So my mk3 vrs has regenerated the dpf after 86 miles of mixed 40mph abd 60mph driving, seems about excessive to me, any ideas?

Dépends on what happened in the last regen.

If it started & was interrupted without really regenerating the DPF then it will try again at the next available opportunity.

did the previous to this one finished on low level?

city driving for me usually does 120miles and regens..

I allowed the previous regen to finish it's cycle at 5g of soot yesterday. Then it regened again today after only 86 miles. 

Get the paid version of the DPF app and see how much oil ash residue you have. I've read this is like the life of the DPF, 80g is maximum, close to 60g will see regular regens due to being almost full.

 

What age, mileage is the car?

Mine normally regens when it gets to 24-25g.  If it mine fully regens then it will get down to around 5-6g.

 

If yours had fully regen'd yesterday and completed, for roughly how long have you been driving today?

If you've been driving for 4 hrs stop start then a regen maybe required.

 

Ive got the paid version of your app and its far more informative - a few quid from memory.

 

 

Not sure if you ever got this sorted, but I had a similar issue a couple of years ago. 1.6  TDi with about 50k miles at the time. Regen came on and cleared fully then a couple of days later (<50 miles) it came on again and showed on the App that soot was at 88%. Turned out the sensor at the DPF (can't recall the name) was faulty and was falsely saying it was sooted up. Had it been left it prob would have gone into limp mode. Got sensor replaced and no issues since. Regularly get 420 miles between regen on an 80k mileage car.