Hi. I've been meaning to write this up for the last few months. I've got a 2007 2.0D, the last of the Mk I's. It's been a damn fine car, and it's now done 120k miles.
The only problem with it has been the dreaded DPF light. Over the last two years, it's been a real pain. I do 14,000 miles a year which includes a 20-minute blast down the motorway every weekday morning, and a 1hr+ motorway journey at least every two weeks. So why the hell do I have a problem?!
The DPF light usually starts flashing when I'm driving from Manchester to London, roughly when I get to Birmingham. Surely that's a really odd time for the DPF to need a regen? The car would lose power, as though the turbo was being cut, and eventually the damn light would start flashing.
I should point out that, as far as I know, I've never had to do a standard regen as the light never comes on without flashing. If you see what I mean.
Anyway, I found out how to "hotwire" a full regen, so that's what I did a couple of times. Didn't work. I tried various DPF cleaners, including 3 cans of Forté recommended by a mechanic friend. Didn't work.
So I finally bit the bullet earlier this summer and took it to RRG Mazda in Stockport. They said that, yes, my DPF was buggered so they'd take it out and clean it for £500 -- if that didn't work, they'd knock the £500 off a new one. Fair enough. I swore under my breath and gave them the money.
It didn't work, and the replacement turned out to cost £2000 -- WHAT?! No way I'd be doing that for a car worth about £1500, so I bought an OBD scanner (which I can highly recommend) and decided that I'd just reset the damn thing and look for a new car.
Then I remembered
AS Cars, a Mazda 6 specialist in Middlewich, Cheshire (
http://www.as-cars.co.uk/). I'd found them online a few years ago when looking for some replacement wheel nuts, and they seemed to do a roaring trade in breaking and servicing Mazda 6's. I spoke to them on the phone, and they said that they'd take a look when I brought the car in for a service -- it was due one anyway.
I told the chief mechanic the OBD codes I was getting -- think one was 0299, but I can't remember the other. He came back five minutes later to tell me that my turbo hoses had split, and that could be the cause. They replaced them as part of the service (which was nice), AND I'VE NOT HAD ANY PROBLEMS SINCE!!!
In fact, the car now feels like it did six years ago when I bought it. I've done 3000 miles since then without a glitch. BRILLIANT!
So, if your light is flashing, look beyond the standard "your DPF's buggered" diagnosis and check your hoses. I'm especially disappointed that a main dealer didn't spot the problem.
Since then, I've taken the car back to AS Cars for an MOT. That, plus a new (well, second hand) wheel and tyre, new front suspension gaiter, new rear pads, new hatch bootlid struts and some welding on the exhaust came up to £230. They'll be seeing a lot of my car in the future