The Complexity of Modern Cars
On my way back home from the SharePoint Conference, my Audi suddenly couldn’t shift out of first gear when in automatic. Thank goodness I could still get out of first gear using the “manual” shift mode. And as I’m limping home, I then get a ESP Fault error. Great, I don’t have automatic drive and now my traction control and ABS are gone too!
As this was a Friday, I had the weekend to troubleshoot and test things before it got into the shop… automatic works for all other shifts except first to second. What’s weirder, after some time manually shifting, going back into automatic will work, even the shift from first to second! But once I shut off the car, I have to do the same manual shift song and dance again.
So, as it turns out, what caused my car to not shift and have no ABS and traction control? A faulty $12 brake light switch! Nuts!