Hi
I just bought a 99 A6 with 98k, just last week my son found a 99 A6 w/215k!!!
instant Audi Family.
Here is the deal, My a6 has a BUNCH of things wrong: (1) ABS light is on and brake light is blinking. (2)cruise does not work 99% of the time. Radio has VERY poor reception. and air bag light in one (last owner said that pass. seat bag sensor is bad. and lastly, I cannot get my scanner to read, just comes up with "error"

lastly, any fix for the steering wheel heat not working.
Other than the above my son and I LOVE our Audi's

 

ABS: either a wheel sensor is really bad or the entire module needs to be fixed (modulemaster.com). $160 + s/h

Cruise control fix (by me): http://forums.audiworld.com/showpost.php?p=23825079 free if you have a soldering iron

Hopefully air bag light is actually for just a sensor. I just replaced the module in my wife's car (also a '99 A6) and it's a bit of a pain to get at and is expensive from the dealther (I got mine from a part out for $75, but i KNEW that it was working. Part # is 4B0 959 655 H)

Is the radio factory or aftermarket? It could be anything along the path of antenna wires, could be a broken rear defroster (i'm 95% sure that's the antenna), could just be the wire isn't plugged in all the way on the back of the radio. ???

What scanner are you using? I know I can read codes off of my '99 A6 with a generic Vag-Com and (I have not not used anything besides these two). Sometimes aftermarket radios will make it difficult to talk to the ECU (something to do with the k-wire?) but I think that might be for cars '00 and newer. $15

No fix for heated steering wheel besides getting a new one. I was driving when mine went out (sad day) and it got really hot and started smelling a bit and then stopped working from then on. If you got really desperate you could buy a used heated steering wheel off ebay and throw it in.

 

Factory radio. and my scan tool works on my son's 99, but not mine. ordered radio tools and service manual yesterday, so when I receive them I can start troubleshooting.
Is the antenna part of the glass? any way to test? Maybe just replace with external aftermarket. I had seen that the ABS and cruise could be related, and how do you tell a sensor is bad,or it is the module?


Thanks for your help!

 

How are they related? Your cruise control woes are most likely because of the cruise control module and don't have anything to do with the ABS.

 

speed sensor?

 

Ah, well I guess I'm just under the assumption that the [cruise control & abs] modules are going bad because of how common it is (for both, really), but you are right. It would be awesome if it was just one speed sensor.

 

Using my vagcom, and an actron 9525/45 they read nothing when the abs module was fried.

Had it rebuilt by a guy off ebay for $99. Plugged it back in and then vagcom read all my codes.

Abs sensor said it was bad, but looked at the sensor and it had metal shavings on the end.

Cleaned those off and it worked perfectly.

But definitely need to fix the abs module first.

 

Are there two in the front and rear, sensors, that is?

 

Looks like the ABS is fried, unpluged the connector and then I could get my scanner to read.( am getting a novva 3150 so I can read ABS codes)
The last few days have been VERY cold in MN, and the heater only puts out heat when the car is moving, at idle it only blows cold air. I removed the glove box last week, might have to remove again to see if I got something disconnected, and pull cruise control to see if the caps have bad connections.

Thanks for your help so far guys!!!

 

Just keep in mind that you probably won't see the micro cracks in the solder of the capacitor (unless you know what to look for and have a magnifying class/microscope). I really recommend that you just try to resolder them no matter what you see, it's worked for a TON of other people!