Cats & Pipes gives DPF advice

With over 25 years’ experience of manufacturing and supplying DPFs and Cats to the automotive industry, Cats & Pipes Director David Carpenter has witnessed a lot of change and unprecedented legislation in the market, which looks set to continue and increase with pressure on the lowering of emissions growing.

This presents huge challenges not only to manufacturers but the aftermarket industry as a whole, often ill equipped to wade through the complicated legislation and what it actually means to the product they buy and fit. David Carpenter said ‘The introduction of the Euro Classifications over the past few years has meant the manufacturing sector has been forced to move to full homologation testing and quality approval schemes in order to continue to legally supply products into the UK and European market. Unfortunately, this has also brought with it a wave of cheap alternative replacement units and services that claim to give you a product that meets the required standards.’

David continues ‘Generally, we would say that if an aftermarket replacement unit looks different to the original (some we have seen are half the size), there is absolutely no way that product can perform to the required emissions standard. Similarly, our investigations show that services professing to be able to recondition and ‘clean’ old units to bring them back to the required level of performance, fall woefully short of both the advertised and legally required standard.’

Cats and Pipes operates a rigorous testing regime for all its products with testing and homologation facilities that are comparable to the best in Europe. Substantial investment by the Company in testing as well as research and development means not only can they produce products that are guaranteed to be compliant and perform to the highest level but they can also rigorously check randomly selected off the shelf competitor products.

Test results from such products have shown clearly that products stating they meet Euro standards as well as companies claiming to recondition units to ‘as new standard’ are clearly not meeting the required criteria to make these claims. David states ‘It is a challenge for small companies operating in the aftermarket to check all the complex information relevant to the very stringent Euro classifications. However, buying purely on price and good faith will not necessarily get you a product that will either perform or stand the test of time.’

Summarising David said ‘If the unit you are buying does not physically look like the original unit you are replacing or similarly a reconditioning/cleaning company states they can restore your unit to ‘as new’, the chances are you are ultimately paying for a sub-standard product that does not meet the required emission levels or indeed last.’ ‘This will mean a vehicle on the road with an illegal emissions level and a dissatisfied customer returning to you when the unit fails’.

Cats & Pipes offers a comprehensive range of type approved DPF’s off the shelf and their Technical Department is happy to answer any questions on their product and offer advice on solutions for all Euro IV & V compliant products.