Kia do offer a 7 year warranty which shows confidence in the product but remember that it's worthless without a full main dealer service history, it's nearly impossible to claim on without it despite what others may tell you. You have to prove it's been serviced according to manufacturer guidelines which is near impossible to do if it's been done outside the dealer network.

Three things:

Kia's 7 year warranty does not cover the DPF if it blocks up due to missed regens, inapropriate use etc. The DPF is covered for 7 years against manufacturing defects like all exhaust components.

Kia's warranty T & C's clearly states that you are allowed to service out of the dealer network but they state that proof must be provided in the form of an invoice that shows OEM parts and been used and the service schedule was followed to the letter.

I bet a days beer money (not much since I don't drink) that all the cars that Kia refuse warranty cover on fail to meet the T & C's. If the owners were so sure they had met them and had proof they should take it further, I know I would. But I can garantee you that like all manufacturers Kia will give no goodwill for cars out of warranty if they have been serviced out of the network.

What I said:

"Kia's warranty T & C's clearly states that you are allowed to service out of the dealer network but they state that proof must be provided in the form of an invoice that shows OEM parts and been used and the service schedule was followed to the letter."

What you said:

"Kia will not honor any warranty claim where the car has been serviced outside the dealer network unless the owner can show receipts for all manufacturer parts used and proof the servicing garage followed Kia's service programme exact to the word including any manufacturer software updates and recalls."

Thanks for repeating what I said.

Your comment regarding sofware updates and recalls is correct. We had a "campaign update" on our Ceed CRDi which was to protect the DPF. Basically it did regens more frequently after (250 miles instead of 300 miles) but the engine was also much more flexible and smoother running at lower revs after the update. But on the Kia site people were refusing to have the update carried out by their dealer claiming their car was OK so why risk spoiling it.

Buyer beware as always.

However, the info all on the dash, you can display state of DPF and trigger a regen when suitable...there its so simple it's almost breathtaking, OK so such info might mean absolutely nothing to many white goods type car buyers and some might do more harm than good with it,

When we bought the Ceed back in 2010 I asked the Service Manager when we chatted waiting for a bill why a simple traffic light system could not be fitted showing DPF health along with a switch to trigger a regen at a convenient time. Lets be honest, there must be very few of us who could not manage to carry out a regen every 250 miles or so on a 20 minute run out of town (which was basically what the Kia system -but it did but not always do it at a convenient time, sometimes the regen started just as you drove onto the street).

His answer was simple and basically distilled down to "most owners are thick". They take no notice of warning lights until its too late, gauges might as well be hidden in the boot. All they want to do is put fuel in and drive. Take as an example the Kia service requirements at the time, for a diesel every 12 months or 20,000 miles (they used expensive C3 DPF friendly fully synth long life oil). Not difficult to understand (probably as simple as it gets) but every day he had the same discussion with owners who were convinced that since they only did 4000 miles a year it only required servicing every 5 years.

So while such a system would work for us and many boardroom members as said above for the vast majority it would be a wast of time.

Any suggestion of driver effected DPF is therefore impractical when you have such basic ignorance.

I believe this is more a generational thing, that one possibly affected by the''money grows on trees'' virus, where those brought up in reality might be more inclined to take care of things.

I'm sure if the driver was paid a salary bonus (this assuming it was a company car) to check the oil weekly it would be done willingly, as it is, no one, and that sadly including those who should know better (or maybe take a bit of pride in whatever they do), can't be bothered.

To be fair though, she did stop, which is more than many would have done.

I take Skidpans point about so many car users being thick when it comes to anything mechanical, but the system wouldn't be available to such people, as it is we are, as is normal in this country, at lowest common denominator point where one size fits all.

Edited by gordonbennet on 19/11/2016 at 07:43

I take Skidpans point about so many car users being thick when it comes to anything mechanical, but the system wouldn't be available to such people, as it is we are, as is normal in this country, at lowest common denominator point where one size fits all.

If such a system were an option I would probably buy another diesel today (going to sign a deal on a new motor later) since I do enough trips of over 20 miles/30 minutes to carry out a regen but experience shows that the car will normally decide to start a regen just as I am leaving a motorway or pulling onto the drive.

But who would decide if the "user" got a system enabling them to carry out regens when most convenient. Would you have to sit an exam to prove you know about DPF's?

I do diagnostics and ask people how long the engine light has been on - "six months" in one case

We had a MD who had more degrees than you could shake a stick at but when it came to cars he did not have a clue. Got a new Avensis, ran out of fuel within 3 miles of taking delivery, then at 6 months ran it out of oil at which point the engine fault light lit up never to be extinguished while he had the car (another 2.5 years). Some poor sod eventually bought that car, some low life back street dealer probably took out the bulb.

Caulkheads!

Gurt zote buffle-headed sort o’fellers … and they talk of “overners” and “grockles”!

So it seems that in this environment if you own a diesel with DPF you are unlikely to be able to give it the high rev treatment DPF owners are recommended to do regularly.

Yet dealers there still sell diesel cars to residents and I would guess a lot of them don't know of this issue.

DPF's do not need "high rev treatment" to regenerate. All makes have slightly different recommenation but the 2 DPF equipped diesels we have had have both been 1500 to 2000 rpm for approx 20 minutes once a regen has started. We found in one car that at 60 mph in 6th on the motorway a regen would take less time than at 70 mph and that same car would quite happilly do a regen driving home across town for Tesco, again about 20 minutes.

Owners cannot make the car do a regen, the ECU decides when and normally its at an inconvenient time/place.

All high revs do is produce more soot particles which clog the DPF up faster. Its an urban myth that revs/gas speed blow the soot out, the soot is bonded to the matix in the DPF and only a regen will shift it. There was an idiot on the Kia forum who refused to accept that his method of never using 5th and 6th gears would not prolong the life of the DPF. All he was doing was wasting fuel, producing more soot and blocking the DPF.

Our last car did a regen every 300 miles (250 after an ECU update) so you would pretty much know when it was due. The type of driving was irrelevant, it would do 2 regens on a 400 mile motorway trip if they were due by mileage.

Edited by skidpan on 23/12/2016 at 16:02