VCDS Results from an A3
 

We’re looking at buying a neighbour’s A3 (2011) for my daughter and I’ve run the VCDS on it. It’s thrown up a few codes as follows:

Address 01: Engine, 3 faults found:
5456 Starter will not turn. Jammed or electrical malfunction. Intermittent - not confirmed - tested since memory clear.
5463 Starter control; returned message - short to plus. Intermittent - not confirmed - tested since memory clear
10087 Neutral Gear Sensor - implausible signal. Intermittent - not confirmed - tested since memory clear.

Address 09: Elect, 1 fault found
00979 Lamp for low beam right. Open or short to plus. Intermittent (then a load of stuff about ‘Freeze Frame’)

Address 19: CAN Gateway, 1 fault found
01303 - telephone transceiver. 004 no signal/communication - intermittent. Date: 2016.11.25

Address 56: Radio, 1 fault found
01044 Control module incorrectly coded (more freeze frame stuff!)

Address 61: Battery regul, 1 fault found
02256 - quiescent current, 001 - upper limit exceeded - intermittent. Date 2019.11.29

Can anyone translate this into layman’s language and advise if any of it should be of concern?

Thanks in anticipation +++

Did you save a copy of the scan, and if so, could you attach it to a post? The reason for that is because the 'freeze frame' stuff and other information may help others identify the problems.

I'll also assume that the 'tested since memory clear' means you scanned it, got those errors, cleared them, drove it, scanned it again and they're no longer there. That being the case, I can only suggest that those may be things to keep an eye on.

00979 - Possible causes are faulty bulb, faulty wiring or control module coding. The obvious thing is to check if the bulb is actually working. With that being the case, I'd then suggest swapping the headlight bulbs over and scanning again, and see whether the error code swaps as well (indicating it's the bulb) or stays where it is (wiring or module). I'm aware that you had shoulder surgery, so doing this yourself may not be an option.

01303 - Although it mentions telephone, the code seems more aligned with Bluetooth issues. That gives a couple of options. Does VCDS connect to module 77? If not, it may just be a physical connection issue, but I don't know where it's hidden. If there is a Bluetooth issue, then that module tends to be hidden under the passenger seat, and could be a faulty module or bad connection.

01044 - Exactly what it says. Chances are that someone has been in there before and made a change, and now it's reporting that it's incorrectly coded. I had a similar issue when trying to sort out a Seat Toledo for a friend, as it kept saying the steering wheel was incorrectly coded! He also mentioned that the cruise control never worked from when they bought it secondhand. It turns out it also had an on-board computer (for fuel economy and all that) that he wasn't aware of. To sort this out, you would need to go into module 56 and then into Coding (this may or may not require a security access code first). It should give another screen with usually three fields. The one you need to change is the first one, but knowing what to is the tricky bit. VCDS may (or may not) display a popup speech bubble with a list of all the options possible. You then need to determine what the correct value should be, enter it and click on OK.

02256 - Not au fait with battery management, so can't advise. However, I did come across a post where someone was having similar issues, that also involved the telephone and CAN gateway. Would you know if there are any other accessories that might be plugged into the car (say a dashcam through the cigarette lighter) that could be causing a drain?

Thanks Sean. I did save a copy, so I’ll try to attach that to a post. There’s small microphone dangling from the rear view mirror, so whatever that’s attached to could be causing a drain, perhaps?

I’m not too worried unless there are big red flags in this scan - the car appears to have been well looked after and we’re getting it for the ‘we buy any car’ price, so if these are niggles rather than red flags, we’ll buy it and sort the niggles later.

Here's the full scan result attached.

Hope someone can tell me to buy it or run a mile! :)

I get the current one every few years in the S5 (popped up twice) and it seems a meaningless code - asked on VCDS forum a couple of times and everyone shrugs their shoulders

As an aside, when you run a scan on something of this era try taking the tick box out of the ‘UDS aggressive mode’ box - with it ticked our Golf reports a spurious selection of non-existent gearbox faults!

Nothing looks terminal in those codes to me - depends what comes back!

The biggest surprise I got from reading that was that 'Tested Since Memory Clear' was the actual VCDS description, and not what I thought was your general comment.

If you've taken the car for a test drive, then the 5456 and 5463 errors about the starter are old codes, since the car obviously started. The 10087 neutral gear sensor is used in conjunction with Stop/Start functionality, but again, something I'm not familiar with.

With regards to everything else, the only 'real' issue seems to lie with the telephone receiver (01303), and I'll explain why with the radio (01044) error as a comparison. The following two links also provide a very good explanation of how to interpret the various parts:

https://forums.ross-tech.com/showthr...the-fault-code - This dates back to 2014 and is missing the 'Reset counter'.

https://www.ross-tech.com/vcds/tour/dtc_screen.php

The telephone error has this:

01303 - Telephone Transceiver (R36)
004 - No Signal/Communication - Intermittent
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00100100
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 254
Reset counter: 239

Based on the information in the links above, it show that the fault has a relatively high frequency of occurring. In this instance, the error has occurred (Fault Frequency) 254 times since it was first logged. The Reset Counter is currently sitting at 239 (there is a pre-assigned value for each fault), and if you go through what Ross-Tech describe as a full 'driving cycle' without that error code happening, it will decrease by one. Once it reaches zero, the code should 'presumably clear itself' (Ross-Tech words - so even they're not sure).

If you compare that to the radio error:

01044 - Control Module Incorrectly Coded
000 - -
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 01100000
Fault Priority: 5
Fault Frequency: 1
Reset counter: 255

you'll see that the fault has only occurred once.

With that being the case, I'd be inclined to think that the issue with the telephone receiver might be causing the 02256 battery error.

Thanks again guys! +++

I’m not getting frightened off yet, so I think I’ll buy it and cross my fingers. Thanks for the tip of turning off the ‘aggressive’ mode; I’ll give that a try.