Can a Seat be driven legally once its DPF has been taken off?

Not on a public road. Driving a Seat there without its particulate filter is an offence under the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations, the MOT has treated a missing DPF as an automatic fail from February 2014, and the fine can reach £1,000 for a car or £2,500 for a van. That is why we take the filter off only Seats used off-road or in motorsport.

What blocks a Seat Leon FR’s DPF besides short journeys?

Short trips are the best-known cause, but our Leon 2.0 TDI FR article lists four more: engine oil of the wrong grade put in at a service, the engine being switched off while a regeneration is running, regenerations that fail or happen too rarely, and injector faults adding soot. VAG diesels like the FR should be serviced on a low-ash long-life oil, which helps each regeneration succeed and the filter last.

Which symptoms on a Seat point to the DPF?

The DPF or engine management light, a flashing glow plug light and limp mode are the usual first signs, with codes such as P242F, P2002 or P0471 commonly stored. As the blockage worsens, back-pressure can leave a Seat slow to pick up speed, hard to start, or starting and then cutting out. Some give almost no notice: on the Ibiza 1.6 TDI CR we have seen cars go straight into limp mode without the usual DPF warning. Our DPF fault code guide explains what each code points at.

Which Seat diesels do your DPF articles cover?

Three write-ups deal with Seat. The Ibiza 1.6 TDI CR is covered in both its 90 hp and 105 hp forms, which share the same DPF trouble; the Leon FR article deals with its 170 bhp 2.0 TDI; and our 2.0 TDI PD article covers the 170 bhp engine Seat shares with Skoda, VW and Audi. On a Seat that stays on the road, a professional clean with the cause put right is the road-legal fix. If your model is not among them, send its engine and any codes through our repair form and we will tell you what applies.