Skoda glow plug light flashing

Ay advice on this appreciated.

I have a Skoda Fabia Scout ( estate) 1.6 diesel, 105 bhp

Had it from new, now three and a half years old, out of warranty, with 28,000 miles.
Has been serviced regularly by the main dealer.

Yesterday, the glow plug light came on whilst I was driving, stopped, turned the engine off, and the warning light went away.
Today, it came on twice . Stopped the car, light goes out, but will reappear after about 10 miles.

No loss of power, no strange engine noises.

Any ideas?

Brake light bulb out?

what does the manual say?

find someone with a vagcom to read out the error codes.

Brake lights all working.

Manual says, stop turn engine off, restart. If this continues to light up whilst driving, then go to your local Skoda dealer to plug the diagonistic gear in to find out the issue.

Just wondered if anyone with a VAG 1.6 diesel had similar issues.

Check your brakes. might not be the bulbs, could be the brake switch under the pedal

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/49124-glow-plug-light-flashing/%5B/url%5D

Glow plug knackered?

Car starts up normally.

Turn the ignition on, glow plug warning light lights up ( as per normal), then goes out after 2 or 3 seconds ( as per normal).

Engine fires up, drive off.

About 10 miles later, whilst driving along normally, glow plug light starts flashing.

Stop car, turn engine off.

Restart as per normal, no flashing glow plug light.

All brake lights working fine.

Are you driving nice and sedately?
My Passat does this when the Mrs tootles around in it. 20ltr 130PD engine.
Give it an Italian tune up once in a while (thats what my mechanic recommended)
Tim

Not particularly sedately.

I’m the main driver, and my driving habits haven’t changed dramatically lately.

In fact I have probably driven at higher speeds in the last month on motorways.

Have to get it booked in with the Skoda dealer to find out what is going on.

Get it plugged in to see what codes come up. The glow plig light is often used to indicate a range of emisions related faults.

get codes, mine was the egr valve 🙁
this is a bit of a pig, hope its something else for you.

Brake light bulbs are out in my fabia when that happens. Because glow plug is erm, related to the brake light bulbs erm, because, er, skoda a says so.

Brake lights glow, obvs.

Booked in for tomorrow to get the error code(s) read.

Keep you updated, thanks for the feedback.

Have to admit, I will probably sell the car soon.

Don’t need a diesel anymore, plus lots of reported issues with DMF, DPF, makes me wonder why I need a complicated engine.

Think I’ll go back to a petrol engine, or even a Nissan Leaf.

same issue on my passat, was EGR valve and £££. local specialist had done 4 cars with same issue that week 1 audi, 2 vw’s and a skoda very common at that age apparently
could be a sensor but get codes

Aside; having the ability to read fault codes is a total gamechanger, and decent readers don’t have to be expensive… I’m spoiled with Formidable for ford, it’s ace but there’ll most likely be something for your car too.

Serious question – is it definitely the glow plug light?

If it keeps flashing up definitely worth getting it plugged in.

Nissan Leaf, I guess you can keep a bike in the car to get to places 😉

When I took my Fiat Doblo in for a service and MOT last week the garage mentioned that the glow plug light had been coming on, I told them it’s been doing it on and off for the last 6 years 🙂

Yes, definitely glow plug light symbol , lights up flashing after about 10 to 15 miles whilst driving.

Switch engine off, glow plug light is visible for a few seconds and then goes out.

Start car up, and off I drive for about 10 miles, and it starts flashing.

Car drives fine.

We had something similar with our T5. We had the AA read the code for us and it was a external exhaust temp sensor which was giving a high reading. The sensor was knackered and needed replaced- £175. It was recommended to replace asap as driving with the sensors not fully working stopped the dpf from recharging/clearing/whatever. Since done its been fine. Quite common for the electrical sensors to go before the main components (exhaust in this case).

Diagnosed as the EGR valve fault.

Now replaced by the garage.

Had been driving my daughters Honda Jazz the last few days, and liked how quiet it was and easy to drive around town.
Motorway driving was a little tedious due to the lack of torque, had considered changing the Fabia.

Just picked the Fabia up, apart from the engine diesel noise, a much better drive, solid and planted with plenty of lazy torque.

Thinking about selling though, as it seems the diesel is plagued by EGR, DMF, DPF issues that are fairly widespread.

Have to start another what car thread………….?

Thinking about selling though, as it seems the diesel is plagued by EGR, DMF, DPF issues that are fairly widespread.

That is any modern diesel.
We ended up buying a simpler petrol SEAT Ibiza estate as our small car, for the reason that when I totted up the maintenance bills on our old Touran, it was adding significantly to the running costs, event at 20-25k miles a year. I now have no DPF, DMF, EGR, glowplugs or turbo (all of which went wrong on the previous two VW’s, and one of which killed our fabby Yaris)
I drove the SEAT today (ironically as the AC compressor is being replaced under warranty!) – and apart from a lack of torque on motorway, it is a lovely little thing. I am hoping that it is much cheaper to run long term.

I think you will find it still has a DMF but less likely to fail as less torque from engine.

I think you will find it still has a DMF but less likely to fail as less torque from engine.

Not when we have an ‘old’ 1.4…. 8)