I hoping you may be able to give me some advice etc. I own a car dealership and have recently purchased a DAF LF45 7.5t Horsebox (no taking the p…!) for the wife and kids etc. I have had it 4 weeks and its been fine however the dreaded engine warning light came on along with exhaust Gas light and reduced power by i guess 20-30%. A truck chap looked at it yesterday and reported the fault “after treatment outlet NOX” he said it needs to get up to 240 deg to clear… but ideally needs to be loaded as adblue only gets added under load/hot. A friend who is a fleet manager has cast doubt on this saying it has no DPF and is a constant system, weight and temp should be unrelated…
Box weighs 5.5t without a horse so up to a reasonable weight as it stands, the light came on after motorway journey with a horse in the back so about 6t. i took it for a 30 mile drive and no joy.
I have noticed that the adblue pump has recently beed changed also the adblue is full and I’ve done 300 miles it it doesn’t appear to have moved. The truck has only done 1000/2000 miles in last 2 years since proper coach built conversion so i think a blockage somewhere? any tips etc would be grateful as people have spoken about very small filter and the like.
Moving forward I’m happy to try to fix however am mindful that my wife will only do about 4-5000 miles a year used 3 times a week so this may be a recurring issue… again any advice etc would be most appreciated.
FYi, Im sick of cars but loving the truck (boys toys etc)
1 remove the adblue injector and check its clear, Iirc 48mm spanner, check under a running tap, if its blocked hot water from said tap will clear it.
2, leave the adblue injector pipe off, remove the adblue metal air filter, looks like a small metal fuel filter Offside of the chassis, fill it to the brim with piping hot water, refit it and then run the engine at ilde for a few minutes or unril you can see the water coming out of the injector plastic pipe, repaeat this a few times until the pipe is passing water easily
3, fit a new adblue air filter and do the water flush thing onece a year to keep the system good
If the above doesnt work it means the adblue dosing module itself is blocked and neeeds removing and cleaning, you need 5 sided torx socket to take it to bits
Neat screen wash is a very good dissolver of adblue, but the hot water is what I always used.
It is a god reliable system just needs pretty basic maintenance to keep it good.
What you have to bear in mind if the code reader says nox sensor out of range its not the nox sensor thats at fault its telling you no adblue is getting injected hence the reason its out of range.
I would remove the emulator comment from your post as you just dont know whos reading this forum!
I found out the whole system had just been renewed at DAF a few months ago… I remember the guy I bought it from saying he isolates battery after stopping as it’s a horse box and didn’t want flat battery.
When I bought it I got a call when I had it serviced by tracker saying battery has been disconnected! I said “oh yes it’s just been serviced it’s the workshops” I contacted them and sure enough when they parked it up they also isolated battery…
DAF said nozzle was partially blocked and that in his experience on a new system that’s normally caused if battery isolated after switch off preventing the 30 second air purge on adblue system. He had no knowledge of this happening prior to going in so something worth remembering ie NOT to isolate battery after switch off until air purge done!! Probably why it went wrong for last owner!
You got it in one ,ADR vehicles have a countdown on the dash before they can isolate the system…Remember not to have the ign switched on before switching on at the isolater as that will throw up warnings
Tbh the box gets a good run 3 times a week so I will scratch my head if and when a battery problem occurs! For now my main focus is no warning lights and de rate on power …!
It’s only a 7.5t but certainly driving it has opened my eyes to some questionable other 7.5t driving skills (or not should I say)…
An important point about horse boxes is the tacho …it will probably have a VDO /Siemens tacho …I know you take it out 3 times a week and it will probably be exempt ,but if it is parked up for any length of time and the vehicle batteries go flat ,there is a battery in the tacho to keep it alive ,sadly what generally happens is the tacho battery will go flat ,once that happens the tacho is dead and will need replacing ,replacing the battery will not get it working again,and you will have no milage on he dash …The battery gets changed every 2 years when a calibration is done …So if left for any length of time make sure the vehicle batteries never go flat and for the cost put a fresh battery in the tacho ,but do not disconnect the power supply from the tacho …
norb:
An important point about horse boxes is the tacho …it will probably have a VDO /Siemens tacho …I know you take it out 3 times a week and it will probably be exempt ,but if it is parked up for any length of time and the vehicle batteries go flat ,there is a battery in the tacho to keep it alive ,sadly what generally happens is the tacho battery will go flat ,once that happens the tacho is dead and will need replacing ,replacing the battery will not get it working again,and you will have no milage on he dash …The battery gets changed every 2 years when a calibration is done …So if left for any length of time make sure the vehicle batteries never go flat and for the cost put a fresh battery in the tacho ,but do not disconnect the power supply from the tacho …
Maybe worth getting a solar charger to run through cigarette lighter perhaps…? Any advice on these from anyone!
100 miles in since being unlocked by DAF and today on the motorway same lights on and into de rate mode
Battery not been isolated since repair so air purge not been interrupted, looks like it’s got blocked again due to I presume crystallising!
God knows why this has happened again… will book back in tomorrow
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A quick test that you can do to clear out any crystalisation take off the small air filter cartridge on the middle if the chassis…Fill it with boiling water and refit ,remove the pipe from the nozzle and run the engine …If you then get water of the pipe the EAS unit itself is ok …If no water after a period of time then the EAS unit has failed …Chances of you being able to get the nozzle out the exhaust pipe is slim…so you can either blow air throw it from a workshop airline ,or take off the pipe ,(note the clamps will shear …)and you will be able to see test if the nozzle is clear…If you do g to DAF ask for the fault codes…it really isn’t a difficult system …
Went back to DAF today, they are looking after me re time spent and cost etc plus I’m based down south but thx
They tested the adblue and it’s contaminated. Looks like original DAF dealer replaced everything for last owner a couple of months back but never cleaned adblue tank or swapped adblue out… at least they never charged for it!
Anyway will just had to see what happens now… now has New nozzle, new pump plus filters. Tank cleaned plus new adblue. Complete flush, No blocks etc.
Pinkpanthersouth:
Went back to DAF today, they are looking after me re time spent and cost etc plus I’m based down south but thx
They tested the adblue and it’s contaminated. Looks like original DAF dealer replaced everything for last owner a couple of months back but never cleaned adblue tank or swapped adblue out… at least they never charged for it!
Anyway will just had to see what happens now… now has New nozzle, new pump plus filters. Tank cleaned plus new adblue. Complete flush, No blocks etc.
What could possibly go wrong…
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Its a Daf, just wait
To be fair to Daf all modern commerical vehicles are a royal pita.
