Brake servo restricted

[A4s-line]

Hi all, I have just found this thread as we had the same warning flash up last weekend. Thanks for all the info everyone. Unfortunately, we are away in rural France so no chance of not using the car. We contacted Audi Assist / AA (who were great) and they arranged to have the car transported to the nearest Audi dealer (30 miles away) last Monday morning. It goes downhill from there..no contact from the dealer or updates for 4 days (I told them the sensor needed to be replaced) This morning, we got a taxi to the dealer (arranged and paid for by Audi Assist) who said the sensor was not in stock (and they have done nothing about it all week) We visited every local VW group parts dept but no-one had a part in stock.  Our ferry home is tomorrow night so I guess we are driving 300 miles back through France and hoping it will be ok. I will be sending an email to Audi if this is a ‘known’ issue (and the evidence on this forum seems to indicate that) as it’s ridiculous that the car says you can keep driving. Even the Audi service rep. here in France said it’s ok to drive it back home..but get it checked once back in the UK. 

[Suitedjohn]

Although the error says this, it’s been reported in this thread that the actual wording in the manual is very much not to drive it but to take it straight to the workshop. Hopefully your under warranty as if the ABS unit goes you should be covered but be prepared for the car to say STOP abs recovery will be needed, I’d be tempted to speak to AUDI assist again and point out that driving home is not an option with this particular fault which to be fair they should be aware of. I really would not be thinking about driving it as that amount of mileage is just asking for you to damage beyond repair the ABS.

[lozzd]

Either that or get in writing that the garage says it's fine for you to drive. Then you can bill them for the new ABS unit when you get back to the UK, because you'll be needing one. 🤔

[A4s-line]

Thanks for the comments and advice. We have ordered a replacement part from UK and it’s shipping today. Ferry crossing changed to later next week so fingers crossed it arrives and the problem is sorted. The person i spoke to in the Audi parts dept was really helpful and said if the orange warning light came on, the ABS unit was probably done..we have not got that yet so decided to leave the car parked up and wait for the sensor to arrive.

[Tgk1969zxr]

My 2017 A4 Avant had only been sitting on the drive for three days before i got the Servo restricted message.😢

[Seanicehot]

Thanks to all for this thread, very informative. The warning came up on my 2019 Q5 when driving home yesterday. I rang Audi assist this morning and they came out to my house and replaced the sensor within an hour. Impressed to say the least. If you have Audi assist, highly recommend calling them to get the sensor replaced.

[Steve Q]

On 8/30/2021 at 10:21 AM, Seanicehot said:

Thanks to all for this thread, very informative. The warning came up on my 2019 Q5 when driving home yesterday. I rang Audi assist this morning and they came out to my house and replaced the sensor within an hour. Impressed to say the least. If you have Audi assist, highly recommend calling them to get the sensor replaced.

Glad you got sorted ☺️

[mole122]

Hello. Just joined this forum to say I’ve had the same issue on my Q7! Only had it a week!! But I didn’t get the start/stop warning, just brake servo restricted and then the vibrating brake pedal. It’s being taken away for some work on Wednesday so I’ve had it added to the list, but it’s very frustrating to not use it in the meantime just in case. 

[Steve Q]

On 6/21/2020 at 9:21 AM, neeko99 said:

Hi, everyone... I've had the same problem on our 2017 Q7... parked up for most of lock down and drove it for the first time in a while yesterday and the brake servo and start/stop error appeared... Seems to be a theme here across most models... 

If you've bought from a dealer you'll be covered for 30 days as you're entitled to a full refund for 30 days. 

[mole122]

Update: I rang Audi assist and they rocked up within the hour to change the sensor. FOC as I’d bought from Audi so was covered by the warranty. 
frustrating that something potentially so expensive is so simple to fix, but the guys seemed to know the issue and it was no drama for them to sort. So I’m pretty happy all told! 

[Steve Q]

4 hours ago, mole122 said:

Update: I rang Audi assist and they rocked up within the hour to change the sensor. FOC as I’d bought from Audi so was covered by the warranty. 
frustrating that something potentially so expensive is so simple to fix, but the guys seemed to know the issue and it was no drama for them to sort. So I’m pretty happy all told! 

Glad it's all sorted ☺️

[Northern Monkey]

Massive shout out to Simon Ryder for his original post. I got the servo fault after returning to Heathrow with the car (A4 Avant MY17) sat there for 5 days. Drove home carefully and found this thread. Down to local Audi centre today, picked up the last pressure sensor they had in stock and fitted it on the drive in 5 minutes. If I can do it, anyone can do it. All error messages gone. Does feel like a massive win considering it would cost £200 for a garage to do it or worse, £3000 if you don’t deal with it fast enough. 
 

I have to say though, I think it is pretty p*ss poor from Audi that they haven’t issued a recall for this. This is clearly a major problem affecting many cars which could result in huge cost to the individual, especially since the car itself actually encourages you to keep driving! A real cynic might say……. Anyway, I will be sending some correspondence to them saying as much. Not good enough. 

[P3N]

Hi all

@Ed. Surrey.  Please do send an appropriate strong email to Andrew Doyle at Audi. They continue to deny ANY knowledge of this fault.  I have a small claims action going through against them for refund of my £3600 costs to repair ABS on my 8k miles Q5. It’s me against the entire legal dept who deny any knowledge of this fault!  I also note that horrible accident on the M8 wherein a Q7 left the road killing 3 people.  No known reason yet but could the servo have failed ??? enough to panic anyone at 70mph if they needed to slow down for any reason 🥺

[DevQ7]

Hi Pen

Why did they not repair your Q5 under warranty if it only had 8k on the clock.  I'm assuming it was less than 3 years old with milage as low as that? 

There is no way they can deny knowledge with this thread but continue to do so.  

[P3N]

Sadly Dev my Q5 was recently out of warranty.  Due to lockdown etc I’ve only done such low miles. You’d hope a quality brand selling motors over £50k would have a little more regard and respect for its customers but NO they deny receiving any emails etc and state that they don’t read forums as they can’t be sure the contributors are real people !
I would have thought the fact that the replacement gasket is on redesign B, or may even be C now, was proof enough that they have a fault with the system. 
As somebody says earlier on in this topic, we have cheap toasters that last longer than my ABS 👹. I’ve corresponded with Audi several times, sending to Andrew Doyle but get the same answer each time from his EA Nicholas Willerton. We know nothing, it’s just your bad luck so go away.  ( or in so many words).  my onboard computer kept telling me it was ok to drive - until it wasn’t !  I’d been to the dealership who said it needed a new gasket but didn’t have one in stock, back order !! So it was booked in for a couple of weeks later.  They did say not to drive continuously but I’d only done 23 miles when it ‘blew’.  One trip back from the dealership and one shopping trip. 
So I’m off to court now. Wish me luck…..  my main argument is that it should have been a recall notice over all the models, I can find examples as far back as 2015.  Hey ho. 

[Paul MG]

Hi,

Had same issue on 2016 Audi A4 - “Brake Servo Restricted and Start/Stop System Fault” came on when starting the car but no lights on dash. Contacted Audi Garage and was strongly instructed not to drive the car any further due to possible damage of ABS pump which was quoted at €2500 to fix. Despite the fault indicated to continue to drive but contact dealer.
 

From this forum, I ordered the Brake pressure sensor (€99) and followed the you tube video provided and the problem is now solved. 
 

Very grateful for all the information provided on this site. Was quoted €340 and €180 from 2 different Audi garages. I changed the sensor in less than 2 minutes and I have no previous mechanic background at all! 

[RE001]

Just came across this thread.... I've had this issue for 10months! I've done 1000's of miles! Must be very lucky for it not to have developed an ABS issue. Have ordered the part via eBay - £10.00 - and will replace ASAP! Thank you to the user (ALO I believe) who uploaded the how-to video! 

[Steve Q]

On 10/19/2021 at 7:03 PM, RE001 said:

Just came across this thread.... I've had this issue for 10months! I've done 1000's of miles! Must be very lucky for it not to have developed an ABS issue. Have ordered the part via Ebay - £10.00 - and will replace ASAP! Thank you to the user (ALO I believe) who uploaded the how-to video! 

Sounds like you've been very lucky! 

[RE001]

On 10/19/2021 at 7:03 PM, RE001 said:

Just came across this thread.... I've had this issue for 10months! I've done 1000's of miles! Must be very lucky for it not to have developed an ABS issue. Have ordered the part via Ebay - £10.00 - and will replace ASAP! Thank you to the user (ALO I believe) who uploaded the how-to video! 

Hi back again... Got the sensor swapped over today, however, can't get this 'brakes:fault. Safely stop vehicle' nessage away. I've only got a Bluetooth obd and phone app that I use. Will it be needing a visit to a garage for an actual diagnostic machine (quoated £40) or has anyone had luck with a certain app? 

[Suitedjohn]

That to me suggests your running around after 10 months has destroyed your ABS unit, as a result a potentially expensive repair is due, have you noticed any issue with your brakes. Hopefully a reset by garage will solve it as otherwise it could be expensive.

[FADEC]

17 hours ago, RE001 said:

Hi back again... Got the sensor swapped over today, however, can't get this 'brakes:fault. Safely stop vehicle' nessage away. I've only got a Bluetooth obd and phone app that I use. Will it be needing a visit to a garage for an actual diagnostic machine (quoated £40) or has anyone had luck with a certain app? 

Sorry to read the warning hasn’t gone away and hope it isn’t the ABS unit. However, I’m surprised you drove for so long with the fault as I found the brakes pulsed, like the ABS was kicking, when I had the problem?

[123456789987654321]

Hi Everyone,

I got the break servo restricted light coming up about two months ago and the garage reset it as it was intermittent. It's now come on again but prior to checking this site and i've been driving it due to the message saying you can continue driving.

For those of you who have ended up with the ABS fault, did this only appear once the sensor was changed?

I'd hazard a guess that we've done approx 1000 miles since the light originally came on as the earliest the garage could get us in was this Wednesday, so fearing the worst.

Cheers

[RE001]

On 9/22/2021 at 1:45 PM, P3N said:

Sadly Dev my Q5 was recently out of warranty.  Due to lockdown etc I’ve only done such low miles. You’d hope a quality brand selling motors over £50k would have a little more regard and respect for its customers but NO they deny receiving any emails etc and state that they don’t read forums as they can’t be sure the contributors are real people !
I would have thought the fact that the replacement gasket is on redesign B, or may even be C now, was proof enough that they have a fault with the system. 
As somebody says earlier on in this topic, we have cheap toasters that last longer than my ABS 👹. I’ve corresponded with Audi several times, sending to Andrew Doyle but get the same answer each time from his EA Nicholas Willerton. We know nothing, it’s just your bad luck so go away.  ( or in so many words).  my onboard computer kept telling me it was ok to drive - until it wasn’t !  I’d been to the dealership who said it needed a new gasket but didn’t have one in stock, back order !! So it was booked in for a couple of weeks later.  They did say not to drive continuously but I’d only done 23 miles when it ‘blew’.  One trip back from the dealership and one shopping trip. 
So I’m off to court now. Wish me luck…..  my main argument is that it should have been a recall notice over all the models, I can find examples as far back as 2015.  Hey ho. 

P3N - How did/is this going? I think legal action is fair, the fault has clearly been a manufacturer fault that's been there from the beginning - hence the many affected users on this site alone. However, the trouble will be you will need an engineer's report to confirm that as evidence in court. I was thinking of doing the same, they might not bother to send anyone to defend a small county court claim.

FADEC - I haven't noticed any difference in braking and have had no issues or complaints. I did some emergency brake tests after changing the sensor and again no issues, very responsive and no locking. 

123456789987654321 - The error comes about once your car registers the fault 20 times. Once that happens it bricks the ABS which apparently then cant be reset without replacing the entire unit (£3,000 by the looks of it) or by having it removed by a garage and sent to be reset by a 3rd party (between £400 - £600 from what Ive seen). IF you still have the brake servo message, you should be fine and just need a new sensor. If its changed to a brake fault message your ABS is gone. 

 

[Stagn8]

Any recommendations on this part, I see everyone and their Auntie Doris are advertising replacements. Seems the genuine AUDI one is £80 + but is the B version whereas most of the others are A versions. Is it worthwhile going for the B version. Haven’t had the message but thinking of getting ahead of the game with a bit of Preventative Maintenance.

[Suitedjohn]

I went for Audi approved only as I did buy from eBay but I’d still be waiting as it never arrived and for a part that you need to drive the car I thought it best to pay for the genuine part that I picked up the same day. But if you can wait then obviously serious savings can be made by buying the generic or re manufactured ones.