Launch Tech highlights importance of DPF cleaning

With renewed focus on emissions and air quality, Launch Tech has highlighted the importance of diesel particulate filter (DPF) cleaning, with demand increasing for its DPF cleaning gun and fluid.

Diesel-powered vehicles all feature a DPF as part of the vehicle’s exhaust system, and if partially clogged with particulate, it increases back pressure in the engine, affecting fuel economy and reducing power, and over time can cause serious issues.

Richard Collyer, national sales manager at Launch Tech, said: “There’s a lot of messaging about the need to abandon internal combustion engine-powered vehicles as a priority, but it’s often overlooked that a lot of quite simple technology to reduce air pollution and vehicle emissions already exists.

“With that in mind we’re finding more demand for our DPF gun and cleaning foam, which helps to remove pollutants from DPFs that may cause premature failures and increased emissions.”

Launch Tech offers a DPF cleaning gun, which allows technicians to spray a cleaning fluid straight onto the DPF via the pressure sensor or vacuum hole. The gun is filled with Launch DPF cleaning fluid and connected to a compressed air line, so the cleaning fluid can be sprayed at the DPF in-situ and at pressure.

The accompanying DPF cleaning fluid dissolves soot build-up in the DPF filter, even from DPFs that will no longer respond to a forced regeneration. The process will reduce soot levels, allowing the DPF software to force a regeneration and recover the DPF filter.

The Launch Tech DPF cleaning gun and fluid sit alongside the company’s range of high-end vehicle diagnostics equipment, with products suitable for all users between diagnostics enthusiasts and professionals.

“With a blocked DPF, diagnostics equipment may fail to accurately find faults. Until the DPF is cleared of contaminants, sensor faults and air leaks often cannot be found, so it is best practice to ensure the DPF is cleaned out prior to starting diagnostic work,” Collyer explains.

The DPF cleaning equipment is soaring in popularity as not only a remedy of fixing blocked DPFs, but also as a preventative measure to prevent emissions-related issues and avoid requiring removal of the entire part. Throughout the pandemic, many vehicles were left unused which prevented the DPF from being cleaned out by the regenerative cycle, which happens when the car is driven regularly and on longer journeys such as a commute to work.