ASR and ABS warning

Sorry Andy you are right ODB2 scanner. Hoping it would give a better reading that Torque, but possible not.
Yes, I fear not.

I notice you are near Gatwick, not far from a current active member, @mjsbrabus, (Hastings, but maybe a more local member around), who I expect has some form of VCDS and would be happy to give your A2 a proper scan. Just an idea.

I use VCDS and it comes in various forms and for your information a quick introduction. This is off the top of my head so might not be 100%.

1. Entry level is VCDS Lite and is a very useful diagnostic tool but as the name implies a limited version of full VCDS.
It runs on a laptop, the software is free to download from the Ross-Tech (the proprietors) website and in addition you need to buy a decent cable off eBay, not that expensive, that connects to the laptop via a USB socket while the other end has the correct connector for the OBD socket on your A2.

VCDS Lite can be made less limited and more capable by registering at Ross-Tech for a fee of $100.

2. DIY Home Enthusiast level, costs circa £300, full VCDS but limited to 3 VIN numbers, but can be used on more than 3 cars but becomes akin to the Lite for cars outside the first 3 VINs.

3. Professional Level. £500. Full VCDS on unlimited VINs. Pay a bit more and you get WiFi, no balancing laptop on knees!

As you see apart from version 1 not cheap, many members use Lite only registering when they need to do something a bit more advanced.

Hope this was useful.

Andy
 
Hi Andy. Thanks. I think I will get a cable and go for Lite. I'm away for a bit so barring the flat battery I know I will have when I get back, I will deal with the problem next week. It has been an irritating problem as the basic checks all turn up nothing. I think if I had damaged something during the wishbone swap then the fault would have come up immediately. This fault came up a few days later.
 
Hi Andy. Thanks. I think I will get a cable and go for Lite. I'm away for a bit so barring the flat battery I know I will have when I get back, I will deal with the problem next week. It has been an irritating problem as the basic checks all turn up nothing. I think if I had damaged something during the wishbone swap then the fault would have come up immediately. This fault came up a few days later.
Too late now I expect, but if you are away a lot buy one of the solar panel trickle chargers that sits on the dash (roughly the same size as a laptop screen) while away and connects to the battery via the OBD socket. The most common kit is the AA branded one at £25, but there are others probably just as good and cheaper but I like others bought the AA kit in the hope that the AA would not endorse a poor quality item.

Andy
 
I am away evey month for a few days and if a solar trickle charger works I will get one tomorrow before I go. I have a special jumpstart kit and routine at the moment but prevention would be so much easier. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
I got a slightly larger panel and it plugs into the 12v socket - goes into the south facing window with some suction cups and the battery is always tip top - usually 13v even after a month of no use.


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I am away evey month for a few days and if a solar trickle charger works I will get one tomorrow before I go. I have a special jumpstart kit and routine at the moment but prevention would be so much easier. Thanks for the suggestion.
Without wishing to swerve the thread topic, if this is a regular occurrence having to jumpstart the car after only a few days away to the extent 'I have a special jumpstart kit and routine', then with the the proviso you do not have an old battery at its death door, you have a battery drain fault. The battery should easily restart the car after a week or two, indeed I was astounded by a recent post of a member who did not use their A2 in winter and it still started in the Spring without a charge. This continual discharge of the battery is doing the battery no good (probably need a new battery by now) and something you should investigate after you have sorted the ABS fault. Not uncommon and a forum search of 'battery drain' is a good starting point. Aftermarket radios that don't recognise when the ignition is off are also known to cause this problem.

Andy
 
Had mine parked for over a month and it started up first time like any other morning - it has a new battery though. With my previous A2 battery was still original that is from 2001 model year - drinking age, it would fail to turn over engine sufficiently if it was parked for more than few days. I suspect it might not have been the only one with an original battery. - Do not see a point to solar trickle charger as parked cars wouldn't discharge a noticeable amount given there aren't issues with battery drain as mentioned. (Mrs. has fiat 500 and that does not have a line for ignition/stereo, after a month parked it did drain the battery and had to get a jump cause the stereo needs to be shut off manually)

I am in Chessington for work and Walton-on-Thames for home - if you are driving up this way happy to meet and do a scan for you in the evening or weekend - know for a fact ODB2 can find and clear the ABS codes on A2.
 
The solar panel is in my VW camper. My A2 doesn’t need it. The only time I had an issue was a 5v parasitic drain which killed the battery after 4 days. Boo!


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Had mine parked for over a month and it started up first time like any other morning - it has a new battery though. With my previous A2 battery was still original that is from 2001 model year - drinking age, it would fail to turn over engine sufficiently if it was parked for more than few days. I suspect it might not have been the only one with an original battery. - Do not see a point to solar trickle charger as parked cars wouldn't discharge a noticeable amount given there aren't issues with battery drain as mentioned. (Mrs. has fiat 500 and that does not have a line for ignition/stereo, after a month parked it did drain the battery and had to get a jump cause the stereo needs to be shut off manually)

I am in Chessington for work and Walton-on-Thames for home - if you are driving up this way happy to meet and do a scan for you in the evening or weekend - know for a fact ODB2 can find and clear the ABS codes on A2.
You have a fair point, but the use of a trickle charger should provide a quick "fix"/workaround pending the ABS fault repair and later tracking down the battery drain and repair which may take some time.

While not familiar with OBD2 I know it is well respected and yes I would expect it to not to be problem handling ABS codes but in this implementation that costs £11 I would not have much faith.

Andy
 
You have a fair point, but the use of a trickle charger should provide a quick "fix"/workaround pending the ABS fault repair and later tracking down the battery drain and repair which may take some time.

While not familiar with OBD2 I know it is well respected and yes I would expect it to not to be problem handling ABS codes but in this implementation that costs £11 I would not have much faith.

Andy

I've got a couple of the cheap scanners from eBay - none of which read codes for my A2 - couldn't tell you if it is the phone app, though tried most free/test ones available my bet would be on the scanners.

Most i managed to squeeze out of them is real time sensor reading such as engine temp rpms etc. which for some reason wouldn't work on odbeleven - though might have been fixed by now.


I've read a few posts about checking battery in case of ABS fault, while it is not something i can rule out for sure it doesn't really make sense to me - my 2001 A2 was running on flat battery for a year (i mean if it was parked for more than 2 days it would not turn over flat) and it never had ABS come up. I'd bet it is the battery that is the culprit - probably still original one from the factory - would check if it has breathing tube or if a date can be found.

After messing about with it for a few months every few days until i had enough and replaced i can say car starting first time every time is somewhat not appreciated enough.

Guess wait until @russeleoin is back happy to meet and hopefully help shed some light on this one as I've spent a ton of time faffing with ABS on my old A2 and it can be massively frustrating.
 
Hi All. Back from a few days in France. Luckily, just before I left I managed to get a solar trickle charger as suggested, well it worked a charm. Normally after 4 days away the little beast would struggle and I would use my trusty jump pack. Started first time so all good. When I get the time I will investigate the leakage and I have done a bit of reading on the problem, but as its has been an inconvenience and not a problem, I have lived with it. However the ASR/ABS problem is a pain in the arse. Un4utral, if the offer is still there, I would like to take you up on it next week. I need to get the wheel alignment done this Saturday and then a quick nip up your way would be good next week if convenient.
Regards Russ
 
Hi All. Back from a few days in France. Luckily, just before I left I managed to get a solar trickle charger as suggested, well it worked a charm. Normally after 4 days away the little beast would struggle and I would use my trusty jump pack. Started first time so all good. When I get the time I will investigate the leakage and I have done a bit of reading on the problem, but as its has been an inconvenience and not a problem, I have lived with it. However the ASR/ABS problem is a pain in the arse. Un4utral, if the offer is still there, I would like to take you up on it next week. I need to get the wheel alignment done this Saturday and then a quick nip up your way would be good next week if convenient.
Regards Russ
Pleased to see the solar trickle charger worked well.

Just a general word of advice. It is best to tag a member you wish to address directly by adding an ampersand before the user name like this, @Un4tural, as this will generate an alert next time they log in to attract their attention, after all they may not drop into your thread and miss your post. Even better is to send a PM as the default forum setting is to send a copy to their personal email.

Andy
 
Pleased to see the solar trickle charger worked well.

Just a general word of advice. It is best to tag a member you wish to address directly by adding an ampersand before the user name like this, @Un4tural, as this will generate an alert next time they log in to attract their attention, after all they may not drop into your thread and miss your post. Even better is to send a PM as the default forum setting is to send a copy to their personal email.

Andy

Will drop you a PM, busy Saturday but i dont think i have much Sunday - will be in the area. Can do after work if you're able to drop by around Chessington in the evening (6ish)
 
Minor update. I have now done about 50 miles on the new wishbones, all feels good and no strange noises, so I jacked up the car to check all the bolts are tight and recheck all the sensors etc. All looks good. So I rechecked the codes with the scanner. I got 00778 -
Steering Angle Sensor (G85). which could make sense. ( are my eyes that bad that I misread the initial code!) Anyway, off for wheel alignment tomorrow. But if it is the steering angle sensor, which I have never heard of, does anyone know where it is?
Thanks
Russ
 
From memory this was somewhere in the steering wheel assembly unless i am thinking about a different thing. it should include additional information with the code though.

When you do come down make sure error is present as not all codes come up as "intermittent" during scan i noticed when using ODBeleven - presumably VCDS has access to history of codes that poped up before? not sure if A2 has that - newer audis log damn near every time you open the door or adjust the stereo.
 
Minor update. I have now done about 50 miles on the new wishbones, all feels good and no strange noises, so I jacked up the car to check all the bolts are tight and recheck all the sensors etc. All looks good. So I rechecked the codes with the scanner. I got 00778 -
Steering Angle Sensor (G85). which could make sense. ( are my eyes that bad that I misread the initial code!) Anyway, off for wheel alignment tomorrow. But if it is the steering angle sensor, which I have never heard of, does anyone know where it is?
Thanks
Russ
Now you are getting somewhere, that's why I asked about the numbers in the code in post #18!!!!

The steering angle sensor sits just below the steering wheel.

Andy
 
So, I had the alignment done on Saturday. It was way off, but to be expected. Anyway, the alarm was still going off each time I started the car so I was all geared up for a trip to Chessington. However yesterday afternoon I needed to nip out and suddenly the alarm and the warning lights didn't come on! Result. Thanks for the advice and offers of assistance, but I suspect that the sensor just needed a bit of time to reset itself once the problem was corrected.
Thanks
Russ
 
I would say that it was about 12-15 degrees off center( on the steering wheel), but I didn't think the car had a sensor. And the warning didn't go off immediately, it took two days after the wishbones before the warning. So I was thrown a bit by that. But all working now.
Thanks
Russ
 
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