anti pollution equipment

[Phil and Liz]

coming home tonight and the engine management warning light came on with the spanner symbol and an amber warning in the display 'check anti pollution equipment'. Checked the manual, nothing mentioned, I'm running an on board diagnostics trial for the AA and Delphi, when i got home it mentioned the fault (and my 4000rpm acceleration ! 5 minutes later)
I'm thinking particulate filter needing a good thrashing, last couple of days with the snow I've been driving like a geriatric learner driver, what with nervous truckers and untreated side roads.

Engine still performing ok, have noticed in this cold weather that most of the time the temp guage is only at 1 bar and only occasionally gets to halfway round. Not sure if its connected, fuel economy is shot to hell in the cold weather (45mpg), wifes 86bhp dci is also down but still showing 60mpg. I know petrol engines get a richer mixture until the sensor tells the computer its hot, do modern diesels over fuel until the computer gets told its warm enough ?

[Phil and Liz]

so this morning i drove it like i stole it, bit difficult at -2c but within limits, the lights went off and have not come back on. so far so good must be particulate filter needing a burn