[MarkC]

Just had the car serviced at my local dealership. £159 inc VAT for the 20000mile/2nd year service - and was very impressed with the standard of customer service.

I've known the guy who owns the dealership, and his dad for over 20 years (he's one of MY customers!), but this is the first time I've ever had a car serviced there. I had a chat with him a few days ago, and benefited from a DPF masterclass. Its tough to achieve optimum engine temp in the UK at this time of year, doing short runs, as the engine does not warm up quickly at all at idle speed in traffic. He did mention the pitfalls of the DPF regeneration system that Hyundai use (it sounds similar to the awful mess that Mazda and Audi had problems with a few years back). Worth keeping an eye on, towards the end of the Warranty period, methinks 

With the car being relatively new, he mentioned the engine flush service that is available, but this was never offered when I handed my keys over. One tip he did give me, was to change the oil at least every year, rather than the two-yearly intervals specified, mainly due to the fact that I'm not doing loads of motorway commutes any more.

[Phil №❶]

The bad news.

The DPF will give heaps of trouble if you don't drive the car on a decent run at least monthly, It won't wait until warranty etc, they block up and require attention immediately and on multiple occasions.

The good news

You get to have a nice drive somewhere in order to regenerate the DPF periodically. The function of cleaning actually takes place in the exhaust pipe, not the engine, extra fuel is injected to increase the temp and I'm not sure that the engine has to be properly warmed up for this to occur (I could be wrong).

If your trips and driving style are acceptable to the DPF requirements, you will have no trouble during the life of the DPF system.

[MarkC]

Yeah Phil, the engine has to be good and hot for the regeneration to work, but will take place at 300 mile intervals regardless, and thats when the problems with the oil starts, as he explained it to me. I'm not unduly concerned at the moment, as I take the "scenic route" most weekends, to give the old girl a good thrashing, and my ex lives a couple of junctions along the motorway, which gives the opportunity for getting to ramming speed when picking my lad up, or dropping him off.

Its only an issue here at the moment with the ambient temperature being around 6 degrees C. Do your thermometers go that low by the way?

[Shambles]

... 6 degrees C. Do your thermometers go that low by the way?

Good one

[Phil №❶]

Ramming speed, 

It's only 12.3 Deg C with showers @ 10:21, unheard of for here, should be about 28-38 Deg C. We do get to -3 Deg C in Spring with frosts, but none at all last year.