Hello, all. I have a '98 A4 B5. My son left one of the interior lights on and killed the battery. I had to replace the battery because it was old anyway. When I started the car after replacing the battery, the CEL came on and the car will barely run.

There is a previous post about this exact same scenario, right down to the family member who left the light on, so I know I need to reset the codes, do a manual throttle body adaptation, but I still have a problem. I ordered a USB Vag interface from ebay and downloaded the software. It works perfectly on my wife's '00 VW Beetle, so I know it works. However, I cannot get any control modules to respond in the Audi. I have disconnected the battery, left it from several minutes to several days, reconnected, and still get "no response from controller". I've done this easily a dozen times.

Any suggestions or insight would help. Please don't tell me the ECU is bad...although I'm not sure why it would go bad just because of a dead battery.

Thanks.

 

Anyone?

 

What are the codes?

 

I can't get the vag to communicate with the ECU, so I can't pull the codes. I just get the popup on the vag software that says "controller not responding".

 

Have you set the software for the audi?

If so, then that often occurs with cheap ebay readers.

 

I have set the software for the car. I'm beginning to think that I blew the ECU, though. Four reasons: First, during the whole dead battery debacle, I attempted to jump start the car which could have given the ECU a power surge. It never ran right after that. Second, the VAG works perfectly on the VW. Third (new information) I also have a generic OBDII reader which has always pulled and cleared codes on the VW, but on the Audi it only reads "E" for error. Fourth, I have pulled the ECU overnight just to make sure that there is no residual charge, reinstalled and still get the same result.

I've never plugged the OBDII reader into the Audi before, so I don't know if it worked on this car before these problems started.

Any other thoughts?

I really do appreciate any advice, opinions or help I can get!

 

See if you can borrow a real vagcom using the vagcom locator link and see if that works.