If my wheel angle sensor has a prob or needs to be reset, could this cause my ESP to act up under hard acceleration? I had an alignment problem one time but the ESP and ABS lights stayed on..THis is an intermittent problem where the ESP acts up, usually under hard accelerating, which keeps me from accelerating further...Can the wheel angle sensor be reset by disconnecting the battery in any way?...Im reaLLY TRYING TO AVOID GOING TO THE DEALER and my local mechanic isnt much help with diagnosing these types of problems...

 

I would bet its more likely a wheel sensor needs to be cleaned, since its only under hard acceleration, a sensor is probably having trouble and it thinks a wheel is slipping. I would say steering angle if it happened all the time or happened more so if you turned the wheel.

 

What does the wheel speed sensor look like, and where exactly is it located...someone said "its a little black cap"? the only thing I saw was like on top of the caliper and it looked like a black valve stem cover with "rings" in the surface...ANy pics?I got a scan at Auto Zone today...It did say something about the MAF, but the dude was in too much of a hurry to let me write down exactly what it said..I even bought MAF cleaner, used it, and no change...This is really driving me nuts...

 

Shouldnt be the MAF thats causing the problem. They are black circles with wires running to them at each wheel carrier, right about where the CV joint meets the wheel carrier. You might have another set of wires for the brake pad wear sensor im not sure, but the ABS sensors are black circles. On an A4 they are held with a bolt in the rears, and just pressed in (difficult to pull out however) on the fronts not sure about the A6. If you pull the cv joint out from the wheel carrier, there is a metal ring with cuts in it. The sensor watches the cuts in the ring to determine wheel speed. Under really hard acceleration if you start to have wheel slippage (difficult to do with AWD, likely for FWD if your in a turn) then ESP should be coming on (meaning its doing its job, it cuts throttle and applies rear brakes to steer the car) and you can disengage it with the button.

EDIT: http://www.sjmautotechnik.com/troubl...ensor_Late.jpg

 

OK...I think I need to get my car on a lift..I turned the driver side wheel all the way to the right..Besides the brake pad sensor, there are 2 other wires...The one I cant find the end of but it has a ribbed plastic coating on it...I found a **** load of grease and dirt in that area...I didnt find any rubber circle though as you described...The diagram in the link from the last post doesnt look like mine...

 

OK....I found them...I didnt realize they were toward the front of the wheel.I couldnt eevn budge the one on the drivers side, but the one on the pass side seemed to be a little loose..Also, the one on the drivers side had a soft rubber gasket thing where it connects, the other one didnt..I think maybe the loose one is causing the problem...Man, I need to get some sleep..I love my Audi, but I lose a ton of sleep when something is wrong with it...Hopefully this is the cause of this problem...I pray that the sensor isnt damaged...
Thanks for the help....Ill see if theres any change in the morning...or when theres daylight..

 

haha i know the feeling. Yeah if there is one that is really loose, try pushing it in a little further (but after youve taken it out and cleaned it). Unfortunately you wont likely be able to remove many of them without damaging them. If that loose one doesnt take care of it, to get to the others youll have to pull the wheel side of the cv joint out and clean the tip of the sensor and the ring that way. They are often impossible to remove from the outside without damaging them. BTW if your car was extremely greasy by the suspension, youll want to take a look at your CV boots, one may be torn, when they tear they throw grease all over the place.

 

I took it for a ride this morning, and it was better but still happening..I adjusted it a couple of times after cleaning it off and now it seems fine...At about 5500 rpms, the light flashed for a second but it didnt seem to keep me from accelerating, but I was kind of going over a slight dip in the road...I failed inspection a few weeks ago because of a tie rod end, so thats probably not helping either...I also noticed that the sensor seemed a little beat up on the end, almost like someone forced it in with a hammer or something...I'll probably replace it soon just to be safe..I got a price at advance auto for 122$...Maybe I'll call around a few junkyards to see if I can find one in good shape...Again..Thanks for your help... By the way, what are your thoughts on how much of a job it is to replace the valve cover gaskets? I took a look and it doesnt seem like theres really all that much to it besides a lot of time and careful attention to the way things go back together..I've been seeing a few drops of oil on the driveway coming from the drivers side...
Oh , i almost forgot...Both of the boots are fine...The axles are both less than a year old..I think the grease was from me..My brakes were squeaking and I put some break drum grease on the rotors ...

 

Im not really sure on the cost for a 2.7 maybe someone will chime in. You probably wont find one from a junkyard that is in perfect shape, they all seem to get stuck. If it looks deformed someone might have tapped it out for some reason, but mine got deformed and it still works fine.

 

thats comforting to know...If I dont have to cough up $122, I'm OK with that..My girlfriend just threw a **** fit about the oil stains on the driveway..LOL
just wait until her Suzuki has another 75,000 miles on it...