Hey everyone,

Has anyone ever seen this behavior?

After a few seconds of accelerating the car hard (not full throttle) from a stop the red dashboard brake light starts to flash and beep intermittently and randomly for about 5 or 6 seconds then stops.

This is strange behavior. Someone suggested it was traction control, but that doesnt make sense.

Anyone have any clue why this is happening?

 

I'm no expert, but traction control might not be a totally senseless answer, the control works by applying brakes to any wheel that slips, thereby transferring drive to the opposite wheel. Might be worth looking into.

 

It doesnt make sense for a couple of reasons:

- the light and beeping start about 5 seconds after the acceleration starts. Wouldnt it sense it right at the start when the torque load is highest?

- why would the car announce wheelspin with a beeping brake light?

- why would it keep flashing and beeping when I stop accelerating (the first time this happened I lifted off right away and it kept happening)

 

Mongo has a good point...especially if there is a fault in the ESP. It can light up a brake warning, abs warning or ESP (traction) light.

Check your brake fluid level too...if low, acceleration will shift it enough to trip low warning.

What year/model car?

Describe light and exact location...

...Where is the light on display? ...the word "brake" (like when parking brake is set) or a symbol.

P.S. If ESP malfunction, it can set one of those lights AFTER detecting problem.

 

When the warning continues, the system is telling you that subsystem was deactivated (temporarily?) because of the problem detected during ESP intervention....straight out of Audi's tech training manual.

It will show in the fault memory, with Vag.com code check.

 

'07 A8

The light is red, and read the word "Brake" written out and is in the center of the MPH gauge


I thought ESP had its own light on the dash?

 

One self-test you could perform would be to turn off the ESP and accelerate hard...if no warning, try it again with ESP on.

 

So an error in the ESP intervention is triggering the red brake like?

Any clue what the cause may be?

 

Excellent idea.

Will try and report back...

 

It does, but like I said, if a subsystem fails during ESP operation, it tells you which system failed...no matter what caused it...the ESP, the ABS or the brake circuit itself. Doesn't necessarily mean that the brake itself failed, but something caused that part of the process to fail.