What Is Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF)?

The diesel particulate filter is part of your vehicle's emissions system and filters harmful diesel particulates from the exhaust gas.

How Does the Diesel Particulate Filter Work?

The diesel particulate filter reduces emissions by trapping exhaust particles before they reach the tailpipe. The system must periodically clean the exhaust particles that gather inside the filter. This is carried out in three ways, passive regeneration, active regeneration and manual regeneration.

Passive Regeneration

In passive regeneration, the normal exhaust system temperature cleans the filter by oxidizing the soot. Cleaning occurs during normal vehicle operating conditions due to driving patterns.

Active Regeneration

Once the diesel particulate filter is full, active regeneration raises the exhaust temperature to eliminate the particles.
When the engine control module detects that the diesel particulate filter is nearly full of particulates, and you are not operating your vehicle in a manner to allow effective regeneration, messages appear in the information display as a reminder for you to drive your vehicle in order to clean the diesel particulate filter. If you drive your vehicle in a manner to allow effective regeneration, the information display shows a cleaning exhaust filter message.