► Month six with the Seat Leon X-perience
► We have our own mini diesel issue
► Diesel Particulate Filter lights up
Slap bang in the middle of the Volkswagen Group emissions crisis, we had one of our own own. The Diesel Particulate Filter warning light flashed up on the dashboard of the Leon.
Panic stricken, and with my neighbours diving for gas masks and the safety of their Anderson shelters as my pox and NOx riven car arrived home from the school run (yes, dear reader, my children have been exposed to its deadly emissions, but at the moment, they live), I took drastic measures commensurate with such a dire emergency: I consulted the manual.
How could this have happened? Usually it’s the sort of thing that occurs if you live in big cities doing lots of short runs that don’t allow the filter system to get up to temperature and burn the particulates off. Admittedly I’d spent three days tootling about town, but only the Sunday before we’d had a particularly satisfying run down the A1 to see Inside Out at the Peterborough Showcase. Great film, good filter temperatures.
Nevertheless, back to the current crisis. It seems the Leon needed a run of at least 15 minutes at an average of 60mph to get the filter to operate fully. I didn’t have a lot of time, certainly not enough to call DEFRA or COBRA to clear the vicinity and it was still rush hour, but out I ventured. No good. Traffic was too heavy and I had a deadline. I returned back through empty streets like Charlton Heston as the last man alive in a 1960s disaster movie.
Not in zombie limp-home mode though, which meant we had not yet reached the denouement of the situation, entailing the rescue services of a SEAT dealer. Later that day, I bravely tried again, heading north towards Newark, whose occupants blithely went about their day, blissfully unaware of the pestilential package of particulates heading their way. And then, just five miles south of the sleepy little market town, it happened: the light went off.
A close shave. I returned home, vowing never again to go more than two days without driving to Peterborough. It’s a heavy price, but one worth paying.
From the driving seat
+ Extra travel gives a smooth ride
+ Beefy diesel with plenty of in-gear shove (and working particulate filter)
– Can be raucous under heavy load
– It’s no sporty machine: increased height means more body roll
Logbook SEAT Leon X-PERIENCE SE Technology 2.0 TDI 150 PS 6-speed manual
Price: £26,370
As tested: £28,285
Miles this month: 378
Total: 6074
Our mpg: 47.2
Official mpg: 57.6
Fuel this month: £40.15
Extra costs: £0