Modern cars clog up on the inlet side - the inlets clog up, commonly. Not every car, but some. This is a symptom - not a disease. Simply cleaning the inlet doesn’t cure the underlying problem.

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The disease could be a defective EGR or PCV, or diluted oil, or a defect in the inlet air plumbing. So that’s three potential hardware problems: (EGR, PCV or plumbing). And one operational problem: Diluted oil.

If it’s hardware, that needs to be investigated, and the defective part(s) replaced. But diluted oil is something you can address yourself. It means more sludge gets into the PCV, and gets baked in the inlet by hot EGR. Diluted oil is a consequence of not driving long enough to get warm enough to purify the oil.

Diluted oil also doesn’t lubricate your engine very well. So it wears out earlier. It’s a consequence of too many cold starts and too many short trips, as a proportion of overall operation. And you can sometimes confirm it if you see the oil level increase on the dipstick in your car.

People say ‘fit a catch can’ - but this too is a Band-Aid - there’s still diluted oil ‘down there’ and it’s not protecting your engine very well. You’re just catching some contaminants before they make it into your engine’s inlet.

The obvious thing to do is get out on the highway regularly. (It’s not just diesels that benefit from sustained running - all cars do.)

The other thing you need to do is change your oil more frequently. If you’re a short-distance driver doing lots of cold starts, get an oil change every six months instead of the specified 12. It’ll pay for itself in reduced wear and repair costs. Operating a car in this way is hell on earth for engine oil. It doesn’t seem so, but it is.

So this is two things, right? (As opposed to one or the other.) More highway and twice as many oil changes as specified.

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