i was wondering if it was a good idea to use the cleaners on a regular basis; my daily commute is two miles to work in the morning and two miles home; so i look likely to get problems

Do you give it a good run at any other times to regen the DPF? two miles each way surprised you have not had any issues how long have you been doing this ? using the cleaner burns the soot off at lower temperature so I would be inclined to put some cleaner in and at leat go for a fast run at a constant speed once and a while.

I am in a similar dilema having now retired I only use my FL2 for a twenty mile round trip to Bisley to go shooting once a month and do not use it at all in between unless its for a minimum of ten mies. I walk to the shops 2.5 miles away keeps me fit  2013 FL2 XS.
Defender 90 300 TDi.
Defender 90 300 TDi CSW.
1964 MGB Roadster.
1944 Willys MB "Jeep" with bullet holes. (gone)
17 hand Irish Drought Thoroughbred (mostly lame)
Nagging Old Boiler.

I've had a few issues with this.
Because I do short journeys to work the DPF doesn't regenerate much and so it causes an issue of diesel in oil.
To clean the DPF, the system apparently puts diesel into the outlet ports so it can burn in the DPF. IF the journey is therefore short, the oil dumps into the oil. This was explained to my by my local garage in probably far better ways than I have put here and I'm sure someone will offer a better explanation!

I've had 2 oil changes in 7 months so now I try and remember to take it on a long run at high raves to burn off the excess carbon.

Don't think the extra fuel needed to increase the exhaust temperature for a regen is put into the exhaust ports.

My understanding is that during regen, extra fuel is injected into the cylinder during part of the exhaust stroke when the exhaust valve is open so that unburnt fuel enters the exhaust manifold and burns in the DPF.

My old BMW (2009) did a regen quite often when I commuted to work and you could hear a distinct change in engine sound and the exhaust became smelly.


Ive never noticed our FL2 regenerating but then it does mainly long journeys (100 mile + ) and so maybe it hasnt attempted to do a regen. Jules

The other issue with short runs and incompleted regeneration of the dpf is that the engine and the now diluted oil never gets hot enough to evaporate the diesel that has been dumped into it compounding the oil dilution problem.