Emission control system

starcott

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The amber emission control system icon has just appeared on the dash.
It's on a Citroen Relay 2016 model with 12,000 miles on the clock.
It has not done much travelling recently and what is has done have not been long outings.
Is it recommended to take it out on the open road and run it for a few miles on high revs, or would it be better to get the fault diagnosed at the garage?
 
Use top grade diesel and a good long blast, brother inlaw/outlaw has the same trouble with his VW car if only nipping in and out of Belfast to work in very slow traffic, good hard run to his boat over the irish border clears it for a few weeks.
 
Third gear for a few miles on a dual carriageway should do, get it above 3k revs.
 
If it's the DPF warning (diesel particulate filter), it probably just needs regenerating by taking it for a good, long blast -- about an hour's round trip up a motorway normally does the trick AFAICT. FWIW, a DPF is a lesson in the law of unintended consequences for the green brigade. The filter traps the particles that contribute to urban pollution and then burn off to make non-polluting CO2 and H2O when the exhaust gets hot enough, which it does at sustained motorway speeds. Unfortunately, it never gets hot enough if you only use it in the city or for short trips. Additionally, if you have an inlet air leak downstream of the mass air flow (MAF) sensor, the engine will be overfuelling., resulting in additional carbon particles to gum up the DPF. If this is the case, a good blast down the motorway might give temporary relief but that warning will light up again all too quickly.
John Cadogan has some good info on this. He's an Aussie, but please don't hold that against him -- he knows his stuff! https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/the-truth-about-diesel-particulate-filter-problems-dpf-problems
 
GeoffL said:
If it's the DPF warning (diesel particulate filter), it probably just needs regenerating by taking it for a good, long blast -- about an hour's round trip up a motorway normally does the trick AFAICT. FWIW, a DPF is a lesson in the law of unintended consequences for the green brigade. The filter traps the particles that contribute to urban pollution and then burn off to make non-polluting CO2 and H2O when the exhaust gets hot enough, which it does at sustained motorway speeds. Unfortunately, it never gets hot enough if you only use it in the city or for short trips. Additionally, if you have an inlet air leak downstream of the mass air flow (MAF) sensor, the engine will be overfuelling., resulting in additional carbon particles to gum up the DPF. If this is the case, a good blast down the motorway might give temporary relief but that warning will light up again all too quickly.
John Cadogan has some good info on this. He's an Aussie, but please don't hold that against him -- he knows his stuff! https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/the-truth-about-diesel-particulate-filter-problems-dpf-problems
Click to expand...
Thank you for link to the interesting article.
The light showing on my Citroen dash is for the Emission Control System, not the Particulate Filter.
Do you agree with the recommendations that I can solve my problem by having a trip out with plenty of the time at over 3K revs?
 
It can't do any harm to try it, you just need to make sure you keep away from the red line on your rev counter by at least 1500 revs.

And of course, obey the speed limits.
 
starcott said:
Thank you for link to the interesting article.
The light showing on my Citroen dash is for the Emission Control System, not the Particulate Filter.
Do you agree with the recommendations that I can solve my problem by having a trip out with plenty of the time at over 3K revs?
Click to expand...
If it's not the particulate filter, a quick blast up the motorway probably won't solve the issue. I've tried searching the 'net for "Citroen Relay Emission Control Warning" and only found info on the DPF warning and, for later vans, an "Adblue" warning -- but that seems to be the word "Adblue". Can you post a piccy of the actual warning light?
 
I was also thinking along the lines of an Adblue warning. I don’t know when Citroen introduced Adblue to their vans but it may well have been around the age of yours (think Peugeot did so in 2017 ish models). The Adblue warning on our van is an amber ‘woosh’ sort of symbol, like a few lines with a puff of smoke type doodle after. GeoffL might be on the right lines there.
 
I eventually found the manual for a "Jumper" (that's what other markets call a Relay). The two warning lights related to emission control are:
1628939705712.png
The left-hand one is the DPF warning and the right-hand one is AdBlue. If it's DPF, take it for a blast up the motorway and also take John Cadogan's advice; if it's AdBlue, top up the AdBlue tank (AFAICT, the filler is under the fuel filler flap).

Here's a link to the manual I got that info from. HTH
 
My handbook shows separate lights for Particle Filter, Emission control system and AdBlue additive. The photo shows the Emission Control System lit up.

P1020535.JPG
 
While the manual might call that an "emission control warning", most know it as the "check engine light" AFAICT. That could mean any of a number of faults and the easiest way to find out the specific fault is to interrogate the OBD port. Perhaps you know someone with a OBD reader who can help? If not, some are cheap enough (I have a VW-specific one for my car that cost me under £30 ). You need to check that it's suitable for your van before buying; some will return just the code which you'll have to look up on the 'net and not all of them allow codes to be reset. If the fault is transient, all that might be needed is to reset the code to turn off the light. If not, at least you'll be able to tell the garage the fault code...
 
If your manual is anything like ours ( 2018 Relay) it covers several models and includes lights which aren't on our dashboard. We had the same light come on in our old relay van, but it went off after a week trying to work out what to do!
 
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