AUDI A4 Brake fault - if you've driven it too many times with the VAC sensor fault!

[Neilro]

AUDI A4 2017 (67). I had a brake fault which said on the dash, basically restricted brakes - take to a garage. Booked it into my local garage who diagnosed the G608 vac sensor on the servo to be faulty. After they played around with it the fault disappeared and we thought it was due to the hot weather affecting the connection plug (was the 33degrees in the summer of 22).

2 weeks later the fault returned. I don't use the car much so put off taking it in again. Then, it failed drastically and the warning Do Not Drive came on the dash. Took it back to the garage who then replaced the sensor, but could not remove the Brakes - do not drive message. They suggested that AUDI main dealer should be able to remove the message with a reset, so, off I went to AUDI. £65 for a diagnostic and then they said the servo and ABS unit has to be replaced at a cost of..... £3300.

Ouch! to be fair to the local dealer they did try to get this done through warranty, but mine was just out. I did some initial enquiries and searches but didn't find this forum at first. But, during my search and talking to other owners, I was put on to ECU testing. This company can reprogram the ABS ECU. 

AUDI UK had an email from me to suggest this should be a recall and they refused to take any action on this. They said the only course was to have it all replaced at the costs quoted. My complaint is that they should learn how to reprogrammed this as the pump, servo and no part has been damaged due to the G608 faulty sensor and that their own software in the programming of the ABS unit is the only fault here. Audi UK disagree and told me to write to Germany as they are only a distributor!

So, the fault is, if you get the pressure vac sensor faulty, the ECU in the abs unit counts up and when it gets to about 30 starts (driving the car) it then puts the do not drive fault on. I spoke with a master tech at AUDI and they cannot reset this unit. The £3300 is for the ABS unit, 2 ltrs of brake fluid and 2.5 hours labour to replace it.

Most people are fortunate to get it done on warranty, but I wasn't so, with the aid of a T5 socket, removed the ECU from the pump unit and sent it to ECU testing. They tested it, reprogrammed it and sent it back at a cost of..... £289.

A great saving of >£3000. the sensor fitted cost me about £100 so basically the repair was 10% of what the main dealer can do it for.

Look up ecutesting.com or email them info@ecutesting.com

They were extremely helpful, tested for free and then repaired and sent back within a week.

I HOPE THIS HELPS EVERY A4 OWNER THAT HAS THIS PROBLEM.

[Steve Q]

Thanks for the heads up 🙂 glad you got sorted 👍