Abs Light On With Red Stop Signal On Dis

[Chriscooke]

Had an issue with the car earlier where the ABS light came on along with the red stop sign on the dis.

I know the large red stop sign is normally bad ie. oil can of doom! Is this triggered when the abs fails or only if the car is actually dangerous to drive?

 

[aragorn]

It comes on when theres an ABS fault, sometimes.

Might be failing ABS pump, you'll need to try to scan it for fault codes.

 

[Gazwould]

Scrap it !

 

[Chriscooke]

Ha ha cheers gaz

If the abs fails I take it the brakes still work as normal bar the abs ofcourse?

 

[ScottD3]

The brakes will still work but you wont have any ABS.

@crazy88 just sent his ABS pump off for repair. I think it was a good price and quick turn around.

 

[crazy88]

I did indeed.

Do you have VCDS? Over the last 6 months I lost all ability to talk to the ABS via VCDS. The little thin wires inside the unit break and comms is lost, hence the warning. As Scott said, you'll still have brakes, just no ABS.

It's relatively easy to remove the electronic side of the controller, leaving the hydraulic side of the brakes intact, and therefore you can still drive the car.

I sent me unit off last Monday and it was back in my hands by Thursday repaired. The unit cost me £100 to repair, and so far works perfectly. I chose to use ACtronics (through an eBay listing) mainly because this video sold me on their techniques.I was going to fix it, but i don't think i've read of anyone who has successfully done it, and for £100 this company supposedly replace all wires, rather than just fix the one broken wire.



I followed this guide to remove the abs unit.

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/elec116.shtml

 

[Bradderz_1988]

Wish you could still drive the car on a DIS repair

 

[Chriscooke]

I need a Dis repair as well May take it off the road and drive something else for a couple weeks

Cheers for the links, scanned it earlier and it's an intermittent signal to the dash and the snap on reader suggested the same part as above was to blame. I've seen some complete units for sale on ebay for about £30 so tempted to swap the lot over unless there's a good argument not to?

 

[crazy88]

Guess a replacement of the same age might be susceptible to the same issues? Other than that, no reason not to try it?! I just opted to get it repaired and crossing my fingers it's all good now.

 

[Chriscooke]

This is true. I'll have a think about it What's involved in separating the box from the abs module? Is it tricky?

 

[crazy88]

In terms of removing the unit itself, no, it's 6 torx bolts. However, getting there is a little more of a pain...but not difficult.

From memory:
Remove passenger front wheel
Remove inner arch liner
Detach thick washer hose and drain into a bottle
Undo 3 bolts for washer fluid tank
Undo 2 connectors on washer fluid tank and bottom small hose
Wiggle tank out of way to access ABS unit
Undo 6 bolts for ABS unit (there's also two electrical connectors on the abs controller)

Note, if you're going to do it, it might be an idea to keep washer bottle emptyish. I refilled mine, and then had to drain it all again a few days later which was a bit of a pain.