Abs & Esp Lights Coming On

[Winters3]

I own an American spec 2001 A6 2.7 Turbo with close to 50,000 miles. I live in Germany and drive an average of about 100 mph every where I go. This car has been fabulous and I love it. Lately, however, at speeds around 80 mph and with temps at around 30 degrees fahrenheit, the ABS & ESP Lights come on simultaneously and maybe stay on and maybe not, but only at or above 80 mph and when its cold out. The German dealers say the car checks out fine on the computer tests, but where I live there is rarely a quattro (although plenty of Audis) and the mechanics admit they don't see the American spec model too often either. According to the owners manual, when these lights come on simultaneously it means major safety systems are not working, which is not good if that is actually the case. Maybe this is just a quirk, but I was hoping someone might have some advice. Thanks.

[bhb399mm]

take it to a dealer when both the lights are on... it doesn’t matter that its an US spec car - the VAG-COM unit will display the same fault codes regardless. Its weird that your mechanic said nothing was wrong.

Have you tried pushing the ESP button off and on again when this happens?

[Winters3]

Originally posted by bhb399mm@Dec 13 2004, 05:07 PM
take it to a dealer when both the lights are on... it doesn’t matter that its an US spec car - the VAG-COM unit will display the same fault codes regardless. Its weird that your mechanic said nothing was wrong.

Have you tried pushing the ESP button off and on again when this happens?

Quoted post

I have not tried pushing the ESP button when the problem occurs, but I will. I have taken it twice to the dealer when the lights are on. The problem is that the lights don't stay on. The last time both lights came on the check engine light also came on and stayed on and I was hopeful the computer would register a code, but even the check engine light showed no problem code on the computer. This is costing us a fortune every time we go in, not to mention how bad the Euro exchange rate is. The mechanic thought there might be a bad connection, but that didn't turn into anything either. They basically told me not to bring it back in until I can figure something out because they charge us and they don't fix anything. I have not been impressed. On the first visit they did replace the "luftmassenmesser" which directly translates to air mass knife or air pressure knife, I have no idea what this would be in English, but this didn't help anything either.

[deane]

Hi,

I have a 2000 audi a6 2.8 manual that was built in germany. The ABS light comes on intermittently, similar to what you have described, except mine is totally random. When the ABS light goes on your ABS IS NOT WORKING, when it winks off it is working.

I left the car with a mechanic for 4 days to finally track the problem down.

1) the ABS pump is fine
2) when the light comes on you get 2 codes, one for a build up of brake fluid on the wrong side of a piston ( which you would expect when it stopped working mid operation) and the 2nd for a disconnection with the instrument panel....

Now interestingly enough the Air Conditioning is in the same loop, but I haven't found any kind of relationship there with turning the AC on and off and the ABS coming on or off.

Lastly, the airbag light came on when these problems flared up. That is interesting as the airbag light came on about a year ago and the audi mechanics couldn't find out why, so cleared the code and sprayed some conductive gunk on it.... the air bag came back on after about a week and so on, until finally after taking it back 3 times it stayed off for about 8 months until this ABS problem came along.

So, my guess is that there is a short between the instrument panel and these two systems

Short or no short the computer shuts down the ABS when it lights it up. So trust your display. you can feel the ABS stutter when, say, you are stopped in traffic with the brake on and the ABS light winks off.

Also I have had the ABS fail in snow while I am braking, but begin working again almost instantly. :blink: I think that is brake fluid build up talking, but always the display doesn't lie. If its not lit up, the system is working, if it is lit up the system is not working and drive to suit.

At the moment I am trying to trace where this short is before I take it into the dealer, as 1 week at 90 USD per hour is a bit ridiculous

cheers






<_<

[shanenolan2]

Originally posted by Winters3@Dec 13 2004, 04:20 PM
I own an American spec 2001 A6 2.7 Turbo with close to 50,000 miles. I live in Germany and drive an average of about 100 mph every where I go. This car has been fabulous and I love it. Lately, however, at speeds around 80 mph and with temps at around 30 degrees fahrenheit, the ABS & ESP Lights come on simultaneously and maybe stay on and maybe not, but only at or above 80 mph and when its cold out. The German dealers say the car checks out fine on the computer tests, but where I live there is rarely a quattro (although plenty of Audis) and the mechanics admit they don't see the American spec model too often either. According to the owners manual, when these lights come on simultaneously it means major safety systems are not working, which is not good if that is actually the case. Maybe this is just a quirk, but I was hoping someone might have some advice. Thanks.

Quoted post

I have a 2003 a6t turbo as well. After an extremely cold night in North Carolina, my ESP and ABS lights have appeared on my dash as well. This happened once before in a 2002 A6T and I recall they replaced a sensor.

It seems that this problem is appearing to be somewhat common with many A6T's

[Tim Hancock]

I have a 2000 A6 4.2 that has the same challenge.....I took it to the Audi Dealer and they think it is a control module and are going to replace it when the parts come in. I got the same codes someone else did when they ran a dianotic test. Audi guy says it is a control module.