tashakes

Careful there. WD40 is not a lubricant, it is a water dissipator. It may seem to lubricate when first applied, but dries after a while. You can use it to clean rust and get things unstuck.

If you want to lube it, probably best to use a silicone spray lube.

parkrog2

I brought my ski boot on ebay and they have whole car parting out.
Used might be better http://stores.ebay.com/europeanautoparts

dvs_dave

Yep. My plan was to to try and free the mechanism up and get rid of any moisture with some WD40, and then if that worked, some light oil in the bearings and a bit silicone on the gears. However I couldn't even get it to free up at all....jammed absolutely solid. Believe me, not spending $400 on a new part unless I absolutely had to was good motivation to exhaust all repair options.

Matt@H2OTuning

Any suggestions on what to do next?

dvs_dave

My suggestion would be to do the rear brake pad replacement routine via VAGCOM, just making sure you put back in the appropriate pad thickness. That way the system is zeroed and gets fully re-calibrated.

If that still doesn't work then you might want to try swapping the motors around to see if the problem follows it. If so, then the motor/gearbox is on the way out and needs replacement. If it's still tripping the voltage warning (by drawing too much current), ever after a lube job, then I'm afraid it's terminal and just a matter of time before complete seizure. As an FYI this is how mine started off.

If the problem stays on the same side then it's likely a bad connector, or the ECU (it's under the battery) that's gone bad.

Whichever dumbass signed off the cost/benefit study for these e-brakes needs shooting!

mishar

Have you tried to open and close calipers few times using VCDS?

dvs_dave

Replaced my left side parking brake motor last night. Job took about 30mins, then a bit of messing with VCDS to get it set properly.

As soon as I fired the car up both motors were working just fine, and the function test showed no problems so all was good there. However it took a few attempts with the adaption for the pad thickness (in my case 10mm) to stick. It kept telling me my pads were below the 3mm minimum even though I'd performed the full VCDS pad change procedure, and 10mm was showing up in the adaption.

Anyway, a few ignition and parking brake on/off cycles, and DTC resets it finally got the right idea and the error codes didn't come back. Happy days.

As an aside I took a closer look at my old motor/actuator and the plastic body actually had a large crack running the full width of it which was obviously letting in the weather and caused the bearings to seize. This was only visible once the gear/swash plate drum had been removed. From the outside it wasn't visible as it was under the sound insulation that's stuck on the outside.

I'll post up a few pics later, if only to serve as a useful reference for folks inevitably googling this problem in the future.

BERGHA8

I have a audi A8L 2004 the dealer tells me my Electronic Parking Brake Motors are shot and to fix this they need to replace the compete calipers at $2250!!! I noticed you replaced just the motor on yours. Were did you get these ?
I on top of all have an alarm sound for the first mile i drive he car telling me there is an issue with my parking/ brakes. the dealer tells me the brakes are fine care is safe to drive!! They can not turn off the alarm!! GOING NUTS HEEELP!!

Brozee

Take it to an indy dealer.

dvs_dave

Your dealer doesn't know what they're talking about. It used to be the case that you could only get the motor with a whole new caliper at around $800 per side in parts alone. You can now buy the motors by themselves from online parts suppliers and deakers although they're still pricey at around $400 each. However swapping them is easy and only a couple of bolts per side and a couple of minutes messing with VCDS.

You can stop the constant alarm by pulling all 4 fuses for the parking brake system (one for each motor, the ECU, and the switch). The car is perfectly safe to drive without the parking brake working. It doesn't affect the operation of the main braking system.