Early in my life I decided that adopting new technology early was for those with money to burn and people who liked to be guinea pigs and pay for the priviedge. (Rather than be paid)

It's a policy which has saved me loadsofmoney and loadsof hassle. Who cares if your phone is 5 years old, or your camera was designed in 2009 or your car was first sold in 2012? By waiting a few years, prices on new tech fall - often a LOT- bugs are ironed out and consumer reports warn you of issues.

A no brainer..

Edited by madf on 27/08/2018 at 14:13

I don't see it as much of a problem as others do.

1. Petrol engines produce a lot fewer particulates than diesels - even the modern direct injection petrol cars (which are supposedly the worst for this) produce a tiny fraction of the particulates to be 'trapped' by the filter, compared to diesels.

2. Petrol engines warm up a lot quicker than diesels. My (2.0) 325d takes at least 6 miles for the temp guage to even start to move, whereas the 2.0 petrol Z4 is fully up to temperature within that distance, and the guage starts moving within 2 miles.

3. Petrol engines, as we know, generally produce less torque than diesels. So the engine has to be worked harder through the rev range, whereas you can be lazy with a diesel, and let the torque at low revs do a lot of the work. So the petrol engine (and thus it's exhaust system) gets up to temperature more quickly, aiding in passive regen of the far fewer particulates.

Who knows, I may be completely wrong though !

A PPF is very different to a DPF in many respects. Diesel particulates are very different to petrol particulates and the way a petrol engine operates is very different to a diesel.

This means that (as I understand it) the PPF burns off particulate matter constantly since the petrol exhaust runs much hotter than a diesel exhaust which means no diesel type regens.

And since they operate under different conditions a replacement PPF is far cheaper than a DPF when eventually (as with all exhaust components) a replacement is required. I have seen estimates between £25 and £150 which is nothing to get too worried about.

But having said all that we made sure that we got the new Fabia TSi before VAG fitted PPF's (or GPF's in some languages), its one less thing to worry about.

It's just another money racket to oppress the motorist.

No, it's to stop particulate to get into the envronment and into your lungs...

Did yu have the same views about teh introduction of ctalysts on petrol cars?

One long term thing that would worry me - as a petrol car gets older and starts burning oil then the smaller petrol particulate filters may quickly fail.

PPF and ultra long service intervals will be an interesting combo then

I changed my Golf TDI in June this year for a brand new Hyundai i30 T1.4 GDI petrol as my daily commute had drastically reduced to just 3 miles each way with a longer run at weekends of up to 20 miles. Have been using regular fuel (not supermarket) and there’s now just 3k on the clock. On my way home today a warning light popped up which I quickly deduced to be exhaust emissions. Whipped out the handbook and eventually came across advice on regeneration of the PPF tucked away at the back to drive the car in 3rd gear and 50mph for at least 30 minutes. Promptly did a motorway run and light finally went out after 30 minutes.

Wasn’t expecting this issue at all on a modern petrol car. I’m sure that lots of owners wouldn’t be able to find the advice that’s in the handbook (it’s nearly 500 pages! with no quick reference guide for essential items but lots of tips on not to drink and drive and ensure that passengers wear their seatbelts!!) and of course the dealer never mentioned it. Now going to switch to BP Ultimate petrol and give my car a weekly Italian tune-up on the motorway. Seems ironic though with all the fuel saving devices fitted to my car that I have to race it for 20 miles in 3rd gear just to keep the filter clean!

Apparently direct injection petrol engines can produce significant amounts of particulates and NOx. Does anyone know if a GPF can be fitted to a car built without one? I suspect not from what I have read. It looks as if by buying a new car in March, I missed the GPF by six months or so.

Definitely not, the engines and the control systems will be very different. In the case of VAG they have replaced the 1.4 TSi with the 1.5 TSI since the old engine would not comply.

We bought our Fabia in March to specifically avoid the PPF, not because we want to polute but because I expected delivery delays (very true it turns out) and a price rise (true as well). We paid £12000 for the Fabia after discount and contributions from Carfile, the exact same car is now £14350, the only difference is the PPF.

Just enjoy your car.

For the record Skoda are referring to the PPF as the OPF (Otto Particulate Filter). No idea if the other VAG companies are doing the same.

Apparently direct injection petrol engines can produce significant amounts of particulates and NOx. Does anyone know if a GPF can be fitted to a car built without one? I suspect not from what I have read. It looks as if by buying a new car in March, I missed the GPF by six months or so.

Definitely not, the engines and the control systems will be very different. In the case of VAG they have replaced the 1.4 TSi with the 1.5 TSI since the old engine would not comply.

We bought our Fabia in March to specifically avoid the PPF, not because we want to polute but because I expected delivery delays (very true it turns out) and a price rise (true as well). We paid £12000 for the Fabia after discount and contributions from Carfile, the exact same car is now £14350, the only difference is the PPF.

Just enjoy your car.

For the record Skoda are referring to the PPF as the OPF (Otto Particulate Filter). No idea if the other VAG companies are doing the same.

Any new update ????

Update about what?

Edited by Avant on 04/03/2019 at 17:40

You'd be better looking at a forum specific to these vehicles or one for American vehicles.

brand new Hyundai i30 T1.4 GDI petrol

Whipped out the handbook and eventually came across advice on regeneration of the PPF tucked away at the back to drive the car in 3rd gear and 50mph for at least 30 minutes. Promptly did a motorway run and light finally went out after 30 minutes.

Does this sound familiar re the diesel DPF HJ was always advising wasting your time and fuel gunning the life out of your diesel to clear the DPF and now a major manufacturer has buried the info in their handbook for their petrol cars!

BMW enthusiast does have a point about modern diesel exhausts. I have long noticed how clean they can appear as apposed to petrol. In fact some BMW 320d tail pipes just seem to show pure metal and no trace at all of soot so they must be running pretty clean

Maybe they are just booting it all the time? After all, it IS a BMW. If you want to drive slowly, you don't buy one of them, do you?

Seriously though - my Mazda3 nearly 14yo 1.6 petrol has a clean tail pipe - that's more a sign that the car mainly does longer journeys that the engine is fully warmed up. It could be that, other thanm bootin it, those you've seen are owned by people who bought a diesel for the right reasons and used it appropriately, nothing more.