Help! Diesel engine stopped and wouldn't re-start

[cooleronthecoast]

Hi, I'm a newbie here. I've owned several Passats (Diesels) over the last few years and have had very few problems with any of them. I currently run a 2006 2.0 TDi (140 bhp) Estate B6, I bought it about a year ago and it has run faultlessly since then. I had the cam belt changed in the summer and the car was serviced in the Autumn, it's covered just over 90,000 miles in total with full service history.

With no warning whatsoever, the car cut out at a busy road junction today and refused to restart. There were no early warning signs, I'd been to see some relatives and the car was fully warmed up, I'd been driving without incident for about 20 miles. There was plenty of fuel in the tank and the battery is in good order. No dashboard lights or warnings were illuminated either. Fortunately I'm in the AA, so I called them and a patrol man duly arrived about 30 minutes later. Just by the by, I'd tried locking and unlocking the car and then tried to start it just in case it was some kind of immobiliser fault, but although the engine turned over fine, it was not firing up which I guess on a diesel, points to the fuel system.

Anyway, after the AA guy arrived we tried to start the car again and after 3 or 4 attempts, it did restart. Because we (he) had found no apparent fault, he said he'd follow me home (about 20 miles) in his van just in case the fault re-occured. It didn't, the car ran perfectly all the way back home. Before he left, I asked the AA guy his opinion and he said it might be an injector fault. I've tried restarting the engine a few times since and it works fine.

The car does sit out in all weathers and it has been very cold here recently (down to minus 11 C) but there's no indication of any problems due to the temperature and it has been starting well on the cold mornings we've had recently.

As you might imagine, I'm very perplexed, if it had been a broken fuel line or a flat battery I would be happy enough as I'd know a fault had been sorted, but this kind of intermittent fault is very worrying. I guess I should take the car to a VW dealer and have them plug it into their diagnostic machinery but does anyone here have any experience with this kind of problem before I do so? I don't think it has any relevence to this problem but the car has the DSG 6 speed Auto gearbox.

Thanks in advance for your help.