Chrysler Voyager P2453-00 Diesel Particulate Filter

For business enquiries email [email protected] www.orileysautos.com A Chrysler Voyager 2.8 diesel turned up with a glowing engine light that had been on for seven or eight years. The car drove fine, the owner said, but the DPF fault would never stay cleared. Every year his MOT garage would turn the light off, pass the test, then the light would come back on before he even got home. After six or seven different mechanics and no fix, he decided to give me a try. The pattern was always the same: * Engine light cleared for MOT, then straight back on. * 98,000 miles covered with the warning present. The odd part was that the car still drove well, with no limp mode and no real complaints from the owner apart from the warning. Initial diagnosis with the scan tool I hooked up the Launch X431 Euro Up came a list of stored faults: * PCM engine oil deteriorated * Diesel particle filter pressure sensor * Oil pressure too low * Engine oil pressure sensor * System voltage issues Live data checks In the live data, the oil temperature showed a ridiculous minus 40°C, so clearly that value was wrong. Oil pressure did move up and down with engine speed, so the engine at least had real pressure. I graphed the DPF differential pressure against engine speed. Holding 3,000 rpm, the pressure jumped around Tracking down the DPF fault Locating the DPF pressure sensor Under the bonnnet, the DPF pressure sensor was easy to find. It was not even bolted in, just clipped onto a couple of plastic tabs. No fancy brackets, but it stayed put. It was a Bosch unit, the same style of sensor fitted to a Mercedes E‑Class or C‑Class, just working here on a Chrysler. Sensor replacement and first test I fitted a brand new sensor and started the engine. At idle I saw around 47 to 48 mbar, then held 3,000 rpm and tried to push some DPF cleaning fluid through the pipe. Nothing. No flow at all, which pointed towards a blockage rather than a faulty sensor. Discovering and clearing the blockage The pressure hose ran down from the sensor as a rubber pipe, about a foot and a half long, then changed into a metal pipe with a tight 180‑degree bend into the DPF. That bend looked very suspicious. Seven years with a non‑working DPF gave plenty of time for carbon to build up and choke that pipe. I worked through it in stages: 1. With the engine off, checked the hose from above. 2. Identified the metal section and its 180‑degree bend into the DPF. 3. Put the car on ramps, applied heat to the pipe, and ran the engine to help burn the soot. It was a messy job, but after heating the pipe from above and below the blockage finally gave way. Cleaning fluid started to flow freely into the DPF and smoke began to appear from the exhaust. It was only steam and vapour, but it showed the cleaner was getting where it needed to be. Post-fix data and calibration Back on live data, the DPF differential pressure came down to about 33 mbar at 3,000 rpm, which is exactly where I would expect it. With the new sensor fitted, I told the ECU it had a new DPF. That reset the learned values and brought the readings closer to reality. With the engine off I now saw about 4 mbar, rising to around 8 or 9 mbar at idle and into the 30s when revved. To double‑check the wiring, I unplugged the sensor. The reading jumped to around 10 mbar with it disconnected, then dropped back to low single figures once reconnected. I could not see sensor voltage in the scan data, so I grabbed my FNERSI 2C53T multimeter and checked it at the plug. There was a solid 5‑volt feed, and about 5 mbar showing with flow through the pipe. The sensor then settled to between 0 and 1 mbar with the engine off. Whatever confusion it had at the start was gone. While the cleaner worked through the DPF, I took the car for a short drive and held 3,000 rpm, seeing around 45 mbar. Some white steam from the exhaust confirmed the cleaner was still active. The engine light stayed off, which was a big change from the usual 60‑second return the owner was used to. The oil pressure sensor fault was still stored, but I could not get a replacement that day. It lives on the oil filter housing, so that will have to be a separate job. Cross-checking with a second scan tool I like to confirm important readings on more than one tool, so I switched to an Autel. The menus were almost the same as on the Launch. The Autel showed a particulate differential pressure of about 11 mbar with the engine running and 4 mbar with it off. That matched what I had already seen. No new codes came back and the engine light stayed dark. .