Hi all,

Last night, whilst driving home in my 3,500 mile '04 vRS, the glow plug light came on while I was accelerating, the engine lost all power (presumably limp-home mode) - this happened for about a second, then the light went off and everything returned to normal. About five minutes later, it happened again, exactly the same.

Then, a little bit later, it happened again, but this time the glow plug light was on for about three seconds, accompanied by the check engine light. Again, no power - they then went out and everything was fine..

I have it booked into the dealer's on Monday (they reckon it is an electrical fault) but thought I would see what the huge collected knowledge on here thought. I can't drive it at the moment as the last thing I want is for it to do it when I am accelerating out of a junction or pulling on to a busy roundabout.. :(

Any ideas?? Serious or minor problem??

Thanks a lot.

Darren

Would be interesting to see what the car has logged as faults as I thought the glow plug was only needed to start the car on very cold days - the high pressure in the cylinder is enough to ignite the diesel without needing any additional heat. A bit worrying that it's popping in and out of limp mode though - hope it's nothing serious.........

Chris

The glow plug is often used these days to indicate the ECU, so when your glow plug light comes on, it's really an ECU error. I have only known it to do this with tuning boxes where they overfuel the car, and the it goes into a limp mode. The glow plug light comes on to indicate there is a problem.

The glow plug is often used these days to indicate the ECU, so when your glow plug light comes on, it's really an ECU error. I have only known it to do this with tuning boxes where they overfuel the car, and the it goes into a limp mode. The glow plug light comes on to indicate there is a problem.

Believe it or not but the glow plug warning light will als come on if there is a fault with the brake light switch! The reason for this is connected with not being able to brake and accelerate at the same time. This has been discussed quite recently on the forum.

Yep put money on the brake light switch, but will also come on if you have a brake light bulb out.

Probably wants the latest purple switch.

Cheers for all the replies...

Dealer has just rung and said that a camshaft sensor needs replacing - they don't have one in so won't know if this solves the problem until they do it tomorrow. Also said that they have never done one on a PD130 engine before!! :(

Ross / bertJ - if it is the brake light switch causing the glow plug light to come on, would this also cut the engine power as well??

DP

Cheers for all the replies...

Ross / bertJ - if it is the brake light switch causing the glow plug light to come on' date=' would this also cut the engine power as well??

DP[/quote']

No; it's just an indication that the brake light switch and/or bulbs have failed. My reply was something of a red herring in your case. The sensor diagnosis is obviously correct.