Hello! New Audi owner here. Having 2 issues, I'm not sure if they're connected. My left rear LED tail light is out, and my ESP keeps turning off without pressing the button. I should mention that both of these problems started after I washed the car last week. I've had the tail light apart and cleaned the contacts etc but no luck. Hesitant to buy a new tail light until I know for certain it's not an electrical problem elsewhere. Anyone experience anything like this. Cheers
Please Help. A3 ESP Turns itself off + LED Tail Light out
- Thread starter paulmolive
- Start date
Hey buddy you post just popped up what year is your A3? I had a few issues at Audi like this. In those cases it was the harness by the abs unit buuuuut don’t go ripping parts out yet. Send over some info and I’ll do some digging on Elsa.
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Hey! Thanks for the reply! It's a 2012 TDI. Had it for 3 months now. Was running fine. Not sure if water seeped in somewhere when I washed it. Let me know what you think.
Cheers
Cheers
No worries I’ll check Elsa in the morning now but it sounds like you’ve got a couple of wires broken namely the feed for the rear light and the esp off button as if the abs unit can’t see the button it’ll disable the system and the light will come on. You could have some more but you’d need to get in there and look really.
Though in the mean time someone else could have had this issue and post a fix. I’m just going off my gut
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Awesome. Thank you for your help! I'm really hoping these 2 issues are related. Would hate to purchase a new LED tail light and find out it wasn't the problem. Is it possible to hook up the left light to the right side to test it?
Sorry for the questions in advance
Possibly providing the connectors are the same though is it a 3 or 5 door? If it’s a 5 door is the body one or the one in the tailgate? If it’s a 3 door where did you get them from? I’m interested in some for mine haha.
I’m guessing here that you’ve had bulb monitoring turned off right?
And does the esp off light ever turn off? And finally have you had the faults read out?
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Sorry for the questions in advance
Possibly providing the connectors are the same though is it a 3 or 5 door? If it’s a 5 door is the body one or the one in the tailgate? If it’s a 3 door where did you get them from? I’m interested in some for mine haha.
I’m guessing here that you’ve had bulb monitoring turned off right?
And does the esp off light ever turn off? And finally have you had the faults read out?
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I’m guessing here from the Km dash that you’re not local to me in the UK is it right or left hand drive buddy? Just thinking of it is a harness issue you might be able to grab it and give the tried and tested “little wriggle” test
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Hey, Yeah I'm in Canada. Toronto area. So I'm on the other side I guess.
Not sure what "bulb monitoring" is, sorry. And yes the ESP light is intermittent. Sometimes I don't see it for days. The LED tail light however is always out.
Whereabouts is this harness?
Thanks again
Not sure what "bulb monitoring" is, sorry. And yes the ESP light is intermittent. Sometimes I don't see it for days. The LED tail light however is always out.
Whereabouts is this harness?
Thanks again
Ahh cool always happy to help internationally (I’ll translate as I go) if you open the hood and look at the vehicle the abs unit is on the right hand side behind/under the battery. The harness runs in between the abs unit and the body. But inside the car in the drivers (left hand drive) foot well the trim covers the inside part of it.
If it’s got any issues it’ll be on the bend by the abs unit. It depends on how you wanna go about it but if you remove the trim behind the hood release you’ll see a bunch of wires in black tape. You if you can get your hand around it and give it a good pull and a push upwards. You might be lucky and the light will start working.
However....
If it were me I’d wanna check it fully and remove the battery and battery tray, disconnect the abs connector (the top part slides up as it comes out) and if you see any green on the black tape that’ll be the corroded copper that’s bust.
It could equally not be that but without reading the codes out taking and trim off inside and wriggling a harness might give you and indication of where to go next with it.
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No need to be sorry buddy like I said I’d take the trim off and give it a wriggle and see what happens just have to get hold of it as far up as you can and shake, pull and wriggle. It costs nothing and could give you a way forward.
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Awesome. Thanks!! I'll give it a go in the morning. I'll try to find some more info too before I test it out. If you happen to have or know where I could find some photos of the abs connector & harness please let me know.
Is this an area that could have been water damaged over time? Like I said, it's strange that this problem started 30mins after I washed it.
Cheers
Is this an area that could have been water damaged over time? Like I said, it's strange that this problem started 30mins after I washed it.
Cheers
Yeah definitely I’ll take some pics of mine in the morning too it’s 2am here but I can always pm ya when I get up. It could definitely happen over time but also it could just as easily not be that harness at all. It’s just the first common link off the top of my head. I’ll also check the workshop manual (Elsa) in the morning in case there’s any known issues
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Check the rear light lense for any corrosion on the contacts & the connector from the loom, also water ingress as that's a common cause.
Given the inner bootlid led ring works, albeit yes dimmed, this signafies the wiring to the outer is working to a degree as the outer feeds the inner, so by this data, I'd consider an actual light issue before wiring.
Any condensation or water in the light itself?
Thanks. No condensation or water in the lights. Didn't find any corrosion on the contacts. I cleaned all the contacts with de-oxit. No luck
