RED Beeping BRAKE light on dash....killing car

ducesrwld

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Location
WI
TDI
none
Well brought my Jetta into local shop to overhaul the rear brakes that were in need of a little loving. They put new rotors, calipers, and pads on. Figured it would be routine work but when I pulled out of their lot the red brake light on the dash came on and starting beeping....no good.

We hooked up their Snap On scan gauge and some codes popped up for other things I'm aware of but we couldn't find anything in regards to this brake light. Fluid was topped off and we double checked that and no issue with brakes working.

I ended up driving it home and should have known better but took it up to work to put some miles on it red light beeps initially and stays on never goes off. Tried driving it a 2nd day up to work and engine and whole dash started just shutting down on me. Now I get 30-60 seconds of power before it kills everything then its like it takes couple minutes to reboot/cycle and all of a sudden dash comes back to life and car will fire back up for a short period.

What kind of quirk/German/VW thing did these guys screw with while doing the brakes? I've had some weird stuff in the past with electrical/computer things on here and its way too much of a coincidence that this happened right after the brakes were changed never had this light/issue in the 10 years I've owned this.

Hoping you guys have some ideas here cause the shop wants to start throwing parts at the problem and I highly doubt that is going to fix the issue. Anyone else had a similar problem in the past???

Thanks
 

Bambaataa

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Location
KW, On
TDI
06 Jetta BRM 6MT; '15 Golf Sportwagen TDI GSW
What exactly prompted the rear brakes overhaul? Were you feeling something while driving the car? Do you still feel the symptoms that prompted the brake overhaul with the beeping?

Was it raining or damp at anytime while you experienced this beeping/flashing light?
How is the main engine harness in the car?
 

ducesrwld

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Location
WI
TDI
none
brakes were shot haven't touched them in probably 5 years since car doesn't get driven much and has stayed in garage most of its life. had some grinding coming from the rear as pads were shot and also the one side there was wear in rotor from pad being worn down to the metal. Calipers weren't in great shape so I just said screw it and put new setup in the rear.

after service car drives fine and brakes are back to being top notch. no moisture/rain during days it was out on the road. car barely has over 100k miles now and is in pretty good shape under the hood and under the frame. just have to figure out what kind of vw/german gremlin hopped under the car during service and is wreaking havac as shop can't figure out what the deal is.
 

Bambaataa

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Location
KW, On
TDI
06 Jetta BRM 6MT; '15 Golf Sportwagen TDI GSW
i know issues with the harness can cause random lights (which don't make any sense) and shut down of the car. So, i'd check that first. (this is an assumption that the brakes were correctly and no drag on the pads and rotors)
 

ducesrwld

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Location
WI
TDI
none
tried hooking up my VAG-COM to see if I could pop any other codes off compared to the shop's scan gauge, figures this time once the brake light came on it immediately killed the car and unlike before this time the dash did not kick back on eventually so I could not scan since there was no communication with the ecu. going to be tearing back into it tomorrow my jetta has always been a love/hate relation and this is really starting to lean to the far right of that scale.
 

Vince Waldon

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 25, 2009
Location
Edmonton AB Canada
TDI
2001 ALH Jetta, 2003 ALH Wagon, 2005 BEW Wagon
Is it the "you have left your handbrake on" warning light/beeper?

Not monitored by the ECU so won't cause any codes, but will drive you crazy with the noise. :) :)

One clue is that the beeping won't start until you start to drive the car.

If the issue is actually the handbrake warning light it probably means the switch got jarred when they were testing your handbrakes after the brake work, or the handle is slightly up and you haven't noticed it.
 
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