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As my 1.9 SDI doesn't get out on motorways very often I spend most of the time driving in the first 3rd gears under 2000 rpm. Every now and then (try to do it once a month) I take it for a good motorway run but its normally in 50mph in 5th gear. A couple of times I'll change down and rag it til the red line on the rev counter.

I spoke to my mechanic last week and he said to put it in 3rd/4th and keep it between 3000/3500 revs and it'll help clear out the soot? Has anyone ever tried it like this? Apparently taking it to the red line doesn't help as the air seeps in through the bonnet seeing as you're going at over 60mph.

Would it damage the engine to rag it (i.e high revs in low gears)?

That kind of cleanout is normally used in engines with a DPF. Older engines dont suffer so heavily with soot build up

I wouldnt be too worried personally...

Yeah its just most of the driving I'm doing at the moment never really gets past 3rd gear or 2000 revs.

Took it out today for a good hour, was in 3rd at 3000 for a good 15 minutes or so and it felt like the engine was working. Hopefully it'll feel better when I take it out again, just wanna see it being worked every once in a while.