V60 D5 used for short journeys?

[Peter piper]

Due to a change of circumstances my 2012 D5 (215) will mainly be used for short journeys of a couple or so miles. I understand this isn't ideal for a diesel, but is there something I can do to prevent problems with the dpf. I have considered replacing the V60 with a petrol car, but I will get so little money for it and would end up with something not as nice.

[n217970]

My wife is using one for short journeys at the minute (205 engine), we bought it 6 months ago knowing its not ideal but we got a very good deal price wise on it (even more so now I have sorted a couple of issues on it) and longer term its a replacement for my ageing P2 S60. It normally gets one long run per month on the motorway.

No issues with the DPF at the moment, I did realise last month that it hadn't had a long run for 6 weeks so I took it down the motorway to the next junction and back. It did a regen all the way (about 30 miles).

I have access to VIDA now so I am going to start taking an interest in the amount of soot in the DPF on a weekly basis. I am going to do some experiments running it on V-power as well to see if it has an effect.

[V60RD]

Originally Posted by Peter piper

Due to a change of circumstances my 2012 D5 (215) will mainly be used for short journeys of a couple or so miles. I understand this isn't ideal for a diesel, but is there something I can do to prevent problems with the dpf. I have considered replacing the V60 with a petrol car, but I will get so little money for it and would end up with something not as nice.

I too have a diesel V60 and work less than 2 miles from my work. As a result I have had two occasions where the soot regen issue has arrose and had to drive up and down the dual track for 15 mins to clear. As a fix I was told to stay in higher rev gears at around 2.5 - 3k revs after the first few hundred yards warming the oil a little. Also take it out for a good run weekends giving the engine chance to reach a higher and optimal temp. That prompts more regeneration apparently. Failing that he said, the best option was to invest in a bike Lol

I'm not a machanic so please gather more or accurate information, but the advice above was given to me by one. Hope it helps

HJ

[Peter piper]

Thanks for the quick replies. Can I ask if VIDA will accurately show the amount of soot in the DPF. I just did a quick search and ebay are selling them for £62, but would this be a cheap copy?

[n217970]

My Vida was reporting 18.24 grams of soot in the filter on Saturday, I presume its right. The car last did a regen a week and 450 miles ago on a french motorway.

[benr7310]

I have the same car (remapped) and do a 6 mile round trip ( inc a fair bit of stop start traffic)5 days a week, dont usually use it much on the weekends and do a long 450 mile round trip once every 4-6 weeks.

Not had any issues with DPF/emissions light etc in nearly 2 years.

[mordred1973]

My XC60 D5 does lots of short trips during the week, yesterday it was started 8 times and did 20 miles. It then does a mid trip 30 miles or so a couple of times a weekend plus a long trip once or twice a month. No idea how often it is doing a regen.

In 5 years and 94000 miles never had a DPF issue (fingers crossed it remains that way)

[Peter piper]

Originally Posted by mordred1973

My XC60 D5 does lots of short trips during the week, yesterday it was started 8 times and did 20 miles. It then does a mid trip 30 miles or so a couple of times a weekend plus a long trip once or twice a month. No idea how often it is doing a regen.

In 5 years and 94000 miles never had a DPF issue (fingers crossed it remains that way)

That is very reassuring to hear because I really would rather keep it than sell it for silly money and buy a petrol car that won't be as nice (it's only worth about 8.5k selling privately).

I will just have to ensure I take it for a long run every couple of weeks, but I like the idea of using vida to monitor the soot level in the dpf, but vida doesn't look as straightforward to use as I would like, and I'm frankly a nightmare using software and there appears to be a lot of cheap copies of vida around so I will hopefully get some info from this forum about it.

[craigv60]

I ran a 5-cylinder D3 163bhp for 3 years and 36,000 miles from new, and my daily commute is 3.25 miles to work, then 3.25 miles home again.

75% of my driving was commuting or journeys in urban limits of less than 10 miles. Never had any DPF problems, nor any warning messages about the DPF. The car would get a decent run on a motorway maybe once a month (the D4 VEA V60 I had afterwards had no problems either, in the same usage).

Volvo seems to have a pretty robust DPF implementation on the 5-cylinder engines, and on the newer VEA diesels too.