Diesel viability

[pulstar]

Hi,

i own 2019 1.5 hdi 130 Berlingo. it has around 55k km on the clock. Main reasons my wife and i bought it were it's spacious interior, sliding doors (great for young kids), "future proofness" (ability to put third child seat in the second row) and good, yet somewhat frugal diesel motor. Before Cov19 pandemics, we were making around 90 kilometers per day (45km trip to work and back - 35km of it was highway). Lockdowns, work from home and my change of job have turned the economics upside down. Now we're mostly making 10km (2x5km) drives per day, with only one or two longer highway trips per week (80-90km per trip). I am a bit worried that this kind of use is making excessive stress to the motor - DPF, injectors, Adblue. Motor rarely gest warm. I haven't recieved any DPF regeneration faults yet, but i wonder what problems could arrise in the near future. I am currently getting around 5.5-6 l/100km, so economy is decent for such a heavy car.

What are your thoughts about my situation?

[deejay_xb]

I think that it will be ok, maybe make a 50-100km's ride once a month on highway for the catalyst system to clean up.

[boop]

The highway trips are frequent enough to regenerate your DPF probably, so no worries.

[notsofast]

If you're doing lots of short journeys and the engine doesn't get warm, that might be considered a more intensive use of the vehicle (e.g. like a taxi) and so it might be worth checking whether that warrants a reduction in the mileage between services.

[pulstar]

I think that it will be ok, maybe make a 50-100km's ride once a month on highway for the catalyst system to clean up.

Only once a month? I thought DPF regeneration happens frequently.

[deejay_xb]

It depends on how many km's you make, It may regen less frequently..

[Zion]

Once I started working only 15 mins from home, mine did a regen every 90 miles . (145km)

It used to do a regen roughly every 450 miles when I had a 1 hour motorway commute.

In the diagnostic system, I found the soot was building much faster on a 15 minute each way journey of 5 miles (to be expected) than when I was travelling on the motorway for an hour to work. Hence the rapid regen rates. This means the accumulated oil ash will get to the point of a DPF-out full clean much earlier than 100k miles

[pulstar]

Once I started working only 15 mins from home, mine did a regen every 90 miles . (145km)

It used to do a regen roughly every 450 miles when I had a 1 hour motorway commute.

In the diagnostic system, I found the soot was building much faster on a 15 minute each way journey of 5 miles (to be expected) than when I was travelling on the motorway for an hour to work. Hence the rapid regen rates. This means the accumulated oil ash will get to the point of a DPF-out full clean much earlier than 100k miles

What do you mean by "full clean"? Removal and cleaning or replacing the damn thing?

[Zion]

Either. A full clean means removal and chemically treated to clean out all oil ash which is what's left behind after each regen. Eventually it can hold no more. Or you fit a new one but a clean is less expensive.

[Opensauce]

Is this even an issue on modern diesels ? I thought Adblue was supposed to solve all the previous problems of dpf clogging on short journeys ?