I have a 99.5 Jetta TDI.  The past few days I've had one of the
warning lights come on.  It's the "coil" which comes on in the Winter
to show that the diesel fuel is warming up.  It goes out when the fuel
is warm enough to start the engine.

This week it has come on a couple of times while I was idling at a
light.  It blinks for a few minutes but then goes out when I'm up to
speed.

The owners manual says that it indicates a problem with the engine
management system and that it should be checked out by a VW dealer.
But the closest VW dealer is about 50 miles away.  I'm only using it
for short hops right now.  I was wondering what this might be.  I was
thinking if I could narrow it down I might take it to on of the local
shops which work on pick up trucks with diesel engines and have them
take a look at it.

Anyone out there have an idea what it might be?  It has about 116K
miles on it.  The dealer I used to take it to before I moved worked on
it last year.  I can't remember the name of the part, but they took
something off and soaked in some sort of cleaner to get rid of the
carbon build up.  I had to leave it with them for about three days to
do this.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

David