Most of my journeys are short.

From reading various posts, this makes me a prime candidate for oil dilution "issues".

Want to do what I can to maximise the time / distance between the extra oil changes this will cause.

As I understand it, oil dilution happens when the FF starts, but can't finish, a DPF regen.

So if I make sure I do one 12 mile run each week, will this do the DPF regen and stop the car from trying?

Also …

At what point does oil dilution cause a "service required" message to pop up?

What tells the FF it needs to do a DPF regen - is it having a certain amount of soot in the DPF?

It looks like lots of this is answered in other posts - sorry.

However, I'm clearly too stupid to understand them. Would someone explain to an idiot please.

Thanks in advance. What do I put here then?

Just on the first item, what LR say is that one should drive at least 20 minutes at between 37 and 70 mph. At the lower end of that spectrum 12 miles might be enough, but I'd regard 12 miles as a short journey in diesel terms. You might be better looking at a petrol/PHEV so you could just drive the car when you want/need to, rather than setting out on special journeys just to get a regeneration cycle in. Only Range Rovers since 1988

Frankly if most of your journeys are short then you will see a significant reduction in the times and miles driven between requested oil changes.
Oil dilution is a function of DPF regenerations, you can read plenty on why it happens but it does. Only the passive regens, that occur when your drive longer distances at fairly constant higher speeds basically over 60 MPH, don’t dilute the oil. Driving a single trip of 12 miles each week will not help.
The actual amount of fuel that gets into the sump is not known or measured, but LR have put an algorithm in the ECU that attributes a fixed amount of fuel entering the sump after each active or forced regen, whether the regen was completed or not. When the percentage of dilution reaches 7% the service required message appears. The only way to see if this is accurate is to have the oil tested for fuel contamination. LR increased the % to 10% on later cars but I don’t know if that is a SW mod available to other cars.
I drive about 8K miles a year and I change my oil and filter every 6 months and one of those is my annual service carried out by my Indie to preserve my service history. I do get service required messages as well but ignore them if my next oil change is close, within a month or six weeks. Mine came on today but next service is early March so I will ignore it.

PS. Paranoia is part of owning a FF, Just chill and enjoy the journey.

To be honest an oil change of a FF is so simple and relatively cheap there is no reason even basic DIY'er should do it.

Invest in an oil sucker and its a 15 min job. I do mostly short journeys too. Until this oil dilution issue came to my notice (and being ignorant of DPF intricacies) I assumed this would prolong oil change gaps.

Knowing what I know now about regen and with oil changes being so simple there is no reason for me not to change oil and filter every three months.

Might be worth it for your own peace of mind too. 405 AB exec seats Baltic and Cirrus
93 RR Classic efi

Remember it's easier to get forgiveness than permission!

Gone in order:
4.4 TDV8 SE - gone to a good home
93 Classic hard dash Plymouth Blue
03 L322 Oslo Blue
2000 Disco TD5 ES Epsom Green
98 P38 Rioja Red
89 Classic Cairngorm Brown

Thank you for all the replies so far.

And I was already thinking about doing my own oil changes. I'm useless with spanners, etc but it can't be too hard ... surely.

But am still keen to have answers to my questions if anyone can help. What do I put here then?

The oil dilution/dpf issue is an 2L illness, not general for all diesels I assume.

I wouldn’t worrie too much about it our 2011 is mainly the wife’s car through the week she drive 4 miles to work and 4 miles bac, odd weekends I use it on a little longer journeys in a year and half I think we’ve had a yellow warning on about 3 times for dpf and just take it for a longer run straight away normally motorway journey it normally clears within 5 mins check the launch code reader and levels are back to very low

Regarding oil dilution I’ve never had a message but always change the oil every 5k or every year which ever comes first.

Dan_Veluwe wrote:

The oil dilution/dpf issue is an 2L illness, not general for all diesels I assume.

t5pete wrote:

I wouldn’t worrie too much about it our 2011 is mainly the wife’s car through the week she drive 4 miles to work and 4 miles bac, odd weekends I use it on a little longer journeys in a year and half I think we’ve had a yellow warning on about 3 times for dpf and just take it for a longer run straight away normally motorway journey it normally clears within 5 mins check the launch code reader and levels are back to very low

Regarding oil dilution I’ve never had a message but always change the oil every 5k or every year which ever comes first.

I’m afraid oil dilution with the sdv8 is a real issue, there’s a bit more info here https://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/post619598.html#619598

I’ve been monitoring my regens recently and even though I hope not to have any failed ones I can’t imagine having less than 3 oil changes a year.

Even on a motorway run the soot in the dpf builds up substantially, even just a few short drives brings you into an active regeneration.

Kot has monitored this on his car more than almost anyone, take a look at his posts, very informative

Cheers

Jon

After my last oil change, I am monitoring this as well. I dropped 6000km in the first 200km. I was about to go back to the garage. But since then the km until service has remained constant even gone up a bit over the next 600km.
I hope to get the dongle soon so I can look at the values that KOT has shown.
I think that need to change the oil twice a year.

I will also watch the AdBlue and refill more often. I wonder if AdBlue's use is effected about how much is left which will also effect the DPF. SDV8 AB MY 2020
MINI Cooper S Cabrio
Kit: Jaguar XK140 (in progress - the website is link to build)

luxmoggy

Regarding AdBlue, it has no connection with oil dilution. I fill mine up when I get an amber

Its injected into the exhaust Downstream of the DPF it is converted to ammonia (NH3) and
carbon dioxide (CO2). The resulting ammonia (NH3) is used within a special catalyst in the exhaust stream. The
resulting reaction converts the unwanted NOx into harmless nitrogen (N2) and water (H2O) vapor.

By the way, a quick scan on the Velar forum and there are posts of oil dilution to be found, even though in the JLR Architecture post posted by Dan_Veluwe it states Velar is not effected

Any RR with a DPF will suffer from oil dilution, I worry about the older vehicles that had the earlier DPF's they probably didn't have the algorithm software to attempt to monitor this. Even more important in those vehicles you change the oil at least twice per year I would think. But thats my view, each to their own  2018 SE SDV8 4.4 Byron Blue

So I changed the route I drive to work. The time taken is the same but there are a few km on a motorway. Since doing this, the km until the next service is going up (not down as expected). I know that it will start going down again. I hope that the dongle gets here soon as I would be interested in the re-gen numbers. SDV8 AB MY 2020
MINI Cooper S Cabrio
Kit: Jaguar XK140 (in progress - the website is link to build)

so everything was going well. Km until the next service dropped 8000km after 20*50km with an average of 60km/h and 4*25km with an average of 50km/h - this was in the last 24 hours. None of this was stop/start. All fast B-roads and motorways. I have 2*25km journeys tomorrow. So I will see how it goes.

I really think there is something wrong. 25km is the shortest journey the car does. This time it has dropped so fast. SDV8 AB MY 2020
MINI Cooper S Cabrio
Kit: Jaguar XK140 (in progress - the website is link to build)

Luxmoggy

Its not just the length of journey, its the DPF temperature (250+) required to achieve passive regeneration.
Average of 50-60 km/h is not going to achieve no where near 250C

I have found that I only get passive regeneration at 63+mph which is 102+km/h thats when DPF temperature is above 250C.
Even then it (soot%) drops about 1% every 5 mins approx. so a short motorway trip will have zero effect.
So you need to average above 102km/hr minimum to achieve Passive Regeneration which for most of us is not possible for extended periods.

I did know that Discovery sports had a Field Action N289 "service message shown earlier than expected" as so many vehicles were involved. They changed the algorithm from 7% oil dilution limit to 10% limit which increased the service message interval. I Don't believe thats the right way they should tackle the problem, it will end in tears.

I personally would rather change the oil and filter before the 7% is reached. 2018 SE SDV8 4.4 Byron Blue