Rawhide

Thanks RonnieV for the reply. The fault was subsequently expertly and kindly further diagnosed by James@Pentagon as being EGR being FUBAR and requiring replacement. Our local independent VW/Audi/Skoda specialist garage performed the repair and it's now back to normal. Quite an expensive repair but much lower than franchised dealer.

So the good news it that OBD reader sourced and fault diagnosed. The bad news is EGR valve. As mentioned before, on my Octy the problem is ambient temperature related. This afternoon ( i.e. not frosty) when starting car and before hooking up OBD, no flashing glow plug light even when >2000 rpm. Cleared the fault codes, went for a drive. Good acceleration, no problems. But on last two heavy frosty mornings the fault has occurred, possibly due to gummy stuff in EGR valve setting solid . Its quite a pricey job for dealer or Independent to replace the valve, lots of labour to get bits off for access. I would have a go at cleaning the EGR but it's a real pig to get to. In the meantime I'll avoid using it on a frosty morning ! Anyone knowledge about 1.6 TDI EGR faults know if a long hot drive will free up gummy valve or is it FUBAR

Thanks, will do

I have exactly the same issue, with 2012 Octavia 1.6 TDI. Car starts fine. It might be ambient temperature dependent, when very cold the car starts up normally then flashing coil lights up during driving.