridge. If you are somewhere between those, send your postcode and we will confirm. See our Hertfordshire page for the full town list.