Traction Control

Recently I was drinving my 2005 Passat tdi (270,000 km) and I hit a bump on the drivers side my traction control light started flashing and then it just stayed on. When I shut the car off and turn it on again the light goes away until I spin the tires on ice(we still have icy road here in Canada) then the light comes back on (and stays on) and the traction control does not function. I also did have a weird situation when I was on ice then I hit pavement and the traction control started slowing me down out of the blue- it was a little unnerving because it should not have kicked in at that time. Also I do not have a VCDS, I do have a normal code reader.
Questions:

If I hit the ESP button on the dash it will shut this system off?

This system is somehow linked to the ABS sensor? Is it likely the sensor is damaged or maybe a wire is damaged?

Is it worth it to try to fix this or should I just forget about it?

Cheers,

PingPong

You'll have to pull the ABS fuse (if there is one in these cars) or disconnect the ABS pump, or one of the wheel sensors. The ESP button only turns traction control off and not the ABS. I've noticed this when I was horsing around the other night in the snow (parking brake power slides). Even with the ESP button pushed and the system off, as soon as I touched the brakes during a slide, the ABS would kick in and this makes sense.

The light should flash when you break traction and then instantly go off. Your ASR module may be acting up. That's the one that talks to the ABS. It also talks to the ECU and will throttle the engine under certain wheel spin. Then there's the SCT-all too complicated for most of us to fix. VAG should let you know more.

Thanks for the replies. This is what I am thinking as well, because the problem initially manifested itself when I hit the pothole , it is likely an issue with the wheel speed sensor. (likely on the driver's side because I hit the pothole on that side) I will inspect the sensor to see if there is something obviously wrong (broken wire) and maybe price out a replacement if it is not obvious. I wonder if I could get a cheap one at a auto wrecker. I was thinking I should test my ABS, I wonder if it still works?

If your traction control light is not on, the ABS system is active and will work. Now with the bad sensor, it might do some unexpected things.

On one of my other vehicles, I was able to identify a bad speed sensor by disconnecting each one and measuring the resistance across the sensor. I don't know what it should be, but if one is different, start there.

Check the clearance between sensors and tone rings as well. A jolt could cause a problem there; more likely than damaging the sensor.