After a few short trips over Christmas the DPF light came on as expected this morning with the wife driving.

Its a rare occurance as it spends most of its time on the motorway, but as soon as the wife trundles around in it or if I get stuck in traffic it'll flash on (roughly every 2 or 3 months / 6-7,000 miles), but it always clears by dropping a gear or two and holding it at a steady 3,000rpm for a mile or two.

Anyway when she got home I took it up the road to clear it out, as soon as I felt the brief interuption in power I knew regeneration had commenced as normal, except this time I got plumes of blue smoke out of the back for approx. 5 seconds.

It can't be soot as in theory this is trapped by the DPF so this must have been burnt oil.

Now, just before Christmas it had its oil cooler replaced, the garage explained that in order to flush the system they'd leave it ticking over for some time so that the flush would pump through the system. I knew that this wouldn't do the DPF any favours (I've experienced driving a Mercedes Sprinter after it had been ticking over most of the day and that chucked out loads of smoke for a good few miles!).

The light cleared as normal and the smoke stopped very quickly (5-10 seconds after the regen started).

Does this sound normal?

Very strange, u shouldn't see any smoke from a car with a dpf, iv never seen a hint of any smoke,even on my recent nct test it didn't even register on the scale. Is it using oil?

She's as clean as a whistle 99.9% of the time, it was just this few seconds immediately after the regen started.

It wasn't black/diesel/soot coloured smoke, it was blue/oil smoke.

If a car is left to idle too long isit possible oil could seep/settle anywhere?

She's as clean as a whistle 99.9% of the time, it was just this few seconds immediately after the regen started.

It wasn't black/diesel/soot coloured smoke, it was blue/oil smoke.

If a car is left to idle too long isit possible oil could seep/settle anywhere?

Only would settle if ur rings or valve oil seals are worn.

Uh oh, remember the diesel mixing with my oil after the dealer botched the injector change?

Another symptom I wonder

Maybe leaving it idling for ages allowed a little oil to pass a turbo seal on the turbine side which would be sent straight to the DPF.

Good point, I'm guessing it was ticking over for a good 30-45 minutes.

I hope that is the case then as that sounds like no harm was done!

Thanks.