Well by now with all the press and TV coverage (oh and here at Bloody Cars) you must be aware of the issues with DPF -Diesel Particulate Filter- problems.

Cars doing local runs are just not getting hot enough or running long enough for the regeneration to start.

The process involves some clever trickery with the ECU playing around with fuel and timing to burn off the captured ash. Now if your doing short journeys this is going to be a problem. There are however chemicals that you can now buy from most good Motor Spares outlets to help with the problem.

Basically how they work is by lowering the temperature at which the ash burns off helping to regenerate the filter, especially in cases where exhaust temperatures are low, like stop and go traffic, city traffic and short drives.
. They also actively help to reduce the amount of soot produced.The idea is to add one at every service, if the light has just come on then its a good time to add one too as it will help. These do work, recently we had success with a Zafira, though it did have to go for a good run too, and a Peugeot. Neither of which required any further work.

So I guess the moral here is a bit of preventative maintenance is in order. But, will the manufacturers address this issue and come up with a sensible fix for it? Whats your guess on that?