Hey folks,

First time post and I have bad news, I have a 09 plate pre facelift Octavia VRS diesel.

A couple of weeks ago the engine check light came on (glow ribbon flash), but nothing happened, car drove perfectly and it only flashed on and then off a second or two later.

I was at the lights this morning and pulling away, the check light came on and I had no power, it kind of juddered when I got past 2.5K revs and then the power went, car still drives, but it's like driving a 1 litre Micra!

Car has always been serviced, not due another service for at least 10K klms, timing belt done and all the major things have been done, so the car has always been looked after and I wasn't driving the car particularly hard!

Any one got any ideas, I have read it could be the MAF sensor, but is there any way to do a self diagnostic to determine is it a garage job?

Cheers

Dave

Bump?

Car has gone into limp mode - could be any number of things. Take it to a garage or find someone with VCDS to get the fault codes checked over and go from there.

Yeah, unfortunately it could be a list of things. I take it all you have is the engine check light on? Not the DPF light too? Mine went into limp mode when the DPF sensor failed but the DPF warning light came on first. The DPF sensor is this thing:

EDIT - Easy way to tell if it's this is disconnect it and run the car for a bit. Does the car come out of limp mode? Don't do it for long though - just a quick test. Worked on an A3 TDI 170 I know.....only way he could drive about was with this unplugged until he took it in for a DPF-ectomy at shark.

Edited 29 May, 201214 yr by Chrispy

No DPF light, just the glow plug and loss of power, have a feeling it's the turbo, based in Ireland so I dont know of any members with their own disgnostic, have it booked into my mechanic next week to get to the bottom of it :(

No DPF light, just the glow plug and loss of power, have a feeling it's the turbo, based in Ireland so I dont know of any members with their own disgnostic, have it booked into my mechanic next week to get to the bottom of it :(

I take it it's a CR?

Yep it is a CR

Well it's been a few weeks since my first post, DPF light came on the day I brought it to my mechanic...

He took the DPF out, soaked it in a cleaner, then cleaned again and re-installed... checked the turbo and all was well with it, refitted the DPF and I got it back, it was still a little lumpy and down on power in the lower revs, but it seemed to be driving well in the upper rev range... then, engine light and glow plug lights came back on!

Two questions now, I've read about removal of DPF's, I'm out of warranty now, so is it safe to do? Will it damage the car in any way?

Secondly, I've also read about changing an exhaust pressure sensor, when I brought the car to the mechanic there was an exhaust error along with boost pressure regulator errors listed (nothing about DPF though!!), I've read that changing part number 1K0131552F could do the job too?

Any ideas? I'm definitely not going to pay the 1,500-2,000 to replace the DPF!

DPF delete including a remap at Shark is about £700, something like that. Much cheaper than replacing it.

The sensor is about £50 and takes seconds to replace (although I'm not sure about adaptation values) so definitely something worth trying as a first step as already suggested.

Were there any errors on it when the mechanic looked at it?

The glowplug will flash for all sorts of errors

I have just replaced the turbo actuator sensor on mine, had similar symptoms to you

DPF light will come on after a while anyway while the glowplug light is flashing as it cant do a passive regen while its still flashing

PS where ya based?

Edited 7 July, 201213 yr by Dallan

I thought the CR was fine with the dpf's?

It's not fine just "better". As I say the sensor failed on mine (common fault on the early CR's as they used the US part rather than the Malaysian one which is prone to water ingress) but they still need decent driving conditions to regen properly. Thing is the CR was designed with a DPF in mind whereas the PD was a bolt on addition. Also wouldn't surprise me if the CR is just plain less sooty than the PD anyway due to the way it handles its fuel. My PD130 Fabia could chuck some serious smog out the back whereas the wife's 306 HDi was practically crystal clear. Neither nad a DPF to mask the output.

The DPF on the CR is located closer to the engine and uses an oxidation catalyst to help with pre-heating from a cold start.

The actual DPF is almost identical to that of the PD. As mentioned earlier the DPF on the PD was an afterthought and had to be located further away from the engine. The downside of this is it therefore has a harder time retaining the required temperature for passive (natural) regens.

This is the reason we hear of more issues with the DPF on the PD than with the CR. The CR has a more complicated system with additional sensors so give it time and CR owners may well begin to experience their own unique DPF issues, especially as the CR engined Octavia's start to out-populate the PD's!

I very much hope your mechanic read the CANBUS for stored faults before automatically pulling off the PDF to wash it out. Fixing the cause (likely to be a sensor) rather than simply removing the symptoms (cleaning a sooty DPF) is only a temporary fix as the problem will continue and reoccur.

If a warning light has been displayed on the dash (which you have) then faults have been logged. Read these faults and post them here and we'll soon tell you which sensor is duff.

Fix the sensor, perform a forced regen on the DPF and all will hopefully be good.