Hi guys, 

Bought a 2013 Octavia 1.6TDI estate yesterday from a well known dealer chain. Whilst it’s been with them it has been MOT’d and had a cam belt and water pump change. 
 

Within 5 minutes of leaving the dealer, we had a tyre pressure warning light on; I didn’t think much to this as it could be perfectly innocent. 

Drove it home yesterday and then to the shop and back (approx 6 mile round trip) today. On our way back from the shops, the engine coil light started flashing. 

 

I’m going to call them and arrange to take it back to be looked at first thing tomorrow, but I just want to know what the flashing coil light could mean, and whether it could be something that the dealer would have known about and has tried to cover, or whether it’s probably just bad luck?

 

Trying to decide whether to let them repair or just reject it outright… there are a couple of smaller things which in isolation I wouldn’t quibble over but the price we paid was the absolute top of our budget and I need this car to be as spot on as possible - allowing for the fact that it’s a 9 year old car. 

Thanks! 

Edited 20 November, 20223 yr by alessio92

I think it means there is an engine management system fault detected. It has probably also reduced engine power when the light is flashing.

Could be many things from a sensor to egr or dpf faults, will need scanning for fault codes to find out.

If it appears during short trips, it could be DPF issues, like unable to do regenration or problems with the DPF pressure sensor. Scanning with a tool like VCDS or OBD11 would most likely tell you the issue. If it is a DPF related issue, then you probably can check the DPF factors by VAG app.

3 hours ago, Vahids said:

If it appears during short trips, it could be DPF issues, like unable to do regenration or problems with the DPF pressure sensor. Scanning with a tool like VCDS or OBD11 would most likely tell you the issue. If it is a DPF related issue, then you probably can check the DPF factors by VAG app.

Given that it’s been at a dealer for about a month I’m wondering if the DPF hasn’t had chance to regen properly. How often should it regen, and how long does it need to do it, or what would trigger a regen?

10 hours ago, alessio92 said:

Given that it’s been at a dealer for about a month I’m wondering if the DPF hasn’t had chance to regen properly. How often should it regen, and how long does it need to do it, or what would trigger a regen?

I think just the flashing glow plug light means a general fault has been detected. There is a separate dpf light for dpf issues. Who knows, maybe a good blast down the road would blow some cobwebs out of it but I would get it straight back to where you just bought it from.

12 hours ago, alessio92 said:

Given that it’s been at a dealer for about a month I’m wondering if the DPF hasn’t had chance to regen properly. How often should it regen, and how long does it need to do it, or what would trigger a regen?

It depends on the particle filter situation, ash, oil, etc. Also, I think if the pressure filter does not work properly, the coil light flashes time to time. That's my experience from my previous diesel car.

How many miles?

Without a scanner it's hard to know what malfunction triggered the light.

From my personal experience (have a 2016 manual 1.6 TDI Octavia), the coil light is turned on when one of the pre-heater coils have a malfunction or the engine is in limp mode.

 

Coil #3 has knock sensor (detects the detonation in the cylinder) mounted on it, and it reports the detonation to the ECU. If the ECU doesn't detect the detonation in cylinder #3 it goes into limp mode as a safety precaution and limits the detonations (hence the lower speed limit). 

This coil is not very reliable and goes faulty anywhere between 30K Km and 100K Km (18K-62K miles). In my car this coil lasted 40K Km and started the coil lamp.

 

I suggest to replace it with it's 3 other "friends", All the rest are regular pre-heater coils.  

On 21/11/2022 at 13:29, ords said:

How many miles?

81,000

 

On 22/11/2022 at 12:13, Matanfr said:

Without a scanner it's hard to know what malfunction triggered the light.

From my personal experience (have a 2016 manual 1.6 TDI Octavia), the coil light is turned on when one of the pre-heater coils have a malfunction or the engine is in limp mode.

 

Coil #3 has knock sensor (detects the detonation in the cylinder) mounted on it, and it reports the detonation to the ECU. If the ECU doesn't detect the detonation in cylinder #3 it goes into limp mode as a safety precaution and limits the detonations (hence the lower speed limit). 

This coil is not very reliable and goes faulty anywhere between 30K Km and 100K Km (18K-62K miles). In my car this coil lasted 40K Km and started the coil lamp.

 

I suggest to replace it with it's 3 other "friends", All the rest are regular pre-heater coils.  

Unfortuantely even with a scanner, the garage don't know what's up so it's going back to Skoda.