Let's play a guessing game...

[ParaBul]

Today, my daily driver went to the dealer on a tow truck. Who can guess the problem before the dealer?

The details:

MY10 GTD with DSG. Just over 50k km on the clock, approaching 4 years old. Daily driver, but rarely does only short trips. For the last 3 weeks the daily commute has been 27km to work, 30km home (different routes - morning is a pretty good run, but I take a longer route home for less traffic).

The run to the office this morning was good - no hint of trouble. Half an hour after arriving, I left again to go to a meeting in town. 6km into the trip, cruising in traffic on a flat road, the engine stopped. "Engine Fault. Workshop!" with a flashing glow plug light (indicates engine fault - book says take it to a workshop).

Turn engine off and re-start, and it runs rough for less than a second, then stops with the warnings again. Fortunately I had enough momentum to roll onto the median strip and out of 8:30 traffic on a major arterial. Tried to start several more times with exactly the same outcome.

Caught a bus to get to the meeting, then back again.

Over two hours since the first fault, and it's still the same - start, rough, stop almost immediately.

RAA arrived, insisted on attempting diagnosis. Plugged in a code reader, but no codes - he showed me, it said "No codes." Tried starting several times with the code reader plugged in, still said no codes. Mechanic couldn't hear a fuel pump run when the ignition is first turned on (I never have either, but he even used a stethoscope on the fuel tank - is there one in there?) so we spent a few minutes checking all the fuses - all OK.

Tow truck came and carted it off to the dealer's workshop. They couldn't look at it when I arrived because I hadn't booked - I understand their point, but I had a chuckle at the concept of planning a breakdown. Maybe Monday.

5:15pm I received a phone call - they've spent 1.5 hours looking at it but don't have an answer. Diagnostics point to an injector fault, but injectors test OK. Next stage is check the ECU.

So - who can pick the fault before the dealer? Is there a fuel pump in the tank? Is the dealer looking in the wrong spot? Will I need to sell my car to cover the repairs (I do have an extended warranty, but are they really worth what I paid?)

There is no prize here - I'm too cheap. Play for the respect of your peers - or fellow forumites, depending on your point of view.