Ford Rangers can be notorious when they start to exhibit Diesel Particle Filter (DPF) problems. American & European emission laws have ensured that this vehicle comes fitted with a system that filters the exhaust air to limit the amount of diesel soot that enters the atmosphere. The frustration that come along with Ford Ranger DPF issues will give the driver headaches. Sadly owners of these vehicles are left to be the ones to pay for the heavy maintenance costs of the emission system.

The situation is particularly worse for owners in third world countries especially here in Zimbabwe (and Africa as a whole). Our fuel quality is not of high quality like the one you find in America, Europe, and Japanese hence these Ford Ranger DPFs clogs faster due to contaminants in the diesel. The situation of the DPF is even made worse by the driving habits of most users. Ford Rangers with DPFs require you to use them mainly for highway driving. Nevertheless, it’s very common that we use them for short journeys to the office or school runs.

Symptoms of Failure

You will experience any combination of the following when your Ford Ranger has a DPF malfunction;

Engine Check Light & Yellow Cog. This will show itself accompanied with DPF related faults 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
P2463 Particulate filter Restriction - Soot accumulation
P2464 Particulate filter Restriction - Soot accumulation

Power Limit or Rev Limit to 2200 Rpms – The vehicle will deliberately limit power. Some Ford Rangers will also limit maximum RPMs to 2500 or 3300rpms. This is a way to prevent further damage from happening if you continue to drive with a DPF problem. Find out here the damage that will occur should you carry on.

Occasional White Smoke – If you have breached the DPF (Hollowed or cut it), you will occasionally see white smoke from the exhaust. It will not always puff out but can really be embarrassing. This has nothing to do with an engine being worn out. This is due to the fact that the computer excessively over-fueling. It is desperately trying to resolve DPF exhaust issues by raising exhaust temperatures.

The Solutions

There are three solutions available to solve Ford Ranger DPF issues. I will go through each one;

Option 1: Regeneration

This is probably the cheapest solution. A mechanic with a diagnostic tool can put the vehicle into regeneration mode for the car to clear its soot by itself. The problem with this solution is that it is short-term. For those in developed countries, you can go months. However, in developing countries, this solution can last weeks, days, or just hours. Sometimes this might not even work. Like I explained above our fuel quality causes DPFs to clog rapidly.

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 quality of fuel from Europe or America. If not you are probably going to buy more than one DPFs in a short period of time as 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 resurface is 90%. DPFs are meant to last the lifetime of the vehicle and if that is not happening it means there is an underlying issue (Problematic Air to fuel mixture)

Option 3: Convert to Non – DPF

This option is a more permanent solution that comes with profound benefits to your vehicle. Your exhaust will be permuted to free-flow then conversion is done on the Computer system which operates the DPF system through a Software algorithm. Ford Rangers manufactured from South Africa do not have DPF on the exhaust and inside the engine computer. Hence SA assembled vehicles are often believed to be more powerful. Converting to Non-DPF makes your vehicle’s system as powerful as the South African Assembled vehicles that come without a DPF system. The Engine Check light will disappear, power will actually increase and fuel consumption will improve as soon as the conversion is completed.

However, this option isn’t available for those in Europe, Japan, or America. It is illegal in such countries to circumvent emission 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 vehicles 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

We can assist you with your DPF problem in most parts of Africa. Visit our contact page for information on how to reach out to us.