It depends on the car mostly - if its got a DPF, then you can't guarantee that the longer trips will coincide with an active regen, even if it passively does so during the longer trip - which may not be enough to keep the DPF in good condition over the long term. As has been demonstrated before, some diesel-powered cars are far more susceptable to significant damage from use for predominantly short trips from cold than others.

What car is yours, including the year of manufacture?

I currently do a low annual mileage (but run a non-GDI petrol-engined car, so less of a worry), but that's 95%+ journeys over 10 miles and a decent amount of that on faster flowing roads. Yet someone doing that some annual mileage made up of almost all short urban trips from cold will, even on a petrol engined car, mean it'll wear more quickly unless the maintenance is kept up, possibly higher than would normally be the case.

As for diesels doing such work, for starters I'd run it on super diesel (I don't think its a higher cetane rating [unlike super unleaded], it just has far great cleaning detergents and other useful additives that regular fuels don't, which would help keep the engine in better shape and at least improve the chances of it passing the MOT emissions test. There are some shop-bought cleaners and fuel or oil additives that supposedly can help cars that do such work, but they seem to vary in their usefullness. I've used Redex injector cleaner (4 dose bottle) once - it helped a bit, but my car was already in decent condition.

Its probably worth you checking via an internet search (as well as from other Backroomers far more knowledgeable than me) to find owners clubs (even just for the make of car) and reviews to see if other owners of your model have problems associated with low mileage driving and any tips. I get mine from the Mazda3 forum, for example.

It depends on what you mean by nnormal servicing. If for example it is 12,500m or 12m, then presumably it would drop to annual. If you want to do it less frequently than that, say every 2 years, then you would not be complying with the manufacturer recommendation. If you haven't a warranty to worry about, and you don't mind not having "FSH" when you sell, then it would probably be OK.

However, if you were still using it every day, then you might consider just changing the oil and filter halfway between services if you didn't feel like paying for a dealer service*.

I concur with the suggestion to use Shell V-Power diesel or similar. If it is still part GTL then it should have less crud (longer chain hydrocarbons) so should put less soot into the DPF (just my theory, supported by the view of a late friend who was a petroleum chemist).

*(although the standard service on my MX-5 doesn't seem to be any more than that plus splodges of grease on the door and boot hinges - I think I have just paid £149 for an oil and filter change plus "visual inspection")

Edited by Manatee on 02/05/2018 at 17:11