DPF Removal: Moving with a Diesel Car

HI.

This post is more for informational purposes (like Jan's sparklers).

So far, I've always chuckled at people complaining about DPF issues, as I haven't experienced any problems myself, despite driving in the city regularly. But today, I almost had an accident:

After driving only short distances within the city for the past few days (the last 5 days in particular, mostly between apartments and a hardware store, about 4 km each way), my car reminded me that it needed to regenerate on Thursday night, with an idle speed of 900 RPM.
I was just driving around the city, and I thought everything was fine. I needed the laptop for work, and I couldn't just quickly measure it - I probably should have.

Today, Saturday, I suddenly saw a white smoke plume coming from my car as I was driving through a 30 km/h zone. When I stopped, I was startled to see an idle speed of 1000 RPM. The smoke coming from the exhaust smelled acidic and ammonia-like, which is strange because I don't have any urea in the car.

Ich bin dann sofort auf die Autobahn und hab ihm ca. 40 km 100 km/h im 5. Situation handled.

After that, he drove normally again (meaning the exhaust was extremely constricted), and the exhaust pipes were almost touchable – a clear indication of a successful regeneration.

I found the flag intimidating, especially since he hadn't even asked me to "assist" him with the DPF lamp.

Can I check later to see if that was a stricter regulation?

Regards,
Martin.