Help needed. Yesterday my Octavia glowplug warning light started to flash. When I tried starting today none of the dash lights or displays come on when I turned the ignition key. The car turned over and started but only ran for a few seconds then stopped. I tried using the spare ignition key with the same result....any ideas what the problem is?

No, need to plug the vagcom to see errors.

Is your car remapped.

Car has not been remapped as far as I know it has only been serviced by Skoda dealer from where I bought it new.  

Still under warranty by any chance?

It shouldn't need the glowplugs to actually start (direct injection diesels, unlike the old indirect injection ones, generate and retain sufficient heat from cranking compression and only have plugs for very low temperatures - they rarely even switch on above about 7 deg C). 

 

According to the manual, a flashing glowplug light can only mean an engine management fault, although the car *should* run in limp-home mode.  It's probably a broken sensor somewhere.

It shouldn't need the glowplugs to actually start (direct injection diesels, unlike the old indirect injection ones, generate and retain sufficient heat from cranking compression and only have plugs for very low temperatures - they rarely even switch on above about 7 deg C). 

 

According to the manual, a flashing glowplug light can only mean an engine management fault, although the car *should* run in limp-home mode.  It's probably a broken sensor somewhere.

  If the glowplug light doesn´t light up onced the ky turned thats because you have an electrical problem.

It has gone to the Skoda garage and they have found a lot of fault codes when diagnostics plugged in. After some checks the car now starts OK and no problems indicated. It may have been due to water ingress which caused a comms fault and therefore various control units raised all kinds of spurious faults. They are checking it out for connection/water ingress at engine compartment bulkhead as this is likely source of water ingress.

 

Car is out of warranty.      

Edited 28 October, 201312 yr by joolszowski@hot

Their has some issues with the main engine BCM. Water from windshield does actually fall over it as is hidden next to wiper motors. Water may enter at one corner where the main plug plugs in. Any water inside will short circuit making the engine stop and won't start untill water gone. Problem is that along with time electrical parts will become rusted and also make an internal short circuit

Bugger, next stop Mulhollands then.

Collected car yesterday. Fault has cleared and cause not found but I suspect it was water ingress via drainage from plastic trim from below windscreen/wipers. Apparently if the drainage is overloaded with water i.e. washing with pressure washer the drainage can become overloaded and water may come in to contact with ECU unit/connections.This unit is difficult to reach as it is below wipers/plastic fascia and attached to bulkhead with anti tamper bolts. So unit has not been inspected on this occasion. Battery has been trickle charged overnight by dealer as engine turning over slower than normal but low battery volts was not the cause of the original problem. Will now see how it goes.........so far so good 

Edited 30 October, 201312 yr by joolszowski@hot

The anti tamper metal piece only comes on models with factory alarm, at least here in Portugal they do.

Greenline versions don´t have alarm so they don´t have the anti tamper system