countless drivers have been caught driving without their diesel particulate filter, new figures reveal. The driver as well as vehicle requirements company has caught 1,800 drivers since 2014 driving with the pollution-reducing filter eliminated from their car.
While it’s not unlawful to eliminate a car’s DPF, it is unlawful to drive without it if one should be fitted. It’s believed some drivers whose DPFs ended up being blocked are just bypassing the filters by eliminating them rather than paying for a replacement, which normally costs around £1,000. In doing so, cars and truck drivers are running the risk of a £1,000 fine, while the charge for driving a van without a DPF stands at £2,500.
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Diesel particulate filters trap microscopic emissions created by diesel engines that would otherwise be expelled into the environment. They need routine ‘regeneration’, however, which includes burning the caught bits off. This process can only happen at high temperatures, normally reached when a vehicle is driven at fairly high speed. Diesel drivers who predominantly drive in metropolitan areas can therefore be dealt with with blocked DPFs, as their vehicles don’t on a regular basis reach the conditions necessary for regeneration to occur.
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The process for eliminating a DPF is a fairly simple one that needs cutting a hole in a vehicle’s exhaust, eliminating the filter as well as welding the resultant hole shut. Although MoT tests need diesel cars and trucks to have a DPF, this is inspected via a visual inspection rather than emissions analysis. eliminating the filter doesn’t impact the car’s performance, as well as some motorists even specify they accomplish much better fuel economic climate as well as engine performance without one.