I recently had a bunch of work done on my 2000 A4 2.8, and picked it up from the shop after hours to find my radio won't turn on and the brakes make a strange noise right before stopping. I had to get the battery replaced, so I know that would trigger the anti-theft in the radio, but it won't even turn on for me to reset it. Also, the brakes work fine until sometimes in the split second before I stop the pedal vibrates and there's a sound like someone "twanging" a rubber band. The guy at the shop is worthless and has no idea what's going on. I'm planning on dealing with him, but that doesn't help my car any. Can anyone tell me what's going on/what I can do about it? Thanks.

 

For the radio, you should just have to power it on, press the RBDS and PSCAN button at the same time to enter the code. The sound/senstaion you get right before you come to a stop is your ABS kicking in. Thats normally caused by a bad/dirty/misaligned/missing sensor. Did you have your rear rotors replaced? If so, there should be a slotted disc that is pressed into the rotors (need to take them out and transfer to new rotors if replacing rotors). If that is not there (mechanic forgot/was too dumb to transfer), I can imagine it would mess with your ABS. There are abs sensors in the front hubs too, if for some reason he messed with them, then he has absolutely no idea what he's doing. They dont need to be touched when replacing front pads/rotors. Only the rear rotor abs sensors need to be transfered when replacing rotors, not pads. Get it?

 

the abs sensor for my car in the rear was on the hub just like the front ones. i didn't have to touch them when i changed my rear rotors

 

He did some stuff on my front end, I'll get under there today and take a look at the sensors, thanks. The problem with the radio is that it won't power on for me to put in the code, the guy checked the fuses and said they were fine (but clearly doesn't know what he's doing). I'm set on the procedure to reset it, but it won't power on.

 

He actually knew where the fuse pannel was?

 

there's prolly a short behind the headunit. u'l have to remove it and look around the back. i would try to find a new mechanic or u can try doing sum stuff on ur own cuz u rly need sum1 who kno how to work on germans. don't wry, it doesn't sound like u have any huge problems so just in case ur freaking out or something lol.

 

Not to self lol find a new mechanic...
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