On a recent trip up to Scotland the ABS started playing up on the car (2005 Mk1 vRS). It would kick in when coming to a stop but was OK when braking at higher speed. ABS light would illuminate and then turn off on a restart and the issue would happen again until eventually the ABS/TCS light came on permanently (which I assume means the ABS is now inactive). I've run a fault check with Torque but it doesn't show any codes - will vagcom? (I've read that the abs unit stores it's fault codes separately - is that right?)

ABS light illumination seemed to be related to steering angle before it went on permanently... On fairly straight roads it wouldn't turn on but when maneuvering in a car park it would illuminate.

Any thoughts?

All the controller units store their fault codes locally, and the ABS unit is scanned by vagcom

 

The steering angle sensor (a small box attached to the steering column) do fail, replaced mine for about £70 from fleabay

 

The sensor then needs to be calibrated via vagcom

 

-start with a vagcom scan though

Do cars with only ASR and not ESP have a steering angle sensor?

Yes

 

My VRS had the exact same unit as my 4x4

Edited 12 April, 201511 yr by snow_muncher

I assumed it was only used for esp. You learn something everyday

with a VAG COM connected on ABS - Mesuring blocks drive the car slowly at 20-30 km/h and watch the speed of all 4 sensors,if one shows a different value you found the problem....if they all 4 show exactly the same speed you move on

I have this also with abs kicking in..no lights on dash apart from pad wear light.

Check all 4 rings , one might be snapped , giving a false reading....

As above one of the rings has a crack in or one little bar bent

Ok, so to resurrect this post... A local member very kindly scanned the car today and it's showing a fault with the front left wheel. I changed the discs and pads on the front last week and the ABS ring looks fine but the ABS wiring loom down to the sensor looks like it's a bit knackered as I appear to have wrapped some insulating tape round it at some point. The fault manifested in the first place after a very very wet trip up to Scotland so I think it's probably a wiring fault rather than the sensor so that's what I want to try first. It makes sense to replace as much of the cable as I can to get rid of any corroded section near the broken insulation so does anyone know where you can get a replacement ABS plug with or without wire so I can cut the old one off and wire up and solder/crimp the new plug and wire in?

This is exactly the same issue I had. Front left wiring had chafed.

It was repaired in place without any replacement by a local auto electricians.

Interesting as my pad wear sensor isn't connected and the light is on. I have the abs kicking in when stopping. Going to do a full check soon