Esp light won't go off

[Chrisdjchris]

Hi I have a 2007 S3 and the esp light won't go off any ideas which and where the offending sensor is? cheers

[cliffcoggin]

It's impossible to guess with such meagre information. See this for suggestions: http://www.auditech.org/acont-654.html

[Magnet]

Hello Chris, 

As Cliff says - you will need to have this plugged in to detect which (probably one of the wheel) sensors is at fault. 
If it proves to be be a wheel sensor then I would only replace it with Bosch one if not using a genuine VAG replacement. Personally, I wouldn’t opt to get one where you will get the best so called  ‘weekend discount’. 
If it is a wheel sensor, then they can be difficult to remove, so worth some releasing fluid application before hand. Again, you may find that replacing the offending sensor will only effect a temporary solution, and you might have to subsequently change the hub as well -  which had an inbuilt weak magnet to signal the sensor. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[TEC_DESIGNS_8PA]

It could be the brake switch located above brake pedal. 

[Magnet]

Thanks Paul,

It could indeed be the offender - along with a lot of other possibilities. 
Apologies for repeating, but other than simply replacing anything/everything , the only alternative would be plug it into  the diagnostics - as recommended to Chris, the original poster.

Unfortunately, Chris is yet to let us know how far he has progressed.

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[TEC_DESIGNS_8PA]

True its a good idea but people can charge silly money for running Vagcom on a car, unless you can find a helpful person with it on their laptop. You need to make sure as well its not a universal one for all cars. I had this done for a flashing glow plug light. I was told its all four glow plugs luckily I didn't believe them, as it also happened to be the brake switch. 

[Magnet]

Thanks Paul, but do you go on spending on parts (and labour?) until you find the culprit? 
I know what I’d rather do, and I’m not a fan of diagnostics! 
Kind regards, 

Gareth. 

[TEC_DESIGNS_8PA]

Like I said if I had believed the diagnostics I'd have wasted 100s replacing glow plugs (with added possibility of them being snapped off in the head) and not solved the issue, instead I took the cheap option and got a few switches from the scrappy for £2. A brake switch is also really simple thing to change and is DIY not a garage labour job.

Diagnostics are great as long as its Vagcom and not a universal one, I understand why garages do this but it's always a compromise.

The reason I suggested this in the first place was when searching for an alternative for mine for glow plug lights someone suggested the brake light switch for this. So I did a YouTube search for a how to and one came up for how to stop the esp light staying on by replacing the brake switch. 

 

Heres the link 

 

[TEC_DESIGNS_8PA]

https://youtu.be/c2CTGzxILNQ

[cliffcoggin]

None of us doubt how easy it is to change that switch. The important question is whether you simply struck lucky in choosing that option from the many possible causes of an ESP warning, or did you know it to be a particular weak point of the A3?

[TEC_DESIGNS_8PA]

Mine was not for esp mine was for glow plug light flashing. As I said whilst looking for a possible solution to my issue I happened across the esp one possibly being the brake light switch. 

I had searched online on forums etc for causes to my glow plug light flashing. Alot of solutions said replace the brake light switch. So as it was cheap I did this first, as I didn't fancy paying hundreds out replacing glow plugs as suggested by a diagnostic (not Vagcom). When you got to a scrap yard you can always tell parts that cause problems on cars as theyre nearly always gone. Out of 5 audi a3 8p in stock 4 had the switch taken, similar to the weak point on a3 glove box's the hinges. All the glove box's were gone. I'd say faulty brake light switches are a problem with a3s. 

What people fail to see is a diagnostic is not the answer in every case especially if it's not Vagcom. My daughter had diagnostics done on her car a mk6 1.6tdi golf. It gave error codes for egr so that was replaced, still the same next up egr cooler, still the same. There was more after that it ended up being a sensor. 

[Magnet]

Many thanks Paul, but......

So we are still to hear from Chris - the original poster? 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[cliffcoggin]

10 hours ago, TEC_DESIGNS_8PA said:

When you got to a scrap yard you can always tell parts that cause problems on cars as theyre nearly always gone. Out of 5 audi a3 8p in stock 4 had the switch taken, similar to the weak point on a3 glove box's the hinges. All the glove box's were gone. I'd say faulty brake light switches are a problem with a3s. 

What people fail to see is a diagnostic is not the answer in every case especially if it's not Vagcom. 

Good point about scrap yard absences.

I too am sceptical of error code readers. I see many examples of false diagnoses on this forum, though I am too old school to have personal experience of them.

[TEC_DESIGNS_8PA]

I think the only one to trust is Vagcom. I don't trust the readers either they're made to fit too many vehicle brands. 

[andrewdowns]

Def a wheel speed sensor, had to replace one on the rear of an A4 cab, problem solved.

[Magnet]

Many thanks Andrew. Indeed it could (in caps) be a wheel sensor - but which one - if any one??  It could also be a weak signal from a hub - so diagnostics should at least point to the offending wheel. 
Strange but we are not hearing from the original poster despite visiting the forum less than a few hours ago.

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Stevey Y]

6 hours ago, cliffcoggin said:

Good point about scrap yard absences.

I too am sceptical of error code readers. I see many examples of false diagnoses on this forum, though I am too old school to have personal experience of them.

Hi Clifford I would be interested to know what you use when you get a warning light up on the dash?, the thing most people fail to grasp is that most garages are forced to use generic code readers as they have to work on a multitude of different brands of different ages, people such as Snap on and Bosch pay a small fortune for a licence to use a small fraction of each manufacturers diagnostic software which may or may not go in any depth of interrogation of the modules on any particular vehicle, therefore I agree that manufacturer specific software is indeed better.

With regard to false diagnosis that is the prerogative of the unit user who may or may not have the ability to mentally work out the sequence of events that led to the fault occurring  as the guy who I learned from once said, its cause and effect, you can spend ££££££ curing the effects but what you really need is the cause as if you nail that first time a lot of the effects just vanish.

[cliffcoggin]

31 minutes ago, Stevey Y said:

Hi Clifford I would be interested to know what you use when you get a warning light up on the dash?

In regard to general non-specific warnings like ESP I take the car to an independent Audi specialist. Its expensive, but cheaper than buying a succession of new parts in the hope that one might resolve the problem. If the warning light is specific (such as "low coolant level") or there are no warning lights at all, I'll first turn to my experience of diagnosing and repairing my own cars for the last 53 years before deciding whether I can carry out the repair myself or take it to aforesaid Audi garage. Working without diagnostic equipment years ago is what I meant by being old school.

[Magnet]

I too share the view that diagnostics is not the be all and end all - and I’m pretty sure Cliff shares that viewpoint. Again, I have stated on here (as Steve now quotes) that the cause-and-effect principle is (very) often overlooked at the owners peril and cost. 
Having said that, in cases like this, it certainly is a valuable tool which allows you to home in towards a particular component/wheel. 
Yes, it’s OK to state ‘it was component x’ on my car, but it infers that it will then be component x on the poster’s car - this is of course no more than (a potentially expensive) assumption. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[andrewdowns]

Agree but mine was an accurate diagnosis using a professional garage diagnostic machine, fault was esp light on constantly, diagnostics came back nsr wheel speed sensor, a pain to change on an A4 cab, as rear seat squab and internal trims have to be removed to gain access to the loom connection, replaced with new Bosch sensor, no more esp light, if the abs and esp lights are both on, would always check wheel speed sensors first.

[Magnet]

Many thanks Andrew. 
I think you’ve summed it up with ‘.....always check wheel speed sensors first’. Problem is which one (without the recommended diagnostics in this case -in caps) and how do you check it - or all four - without replacing them? 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Stevey Y]

18 hours ago, cliffcoggin said:

In regard to general non-specific warnings like ESP I take the car to an independent Audi specialist. Its expensive, but cheaper than buying a succession of new parts in the hope that one might resolve the problem. If the warning light is specific (such as "low coolant level") or there are no warning lights at all, I'll first turn to my experience of diagnosing and repairing my own cars for the last 53 years before deciding whether I can carry out the repair myself or take it to aforesaid Audi garage. Working without diagnostic equipment years ago is what I meant by being old school.

Hi Clifford I agree in principle with what you are saying in so much as back in the day a good working knowledge of cars was essential but you still needed things such as multimeters, dwell angle meters, strobe lights, but with the advent of electronic ignition most of that fell by the wayside, up until seventeen years ago I was in the same position, having to go to a garage to get the light put out and the codes read so at around £40 a time it was over a year becoming an expensive hobby especially when you considered the car was doing in excess of 60k a year, lateral thinking dictated that I went out and bought my own unit pre loaded with Delphi and Wurth software which although being generic was very good enabling me to things like forced regenerations and adaptation of new parts, after while I suddenly realised that what I had was good but did not go as far as deep interrogation or readapting say things such as BCMs which although not being replaced had started to throw up ghost codes as over 180k a lot of the modules storage space had become clogged with irrelevant information so if I cleared it back to factory settings it would start to learn again, to do this I had to download Forscan and get the appropriate interface it was not expensive and gave me a far larger scope.

Move on to the Audi I got the VCDS software and again the right interface, this is another level i.e. if I had a wheel sensor problem not only will it show the Code and description of the fault but which wheel is dysfunctional and the part number for it how bad is that if I had the ABS light on and no code for sensors therefore you would have to assume that it is another part in the chain maybe a sensor which would throw up a U code, I agree there is a lot of misdiagnosis sometimes on purpose prime example being one of my friends VW Golf just heading for its second MOT and well out of warranty, the airbag light is on and on the pre inspection they plugged it in [Extra £80] and told him the airbag module had gone and it was£1200 to supply and fit, when I plugged in it said front passenger airbag connection open circuit or to ground so took it apart cleaned the connection and the light disappeared, that was a year ago, if you look at others on this site like Thomas G who have gone out and bought OBD Eleven and educated themselves as he has documented on this site recently, its saved him a fortune.

Regards Steve 

[cliffcoggin]

Steve.

If you can justify the expense of an accurate diagnostic machine, which I can not on a 14 year old car that rarely has problems, then I have no doubt that is the best way to go. The problems I see on this forum are cheap inaccurate readers, used by owners with little or no knowledge of mechanics, which induce them to waste a lot of money on unnecessary parts.

Cliff.

[andrewdowns]

From experience forums are always full of "it could be, it might be" we learn as we go, I have been tinkering for 35 years.

[Stevey Y]

Hi Clifford, the basic version of OBDEleven is about £60 which is no great expense under the general scheme of things as it is highly commended and performs a multitude of tasks it is also small enough to store in the glove box for when however infrequently your car goes wrong should you need it and from my perspective represents a massive saving when you consider how much it is just for a plug in and then they charge you more plus the part to fix it.

With regard to people who know nothing about cars yes they do appear on this forum normally with a code at best and a hope that someone might educate them on the probable cause and possible fix, some of these people will have a desire to learn and help themselves in future and continue to contribute to this forum, others are looking for an instant fix which we all realise is impossible based on the lack of cogent information, they normally disappear after one post, some of the others will reply again so therefore is it not best policy to condemn their lack of knowledge but be patient and try and help them to help themselves, one of the most aggravating terms I have come across on any forum is the initial term, I am new to this be gentle with me, they have a problem and need advice, there are a good few forums this one being the exception where anyone who posts what appears to be an inane description is torn to pieces verbally, such are the vagaries of social media some people use it vent their own personal frustrations on others.

Steve.