Passat 170 DPF problems

[bingoronnie]

Hi all, newbie here, with a problem you might be able to advise on. So here goes...(buckle up this might take a while)

Bought a nice (mostly) 60k mile, one owner '06 Passat 2.0Tdi, the 170hp model, tidy, and with all the recalls etc ticked, last week. Very soon after taking delivery (from a big used car dealer in the NW) the DPF light came on, and rather than regenerating, after a further thirty miles the glowplug light also lit up. I was advised by the seller to get it recovered to the nearest VW main dealer, and that they would foot the bill (er, damn right you will!) Recovery duly happened, and the VW service dept told me that a software update had been done, as in its previous version it hadn't allowed the DPF to regenerate.

In the following two days / 120 miles the DPF lit twice, first time regenerating as it should, the second time it stayed lit until I got it across town back to VW, who said "Ok, still a problem clearly, but great, with it lit we can see why it's filling up so quickly". Yesterday I collected it, and was told "we can't find a fault, but we've done factory regenerate and it's 5% full now, should be ok but give it a good blast". 50 not particularly stop-start miles later - you guessed, it lit up. Not "a good blast", I admit, but 5% full to light on in 50 miles? Surely not right?

Meanwhile, close scrutiny of the sheaf of reciepts I got given when I took delivery shows that six months ago a non-VAG garage replaced faulty DPF sensors; a chat with the previous owner revealed that their VAG dealer had not identified this as a problem then. She also said "Lately, I wasn't really using it enough to justify a diesel with a DPF" which I took to mean that she had either used it for a lot of short journeys lately, or had experienced similar problems.

So - a few questions...

-If the previous owner hadn't driven it much, will a few good long motorway blasts improve things?

-Is it possible that my VW dealer has missed something? I don't really want to challenge them without some better knowledge than I have currently (ie very little).

-I've seen a place advertising a DPF removal & remapping service. Given that this problem is likely to reoccur even after a definitive "cure" happens this time, would it make sense to get the thing taken out? The intention is to hang on to the car for at least another six years or so; on that basis £450 seems like good insurance.

-Any other thoughts? (useful ones, ideally...)

Hope you guys can help me out here!