Flashing glow plug light

[robbrewster]

has anyone had a problem with installing led bulbs in the tail light housings on a tdi, I ordered 6 bulbs from superbright led.com 2 narrow red 67-R9 for the parking lights and 4 narrow red 1156-R12 for the turn and brake light. Immediately after I installed the bulbs the glow plug light started to flash. I have not had any problems with the glow circuit for about 2 yrs after I replced the harness and glow plugs. If I change the bulbs back will the glow light go out or do I need to clear the computer? I have a 01 TDI Golf ALH 1.9 Thanks Rob

 

[AndyBees]

I copied this from a post here in the TDI club several months ago, MOGolf I think did the most of it, I can't remember who else to credit.

Causes of flashing glow plug light

Because this is a frequently asked question, I (MOGolf) went digging through info for '01 ALH and made the following list of known reasons for the glow plug light to flash. They are listed with the VW code and generic reader P code.

00741 Brake pedal monitoring - implausible signal
01044 Control unit incorrectly coded
16705/P0321 Engine speed sensor - implausible signal
16706/P0322 Engine speed sensor - no signal
16955/P0571 Brake light switch (F) - implausible signal
17653/P1245 Needle lift sender (G80) - short to earth
17654/P1246 Needle lift sender (G80) - Implausible signal
17655/P1247 Needle lift sender (G80) - Open circuit/short to positive
17762/P1354 Modulating piston movement sender (G149) - electrical fault in current circuit
17969/P1561 Metering adjuster (N146) - control difference
17978/P1570 Engine control unit blocked
18020/P1612 Control unit incorrectly coded
18026/P1618 Glow plug relay (J52) - short to positive
18027/P1619 Glow plug relay (J52) - open circuit/short to earth
18040/P1632 Accelerator position sender - voltage supply
17970 - Quantity Adjuster (N146): Upper Limit Reached
P1562 - 35-10 - - - Intermittent

It also flashes when an interface tool has put the ECM in 'basic settings' mode.

There may be more; these are the ones I found documented.

The brake light monitoring includes the clutch switch (manual transmission cars). It also includes a possibility of blown brake light bulbs.

 

[MichelleRoze]

has anyone had a problem with installing led bulbs in the tail light housings on a tdi, I ordered 6 bulbs from superbright led.com 2 narrow red 67-R9 for the parking lights and 4 narrow red 1156-R12 for the turn and brake light. Immediately after I installed the bulbs the glow plug light started to flash. I have not had any problems with the glow circuit for about 2 yrs after I replced the harness and glow plugs. If I change the bulbs back will the glow light go out or do I need to clear the computer? I have a 01 TDI Golf ALH 1.9 Thanks Rob

The flashing glow plug CAN mean that your brake lights aren't working. Stupid I know, but I've seen it. Seeing as how you got LED's...did you get load resistors for the dual watt bulbs? ie - blinkers/brake lights? If not, then that's your problem. Got back to superbright LEDs.com and order a load resistor for each blinker and brake light. So, if you did front and rear you'll need 6. If it's just a marker light or a light that doesn't blink, then you won't need a load resistor for that.

All my exterior lights are LED. Thankfully my aftermarket brake lights were already LED so I didn't have to worry about them. Let me guess, do you have "hyper blinkers" too? The LEDs run on a lower rating than regular bulbs do. So the normal system thinks that the bulb is burnt out. That's why you need the load resistor. And for some stupid reason, VW thought it would be a good idea to have the glow plug light flash if the brake lights aren't working...

Have someone press on your brakes and you look...see if they light up. They might, but your car thinks they aren't. Hope that helps!