2011 Freelander SD4 - DPF Fault (Engine Light)

Anyone else heard of a problem with the new Freelanders, specifically a DPF problem ??

Couple of days ago the car lost most of its power and had little or no excelleration - Limped home and called LR rescue - Engineer came out and rebooted the system on board and said the problem cleared. Insisted it went into garage - they reported a filter fault and replaced

Lo and behold, 2 days later same fault but this time engine light came on as well - the same engineer came out and implied that this was a problem with the new freelanders and a work around apart from rebooting the on board computer was yet to be found

alot of new cars with dpf's have problems....they are designed to catch all the soot when pootling around town then burn it all off on a run but how often do they go on a run? vauxhall advised a 45 minute run keeping the engine over 2500 rpm once a month to 'regenerate' the dpf on the wifes zaffy 150 sri !!!

markyzs180 said:

alot of new cars with dpf's have problems....they are designed to catch all the soot when pootling around town then burn it all off on a run but how often do they go on a run? vauxhall advised a 45 minute run keeping the engine over 2500 rpm once a month to 'regenerate' the dpf on the wifes zaffy 150 sri !!!

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my brother lost all power in zaf dpf blocked stupid money to sort out lucky his local garage are straight as a dye soaked exhaust then took it for run to clear it out told him to thrash it once a month to stop problem

thought it was mine! said:

my brother lost all power in zaf dpf blocked stupid money to sort out lucky his local garage are straight as a dye soaked exhaust then took it for run to clear it out told him to thrash it once a month to stop problem

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yeah...luckily i've got opcom so keep an eye on the filter and can do a forced regen whilst its sitting on the drive...bloody scary tho, sounds like a jump jet taking off!

The dreaded error message "reduced engine performance" came on in U K after long autoroute run in France. LR assistance couldn't correct. Very scary being suddenly reduced to 30-40 mph on busy motorway! Car was only 6 weeks old at time. Has happened 3 times since. Can't fault dealer (Harwoods Pulborough) who have used best efforts all 4 times, but Land Rover themselves seem clueless.
Have had 4 software updates, 2 new sensors and 1 whole new CPU !
Harwoods service manager suggests "booting it" periodically to clear the dpf and so far, so good, but what a business!
As other forums have suggested, even on motorways the engine in 6th gear is only running at less that 2,000 revs, so that doesn't do the regen job. Using the 'Command Shift' and revving hard occasionally is one way of doing the job.
Before buying LR for first time, I was assured that LR had overcome their "shameful reliability record" (quote from 'Which?' mag) so we live in fear.
My previous Nissan Pathfinder was 100% reliable over 55,000 miles. Cruder than a Disco, but just as capable. I do hope that my first experience of LR turns out better!

Dpf regen isnt rev reliant.

Should occur, when engine is upto temp. Then the car will start to raise the dpf temperature and as long as you maintain a steady speed, it will complete its regen. Its not a quick thing, you will need 10-15 minutes of motorway driving when hot to go full to empty.


Land Rover are working on helping this though, they have made it so Defenders can dpf regen in lowbox

maccauk said:

Anyone else heard of a problem with the new Freelanders, specifically a DPF problem ??

Couple of days ago the car lost most of its power and had little or no excelleration - Limped home and called LR rescue - Engineer came out and rebooted the system on board and said the problem cleared. Insisted it went into garage - they reported a filter fault and replaced

Lo and behold, 2 days later same fault but this time engine light came on as well - the same engineer came out and implied that this was a problem with the new freelanders and a work around apart from rebooting the on board computer was yet to be found

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I put a dpf cleaner through my combo 2 monthgs ago, but you can get them removed (not cheap) but cheaper than renewal DPF Removal - Diesel Particulate Filter

Removal of the dpf is a very very bad idea tbh.

Its an easily spotted non-genuine modification to the vehicle. Sounds like a future MOT nightmare.


The dpf system works fine as long as you do motorway mileage. The fault the op is having is a fault with design, not a fault with the concept as a whole.

I'm sure it will be rectified shortly.

Vissie said:

The dpf system works fine as long as you do motorway mileage.

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Yea, fookin great idea when you live in Cornwall!

DPF problems aren't unique to land rover, pretty much any vehicle that has one can suffer these problems, driving style does come into it, often they cant finish the regeneration process cos your trip isn't long enough and throw a fit! It's a pants idea, there's a lot to be said for removing them, but there are concerns that there may be a visual inspection brought in to the mot to check they haven't been removed, that's why some firms are making dummies, at present it won't fail an mot without one. You do need it reprogramming to tell it it hasn't got one though or it'll still throw a fit! Bloody cars

My Volvo XC90 has a DPF and it sucks. As most of these things are driven around town by middle aged blonde women (like many a Disco..) they never get a chance to 'self clear' so on the Volvo it uses 10% more fuel to make the exhaust gas temps rise enough to burn it off. And this is why the CO2 emissions on this model are through the roof despite my one averaging 43mpg (and going like absolute stink). So tell me how a few soot particles which a well cared for diesel barely emits is much worse than the evil CO2 our taxing classes tell us is destroying the world at a rapid rate? I smell a rat...