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Here’s an interesting story which presents a problem for which I don’t have an obvious solution. Justin Byrd has a diesel Nissan X-Trail. Whilst driving it a while ago a light illuminated on his dashboard indicating that he had a problem with his diesel particulate filter (DPF).

Now if you don’t know how a DPF works, it is part of the exhaust system and filters out particulates (soot) from the engine’s diesel emissions. In order for the filter to function properly you should run the engine at over 50mph for at least 15 minutes every month. This doesn’t ‘blast’ out the particulates, that would be pointless as you would just be dispersing into the atmosphere the soot that you filtered out in the first place.

Actually, by sustained running of the car at over 50mph the filter heats up causing a chemical reaction within the filter which effectively turns the soot into a non-toxic gas leaving the atmosphere relatively clean. Unfortunately if you don’t run up the engine, as explained, the filter will clog and will eventually need replacing as Justin Byrd found out to his horror.

After taking the car to his local Nissan dealer he was told that he shouldn’t drive the car as he would only cause further damage. After attempting to force regenerate the DPF the garage told Mr Byrd that he had no choice but to replace the DPF at a cost of £1,240. He decided to get a second opinion from another local but non-franchised garage.

They said he needed to run the car in 4th gear on the motorway and the blockage would disappear. He took the car for a spin then booked it into the garage who also took the car for a sustained drive following which the blockage disappeared and the warning light extinguished. As far as the garage was concerned the dealership had been conning John but the dealer, along with Nissan, suggested that the test equipment showed clearly that the particulate filter was no longer functioning and needed replacing. So here’s the thing, supposing the car was still under warranty.

By not replacing the particulate filter as recommended by the dealer would he now have breached the warranty terms? I know I bang on about the Sale of Goods Act (now the Consumer Rights Act) giving you more power than the manufacturer’s warranty but would he now be exposed if the engine failed.

I would suggest that if that were to happen he would have a claim against the garage that suggested he simply needed to give the car some welly! But it certainly raises an interesting point, where do you stand if the dealer, the manufacturer and their test equipment says one thing but another qualified engineer says something different. Think I need a lie down to ponder that one! By Graham Hill