Over zealous TCS

me_groovy

New Member
Hi Folks, new owner of an 02 1.4 petrol which I'm loving to bits.
Just before I bought it from a friend they put a new MOT on and had two of the tyres replaced with part-worns. Ever since then the TCS has kicked in at anything above a whisper of throttle in all gears. Simple enough to reach down and hit the button to disable it but it's bothering me!
I figure during the wheels being off the mechanic knocked the TCS sensor? From what I've seen it's behind the front left wheel so I took that off and found one of the wires with some electrical tape on it and held on with a zip tie!? I'm hoping one of you knowledgeable folks can educate me what this should look like. Has it been bodged and can I repair it?
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Suspect the cable u see is pad warning cable a common failure they do share the same wiring loom nsf and are often taped up

TCS runs off abs sensors.on the hubs

Initial check would be tyre pressure on rear tyres, a soft rear tyre can cause the traction control to activate

Failing that a code read would give more info
 
Thanks Weetank, I'll check the pressures.
Did a code read with torque and an odb2 adapter but that came up with nothing.
 
Welcome.

Yes, the focus of the pics is the brake sensor loom connector, not the cause of your concerns. Something does not look right here besides the tape and cable tie, might be I am disorientated by the the angle of the shot, but I have a memory that connector should hang vertically down (could be wrong), better than most you see, at least you even have one! Assuming no yellow brake pad warning on dash, leave it alone. You can see the the loom (grand title for a two wire cable) for the ABS sensor lower down with the top of its protective boot just showing, looks all right to me. Why are we focussing on just this wheel?

On the replacement tyres, bedsides pressure, check the size!

Cheap diagnostic kit often does not pick up fault codes and even worse sometimes reports the wrong thing, get a VCDS scan or equivalent/better amateur diagnostic kit.

On here help is usually around, just ask however simple a question.

Like the braces.

Andy
 
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>Initial check would be tyre pressure on rear tyres, a soft rear tyre can cause the traction control to >activate

In a front-wheel drive car, why would rear tyre pressure have an effect on traction control when accelerating? Something to do with confusing the stability system?

One thing worth considering is the part-worn tyres on the car as mentioned in the first post. Even if they are a premium make (what are they?), while they may have adequate tread depth, if they are older, the traction qualities of the rubber itself may be reduced, and although the 1.4i isn't the torquiest motor in the range available in the A2 it could simply be that they are compromised. My 1.4tdi came with a pair of ditch-finders on the front (new, but hitherto unknown make at the budget end of most online places product lists), and they broke traction if you blinked if the road surface was anything other than bone dry. Secondly, what condition are the front shocks in? - they could also impact on how the tyres are interacting with the road surface?

If the other tyres are half decent, maybe for a test swap fronts with rears and vice versa. See if the other tyres have the same problem when accelerating. If so that points at something other than the tyres. If the problem disappears then it answers the question.
 
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