This is a Toyota Hiace with a 1KD_FTV engine and it comes with a Diesel Particle Filter (DPF). Japanese & European emission laws have ensured that the vans come fitted with a system that filters the exhaust air to limit the amount of diesel soot that enters the atmosphere. Owners of these vans are having to deal with DPF failure frequently and with heavy costs. (the costs of fixing it are heavy.) Factors causing these emission systems to fail include poor-quality fuel, bad driving habits, and falling air to fuel mixture in the engine during combustion. The quality of fuel is quite a major factor in the functionality of the diesel particulate filter. It seems third world countries are buying these vans from Uk & Japan. However, fuel quality issues are increasing the rate of  DPF failure in such countries.

Symptoms of Toyota Hiace DPF Failure

When your Hiace has a DPF malfunction you will experience any combination of the following ;

DPF Light & Check Engine – These will show themselves accompanied with DPF related faults.

Any combination of the following faults when you connect your diagnostic tool:

 P2002 diesel particulate filter efficiency below threshold 
 P2463 Diesel Particulate Filter Restriction - Soot Accumulation 
 P2003 Particulate filter efficiency efficiency below threshold 
 P242F Particulate filter restriction - Ash accumulation 
 P2458 Particulate filter regeneration duration 
 P2459 Particulate filter regeneration frequency 
 P2464 Particulate filter Restriction - Soot accumulation

Power Loss – The vehicle will deliberately limit power and for the driver, it will feel sluggish. This is its way to prevent further damage from happening which may end up being the case if you continue to drive with a DPF problem. Watch our video here that explains why you should not keep driving a car in this DPF problem condition

Occasional White Smoke – If you have breached the DPF, Hollowed, or cut it; it will behave as shown in this video. White smoke will occasionally (but not always) puff out of the exhaust which can really be embarrassing. This has nothing to do with an engine being worn out but is due to the computer excessively over-fueling as it is desperately trying to resolve DPF exhaust issues.

Increased Diesel consumption – Fuel consumption of a vehicle with a DPF problem will generally be higher due to deliberate over-fueling by the computer as it is trying to correct the DPF exhaust situation at programmed intervals.

Available Solutions

So to resolve this you basically have 3 solutions on the Table. I will go through each one;

Option 1: Regeneration – This is probably the cheapest solution. A mechanic with an advanced diagnostic tool can put the van in regeneration mode for it to clear its soot by itself. The problem with this solution is that it is short term. For those in 1st world countries, you can go months or years. However, in third world countries, this solution can last weeks, days, or just hours. Sometimes this might not even work. As explained above there are factors causing DPF failure. If not addressed the method of regeneration will not work. For people in 3rd world countries, regeneration may not work as desired because they cannot change their quality of fuel.

Option 2: Buy New DPF – If Option 1 has failed the next option on the table would be to buy a new DPF. These systems are quite expensive. This will probably be a good option for those in 1st world countries. Here in Africa buying a new DPF is probably a waste of money unless you are also planning to start using the same quality of fuel like the ones used in Europe or America. If not, you are probably going to buy more than one DPFs in a short period because they will continue to fail.

Usually, if a car gives you DPF problems once and you buy a new DPF the likelihood of those problems to resurface is 90%. This is due to underlying issues like problematic air to fuel mixture, bad fuel, or bad driving. DPFs are meant to last the lifetime of the vehicle but if the underlying issues have not been addressed it will not last.

Option 3: Convert to Non – DPF – This is a more permanent solution that comes with profound benefits to your vehicle. Your exhaust will be converted to free-flow. Conversion is done on the Computer system which operates the DPF system through a Software algorithm. Similar Toyota Hiace vans manufactured from South Africa do not have DPF on the exhaust and inside the engine computer. This is why SA assembled vehicles are often believed to be more powerful. The conversion to Non-DPF aims at making your vehicle’s system to be the same with these South African Assembled vehicles. Engine Check & DPF light will disappear, power will actually increase and fuel consumption will improve. You will no doubt start to enjoy your Toyota Hiace van with no worries about DPF issues.

Sadly, this option isn’t available for those in Europe, Japan, or America. It is illegal in such countries to circumvent laws that forced manufacturers to put these emission systems in such countries. This is the solution that we provide at The DPF Team.

Other Solutions you may hear of

Emulators – At our workshop, we have seen cars with emulators. These are very dangerous as they mimic and falsify signals to the ECU. The danger lies in that most of these emulators are untested. Here in Zimbabwe we have seen damaged ECUs and engines due to inconsistent signals brought by emulators. The result is usually a malfunctioning ECU that ends up destroying the engine or hindering its optimum performance. Based on what we have seen our professional advice is stay away from emulators

DPF Fluid Additive- Some companies sell additive that you mix with your diesel. The job of these fluids is to cause your exhaust to get hotter than normal to cook the soot that blocks the DPF. Unfortunately, these additives come with very negative consequences for the sensitive 1KD injectors and usually melt away the DPF instead of clearing its soot. Based on what we have seen our professional advice is stay away from these fluids

We are able to assist you with your DPF problem in most parts of Africa. Visit our contact page for information on how to reach out to us. Don’t forget to check out the video below. The video shows the results from converting another Toyota Hiace to Non-DPF