1.6 diesel estate engine

I bought a 2014 golf mk7 1.6 diesel estate from dealer here in northern Ireland in July. I love it but had wanted a petrol because I mainly do short runs (2 km ish) across town dropping kids off etc. About 4 weeks into ownership I noticed that when I turned the engine off the fan would keep running at max and was accompanied by the smell of hot metal. I took the car to dealer and was told that it was the engine system heating up really hot to burn off particulate build up in the filters. I was told that this is a regular cycle built into the engine system and would normally happen during a long drive. As I go a few weeks between long drives the system starts the particulate filter cleaning process but doesn't have time to finish it because my journeys are too short. He said it would stop once I took it for a long drive which it did. However the engine seems to want to go through this heating cycle every few weeks and I am wondering a) if anyone else has experienced this issue b) is there is anything that can be done to minimise this happening and c) is it going to cause any long term issues? Thanks for any thoughts on the issue.

charlieboygb said:

I took the car to dealer and was told that it was the engine system heating up really hot to burn off particulate build up in the filters. I was told that this is a regular cycle built into the engine system and would normally happen during a long drive. As I go a few weeks between long drives the system starts the particulate filter cleaning process but doesn't have time to finish it because my journeys are too short. He said it would stop once I took it for a long drive which it did.

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True with the exception of 'once'. You'll need to do
longer trips quite frequently or from time to time at
least.

charlieboygb said:

However the engine seems to want to go through this heating cycle every few weeks and I am wondering a) if anyone else has experienced this issue

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It's not an issue, it's feature. Virtually any current
Diesel will behave similar.

charlieboygb said:

b) is there is anything that can be done to minimise this happening

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You guess it, do longer drives, drive faster, don't stop
while it's actively regenerating whenever this is feasible
for you.

charlieboygb said:

c) is it going to cause any long term issues?

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Not sure, but frequent active regeneration instead of
"natural" regeneration with sufficient exhaust temps
due to driving conditions may affect particle filter life.

Probably a TSI would have been the better choice for
you but it's viable if you can do some more longer trips.
I'd consider taking her for a longer trip somewhere nice
every week or so instead of burning fuel just for a silly
regeneration process.
Lastly, let your engine oil change every year, but stay
with VW 507 00 oil. Every regeneration process lets a
bit of Diesel fuel pour into the engine oil, compomising
the oil's quality and lubrication properties thus causing
wear on the engine and turbo.

Thank you breaking badly. Good to know that it's a feature. I'll take the advice on engine oil to.