Hi everyone,

My A3 has been giving me some problems. I know questions like this have been posted multiple times before but nothing has worked yet so I thought I'd ask again.

The car was sitting for a while before I bought it so the battery voltage always felt sorta low (This was the original battery on an 2007 A3). Driving it for a few days and I noticed starting the car was becoming increasingly difficult - and one day it decided to not start. Now I jumped the car but did not provide a ground in the connection (i.e. I did - to -, and + to +)... I hear this can cause the ecu to act up and cause problems.

Now I replaced the battery, but the "ESP Fault!" and yellow/amber steering wheel lights are on the dash (electric steering issue). I'm thinking this is probably not an issue with a sensor because the car was running perfectly fine before the low battery issue, and replacement of the battery.

The steering is feeling a little more heavy than before AND is not centering well after turning. So I know the electro-steering is not actually working well. I have tried resetting by Turning the wheel left and right and driving straight ect. I have driven tens of kms with the lights on the dash with no issues however, except for the slow auto centering steering wheel.

Someone told me that these cars can sense generic batteries and can throw codes because of that? Any truth to this?

Had a garage scan with an OBD2 (not VAG COM), and no codes there.

I am trying to get someone to VAGCOM it and see what comes up - but in the mean time, anything else I can try?

 

Don't know about that. I replaced my OEM battery with one off the shelf at a local auto parts place. They looked it up in their system and had the listed replacement. It was NOT one of low cost batteries of course.

Any chance you can borrow a code reader or have it checked again at an auto parts(Pep Boys for example, others will also do it free where I live) store? Would think a fault code should by there if the fault indicator lights are lit.

The owners manual says the ESP light can come on after battery replacement, but should go out after driving a short distance. Could there be a problem with the steering/Electro-mechanical power assist that is preventing the ESP from functioning correctly?

 

Thanks for the reply.

See thats what I would think about the steering maybe having an issue - but why would the issue only present itself after the battery swap? Doesn't make much sense.

Yes I will try and get the code read again as you suggested and try and post back!

Any other things I can try in the mean time?

 

In regards to the battery detection:
I've seen this on the Q7 but the only function it provided was to determine how old the battery was since it would charge it differently as the years pass by. If you replace the old/dead battery with a brand new one it would charge it the same way and therefore overcharge it and kill it fast. However I'm not sure if newer or other models use the same "feature" for coding the battery to the car or if there is more behind it.

Without scanning it will be hard to troubleshoot. I guess you could check the fuses and make sure that the fuse for electrical steering didn't blow on you.