Yeti 'Engine Fault' warning

We love our two year old Yeti 4x4 diesel (or at least we did).
A couple of weeks ago after a couple of hours at a steady 70mph on the A1 the glow plug warning light started to flash and the warning: 'Engine fault - workshop' appeared on the display. The engine lost power but we managed to limp home OK.

I took it to the main dealer two days later (with no warning lights flashing) which said the ECU needed updating and it should solve the problem.

I warned him that we were off to France in a week and was solemnly assured all would be well.

Last week we set off for France. We got to the tunnel OK (again, a long steady drive at 70mph from North Yorkshire), but as we manoeuvred slowly to the shuttle the glow plug warning light and 'engine fault workshop' again appeared. Shortly after this (on the autoroute) the exhaust warning light also came on.

We contacted Skoda Assistance (aka the RAC) who couldn't rescue us as we were on the autoroute. If we phoned the gendarmerie they would get us off the autoroute and then the RAC could help us. In the end we decided to limp on to our destination (Rouen) at reduced power and got there safely that night.

To cut a long story short the next day the car was fine with no warning lights and after a week we drove all the way home via Calais and most of the A1 with no problems at all.

While we were in France we phoned our home Skoda dealer who indicated that if the warning lights had all gone and the car now seemed OK, a French garage would probably not be interested, but they agreed to give it a thorough check when we got home (it goes in tomorrow).

The mechanic I spoke to suspected the DPF as the culprit - although I thought a long steady drive was good for DPFs. He also said "the future is petrol"!

Our holiday in the end went fine, but it was very nearly ruined.
Have you any idea what the problem might have been? Could a faulty DPF do this? Could it have been dirt in the fuel?
We had planned to replace our Yeti 4x4 with another next year. If we do would you suggest a petrol model instead?

Asked on 16 October 2012 by ordhouse1

Answered by Honest John
Probably is the DPF. I'm suddenly getting a fresh spate of DPF failures, confirming what I thought. The 1.8TSI Yeti 4WD is by far the most fun to drive, but some of them have had the VAG 1.8/2.0 TSI oil consumption problem.
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