carrickally Posted June 25, 2009 Report Share Posted June 25, 2009 We have experienced, since Jan 09, a shudder at irregular intervals when driving our manual diesel SXT 6 speed. By mid-April, this had become of such a concern, and the dealership had been unable to replicate, that they called in an independent assessor who, after 10 days, experienced the same issue. Turns out it is the regeneration of the DPF being particularly noticeable in our Dodge. Since then, we were told that Chrylser were working on a fix, but there was no timescale. We asked for a replacement and some form of compensation due to the 26 days in 6 months we were without the car. Last week we went to leave off letters to the dealership, the manager actually appeared for the first time and told us straight off that they would have no problem replacing the car. We pointed out that we were also seeking reimbursement of our finance agreement payments for the six months that the car was causing difficulties as it was not fit for purpose, mainly as a high end bargaining chip. Yesterday, my wife called him and was told that we were getting a new car with an upgrade to a DVD player, take it or leave it. We're going to see the franchise manager today but had a long discussion last night and are fully prepared to take the Dealership to court over selling us a car that they were aware had an issue that had not been resolved (a bit of research shows up similar problems in other manufacturers on diesels with these DPF's, in Mazda's case in particular being quite severe). If you've experienced even low level hesitation whilst accelerating it is probably this regeneration issue, which shouldn't be felt at all. The most annoying aspect, which has really got our backs up, is that this problem was known by the manufacturer and there is no solution, but yet we have been spun a line of keek by the dealership since our first complaint in late January, just over a month after delivery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAC Posted June 25, 2009 Report Share Posted June 25, 2009 Sounds serious. What's a DPF? And are Diesel auto's affected? We've had out R/T Diesel Auto since March with no problems. Cheers! ***EDIT*** Stupid me. Diesel Particulate Filter. -As the title really! What does it do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carrickally Posted June 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2009 And are Diesel auto's affected? We've had out R/T Diesel Auto since March with no problems.What does it do? The long and the short of it is that DPF's are installed to meet particulate emission levels (a bit like the CO2 emissions, but slightly different), in our case under a European Union directive, there is similar legislation governing vehicles in New York City, IIRC. When you see black smoke coming out of the back of an older diesel, that's the particulates, basically soot. That doesn't happen in newer models with DPFs. All diesels have it, the autos seem to ride it out far better than the manuals and in the vast majority of cases the driver doesn't notice the regeneration. Some have mentioned to the dealership that they've felt it, none have complained like us as they have not felt a violent movement or loss of power. Apparently there are other manufacturers having difficulties with this, a bit of research yesterday brought up Mazda 6's and VW Golfs in the UK and Germany, the franchisee manager mentioned Renaults as well. Anyway, hope that helps and it's nice to know what's under you. We've got the new Journey arriving next week with a DVDplayer upgrade to the MyGig system, a bootliner and 15% off servicing for life. Plus a 09 registration instead of 08, although that's of little face value in Northern Ireland as our number plates aren't age-specific like in the rest of the UK, and we also have retained our number plate, which is a little bit special. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAC Posted June 26, 2009 Report Share Posted June 26, 2009 Thanks for that. Very helpful! Hope all goes well with the new Journey. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WOLF Posted June 27, 2009 Report Share Posted June 27, 2009 HMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!! this is sounding a tad familiar!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WOLF Posted June 27, 2009 Report Share Posted June 27, 2009 Carrickally, when the problem began or occured did you get a sort of rumbling sound from the engine???? almost like a rumbbling from within a plastic box???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carrickally Posted June 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2009 Carrickally, when the problem began or occured did you get a sort of rumbling sound from the engine???? almost like a rumbbling from within a plastic box???? My wife noticed a kind of grinding sound, not a rumbling one. However, if you get out of the car and smell burning (you won't smell it inside) that is almost plasticky, rather than woody, this could be something similar. If you get down to the garage and tell them you suspect a problem with the regeneration, then they have something to test for. Otherwise they'll give the old "no fault found" line. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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