hi all,

i bought my first vrs sat its a 2007 2.0tdi, fantastic car! i was out with friends when the diesel particle filter came on, later that night on teh way home the glow plug light came on and the control system for the exhaust. the power went from the car and the cruise control wont work, im just wondering has anybody got any suggestions as to wat may be the cause? also i noticed that the automatic lights dont stay off when the light switch is set to the zero position should this happen? i also noticed that the cd player wont load cd's im just wondering are these comon faults in the vrs or maybe the result of a careless previous owner? any suggestions / advice would be greatly appreciated.

You've got a blocked Diesel Particulate Filter, dealer should have explained how this occurs and what to do when you picked the car up.

The DPF catches the particulates (soot) in the exhaust, when the engine is under constant load it burns off the particulates and the filter clears itself. If the engine doesn't burn enough of th soot off, due to short trips etc.. it goes into active regen mode where it burns a little extra fuel to burn off the particulates. When this happens the engine will fast idle and run a bit lumpy at idle.

If this process is interrupted and there is too much particulates in the filter, the engine management puts on the DPF light, which prompts the driver to take action as specified in the manual, which is to drive at a continuous engine speed of 2000-3000 RPM in 4th or 5th gear to generate heat and assist with burning off the soot. (Note this does not mean thrash the engine)

If the driver does not do this and the DPF continues to fill up the glow plug light comes on and the driver must pull over and call out Skoda Assist (RAC) who will plug in their laptop and force a regen under controlled conditions.

If the driver does not do this, then the engine management light also comes on and it goes into limp mode to prevent the soot from catching fire. The only option here is to go to a dealer and have them clean out or replace the DPF.

There was an issue with Octy VRs Diesel PD engines that meant the DPF didn't always regenerate properly. Last year Skoda issued a campaign under code 26E6 where they replaced an exhast sensor and remapped the ECU to provide better regeneration, this was doen free of charge BTW. It may be worth checking as to whether you're car has had this done.

we're doing loads of dpf sensors at the moment just spoke to an rac roadside assistance guy and he's done 3 already today