DPF Cleaning, Air, Water? Whats the best method?

General speaking my experiences are only with Cummins DPF's. I can tell you that the Cummins remans appear to come with new media and they are not just baked and cleaned. Long term results yield longer service life from Cummins reman filters vs FSX machine cleanings or the like in all cases.

The DPF shown cracked has had numerous high heat cycles and likely had fluid contamination at some point in its life. Any fluids coming out of the engine are devastating news for the media. Like anything else in life if you have bad luck with a certain product line dont buy it again. Is a filter remanufactured if its baked and air cleaned, painted up and tossed in a new box. Not IMO.

 

My experience is that all supposed “reman” filters are just cleaned good cores. I have 36 years with oem dealers in the trucking field and Dealers and manufactures have mislead the industry from the first reman filter they ever cleaned whether its Cummins,Detroit,Paccar or International and others. They wet wash and use brick acid to make them look new. I have been told this first hand by a Cummins Rep. Filter life depends more on oil,fuel,def fluid quality and mechanical failure and PM cycles and truck use. I just hate seeing the trucking industry being mislead by the Oem advertising and paying top dollars for filters that are no better than a quality DPF cleaning at a shop that knows how to clean a filter.
Just my opinion and experience..

 

That’s a new one. Maybe $5 worth of muriatic acid to clean filter. I can see muriatic removing soot and ash.

 

Early Cummins reman DPF's were someone else's blown out garbage. The failure rate on them was horrible. Average life for OTR was around 100,000 miles. Maintaining your own and finding a good cleaning service is the best return on investment. I use a franchise of DPF Alternatives and they have been doing a great job. They air blow them out, ultrasonically wash them, and slow bake them. I found that cleaning them before you have an issue is best bet. I clean @ 200,000 mile on EPA10 stuff and 250,000 on EPA13. This is for Paccar motors.

 

What soot level is indicated on the truck's display when you clean them at those times?

 

We quit specing trucks with the NAV Plus in 08 cause for price you could do everything it did much cheaper with a smartphone! That being said, my trucks don't have the DPF gauge and there is no good way of knowing how much ash is in a DPF other than removing and weighing it.

 

So are there local shops that do liquid processing if needed ? Would you like to share name ,location I am looking for someone to do liquid cleaning here in Stockton,ca or Sacramento, area .