VW beetle ESP and codes

[GeorgeB93]

Hi all

lately I’ve been having ESP trouble in my 2002 1.9 TDI beetle.

about 12 months ago the esp light came on and the front drivers side brakes kept coming on randomly as the car thought it was going into a spin etc. It did this for about a week, it then didn’t do it for about 15k miles.

this week it’s been non stop esp light and brakes kicking in on drivers front wheel.

I have cleaned up the reader disks on the wheels, checked all tyre pressures, have new tyres on the front and rears are even wear.

I have traced the cables for the sensors and they look ok, I scanned the car with a scan tool and it brought up the below fault codes on the ESP system.

00493 ESP sensor unit

01542 Rotation Rate Sensor



i am looking at checking the cables to these parts and potentially replacing the ESP sensor and Yaw rate sensor if no wiring faults found.

Will the sensors be plug and play? I am looking at buying refurb or spares online from cars being broken for parts.

Any other suggestions would be welcomed.



Thanks

[InitialDave]

Is that "rotation rate sensor" in the sense of a yaw sensor for the physical movement of the car, or a wheel speed sensor?

I doubt it's the wheel speed sensor at fault if you're getting an ESP fault but not an ABS fault? However, if it is, I'd also check the wheel bearing seems ok on that corner, it doesn't take much play to make the readings the sensor gets inconsistent (as the ring surface distance from the sensor varies), and it'll have a sulk about that.

I suspect what your code is for is a yaw rate sensor that measures the forces acting on the car to "feel" if it's moving in a way inconsistent with speed, acceleration/braking, and steering angle. I think they're hidden up under the dash near the steering column? And there's two, a yaw rate sensor and a lateral G sensor?

My understanding is they're plug and play, yes, not coded to the car, but I've never worked on this stuff myself.

ESP sensor unit will most likely be the dedicated control module for the system, not a sensor. Don't know if what you're seeing means both items are definitely bad, or it's a "could be either, not sure" thing.