I echo the above comment-you'd have to have driven for quite some time after the first warning light came on to completely block the filter. Take it VAG ASAP.

The dealer could perform a forced regen and it may or may not work. My brothers Insignia cdti would not rev past 2000rpm and i tried a 30min motorway journey to clear through, this did not work. The main dealer performed a foced regen and it solved the issue. The cost was £120 + VAT.

I hope this helps

Thanks for the responses! Have just been to my local spark to get faults switched off and had a bottle of diesel particle filter cleaner put into the fuel tank! Have been driving at 60MPH in 3rd gear since and so far i am back up to full power and the spark assures me this will clean it - need to go onto a motorway for a good half hour session at 60 MPH at high revs and hopefully this will work! £43.00 spent as opposed to £1140 for new filter plus £115 per hour for work by Audi! Just hope it works - fingers crossed !

They are having a laugh, nothing will clean out a blocked DPF. Total nonsense with regards to driving at high revs, all that does is produce more soot and blocks up the DPF faster.

By DPF cleaner, I assume you mean eolys. Yes, this might help, assuming that the channels aren't totally blocked.

You're not trying to blow the soot out-you're trying to burn it. This requires high EGTs. Driving in a low gear reduces EGTs.

I still think that if it has gone into limp home mode, you'd be better asking for a forced regen.

Keep an eye on your oil level-the engine has porobably been spraying a lot of diesel into the exhaust stream-and some of it will end up in the sump.

EGT=Exhaust Gas Temperatures.

Don't panic! 20 mile trips are enough for DPFs to sort themselves out. If you haven't had problems with this before, you might just have a faulty exhaust pressure sensor which is fooling the ECM (Engine Control Module) into thinking that the DPF is full when it isn't.

Engines do require a lot of (accurate) data to operate which is why I'm not a big fan of just clearing codes and hoping that warning lights stay off.

Dealers are often a rip-off but they do have thecompany specific diagnostic software that independent garages don't. In this case, it might have been worth getting all the fault codes read by VAG, but they've all been cleared now...

Is this car still under warranty?, if not theres nothing to stop you finding a man who can remove filter and power steam clean the carp out of the filter and bung it back on.

I've read of this being very effective in sorting blocked DPF's.

Urban myth with modern DPF's. Read about a Taxi driver who paid to have his removed and "rodded" out every month and paid £40 or so for the privilage, what a plonker. Sensible use keeps the DPF heathy, had one for nearly 5 years now and its been OK (so far) just driving normally.

Maybe try using a fuel system cleaner (Techron) i remeber reading a recent press article about it, it has proven engine clean up in one treatment, it easts away at deposits cleans valves, combustion chamber, pistons etc etc plus much more read up on it!! You should use this every 6000km if Diesel and 6 months if Diesel.

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