Occasional Limp Mode

[stefoster]

Hi all,

Not sure if anyone can help:

Last week we were driving along in my wife's 2010 A3 2.0TDI 140BHP convertible when all of a sudden it went into limp mode with the glow plug warning light flashing, once I turned it off and back on the car was fine but we've had the glow plugs changed now and it went back into limp mode the other day!!

Any suggestions what it could be?

I have noticed it doesn't feel as nippy as when we first got it in February but maybe that's just us getting used to the car.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[SmithyAG]

The glowplug light flashing does not always mean a problem with the glow plugs unfortunately. Once the engine is running the glowplugs are dormant until the next cold start (less than 8 degress celcius I believe). So Glow Plugs don't cause limp mode, the only thing they do cause is rough starting in the cold.

Limp mode can be cause by such a range of things that it is impossible to tell you why your car did it without it being scanned for faults. Limp mode will have logged an error code, although if it only did it once then the chance is it is logged as an "intermittent" fault, so some fault code readers (think cheap) won't pick it up. Somebody with VCDS or a garage should be able to do a proper scan. Did a garage change the glowplugs? I'm shocked they would without proper investigation to be honest.

 

[stefoster]

My father in law changed them as it was a quick, easy job.

Does anybody in the midlands (near coventry) have VCDS that could scan this for me?

 

[Sandra]

My father in law changed them as it was a quick, easy job.

Does anybody in the midlands (near coventry) have VCDS that could scan this for me?

Link to user map below. x

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?m...23242&spn=8.941335,43.505859&z=5&source=embed

 

[SmithyAG]

My father in law changed them as it was a quick, easy job.

Does anybody in the midlands (near coventry) have VCDS that could scan this for me?

Ah that's not so bad then. Just didn't want you have a garage throwing stuff at it for no reason. If you've still got the old glowplugs then hang on to them as they probably aren't bad.

 

[stefoster]

Cheers

 

[TommyDP]

My Fathers Golf with the same engine has done this 3 times. We had it checked out and scanned. the result we got was that the EGR valve was the problem as we were only using the car for short jounreys daily (5-10miles max) and because of this it clogged the valve and making the computer think there was something wrong. Had it replaced and since then nothing has gone wrong yet (been about 3 months since the new one installed) - Maybe that could be the problem on yours