Hi all. Can i ask for advice with this one please, i know it can cause problems and i have read lots of posts here. And I have have read and followed the instructions on the wiki. This car has ate mk60 abs esp so the steering angle sensor is under the steering wheel. and requires basic setting in the abs.
I have tried dozens of times now to reset this. with short drives, long drives, longer periods of key off and on cycles.etc. I have carried out this procedure on many vag vehicles with vcds over the years and while some have taken a few attempts. and some I have had to find faults before it would work. This one is getting the better of me at the moment.
The vehicle came to me a few weeeks ago. The customer had had a flat battery and got another garage to get it started. They then found the steering required resetting. Which they attemted to do with a snap on scan tool. When that failed to work they jumped to the conclusion that it must have a faulty steering angle sensor. Probably due to the fault code and live data showing zero degrees at all times. They also thought the sensor was in the steering rack.
Then they found a new rack was very expensive. but found they could get a reconditioned rack through a local motor factor. The customer agreed and the recon rack was fitted but they still could not set the steering angle sensor. At this point the gave up and told the customer they could do no more.
Thats when i got involved the story i got was "I have had a new steering rack fitted can you calabrate the angle sensor". So when it arrived I found some fault codes, there was a code for one of the speed sensors incoherent, a code for the yaw rate sensor and a code for a communication fault between the abs and the steering assist modules. graphing the speed sensors proved there was a fault with the left hand rear and i knew that would stop it calabraiting. So I checked this first it had a bad reluctor and the rusty magnets had been hitting the sensor. so new hub and sensor now all sensor outputs look good.
The customer tells me she had seen the traction control light coming on sometimes before this all started It still would not calabrate and the yaw sensor code had not returned after a long test drive so I then looked at the communication fault code. it turned out the 44 steering assist, ie the recon rack wich i allready thought had not been required was set up for a mk70 abs and when i changed it to mk60 the fault changed from communicatio error to no communication.
By luck the other garage still had the old rack so i got a hold of it and plugged it in and the comms code cleared. I suspect that the replacement rack was the wrong part number or incompatable some how.
So i recommended they get the previous garage to refit the old rack. That was three weeks ago. I had told them to come straight back if they still had problems setting it. I thought it must have been ok. but now its back.. still not working!
There are now no other codes but the two for steering limit stops not set and steering angle sensor fault 02546 and 00778. The wheel speeds look consistant, esp sensors look ok in live data If in abs i enter access code and go to basic settings choose steering angle and hit go the it says ok. if i set the wheel to any other position other than straight ahead it says not ok. so i think thats ok its not completing the next end stop reset bit.
However i noticed if its 360 deg out ether way it will still say ok when you try resetting. So i thought maybe they had let the column spin when the rack was off. so i removed the steering wheel to check the clock spring. I found the sensor is the led and mask type which has the mask as part of the clock spring and the sensor is wired separately.
How does it know when the wheel has past the first 360 deg, is it calculated?
Any way i tried moving the clock spring one turn to the the left. and then one turn to the right. still did not work. The clock spring is not like most where it winds up one way and unwinds the other way. so I could not prove it was central.
Also i remember there was a fault code for the yaw sensor when i first looked at the car.weeks ago.
and i wonder if it has an intermittnt fault with that causing the reset problem. In live data the rotation rate is always about 1.1deg/sec
What am i missing?
Sorry about the long post. and any bad spelling.
Hope some one can help
Thanks for reading
Alan from Pinpoint Automotive
I have tried dozens of times now to reset this. with short drives, long drives, longer periods of key off and on cycles.etc. I have carried out this procedure on many vag vehicles with vcds over the years and while some have taken a few attempts. and some I have had to find faults before it would work. This one is getting the better of me at the moment.
The vehicle came to me a few weeeks ago. The customer had had a flat battery and got another garage to get it started. They then found the steering required resetting. Which they attemted to do with a snap on scan tool. When that failed to work they jumped to the conclusion that it must have a faulty steering angle sensor. Probably due to the fault code and live data showing zero degrees at all times. They also thought the sensor was in the steering rack.
Then they found a new rack was very expensive. but found they could get a reconditioned rack through a local motor factor. The customer agreed and the recon rack was fitted but they still could not set the steering angle sensor. At this point the gave up and told the customer they could do no more.
Thats when i got involved the story i got was "I have had a new steering rack fitted can you calabrate the angle sensor". So when it arrived I found some fault codes, there was a code for one of the speed sensors incoherent, a code for the yaw rate sensor and a code for a communication fault between the abs and the steering assist modules. graphing the speed sensors proved there was a fault with the left hand rear and i knew that would stop it calabraiting. So I checked this first it had a bad reluctor and the rusty magnets had been hitting the sensor. so new hub and sensor now all sensor outputs look good.
The customer tells me she had seen the traction control light coming on sometimes before this all started It still would not calabrate and the yaw sensor code had not returned after a long test drive so I then looked at the communication fault code. it turned out the 44 steering assist, ie the recon rack wich i allready thought had not been required was set up for a mk70 abs and when i changed it to mk60 the fault changed from communicatio error to no communication.
By luck the other garage still had the old rack so i got a hold of it and plugged it in and the comms code cleared. I suspect that the replacement rack was the wrong part number or incompatable some how.
So i recommended they get the previous garage to refit the old rack. That was three weeks ago. I had told them to come straight back if they still had problems setting it. I thought it must have been ok. but now its back.. still not working!
There are now no other codes but the two for steering limit stops not set and steering angle sensor fault 02546 and 00778. The wheel speeds look consistant, esp sensors look ok in live data If in abs i enter access code and go to basic settings choose steering angle and hit go the it says ok. if i set the wheel to any other position other than straight ahead it says not ok. so i think thats ok its not completing the next end stop reset bit.
However i noticed if its 360 deg out ether way it will still say ok when you try resetting. So i thought maybe they had let the column spin when the rack was off. so i removed the steering wheel to check the clock spring. I found the sensor is the led and mask type which has the mask as part of the clock spring and the sensor is wired separately.
How does it know when the wheel has past the first 360 deg, is it calculated?
Any way i tried moving the clock spring one turn to the the left. and then one turn to the right. still did not work. The clock spring is not like most where it winds up one way and unwinds the other way. so I could not prove it was central.
Also i remember there was a fault code for the yaw sensor when i first looked at the car.weeks ago.
and i wonder if it has an intermittnt fault with that causing the reset problem. In live data the rotation rate is always about 1.1deg/sec
What am i missing?
Sorry about the long post. and any bad spelling.
Hope some one can help
Thanks for reading
Alan from Pinpoint Automotive
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