What is it and what does it do?
Simply put a DPF is a soot trap, trapping and storing harmful soot particles in a filter in the exhaust. Because the filter only has a certain capacity, once the soot has accumulated to its determined threshold calculated by the Engine Control Unit (ECU) it must be burnt off. However, this can only be done under certain operating conditions and these must be fulfilled before a burn-off will begin. Frequent short trips will hinder this process. If the ECU continually cannot fulfil its burn-off requirements it may eventually bring a warning light on your dashboard and cause the vehicle to go into a ‘limp-home mode’.