So the wife takes the car to work this morning. Glow plug light comes on and car goes into limp mode.

She comes home, takes my car to work, I have a little drive and all seems well. No lights on and when I plug in my code reader there are no faults (its for older renaults so might not pick up new skoda faults ).

So I call the dealer, they say they can't do anything if the light is not on and said it will probably be the dpf?????? I said wouldn't it be a dpf light if it was the dpf?

Car only has 1200 miles on it. Any ideas from anyone?

According to my manual:

 

• An illuminated glowplug light indicates "a fault in the glow plug system"
• A flashing glowplug lamp indicates the "a fault exists in the engine control. The system allows the vehicle to run in emergency mode."
• If the DPF is causing an issue, it should light a separate warning lamp.  If it is unable to clear the soot (e.g. you carry on with short drives etc.), then the glowplug lamp will begin to flash and the DPF light go out.  If this happens, a message should also appear in the maxidot or segment display. 

Are you / your wife sure that the lamp was simply illuminated and not flashing?

She said it was illuminated, she took a picture.

A common fault seems to be the failure of the boost pressure sensor - but from reported threads on here this seems to normally manifest as a flashing light, not a steady one (e.g. here).  Also, many report a slight jerkiness or hesitation on a steady throttle before any sign of warning lights.  Are you getting that?

I'll have to check tonight

Boost Pressure sensor will give a flashing GlowPlug light and after the 3rd time it appears you will also have the MIL light on.

But I can't remember after some time if it stops flashing & stays on.

When mine failed it was also intermittant at first but after a week it was always active & then quickly rectifed by the dealer.

 

A glow plug problem should not give a limp-home.

As others have said a DPF problem will give a different lamp & also textual messages in the maxidot.

 

The dealer is wrong to say if the light is not on there is nothing they can do.

If the light came on, there has to be a fault code stored which they can read.

Edited 9 December, 201510 yr by Gabbo

Wife said it was flashing.

Boost pressure it is then.

Did you see this thread about a boost sensor service update bulletin on new TDIs?
http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/379327-vrs-tdi-recall-campaign-boost-sensor/

There is a VIN checker link in the thread.

 

If it is the Boost Sensor Issue I think it will come back fairly quickly.

Mine took about a week before the limp home became permenant & didn't clear itself with a restart.