This diesel may exempt you from Khan tax, but running in London traffic will cause allsorts of problems, which would appear your having now.

Performance wise I doubt removing the DPF will make a lot of difference, but you are also removing the CAT and leaving all sorts of sensors dangling so the ECU is getting the wrong messages, so you will have a string of light and codes up and who knows what effect that will have on your performance and fuel efficiency.
As you didn't know the answer to that question , why did you clear the code without doing anything about it.
The code is telling you something is wrong, so you carry out the actions to prevent it happening, being it a forced regen, add oil, change the oil, service the car, track down which sensor failed, replace it after more dignostics.
One day you will clear a code and the engine will seize up.
If you knew what the DPF does then you will know that it would fail its MOT just on emmisions alone.

You don't need any more performance out of the car driving round London or to Reading, Bristol etc.

The engine can sit on 70 mph all day at 1850 rpm with hardly a murmer, in fact it revells in that as opposed to London driving, which must be one of the worst places in Britain to drive a car and is hardly worth it given the amount of good transport between the trains and busses available there.
I used to go into London from Newbury at one time and we used the train and underground then train and bus following the terrostit attacks and then stopped going all together.

I would never consider using a car to go to London and have to cross it to Hampstead.
I did in the late 70's drive from Hull to LGW across London at rush hour as I missed a road sign in the dark on the A1 before the M25 was completed . That was in a 1.1 Fiesta, no satnavs then. But navigating by the sun we arrived in plenty of time.

 

Just a thought - I understand it is illegal to remove the DPF but what happens if you remove the DPF? As in what happens to the engine, performance etc when a DPF is removed?

 

I wouldn't buy a car at auction either, that's how dealers get rid of cars that are a bit dodgy. If they get their reserve price they are happy, though sounds like your mechanic is a bit of a rogue as well. By the time I was 20 I had rebuilt a motor bike engine and stripped down my car engine and refurbed that, but then I was an apprentice Marine Engineer, I took interest of what my dad did to his cars, he was there if I needed advice, but I had to justify my question and say what I think needed to happen and he would guide me that way, but I had to do the work. By the time I was 26 I had another engine out of a 2nd hand car and rebuilt it, but then engines came out easily and could be dismantled easily and assembled, unlike now. So I do have some sympathy. At school in the last year at 16 we had a 60 minute class each week on how cars worked, the different systems, we had an old car outside that certain things could be demonstrated, we also learnt the theory of 2 stroke and 4 stroke engines.
I doubt if anything like this is taught , same as metal work using lathes, drilling machines, blacksmiths forges and hand tools. But we also had to take a term of cooking , which means I can cook or bake cakes or make bread without a breadmaker. Instead of learning about cars one lad took typing using a typeriter in those days. We also took Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Geography, which means I can read a map and don't need a satnav.

So we had a very broad curriculum that has stood me in good stead all my life and even though we didn't go to university, I could hold my own against anybody who did due to 4 years studying at night class and taking proffessional examinations.

Thats is why this country is in the state it is in, because jobs are being filled by graduates that haven't a clue, no practical experience in the industry they are working.
Very few college lecturers have had real jobs, so how would they know and how can they teach the subject.^

Well good luck for the future, hope you have better luck.
If you eventually buy a Mazda , we are here to help.
What ever one you are thinking of, you can ask on here what are the bad points to check before buying one.

 

@Benedict Appreciate your advice. I was literally on the verge of getting my Mazda 6 repaired completely because I just loved my car too much to let it go.

But in the end the reason I let the car go was because of how expensive the finance was going and not the issues with the car itself. I was not financially mature enough and made terrible financial mistakes. Its fine because I'm still in my 20s and I have now got hold of my finances and realised all credit cards and car loans are genuinely bad if you don't know how to use and manage them.

So, my decision is to buy a car with cash now. And I made a terrible mistake in the middle - decided to buy a cheap car, went to the auctions and bought a 2010 Ford Mondeo 2.0 EcoBoost. After I took the car and drove the mechanic he told me the head gasket is blown and that it would cost be £1500 minimum that if the only issue is head gasket. I literally got the car for £1500 so makes no sense to spend another £2000-£2500. I'd rather sell and stick to my instincts.


I am saving again now to buy a Mazda 6 but I want a manual petrol this time.

For time being I'm using my mate's 3 Series.

 

Well done Maize, good sound advice, but it would seem to no avail.

Helmsman, if you are staying with the diesel it doesn't matter if its manual or auto you will still get the problems if you do a lot of town driving.
I have driven manuals all my life and do not want a auto as you have more control of the car with a manual.
Shame you had to turn the car in, the problems were surmountable. As Mazie said a full decoke of inlet system by a dealer is €800 or about £8-900.

Now you living round London , there is an independant Mazda Mechanic who is very versed in the 2.2d on any of the Mazdas and all the problems they have.

He is called Mr Nice Guy, but seems he can only be contacted through social media.
If your driving consists of mainly of tootling around London, short trips etc, then I would recommend the petrol version of the M6. They are virtually trouble free compared to the diesel. Do not quite have the torque but perfectly driveable.

I realise its too late now, but there wouldn't have been any reason to replacing the EGR valve, it just would have needed cleaning and that can be done with a strong solution of soap and water on the gas side.

Some of us started driving when cars were much simpler and a good weekend job was to remove the cylinder head, carry out a decoke and lap in the valves( only 4 inlet and 4 exhaust in those days) no sensors, emmisions to worry about but the cars needed more maintenance than present day cars and have it back on the road Sunday afternoon for a test drive ready for work on Monday. But now that is not necessary due to the change in petrol and engine development. Having earnt our spurs then we have the confidence and knowledge to maintain our cars and diagnose them . It is a little more difficult now starting off as fathers generally cannot help either becaus they didn't maintain their own cars.
But in our day there was no computers or internet, only monthly 'Popular Car Mechanics' magazines and photographs and descriptions on certain topics to go by if you subscribed.
I was able on my 2.2d to clean the egr system, but not the manifold and this the dealer did.
The reason the inlet systems ofcars both petrol an diesel become carboned is the overuse of Exhaust Gas Recirculation by engine designers to keep temperatures down in the cylinder to prevent NOx production.


These days if that was done away with you would have far more powerful and fuel efficient engines. But the stupid 'Net Zero' lobby want us all driving ev's.

Perhaps large cities with stop start traffic, London being case in point perhaps do have a heavy pollution problem but charging a premium to drive in the centre of London in a gas guzzling chelsea tractor isn't gong to prevent pollution regardless of how much the congestion charge is, so its just a cash cow by khan, every London motorists friend.

It has been quite common your plight on varius Mazda forums and the present day owners. If they start to get problems they move the car on in a PX , rather than spend the money at the dealers and fix it once and for all, so somebody else inherits the problem and the cycle starts again. It seems to be the mentality these days because they are running the car on a shoestring, paying over the odds with HP , the money of which could have been used for maintenance.
What people don't seem to realise is a car is depreciating at £500-1000 per year and they are paying interest on a depreciating asset. Leasing a car on PCP is defintely burning money, so after the lease period you have paid all that money on something that is not yours unless you stump up the cash, which you should have done in the first place.

I bought my 2014 2.2d new for cash, after the first 3 years on warranty and paying for the servicing, I service it myself and only have Mazda do stuff I cannot, like new injectors and the carbon clean of inlet manifold.

Using the software, Forscan I bought for £3.50 in 2018 and an OBD 11, bought for £20 then I can read codes on my phone or tablet and carry out certain service tasks such as forced regens when I got a heavy soot accumulation in the DPF.

So how did the run to North Wales go?
What car do you have now?

 

I have given the car back to the finance company and settling it with them. Looking to buy another car now. Something cheaper.

I was looking at more Mazda 6. Does having a Manual over an Automatic help in anyway?

 

Do not remove yourvDPF or have your mechanic remap the engine, it will fail the MOT , Plus its illegal tampering with emission equipment.
I cleaned the EGR system, wasn't too much of a job. I doubt if the EGR valve has failed, its more like has stuck due to carbon. In fact there is the EGR valve and an EGR bypass valve, both need cleaning, which can be done with an old toothbrush and washing up liquid and water, the EGR cooler also needs cleaning and any pipes and elbows associated with the system. The EGR cooler can be left soaking in rich soapy water as this disolved carbon, then hosed through from both ends until the water runs clear.
Reassemble everything with copperslip on bolt threads and gastkets.

The decoking the inlet manifold is best done by the dealer and costs £800-900 and done with walnut shells.

If you experience a lot of regens and low fuel consumption it sometimes means the injectors are worn and you get P243C come up. They are know for it.
It doesn't pay to buy a car on HP or Lease.
The other battery you get the warning for is the key fob, veryoften in Winter if it gets cold, it will throw the code.
You can keep track of your battery paramters using an OBD and Forscan software. Main batteries last about 8 years, ideal,if you can put it on charge with one of th new solid state chargers which also cleans the batter up.
These 2.2d's do like long motorway runs, not London street driving.

 

Hey everyone! I know it has been a while but I went through quite a lot of other stuff in the last few months including moving home etc so couldn't get back as I did not get time to get this sorted.

The mechanic near my house checked the car today and said there are 2 parts of the EGR Valve, one is the mechanical part - which looks fine and the second is the electrical part - which needs replacement. He quoted £325 including labour but obviously not original Mazda part. He also suggested I remove the DPF and remap the car to avoid future problems.

Some suggested I sell car altogether but I can't because I got the car on HP.

So I am going to have to make a decision now as to what the right solution would be for the car as well as me.

 

Elrathius,
I seem to remember rounding a nut off when I was decoaking the EGR system, but that was due to the stud being too long ( more than 2-3 threads showing beyond the nut) Quite common on this engine, but bad practice. It needed a long series socket which I didn't have. Did remove it eventually and replaced with one of the others, putting some new flats on the bruised one temporary until I was boxed up and fitting it handy somewhere then going into Mazda for a new one.

I had taken out the battery carrier, I would rather take extra out to give easy access than struggle and damage something. It seems the way people are trained or laziness that they don't remove extra for access, plus things like plugging up holes that objects can drop through, cleaning threads up and giving them a coat of copperslip, using new gaskets rather than old ones. All these things come natural as that was the way I was taught 55 years ago and has kept me in good stead all these years.

Seems the excuse now is 'It takes too much time', in other words people are lazy, impatient and in a rush.

A job takes as long as it takes and if done correctly, only needs doing once plus at a later date if those parts need to be removed for something else they come off easy.

Any Marine Engineer would agree with me as the marine environment is no different to conditions a car encounters, heat, salt, water etc.

 

EGR flow insuficcient comes up when the ecu does the calculation on intake mixture temps, looking at charge air temperatures (BOOST air temp, located on the intercooler assembly. on the INLET side of the intercooler weirdly) and then the Intake manifold charge temperature. cold air + warm exhaust = warm intake manifold charge temp. cold air + nothing = cold intake manifold temps.

POSSIBLE CAUSE​

• Intake shutter valve malfunction • EGR valve malfunction (stuck close) • Air suction in intake air system between turbocharger and intake manifold • EGR valve passage malfunction​

Id advice you to demount the egr solenoid valve, intake shutter valve, and the bypass piping. messy but not a hard job, since coolant will flush out.

Parts 1-4, 6 and 7. and the intake manifold itself - do remember to demount the battery and its tray aswell, since it allows you to get at the god damned hateful bolt underneath item number 3. i didnt, and i rounded it off requiring another day of wrenching since i had to source and find a replacement bolt.

 

Also be aware of the small turbo flap rivet which sometimes falls off and prevents revving.
A dealer will replace the turbo but you can buy a new rivet and replace it if you are competent and confident.

 

+ @Helmsman check out my post here with the carbon that was present on my intake ports, yours would be looking similar right now

https://www.mazda6club.com/posts/5110030/

 

Hi @MazIE ,



Took it on a spin and just back home. Did Auto Transmission @ 50MPH for 15 minutes and the manual for 25 minutes on 3rd gear 70MPH 5K RPM. On my way back the light came back on again while coming back so continued Manual 3rd gear 70MPH 5K RPM but no change.



I am attaching the picture of the OBD reader to this reply. Honestly, it is a bit worrying for me as I do not have much experience with car problems. This is my first car and I bought it 4 months ago.

I would like to understand:

1) Can I keep clearing these errors everytime they pop up?

2) The 300 Mile trip to Bangor and back to London - should I drive the whole trip in manual with high revs (if so let me know how exactly) or should I just do normal auto?

3) I assume to have no problems whatsoever going forward I need to get the EGR carbon cleaned etc.. how much would this approximately cost me in total?

Thank you very much for helping until now and I'll be grateful if you can advise me what's the best thing to do.

 

Before he cleared the CEL, did he check what code it was throwing?? (Really he should have..) It was probably warning you again of the EGR insufficient flow (to my point #6 on previous comment).
I would say equip yourself with an OBD reader so you can keep an eye on it yourself for next time. If it is the EGR error, you can continue driving, but should get it cleaned eventually.

 

@MazIE Yes, I have an OBDii reader and the error was exhaust pressure insufficient flow.

 

Hey @MazIE

Apologies for such a late response. I took your suggestion and got that part changed at my local mechanic and also done a quick servicing as well. No problems after that as I was driving in the city, a lot of quick start and stops as well as short trips - No issues whatsoever. 3 days ago I got a Battery Management Malfunction flashing for 10 minutes and then it was gone. The mechanic told me during the service that I need a battery replacement. 2 days ago I took the car on motorway London Woolwich to Chatham which is a 30 minute drive- No issues. While driving back, 5 minutes into the journey the Yellow Engine light popped back on and did not go. Next day took it to the mechanic, he changed the battery to a new one and cleared the errors and suspected the error was because of the battery. I am due to take it on a spin tomorrow again on the motorway because I want this resolved ASAP as I will be driving it for 7 hours straight on a motorway from London to Bangor, Wales on Friday and I don't wish to encounter any issues.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for my situation.

Best Regards

 

You are absolutely right!
The errors were Turbocharger/Supercharger error, EGR flow errors and Exhaust Pressure Sensor errors. The situation, behaviour and everything is same as yours.

Yesterday I took it to my local garage, he checked the sensors and cleared with some air pressure pipe thing and I took it on a high rev motorway spin last night. As of now no issue, performance is back and everything works fine.

I am due to go back to him on Friday morning after observation of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Any suggestions as to what’s best to do?

 

That's great!
(1) This issue might reoccur if you have the old pressure sensor with the orange cap. Check this link to see the old one and the new one (its a .au link, but best one to show you). UPGRADED EXHAUST PRESSURE SENSOR FITS MAZDA CX-5 CX5 KE 2.2L TURBO DIESEL 12-17 | eBay

(2) You could ask mechaanic to pull out your MAP sensor, check if it's clogged with carbon too. If it is, then gently clean it. This may help values for performance. (if you pull it yourself, be very careful, twist and jiggle. I snapped mine off first time)

(3) Fill up with premium diesel only (I've been doing this since my carbon clean, and my regens are now over 300km apart). Understand how to identify when a regeneration is occurring (every 200-300km, higher fuel consumption, engine symbol not illuminated on the start/stop dashboard screen). Don't use the car regularly for short trips where you dont get up to operating temperature.

(4) Take every long incline on a motorway as an opportunity to downshift and bring revs close to redline (once per week or fortnight). This gives the best load on engine, passively burns off dpf, and stops more carbon accumulation on intake ports. only ever do this when the engine has already been at operating temperature for at least 10 mins!

(5) An oil change is probably worthwhile now, multiple failed regens will have dumped diesel into the oil.

(6) Finally, it's not super urgnent but you will keep on getting CEL with EGR flow insufficient. This will eventually require a carbon clean of intake ports, EGR cooler and EGR valve. Big enough job, but once you do it, and keep on top of above steps 1-5, the car will be a dream for another 150,000km.

 

Hello. Do you have a complete list of error codes from your OBD?

Unfortunately, as you have probably read already, these issues present themselves when the car has not been driven appropriately (from the owner before you I would imagine).

Depending on the codes, we need to understand if the 'Soot accumulation in DPF' is the cause or the symptom of the problem.
Did you get any exhaust pressure sensor errors? Any EGR flow errors?

Back when I first started getting carbon build up issues, the car behaved in a similar fashion to yours. (mine is manual, looks like yours is auto). When I got onto the motorway one day, it acted as if the turbo wouldn't kick in. Low pitched rumbling and having to use low gears to get up to speed.

• The fix for this above issue was a simple replacement of the exhaust pressure sensor. Mazda modified this part from the original part to avoid this issue occurring again. (cost of part from dealer was €150).

Car was then back driving fine, although still getting CEL with EGR flow errors, eventually had the engine carbon cleaned.