{"id":26876,"date":"2026-09-26T22:19:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T21:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cathive.co.uk\/?p=26876"},"modified":"2026-10-24T00:17:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T23:17:04","slug":"what-is-a-gpf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cathive.co.uk\/nl\/blog\/what-is-a-gpf\/","title":{"rendered":"Wat is een GPF? Het benzinepartikelfilter uitgelegd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do petrol vehicles have a DPF?<\/strong> Not a DPF, which is a diesel part, but many newer petrol vehicles have the petrol equivalent, a GPF. It is most likely on a direct-injection petrol engine built from around 2017, when manufacturers began fitting filters to meet the full Euro 6 particle limit1<\/a>,3<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n

A GPF, or gasoline particulate filter<\/strong>, sits in the exhaust and traps the tiny soot particles that direct-injection petrol engines produce, just as a DPF does on a diesel. You may also see it called an OPF (Otto particulate filter) or PPF (petrol particulate filter): they’re the same thing. Here’s how it works, how to tell whether your vehicle has one, what the warning lights mean and what the law says about removing it.<\/p>\n

Why petrol engines now need a particulate filter<\/h2>\n

For years, particulate filters were a diesel issue. Petrol engines that inject fuel directly into the cylinder (direct injection, badged TSI, TFSI, GDI and similar) are more efficient, but they also produce more fine particles than older petrol engines that mixed fuel and air before it entered the cylinder.<\/p>\n

The Euro 6 emissions standard set a limit on the number<\/em> of particles a direct-injection petrol vehicle may emit: 6.0 \u00d7 1011<\/sup> particles per kilometre<\/strong>1<\/a><\/sup>. Euro 6 became compulsory for new type approvals from 1 September 2014 and for all new vehicles from 1 September 20152<\/a><\/sup>. Manufacturers were allowed a looser limit, ten times higher, for the first three years1<\/a><\/sup>. As that allowance ended and on-road emissions testing was introduced, manufacturers began fitting filters to meet the full limit.<\/p>\n

Volkswagen Group, for example, announced in August 2016 that it would fit particulate filters to its direct-injection petrol engines, starting in June 2017 with the Tiguan 1.4 TSI and the Audi A5 2.0 TFSI, and said the filters cut fine soot particles by up to 90%3<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n

How a GPF works<\/h2>\n

A GPF works the same way as a DPF. Inside is a ceramic honeycomb whose channels are blocked at alternate ends, so the exhaust gas has to pass through the porous channel walls to get out. The gas passes; the soot particles are too large and are caught in the walls4<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Early designs used a plain filter fitted after the catalytic converter. Many newer designs coat the filter itself with catalyst, so one component does both jobs; the industry calls this a “four-way catalyst”4<\/a><\/sup>. In our range these appear as a combined catalytic converter and GPF<\/a>, with part numbers starting BM15.<\/p>\n

GPF and DPF: the differences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/th>\nGPF (petrol)<\/th>\nDPF (diesel)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Soot produced<\/td>\nFar less; petrol engines make much less soot<\/td>\nMore; diesels produce a lot of soot<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How it empties itself<\/td>\nMostly passively<\/strong>: petrol exhaust runs hot enough to burn the soot off during normal driving<\/td>\nRelies more on active<\/strong> regeneration, where the engine deliberately raises the exhaust temperature<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Weak spot<\/td>\nLots of very short, cold trips, which may not get hot enough to burn the soot off; some systems then add an active regeneration<\/td>\nShort, stop-start journeys that keep interrupting regeneration (see why DPFs block<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Long-term limit<\/td>\nAsh from oil additives, which doesn’t burn off and builds up slowly over the filter’s life4<\/a><\/sup><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Because the hotter petrol exhaust does most of the work, a GPF usually needs far less attention than a DPF. But it is still a filter, and a vehicle that only ever makes short trips from cold is the one most likely to have trouble.<\/p>\n

Does my vehicle have a GPF?<\/h2>\n

If your vehicle has a direct-injection petrol engine and was built from around 2017 onwards, there is a good chance it does. To check:<\/p>\n