sharkaTT

Codes from VAG-COM at KMD Tuning said there was an electrical malfunction in circuit in the front right speed sensor. The lights weren't on when I brought it in so I'm guessing the sensor might be dirty and may need some cleaning with Brakekleen. So I finally got a chance to jack up the car at my parents' house tonight to remove the front passenger wheel and get a look at what's going on. Sure enough, there's dirt and grit all over the sensor so I blast away with the Brakekleen but that only gets rid of the dirt. So I hook up my father's compressor and blast away the magnetized grit off the sensor. Just when I think everything is fine and dandy, I notice that the cable leading from the sensor into the underbody has a bunch of electrical tape on it...between the upper and lower mounting clips on the strut for the speed sensor cable. I think that's odd...so I pull off all the tape and see that the wire had been severed and someone made a vague attempt at taping it together with electrical tape. That was the real reason why I was getting the ABS/ESP light...not because of a faulty or dirty sensor. After coupling the wires together with one of those pinch connectors and wrapping it up tightly in some more electrical tape, I put the wheel back on and took it for a spin. Sure enough, the ESP light went off with the other warning lights after starting the engine and the ABS light went off after driving like 10 seconds. No more warning lights on my gauge cluster! It's such a relief not to have to worry about my braking system anymore.

The thing that bothers me most is that the guys at KMD had replaced my suspension 2 weeks ago. Didn't they notice something wrong with the wire?!?! I'm not saying they accidentally cut the wire and did a sloppy job at patching it up because 1) I can't prove that they did it and if they did, I would think they would do something better than just sloppily taping up exposed wires hoping they would stay together 2) the ABS/ESP light combo did come on once briefly and then went off a week before I brought it in to KMD so I'm not sure if it was taped up by the previous owner and was already coming loose. The work done at KMD could have just aggravated the problem and the wires got separated when they removed the sensor wire from the old strut. Who knows...I'm just glad I figured what was wrong on my own rather than bring it into a shop and pay someone to find out the wires just needed to be re-attached.

5speed6 v.2

...I would say that it was a previous repair done half-***, and it was it's time to come apart. Having the suspension done just pushed it over the edge to fall apart.

Good diagnostic work though...at least you solved it without any expense.