I have just replaced the fresh air blower as the old one was seized and after putting it all back together it is working OK but now I get an air bag error warning on the dash, any ideas? I did turn off the passenger air bag with the key, prior to disconnecting the switch so I could remove the glove box. Now I'm getting the error warning light on the dash?

It's because you removed the switch.

 

Just need to clear the error code with VCDS or similar and you should be fine.

Thanks, I don't have VCD, what is it and how can get one. I've got OBD11 but that does not report any errors at all.

VCDS is a VAG specific scan tool - it's capable of reading codes from all ECUs on the vehicle where OBD tools can only read engine & transmission codes.

Where can I get this scan tool?

 

Ross-tech, Gendan Automotive are the UK agent. 

 

https://m.gendan.co.uk/category_172.html

 

 

Or for a lot less money get Carista for £15.99 with a months free subscription...

 

 

https://caristaapp.com/adapter

Would a UK independant garage charge much to clear an airbag error?  I know of a local garage here that charged a tenner (€).

Ok then, thanks for the replies so far, my question now is this.

 

Seeing as I aim to keep this car as long as I can, I love it have been the only driver of since it was new 6 years ago, first 3 years it was my company car and I purchased it when I retired and given that the dealer was asking £491 to supply and fit the blower And I saved £343 by buying the blower and fitting myself, I could invest some of that savings on either the Carista or the VCDS lite as there are bound to other incidences where I'm going to be ending up doing some of the simpler things myself. The blower I brought from http://www.buycarparts.co.uk  is the precise identical unit as fitted in the factory, which no doubt the garage would have gotten a far bigger discount then I got, and they wanted £100 to fit it, begs the question just how can they justify those charges?

 

So back to the question, just what is the differences between VCDS Lite and the full program and just what can these do. With the Carista just how does this connect to the car and can it be installed on more then 1 device which I know is a restriction with VCDS?

Carista and VCDS connect to the car in the same way, via the OBD connector above the drivers feet (purple coloured connector).

 

Carista is wireless though, so relies on a Bluetooth connection between an App on your smartphone and the adaptor plugged into your OBD.

 

All the changes are then made via the phone App. Carista is very much more user friendly in that the descriptions of what you're changing is much clearer and easier to understand.

 

VCDS is hardwired from the OBD to your laptop, this is where the cost is, in the wired connector. VCDS is capable of much more than Carista as you can dive into the individual coding, bits and bytes etc. but unless you know what you're doing can also make some pretty disruptive changes if you don't know what you're doing and get it wrong.

 

For the sake of clearing an airbag warning light I'd pay the £16 for Carista.

2 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

 

VCDS is hardwired from the OBD to your laptop, this is where the cost is, in the wired connector. 

 

VCDS HEX NET is WIFI to a OBD dongle. 

On 22/06/2019 at 09:57, Graham Butcher said:

Ok then, thanks for the replies so far, my question now is this.

 

Seeing as I aim to keep this car as long as I can, I love it have been the only driver of since it was new 6 years ago, first 3 years it was my company car and I purchased it when I retired and given that the dealer was asking £491 to supply and fit the blower And I saved £343 by buying the blower and fitting myself, I could invest some of that savings on either the Carista or the VCDS lite as there are bound to other incidences where I'm going to be ending up doing some of the simpler things myself. The blower I brought from http://www.buycarparts.co.uk  is the precise identical unit as fitted in the factory, which no doubt the garage would have gotten a far bigger discount then I got, and they wanted £100 to fit it, begs the question just how can they justify those charges?

 

So back to the question, just what is the differences between VCDS Lite and the full program and just what can these do. With the Carista just how does this connect to the car and can it be installed on more then 1 device which I know is a restriction with VCDS?

This is Ross-Tech's (the manufacturer of VCDS) comparison chart for their different products: http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/Functions
 

If you have any questions after reading it, feel free to ask.

 

EDIT: Having a quick read of it myself, it looks like VCDS-Lite only reliably supports fault codes up to the 2006 model year which would rule out many of the Superb's modules if not all.

Edited 23 June, 20197 yr by chimaera

22 minutes ago, Tech1e said:

 

VCDS HEX NET is WIFI to a OBD dongle. 

 

The OP was asking about VCDS-Lite which requires a cable.

Can VCDS Lite do airbags? I know rosstech are particularly careful when it comes to that system. 

I'm not too sure.

 

It looks as though it should, "05 Clear Fault Codes - Yes"...

 

 

Carista definately can though, hence my recommendation.

 

Edited 23 June, 20197 yr by silver1011

57 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

Carista and VCDS connect to the car in the same way, via the OBD connector above the drivers feet (purple coloured connector).

 

Carista is wireless though, so relies on a Bluetooth connection between an App on your smartphone and the adaptor plugged into your OBD.

 

All the changes are then made via the phone App. Carista is very much more user friendly in that the descriptions of what you're changing is much clearer and easier to understand.

 

VCDS is hardwired from the OBD to your laptop, this is where the cost is, in the wired connector. VCDS is capable of much more than Carista as you can dive into the individual coding, bits and bytes etc. but unless you know what you're doing can also make some pretty disruptive changes if you don't know what you're doing and get it wrong.

 

For the sake of clearing an airbag warning light I'd pay the £16 for Carista.

Thanks for the reply, I have looked through the info on their site and it does not mention for certain if Carista can access and reset airbag messages so I have emailed their support team direct. I did find a YouTube video about the top ten units for 2019 and one of them, the one that they recommended as being the best buy was called Bluedriver so mailed them and asked the question about accessing the airbag and ABS units directly on a European car and they replied no, they cannot access European system on their devices. I'm currently waiting for Carista to check and come back to me on it.

29 minutes ago, Tech1e said:

Can VCDS Lite do airbags? I know rosstech are particularly careful when it comes to that system. 

I've mailed them the question as to whether their system can access European cars data systems or not, I have already one company who claimed could access the airbag and ABS units and reset messages confirm that this is only possible on vehicles in North America, not European cars. I'm now waiting for more definitive answer from Rosstech.

36 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

I'm not too sure.

 

It looks as though it should, "05 Clear Fault Codes - Yes"...

 

 

Carista definately can though, hence my recommendation.

 

Further down on that list they note that the code database for VCDS Lite is only guaranteed up to MY 2006 so it's probably not going to work on a Superb 2 unless it's a very early model with modules carried over from earlier PQ35/PQ46 cars.

VCDS lite doesn't support 'diagnostics via CAN' so I'm pretty sure it'll be useless on the OP's car.

 

Rather than spending the money on a hex-v2, you might also find a local member who's happy to clear the airbag light for you. Couple of useful threads:

- https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/262215-list-of-vcds-owners-previously-known-as-vag-com-vcp-owners/

- https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/224376-vcds-owners-map/

 

I would go for VCP - more advanced. 

Trouble with VCP and even VCD Lite really is that it is a tool that I'm hardly ever going to be using and is therefore overkill at those prices. However if I was using them professionally then I'd agree and go with the VCP. I have identified a unit that is costing just £12.20 from Amazon USA and I awaiting its arrival, it claims to be able to reset the airbag, ABS and Auto Transmission codes on VAG cars, so lets wait and see how it performs when It gets here, from China 🙄 If it does what it claims, I'll post details of it here.

Edited 5 July, 20196 yr by Graham Butcher

The cheap tool I was refering to has come and details as the effectiveness of it can be found here in this thread.

 

Update on this topic, over the weekend was the first time I was able to test out the solar sunroof on the new blower and discovered that it does not work. I tested the output from solar panel with my DMM and it is giving out 12v+ so the new blower would appear be defective, I don't believe there is anything in between the panel and the motor to disrupt the supply (unable to find a circuit diagram for the car, even in the workshop manual WTF! so I can't be sure. I have contacted the seller of the motor who assured me that the blower was indeed the correct one for my car after checking my VIN against their system. Now I'm waiting to see what action they are going to take over this.

 

The code reader I got from Amazon USA failed to allow me access to 2 out of the 4 menu options so I have been given a full refund on that and then purchased the Carista unit and it found 27 errors and cleared them all, all of them were not critical so there was no dash warning given but most related to the doors on the car which is understandable as a couple of years ago I had a lorry scrap along the N/S of the car and it went in for body repairs.

22 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Update on this topic, over the weekend was the first time I was able to test out the solar sunroof on the new blower and discovered that it does not work. I tested the output from solar panel with my DMM and it is giving out 12v+ so the new blower would appear be defective, I don't believe there is anything in between the panel and the motor to disrupt the supply (unable to find a circuit diagram for the car, even in the workshop manual WTF! so I can't be sure. I have contacted the seller of the motor who assured me that the blower was indeed the correct one for my car after checking my VIN against their system. Now I'm waiting to see what action they are going to take over this.

 

The code reader I got from Amazon USA failed to allow me access to 2 out of the 4 menu options so I have been given a full refund on that and then purchased the Carista unit and it found 27 errors and cleared them all, all of them were not critical so there was no dash warning given but most related to the doors on the car which is understandable as a couple of years ago I had a lorry scrap along the N/S of the car and it went in for body repairs.

The wiring schematics are in a separate document on erWin: look for something along the lines of 'basic equipment' iirc.

I’d be very surprised if the panel fed directly to the blower motor.