Diesel owners screwed by the gov?

[MonsterMork]

One thing they could do is tweak the MOT to check for the presence and functioning of the DPF though. I reckon about half the diesels I see on the road have theirs gutted. It's obvious when they boot it, and should be easily checkable at MOT time: "Billy, drive this outside and boot it down the road while I watch the exhaust".

It is already part of the MoT Test, and has been for several years. A missing DPF on a vehicle which was originally fitted with one is a fail.

Emitting clouds of smoke when booted can also be a fail, and is part of the emissions test.

MM (MoT Tester)

[didds]

i sympathise Sats. Its the "it all looks fine etc" buit you never really know for 6 months. its the concern you just bought a doughnut

didds

[TopOnePercent]

One thing they could do is tweak the MOT to check for the presence and functioning of the DPF though. I reckon about half the diesels I see on the road have theirs gutted. It's obvious when they boot it, and should be easily checkable at MOT time: "Billy, drive this outside and boot it down the road while I watch the exhaust".

It is already part of the MoT Test, and has been for several years. A missing DPF on a vehicle which was originally fitted with one is a fail.

Emitting clouds of smoke when booted can also be a fail, and is part of the emissions test.

MM (MoT Tester)

A missing DPF would fail, but unless it has been changed recently, the test doesn't check that it hasn't been gutted.

[MonsterMork]

unless it has been changed recently, the test doesn't check that it hasn't been gutted.

That would show up as part of the emissions test - if a dpf has been gutted then the particulate emissions will be high and may well exceed the limits, so fail the test. In most cases visual evidence of modification would be there - signs of cutting and welding for instance. The exhaust noise may also sound a little more fruity, leading a tester to investigate further.

If a tester has reason to believe a dpf has been illegally modified then they have the option of failing the vehicle, and the onus is then on the presenter to prove otherwise - if they wish to contest the testers findings then the vehicle then has to be inspected by a DVSA examiner, rather than the original tester, and the presenter has to cough up for any costs involved. This could amount to perhaps a couple of hundred quid. If the examiner does indeed find the dpf has been illegally modified then they can ban the vehicle from the road until it is repaired to a satifactory standard, ie: a new, proper, unmodified dpf is fitted. That could cost perhaps a grand. I believe the examiner, as a DVSA agent, also has the power to fine the presenter. The vehicle will then have to be MoT'd again, with a full test, not just a retest on the failed/disputed items, again with a full fee. It is therefore entirely possible to get a bill for, say, two grand, just for gutting a dpf - doesn't really make economic sense, does it?!

In reality I am yet to see a gutted dpf, and so far they seem to be a pretty rare occurrence anyway. The great clouds of smoke being talked about earlier in this thread are, in my experience at least, coming from vehicles that are either in need of a service, in need of a dpf regeneration sequence or two, or are vehicles which are only being used round town, perhaps only on the school run or to the local shop and back, and are therefore clagged up - filling up with high grade fuel, perhaps a fuel treatment as well, and an italian tune-up will in many cases make the clouds go away and pass the emissions test. I am seeing more and more of these.