odhinn

To set the stage, I hate my Audi. As soon as I can find another car I can fit into (tall order, ba dum bum) that is more reliable, I'm ditching it like 2nd period French. If I could afford it, I'd take a chainsaw to it. I could go on and on about my bad experiences the past few years, but why dwell on the past. This is an '02 A6 2.7t manual.

The latest way it's decided to break is a failed ABS controller. It's been flaky for a while now - traction control and/or ABS light coming on - and lately the emergency brake indicator has started flashing while it beeps incredibly loudly. Talk to the shop, do some research online, discover how unreliable the Audi ABS computer is. The shop takes my module, sends it in for refurbishment because apparently it's impossible to find a new module for my car, and today I'm told my car had a BMW ABS controller in it, so it's going to take several more days to refurbish. WTF? Has anyone else heard of this? I find it highly unlikely that the systems are compatible, or that Audi would put a BMW part in their car even if it were. I'm more likely to believe my shop or their vendor is lying.

Throwing this out to the Internet for thoughts, suggestions, and posterity.

audikillsbmw

I think the ABS modules are made by Bosch, so it's possible they could be used in Bimmers. But as for a module that literally says "BMW" on it, I think that's highly unlikely.

SteveKen

I've got one from a 2000 2.7T manual that is in good working order if you're interested. PM me.

CincyQuattro

I would imagine that the actual interface with the car's system may be Audi-specific but the "guts" of the ABS unit itself may indeed be common. If the shop isn't using expensive software, perhaps it only has certain parts listed (i.e., the system found the part, but only "thinks" it belongs to BMW). But who knows. FWIW our indy informed us once that my Moms C4 A6 has an A4 cooling fan setup, although obviously model commonality is much different from brand commonality.