This happened way back in December after 7 months using the car and I thought it was a one off but it happened again yesterday.

Basically on starting the car it goes through an auto check on bulbs etc which is normally done and dusted by the time you select gear and pull away. But on both occasions it has gone through every light then settled on saying there was a problem without actually defining the problem. The outcome is that indicators appear to blink quicker on the dashboard although outside they are on solid (not blinking).

On both occasions the fix was to turn off the ignition, lock the car and wait for the dashboard display to go out before restarting the car. Any attempt to restart without allowing the dash to time out resulted in the error appearing again.

Im guessing the time out of the dash coincides with the CAN system shutting down so its similar to a hard boot in a PC.

Anyone got any ideas before I call the dealer (which I have no desire to do as I just dont trust them)

Sounds odd - not heard of that before. Best would be to have a quick VCDS diagnostic scan done and see if anything's been logged as a fault. Whereabouts are you (fill a bit of info in on your profile )

Clearly the point of the cold-start check is to identify any issue. Do you have the full Maxidot on-board computer on yours? Whenever I've seen an issue it will inform you which bulb is affected.

Yeah I have maxi dot and im in glasgow. The car is one of the vrs le models that have the facelift dashboard fitted. Its been so random it wouldn't normally bother me but I'm driving to south of france with it in july and don't relish the thought of it throwing a wobbler over there.

Could be a faulty bulb perhaps, or a connection that's not quite secured - but it's my understanding that each bulb should either pass or fail the cold-start diagnostic test. And if it doesn't pass, the system will tell you which bulb is at fault.

VCDS scan time I think. That's what I'd do anyway