Yes a motorway run would help, got to be 20 mins or so once the engine is hot to give a fair chance of regenerating.

Also, ignore completely the recommended oil change intervals, failed regens dump fuel into the crankcase, not only will diluted oil cause rapid bearing wear you are increasing the possibility of the engine consuming its own sump mixture and self destructing.

Regular oil changes are cheap if you bulk buy oil by 20 litres at a time and the same with filters and DIY this simple operation...might be an idea to send a sample of the first drain for analysis give you an idea of oil dilution is a problems for you...i'd be suggesting no more than 5k oil changes for the time being and see how you go, maybe get a second analysis at 3k and see how the new oil and new travel regime is working out.

Doesn't need to be Gucci oils @ £50 for 5 litres (and a lot more the way a dealer workshops charges), look around and you'll find good quality suitable synthetic oils from the likes of Exol or Westaway costing you no more and often less than £20 per 5 litre when bought in 20 litre drums, jus check what your engine requires and make sure the oil covers it.

If you take sensible precautions and make sure the car gets a decent run regularly i don't see any reason why you couldn't carry on with this car for a long time yet, i wouldn't be getting shot of it until i'd tried altering usage and maintenance and see how it goes.

Edited by gordonbennet on 19/09/2020 at 10:07

The burning smell was probably regen in process, sounds like you stopped it mid regen more than once hence it blocked the DPF.

Not blaming you here, if some bod not wearing a coco the clown outfit in the design room had come up with a simple warning lamp** on the dash when a regen was due/needed/underway i'm quite sure half the issues people have with these things would not be.

As its had several failed regens now, if you decide to run the car for a time i urge you to change the engine oil as it has more than likely gained some fuel mixture.

** one some lorries we can call up the level of DPF ash content on the menu, all lorries i've driven with DPF you get a warning when a regen has started and can cancel it if its going to be dangerous to allow it to continue, and another button you can press to perform a static regen where you find somewhere safe to park for 30 mins whilst the engine goes to fast idle and cleans the DPF...car makers seem to assume their buyers are cabbages, why isn't such a system available via the on board menu for cars?

Edited by gordonbennet on 19/09/2020 at 18:14

They don't do it on cars because imagine the reaction when you tell a buyer. 'every time that light comes on you need to drive the car, or leave it idling until it goes off'.

Fair, but they should have built the system in so buyers with a clue could access the facility, instead of which in true one size fits all style they must have assumed because some hadn't a clue that all buyers could not compute.

I'm sure i heard John Cadogan having a pop at Toyota because they ended up fitting a manual regen facility on 2.8 Diesels (Prado/Hilux) in order to help with regen issues...how many drivers on here that would make such a difference to in their choice of vehicles if they knew that in the event some of their motoring, ie at times like this, being unfriendly to DPF they could take some positive actions.

Edited by gordonbennet on 19/09/2020 at 18:33

The car has broken down due to not knowing anything about it, and the DPF got blocked, the Mazda Dealer told me i need a new engine costing around £9000

Bit more going on here than a DPF blocked by a few failed regens.

The car never showed any warning light or signs of something wrong apart from the burning smell, and out of nowhere coming from work it lost the power, and a warning light came on mentioning low oil pressure, the engine was rattling alot after

That suggests to me excess fuel dumped by multiple failed regens and lack of suitable oil changes when this happens has done the damage one would expect, or it might have overheated, or the timing's slipped or any one of lots of things could have happened, would have helped if you'd said the engine had low oil pressure and sounded like a bag of spanners in the first place.

Used engine time if you can find one.

So i have been looking at DPF cleaning/regeneration and found a DPF cleaner that lower the temperature the soots burn at, meaning it will burn driving normally around town without need to drive on motorways, they recommend to do this every 2/3 tanks do this actually work??

Can't see it fixing a blown engine that the garage have condemned as needing replacement.

Yeah what i mean is, after getting the engine fixed/replaced.

If i change the oil every few thousand miles and with the DPF cleaner additive added to the fu el tank as recommended should it solve the problem of it getting blocked again?

PSA group came up with a catalyst (EOLYS i believe it was called) which is a small tankfull of the product, small amounts of which are automatically added to the fuel when the tank is refilled and to be fair their DPF's have been little trouble compared to some others, but then PSA were in at the beginning of fitting Diesel engines into cars so should know a thing or two.

I have no idea if the product you are considering will work, you would be wise to change oil more regularly, yes, and try to modify your driving to help, and try to spot when your car is in regen mode (others will be able to advise better how to tell) so you don't stop the engine mid cycle will help enormously.

How much simpler life would be if they'd just put a light on the dash to let you know regen due or commenced.

Accepting that I have a different car, clues that the DPF is regenerating on my Golf GTD include:- Higher instantaneous fuel consumption Stop/start becomes inoperative Raised tickover speed Lumpy tickover Engine cooling fans remain on if engine is stopped. If you stop the engine at that point, best to fire up again and keep driving for 10 minutes, in the hope it finishes the regen cycle

The symptoms vary - apart from the last one if the regeneration hasn't finished, I get none of those on my VW Touareg