After startup (not sure if this is of relevance, but it was after a rainy night). I got the glow plug light flashing and a start-stop system fault message. It does not feel like the car is in limp mode, nor do I feel an even minor decrease in power or anything else out of the ordinary, such as vibration or sounds. After one or two more startups with this problem, the MIL light was turned on as well.

Scouring these forums, I found a host of issues that it could be (I did check my brake lights, they are okay) and of course the next step for me is to get the OBD read-out. I am visiting a car repair shop in four days, but my question is - can I use the car until then without risking any damage to the engine? I do need it quite badly. Let's say within the range of 60-70km total before I get it diagnosed.

This is 1.6 TDI, 81 KW, made in 2016. 96000 km, serviced regularly every year (last one was 6 months ago).

48 minutes ago, akcope said:

can I use the car until then without risking any damage to the engine?

Probably. I would suggest getting a deep load test done on the battery. At least in the UK, you should be able to get this done for free, conditional on that company getting the business if, as I suspect, you need a new battery. This might well cure all your issues.

Glow plugs do fail .... about 100k miles on our neighbours Superb on a 2.0tdi 150bhp engine. It also depends which glow has failed. It won't effect warm running, it's just cold starting. The ECU measures the resistance of the plugs and if they are outside spec in terms of resistance the car will throw a engine warning light. Best to get it seen to asap as it is getting colder.

Thanks for the replies, guys. I just drove it again and it seems that limp mode has been engaged now. I will be refraining from driving it anywhere but the car repair shop from now. I am currently in Geneva, Switzerland, so I sure as hell hope that this is something minor...

So just an update. I have taken it to an authorized car repair shop in Geneva. It was a torn "turbo pressure hose" (? - not sure about the terminology here, since there was quite the language barrier).

The bill mentions:

• Verification of the turbo
• Dismounting and remounting of the air filter
• Replacement of the pressure hose

All this came up to a whopping 235 CHF (Geneva prices...)

However, the car is still not okay. While the MIL and glow plug lights are gone and the car is out of limp mode, it has not gained back all of its original power. A lot of acceleration has been lost, especially at higher speeds. I went to test it out on the highway and it feels like I can barely achieve 140 km/h with best efforts (down from no problem to get to 170). The car basically becomes a slug above 70km/h. 

Furthermore, a rattle can now be heard from the engine. I have uploaded the sound here: 

I am scheduled to go back home (1000km) in a couple of days and I am quite stressed out about this. Anyone able to identify the sound? Would it be the better decision to take it for (very expensive) repairs here to Geneva, or go back home and get it repaired there? Can it even last that long? Will other parts get damaged? And is it safe?

Another update. I went to another (unauthorized) repair shop to get a second opinion. I just asked them to verify if the engine is okay for a 1000km journey. They did verify that everything is okay for such a journey but did not manage to locate the source of the power drop or the new raspy engine noise.

 

They found the tube which caused the original problem in the first place though. It was left there by the previous repair shop. It was definitely chewed by a rodent. Here is a picture:

b6ebed64-c291-407e-82bf-a8f953cea2d8.jfif
 

 

Anyone has an idea what is the role of this tube, exactly? And what damage I could have done to my engine (that does not show up in diagnostics) after driving for about 30km to the repair shop in limp mode caused by this? 

Just reuploading the image in a better resolution and embeddable format: