ESP Light flashes very regulary...WHY?

[JesseJonesJackson]

Hi Everyone,

I am the proud new owner of one of the 40 Black RS4 B5 and I need a bit of help and advice?

1) Has anyone had an issue with the ESP light coming on at seemingly regular intervals yet the road conditions are perfect?
I could understand it if I was a snow stage at the WRC but this is under acceleration on dry roads in 2nd/3rd/4th!

2)The gear stick feels loose, lots of left to right movement when in gear...is this normal?

3) and last, The handling I would describe as 'average' at best, I came of Evo and Impreza but the RS4 feel loose and somewhat tail happy. Will Anit-roll bars sort this out?

Any ideas comments gratefully recieved.

Many thansk

JJJ

[jimbo1234567]

esp is probably due to a dodgy abs sensor thats telling the ecu that the wheel is turning faster or slower than the rest causing the esp to kick in. log the wheeel speeds on vagcom to find the culprit.

pop the gearstick gaitor surround off and check all the nuts are tight

uprated antiroll bars will make the car much flatter. go for the 21mm rear arb if going h+r and set it to stiffest and you will need some subframe strenghening brackets from mrc. alternatively go for the hotchkiss arbs which have a set of strenghening brackets in the kit, theres a group buy on srs at the moment if you want to put your name down and get a discount.

[JesseJonesJackson]

thanks Jimbo,

How do you log the speeds with Vagcom please?

its going to MRC next week, so which arb's do they fit? are the strenghtning brackets additional to the drop links?

[EuroSag]

Mate, the ESP thing is probably telling you that you have odd tyres fitted. Check they are all the same and of not, change 'em.

[neckarsulm]

I had a spate of this recently, it was verging on the dangerous as I'd cross white line to overtake and ESP would flash!
I thought it was corrosion of the ABS sensor as I had washed the car but not driven it to dry it off.
It got better with use.
MRC did say in another post they had seen this with odd tyres though.
Check your tyre pressures too.

[lushman]

I had the same problem with the ESP due to tyres. Changed them to Toyo all round problem gone.

I had the Hotckis ARB's fitted and a huge difference was noticed immediately

[lengster1]

ESP is over sensative,if you have a tuned example and are going for a brisk blat then turn it off,the way it cuts power is almost more dangerous than it spinning up the tyres,b5s need work to handle well,std suspension was soft even new and by now will be totally fcuk"d,anti roll bars are almost a must!! a firm yet supple aftermarket suspension kit is the way to get the best out of the car.

[rsmonkey918]

Going with Lushman on this in a totally unrelated way!! Running a Brabus Smart with 101bhp and a screw in the O/S rear, usually go down to Micheldever but ended up in a local Kwikfit, who true to form could only source me two Goodyear Eagle GSD3/F1's, so just thought well OK, Iknow they're good because a few Forum members are running them! However, ever since fitting them and taking right handed corners- and mostly not even over-egging it- I get the ESP/ABS light and a really unnerving feeling from the front as if its sliding and braking at the same time.... Assume that me sitting on the right has something to do with it- it never happens on left handers...
Can't fault the grip- it feels really nailed down at the back but my dilemma is that there are only a few fitments for the front and the Yokohama A520's already on and still with plenty of tread were supposedly the sportiest option at the pointy end.....
This phenomenon never happened before, so have to assume its a tyre issue, so check whether your tyres match up- saw one at MRC a few weeks ago with different rubber on every corner......

Regards

Steve