[jon0]

Have a 330dx - notice some soot on exhaust pipes - everything is fine with car, goes well, good fuel economy, no warning lights etc etc.. however should I have dirty pipes? It is a possible pdf on way out or just how it is? Car's on circa 80k miles.

[The_Tok'Ra]

Originally Posted by jon0

Have a 330dx - notice some soot on exhaust pipes - everything is fine with car, goes well, good fuel economy, no warning lights etc etc.. however should I have dirty pipes? It is a possible pdf on way out or just how it is? Car's on circa 80k miles.

If I were you, I'd purchase Bimmerlink and an ENET cable, (But NOT the one I just bought) and an ethernet adapter, and with that you'll be able to find out what state your DPF is in and also force a regen if required.

If for nothing more than peace of mind.

[jon0]

Yep, Bimmerlink says it’s all fine, regenerating as usual and has circa 212,000 left! No fault codes either..

[The_Tok'Ra]

Originally Posted by jon0

Yep, Bimmerlink says it’s all fine, regenerating as usual and has circa 212,000 left! No fault codes either..

Awesome! I'd say you have nothing to worry about then, but I do understand the concern over the soot on your tail pipes. That's not supposed to happen when the car has a DPF.

[ushafiq]

I have a 435d and I have same concern!
All fine with the car, no warning or any obvious lack of power however the tail pipes are more sooty now - they used to stay fairly clean…I have 63k miles, always used premium fuel and frequent oil changes every 5 k miles - plus now adding fuel additives as well- never consumed any oil etc - I also checked all variables via OB2 reader and no faults - DPF values all normal. I was getting little paranoid so booked the car for a ‘carbon clean’ - The guy cameover, and injected H2 in the air intake pipe, which definitely improved the throttle response plus made the tailpipe cleaner for a while - however, they are sooty again after few hundred miles- by sooty it does mean there is a massive carbon build up on the tailpipe- lets just say the pipes are not clean anymore as they used to be! - I have a 70 Reg X3 diesel with Add blue- of course low mileage fairly newer car but tailpipes are extremely clean - I recall my 435d used to be like that but not anymore - still in the process of getting to the bottom of this - next full walnut blasting of intake ports / manifold is planned - lets see if that makes any difference!