Hi There,
Got this error code the other day from VCDS, though arguably the whole car shouted about it. Talk about anoying....You need to pull 4 fuses. Two in the boot, two in the drivers side to shut it up!!! Though driving a couple of minutes will cancel the audible alarms until you stop at a junction/lights and it starts again! All for an almost irrelivant parking brake.....I mean park on an Auto makes the EPB all but redundant in most cases!!!
Anyway. Research and it's not an uncommon fault, along with it's brother for the right! It seemed electrical and a connection but lots of wiggling, unclipping and re-clipping and contact cleaner made no difference.
Today i popped the whole unit off the back of the brakes. Two torque screws and unclipping once jacked and the wheel off and the motor unit was clear.
It had a lot of sealant goop over it and some aluminium wrap that is part sealer, part noise reducer it seems. It looked a bit bodgy though. I cleaned the back off and unclipped the back lid and there's a motor with pully belt going to strange toothed wheel / wobbly gear / spline drive.
The strange wheel thing didn't appear to rotate properly, so lots of cleaning, WD, spray chain lube and gentle tapping in a vice to free it off. The belt wheel should rotate on it's tiny bearing (seized) and the wobbly gear spin and wobble. Took a little coaxing, but it slowly made it and after lots of cleaning (isopropyl alcohol) and then lube it's fair and freely mooving.
Gasket sealant on the rim of the back plate and some aluminium tape to cover and close out and some testing and it's all good. I was tempted to epoxy it closed but if it needs servicing again then probably best not. I could be tempted to buy a different car EPB motor (£30-40 vs £300) such as the passat and steal the gear from it
(
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a8-...ailed-2840757/)
Other options are new Motor (£300), Refub Caliper complete (£180+£100 potential refund, 1yr), OEM Caliper (£240, 3Yr) or Audi (£££). Most net searches tend to end up with people going for a Caliper and i'd probably go new as the hasle of sending back and potential refund issues for £60 and less warenty seems daft!
Thought I'd report findings for future use and it may help someone
Lee