too many communication errors to continue

[sherry]

Hi.

I have ran a check on my a4 and with the airbags and abs i get too many communication errors to continue.

any ideas please?

 

[Issac Hunt]

What Cable? What version of VAG-COM your using? What year is your A4?

 

[sherry]

thank you for the reply

im afraid it is a cheepo from abay. i cant afford the proper one.

it is a 1996 a4 avant 1.8t sport and i have tried versions 311.2 and 409.1

 

[NHN]

sherry if you take it into audi you would pay them or another garage £50+ an hour, £100 if one of the stealers, so for the cost of the full genuine thing its kinda worth it if you add it up.

Post your complete log of faults so maybe others can assist aswell.

 

[maxlbrown]

Nigel

I use a cheaper cable with vagcom 409 and it is absolutely fine for what i want. the only module i get problems with is my radio and thats due to my car kit being plugged into it.

I dont want to change my mileage or do more than i have therefore i find a cheapo and freesoftware absolutely fine.

M

 

[ALPINE]

 

[olds_kool]

are some cheap cables better than others?
i had cheap one to start and got the same 'to many communication errors' bought used genuine one in the end

 

[Audiman99]

mine used to be fine, but now i get that error all the time. Might have to invest in a better cable

 

[jesters3]

Got a Gendan Cable with a Full Version of 409 and get this error occasionally. From what I can ascertain this normally happens if I have plugged it all in and started running the scan but forget to turn the ignition on so flip the ignition and then the system has a paddy.

So I tend to start again, ignition on and then do a fresh scan it comes up fine.

May or may not be the reason/fix but it works for me!

 

[Broken Byzan]

the USB cheapies tend to do this, if you happen to have a serial port, buy one of those cables instead,i never get errors since i swapped to a serial one.

The USB one wouldnt communicate with my aircon for the same reason above, i bought the serial one from Alpha-bid and it works a charm

 

[Sebastian]

Certain control modules are a little fuzzy when it comes to communicating, depending on your PC/laptop this can become even worse and if you add a cheaply made 3rd party interface you often end up results like this. So the reality is that a different PC/laptop, car or control module may work fine but some combinations just don't play well together. Don't take this as an offense but this is the typical example of "you get what you paid for" because if we accept the possibility that the problem could be on the car side (i.e. a control module which blocks communication to all others) you have a hard time figuring that one out because the 3rd party hardware has no way to determine if the wiring used diagnostic is OK.

So here are my suggestion. Get somebody with a real diagnostic tool to scan the car. This can either be a current version of VCDS (which of course comes with higher quality hardware) or with other diagnostic tools like the official dealers VAG-155x or VAS-505x.