SnyperBob

Hello again,

I had posted a separate thread about needing to change out my heater core. I did it, and now I have heat (yay). But now I have a pesky ABS / ESP alert on my dash. When I start the car up, the Brake light flashes, there's beeping and ABS and ESP are light up on the cluster as well.....

I scoured the net and was having some problems trying to figure out how to fix this.

First off, let me explain something. When I did the heater core replacement and had the steering wheel off....I played with the sensor under the wheel. I didn't realize how smart this car was.

So first things first, make sure your steering angle sensor is zero. Mine was at -720 degrees. So basically the car thought the steering wheel was turned twice, when in fact it was not.

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/att...1&d=1420661773

If this value is something other than zero (or very close to zero), you need to fix that first. I recommend just pulling the steering wheel off, and with VAG Com hooked up so you can read the value live, spinning that sensor around until it's at zero. Then reinstall the steering wheel.....

I've heard recommendations as crazy as dropping the steering column and spinning the entire column. huh? I don't even think that's possible, lol.

ok, so now that your steering angle sensor is reading zero, you still have those error lights on your dash cluster. Mine were ESP, ABS, and the Brake light was flashing. The car also beeped on start up.

Here is the process I used to clear this. I have an automatic (Tiptronic) B5 S4 with ESP. The codes are different for manual B5's, keep that in mind.

Here are some quick links to resources I used to figure this out:
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/s4-...ensor-1580926/

quattroworld.com Forums: Steering Angle Sensor Calibration is out. This causes all of the above symptoms.

Now onto what I did to get this to work. It's mainly the directions from the AudiWorld link above, with extra notes on my process:

From VAG-Com, select 03 (ABS Brakes)
Select Login
Enter login code 09495 (6spd) 09497 (tip)
Click "Do It!"
Select Recode
Enter Soft Code 04395 (6spd) 04397 (tip)
AND Workshop Code - 06435
Click "Do It!"
Clear all DTC codes.

I still had issues with the ABS module holding the softcode. It kept clearing to all zeros. I tried above multiple times and it didn't seem to work. I did above again, followed by the procedure below:

Here is the procedure for zeroing the steering wheel.

From VAG-Com, select 03 (ABS Brakes)
Select Login
Enter login code 40168
Click "Do It!"
Select Basic settings
Select Group 001
There should be an "OK" in a block for Calibrating Steer Sensor
Switch ignition off
Switch ignition on
After starting the car back up, I no longer had the flashing BRAKE light, and no more beeping. I still had the ABS and ESP lights on the cluster however.

From here I drove my car 0.3 miles, and THEN the ABS and ESP lights turned off. I even tested out both (snow slick road), I now have working ABS and ESP. Also, my ESP button on my dash works again for turning ESP on/off.

I then parked my car and opened up the ABS module in VAG Com. The softcoding value stuck (no longer all zeros). Also, I no longer see any DTC alerts in Vag Com.

Interesting note: When I launched Vag Com and drilled into the ABS module, my dash beeped and all my alerts turned on again on my dash cluster. I thought this was odd......I checked for DTCs and nothing.

I then turned the car off and back on....and everything cleared. No more beeping, no more alerts on dash cluster, etc.....


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I apologize for the duplicate post, since most of this is the same as the link I provided, but I wanted to notate my personal experience with this, since it deviated from that link.

Now I just have an Airbag alert, which I suspect is the clock spring. Stay tuned for more on that!