UKH

It had to happen! We're in Chamonix at the moment and it's baltic. Tried to start our diesel Superb this morning and it wouldn't; used a battery pack and it started OK but initially sounded rough, though calmed down.

However a warning light stayed on - the 'exhaust inspection system' warning. Frankly this doesn't sound very mission critical, and the car seemed fine on a 20 mile round trip. However the manual says it will be running in a limited mode and it should be seen by a dealer as soon as possible. Thing is, we're in France and would really like to get home sooner rather than later (though the snow is fantastic! ) 

Any comments? In particular, is it worth risking driving home and getting the issue fixed there?

If your battery is old/weak it could be causing all sorts of spurious warnings. 

I had the same issue on my Octavia Scout about 2 hours south of Calais on the way home after new year. The engine goes into safe mode which limits the power (particularly worrying on small uphill sections of the M25 in heavy rain). Rather weirdly the problem went away by next day and hasn’t reoccurred. Manual says it could have been a number of things (without specifying) so I think the warning light is just an indicator of safe mode. I suspect it may have been build up of carbon or dirty fuel but then again I am a complete mechanical numpty !

What engine and  what model, Mark 1, 2 or 3?

Are you seeing any unusual dashboard warning lights? Apart from the exhaust one I should say. 

We have an 2013 superb. Agree with the comment on old battery. 
for the foreseeable problem we had that warning light after letting the car idle (10mins) to warm up one winter. Haven’t done that since and warning light never returned. I think something got too hot. 
 

as for limp home mode. We drove 200+ miles over 4 journeys in limp home mode to get back home under an engine warning light. That turned out to be the egr value! Not a cheap bit to replace. 
 

my guess is you will be fine but listen to your car and your gut and try and do it in as few stops as possible. 

2l diesel, 2015 model - don't know much more I'm afraid.

On a side issue, I hope you've been drinking plenty of my brother's beer... Hope the trip home works well

I've had a warning light about direction indicators for 2 years, but no Skoda dealer has ever been able to fix it!

Ha, yes, I have a mystery warning like that too! No particulate warning light then?

Have an Octavia and a Superb diesel estate (the AWD) and when random flat battery issues occur the lights usually come on. My suggestion would be replace the battery if it’s on its last legs and it will probably fix the warning light. I had to replace the battery last year and when the new one was in the light disappeared after about ten minutes. 

good luck

b

It is a Mark 3, don't know much about these. We have a late Mark 2, could be ERG valve, this will often clear after a long run. A good source of information is the Skoda forum Briskoda.net . If it was us we would drive home as normal and not worry about it.

Have you filled up with winter diesel since arriving in Chamonix? Really cold temps thickens normal diesel.

That ERG group is nothing but trouble.

Hi Derek, does your brother have a brewery here in Cham? That could be an important factor....

This is great folks, thanks for all the input. I *think* we'll try to get home, warning light or no...

He does indeed.  The brewery is half an hour away, but he supplies throughout the valley 

I get an engine management light come up from time to time and took it to the garage...It's a faulty O2 sensor on the exhaust.

I bought an OBD reader off eBay (£20) and cleared the warning light subsequently, it hasn't come back on since. 
at least with an OBD reader you can check if its something critical. 

A note for Skoda drivers with an EGR light on.  Our Mk2 Octavia had this problem, our local, very knowledgable, Skoda independent said we could have it fixed for £500ish or just ignore it.  We did another 50,000 miles in that car with the warning light on, I could never tell any difference and it passed multiple MOTs.  The major risk with this approach is that if you have another engine fault, as the light's already on, you may not realise.

We have a 2016 Superb - it seems like almost every long journey we have taken it on there is a beep and the dashboard lights up with something. Its reliability has not been especially amazing...

My mechanic cousin once advised me that in cold weather I should always keep my diesel tank more than half full. Its to do with limiting amount of water condensation inside the tank. I was driving a 2007 vivaro. It seemed to help with weird cold weather grumbles.

As others have said make sure you've filled up with the local cold weather treated diesel.

It's suppose to fail an MOT with an emissions related light on unless this was some time ago. Can't remember when they changes the rules.

I'm going to guess a dodgy battery.

It's probably not the DPF as I think they have a seperate warning for that.

Unsure on EGR, I would have thought that would trigger the engine management light?

My guess is the dodge voltage triggered a bad Lambda sensor reading and threw a code.

You may need the codes clearing after you've replaced the battery. See if it comes back, and then use the code reader to troubleshoot the problem further.

A cheap code reader is £20 and pays for itself on it's first use. Just get one. No reason not to. Very handy for clearing and reading codes.

Well thanks for all the advice folks, here's an update. Despite another freezing night, this morning the car started straight away and ... no warning light! Even though yesterday it always came on after every stop/start. So now we're coming back and all seems well ... ( fingers crossed).