Engine management & flashing coil light

[JohnWithAGolf]

Hi,

I've had my 170 diesel since Jan, and have had nothing but reliable (and fast!) service. I drove from Birmigham to London and back on Saturday without a problem doing 80-90, when I dropped th first passenger back home I made a point of letting the engine run for a couple of mins before turning it off.
When I turned the ignition back on, the coil light started flashing and the engine management light came on, with a message saying "engine fault, garage". The car started but had very limited power, I thought the turbo had gone but I could feel it in the very diminished state. The car would slowly accelerate to 40mph then be very reluctant to go any further.
This repeated on Sunday until the evening when I came to use it and it was back to it's normal self as if nothing had happened.

Has anyone else had the same problem?

Should I still book it in, even though there is no apparent problem now?

My faith in VW is faltering!

[adstalker]

The car would only slowly accelerate to 40mph and go no further because the it is in limp mode. It goes into limp mode when there is a significant problem with the car. Limp mode efectifly still allows you to drive the car but in a limited way to try and reduce any potential damage to the car. I would get it booked into the dealer who will be able to tell you what was wrong with the car as the ECU logs the fault.

[JohnWithAGolf]

I booked it into VW, it turns out it's quite a common fault to do with too much power going to the thrust sensors and bad earth points not dealiong with it. The replaced some of the wiring and cleaned all the eath points and it's worked a treat.
All done under warranty.