{
  "slug": "recording-a-dpf-service",
  "title": "Recording a DPF Service: What Belongs in the Record",
  "description": "What to record for a DPF service: the complaint, cause and correction, the diagnostic tool's readings, the cleaning method, and what the customer's copy shows.",
  "track": "maintenance",
  "kind": "article",
  "isRegulatoryAdjacent": false,
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-19",
  "cfr": [],
  "related": [
    "dpf-cleaning-and-regeneration",
    "dpf-cleaning-vs-regeneration",
    "def-and-scr-basics",
    "egr-cooler-replacement",
    "complaint-cause-correction",
    "what-belongs-in-a-pm-report-for-the-customer"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "aftertreatment_dpf"
  ],
  "nextStep": {
    "kind": "start",
    "target": "/start",
    "text": "See how a service record is sent to your customer"
  },
  "sources": {
    "citations": [],
    "bcpRole": "Blue Collar Parts records the work and sends the report to your customer. It does not perform, certify or approve inspections.",
    "reviewed": "2026-10-19",
    "reviewedEdition": null,
    "reviewedText": "Reviewed 2026-10-19"
  },
  "url": "https://shopbluecollarparts.com/kb/recording-a-dpf-service",
  "markdownUrl": "https://shopbluecollarparts.com/kb/recording-a-dpf-service.md",
  "body": "**A DPF service record needs the diagnostic tool's own readings, not just a description of the symptom, because that's what shows the filter actually needed the work and that the work fixed it.** Use the [complaint, cause, correction](/kb/complaint-cause-correction) structure for the write-up itself; this page is what to put in each line for a DPF service specifically.\n\n## What makes a DPF complaint different from a typical one\n\nMost DPF work doesn't start with an operator description the way a noise or a leak does. It starts with a dash lamp, a message center alert, a derate, or a scheduled interval with nothing reported at all. Record which one it was and, where the equipment logs it, when it first appeared. A complaint of \"DPF lamp flashing for three days before the visit\" points somewhere different than \"lamp came on that morning.\"\n\n## What the diagnostic tool's readings tell you\n\nA visual check can't tell you whether a filter is loaded with soot or ash, so the cause of a DPF complaint comes from the manufacturer's service tool, not an inspection. Record the readings that led to the decision, not just that a decision was made:\n\n- **Differential pressure across the filter.** This is the tool's measure of how restricted the filter is. A before-and-after pair of readings — high going in, back to a normal range after regeneration or cleaning — is what demonstrates the filter was actually the problem and that the service resolved it.\n- **Soot load and ash load estimates**, where the tool reports them separately. A high soot load with a low ash estimate points toward regeneration; a persistently high ash estimate, or a service lamp specifically naming ash, points toward cleaning.\n- **Regeneration history**: how many regenerations the tool shows, and how long or how far since the last one completed. Frequent incomplete regenerations are themselves a finding worth recording, not just background.\n- **Active and stored fault codes**, and any related component the tool flags — a differential pressure sensor, a DEF dosing fault, an EGR fault — since a problem elsewhere in the aftertreatment system can present as a DPF complaint. See [DPF cleaning and regeneration](/kb/dpf-cleaning-and-regeneration) for how the systems connect.\n\nRecord the tool's own values, not a paraphrase of them — \"pressure reading in the tool's high range\" is weaker than the actual number the tool displayed.\n\n## When a filter goes out for cleaning\n\nIf the filter is removed rather than regenerated, the record needs to survive the filter leaving your possession and coming back:\n\n- **Identify the specific filter** by its part or serial number before it goes out, so the unit that comes back can be confirmed as the same one — or, if it was exchanged for a cleaned or new unit, record that it was an exchange rather than a return of the original.\n- **Name who performed the cleaning.** If it went to a separate cleaning facility, that's a sublet, and it's recorded as one, the same as any other repair done by someone other than you.\n- **Record anything the cleaning facility reports back** — an ash weight, a differential pressure reading, or a pass/fail on the filter's remaining service life — if they provide it.\n- **Note the date out and the date back in service.**\n\n## Verifying the fix\n\nA completed regeneration or a reinstalled filter isn't verified until you've confirmed it. Record the post-service differential pressure reading, that fault codes cleared and didn't return, and a test run under load where one is appropriate. See [complaint, cause, correction](/kb/complaint-cause-correction) for why verification is what separates \"the part was replaced\" from \"the problem is fixed.\"\n\n## What the customer's copy should show\n\nThe customer doesn't need the raw tool readout. They need what was found, what was done, and what it means going forward — the same four questions any PM report answers. See [what belongs in a PM report for the customer](/kb/what-belongs-in-a-pm-report-for-the-customer) for that structure, and [how to start a service event](/kb/start-a-service-event) for where the work is recorded in Blue Collar Parts.\n\n## Record it in Blue Collar Parts\n\nAdd the DPF service to the service event the same way as any other work performed, then send the completed record to your customer. [Start a service event](/kb/start-a-service-event) for the work, then [send the record to your customer](/kb/send-a-record-to-your-customer).\n\n---\n\n*This page describes a general documentation practice. It is not a repair procedure and not a regulatory inspection. Use the equipment manufacturer's current service documentation for diagnosis, procedures, and specifications.*",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licenseUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}