Monitoring your automobile is essential nowadays, indeed, if you do not do the minimum maintenance of it, or if you do not take into account signs of abnormality, you highly risk to observe your car getting in bad conditions. This is precisely the subject we are going to focus on today, one of the symptoms that most perturbs motorists is the ABS warning light on Audi A3. In an attempt to help you review this warning light, we will first look at what this ABS warning light corresponds to, then in a second how to handle it if the ABS light is on Audi A3?.

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What does the ABS light on Audi A3 indicate?

We will begin our paper with the definition of an ABS warning light on Audi A3, for this, in first, we will discover what an ABS is, and later on, why the ABS light on your car lights up.

What is the ABS on Audi A3?

To begin with, it is fundamental to explain to you what the ABS of your Audi A3 is utilized for so that you can understand the remaining of this article. The ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) is a system that prevents the wheels of your car from locking during braking. The goal of this system is to optimize the braking distance of a car by preventing the wheels from locking, sliding on the road and you losing control of your car. The ABS system of your Audi A3 is consisting of different components, here they are:

  • Speed sensors on each wheel, which will evaluate if one of the wheels locks up.
  • A hydraulic system and valves that will manage the pressure of the pads on the discs to manage the braking power of the car
  • A computer that is the control center of your entire ABS system as well as the ABS light of your Audi A3

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The truth is, you can simply feel how your car’s ABS works. If you have to steer, you will find that your car will brake by pawing, this is precisely the behaviour that ABS allows, it will optimise braking to the maximum by associating the phases of pressure on the brake discs and the phases of discharge to prevent the wheels from locking up.

Meaning of an ABS light on Audi A3

Now we proceed to the section that you are most probably more enthusiastic about, meaning of an ABS warning light on a Audi A3? First of all, it is an orange light, so if it is on it shows that your ABS system is faulty. You should be advised that whenever the ABS warning light is on, the ABS will be put into security mode, so you should adapt your driving and not take any risks. Here are the different problems that the ABS warning light on your Audi A3 can alert:

  • It could be a simple short circuit, a damaged wiring harness, a faulty relay or fuse. Use a pressure gauge to verify it.
  • A malfunctioning ABS sensor: A malfunction of one of them triggers the ABS light on your Audi A3 to come on
  • The ABS hydraulic block of your Audi A3: If it is faulty it is possible that the indicator light will come on and you will no longer be able to use your ABS.
  • The ABS computer: If the computer has a problem, being the center of all decisions made to manage your ABS, the light will unavoidably come on.

What if the ABS light turns on on my Audi A3?

We will now proceed to the section where we will try to give you some solutions to shut off this light, and thus answer the following question, what to do if the ABS light is on on my Audi A3?. The solutions will be based upon the failure you are going through. First of all, pass your Audi A3 to the diagnostic tool, if you don’t know how to read a fault code on Audi A3, don’t hesitate to examine our article which explains the steps to take. Once you have established the origin of your issue, here are the steps to take to solve it and turn off the ABS light on your Audi A3:

  • Problem of the ECU or the hydraulic block: It can only be altered, and in this case, you will have to go through a specialist, but if it’s dead, it could cost you around 1000€ to change the ECU and 1500 to 2000€ if you have to change both of them.
  • Electrical issue: Once you’ve detected an electrical issue with your manometer, if it’s only a fuse or a relay, count around 10€ maximum, in any other case you’ll have to repair the wiring harness.
  • A faulty sensor: Occasionally a simple cleaning of the sensors will be enough to get rid of the issue, in any other case changing a sensor can cost up to a few hundred euros.

If you have any additional questions about the Audi A3, do not hesitate to consult our Audi A3 category.