P0500 Error Code- Brake & ABS light ON!
 

:bawling:bawling
Hi I just joined this form.

The ABS and BRAKE lights are on and I get an error code P0500 (Vehicle Speed Sensor A)

Cruise control doesn't work at all, and nether does DSC or ABS . Everything else works fine.
I went to the dealer to buy one and he told me there is one for exhaust and one for intake on the engine, how do I know witch one it is? - Or if that is where it is??

Thank You.

I'm not sure what that exact code means, but from the description of the fault, you have a bad wheel speed sensor, or a bad DSC control unit. Unfortunately, the DSC control unit is the culprit most of the time, and a new speed sensor won't fix it. BUT, you can swap sensors side to side (Left to right) to see if the fault goes to the other wheel. If it does, the sensor is bad.
From what the dealer said, it sounds like they are talking about intake and exhaust CAM sensors, which shouldn't have anything to do with the ABS or DSC.
???

The code definition on the code reader was "Vehicle Speed Sensor A". I just tried swapping wheel sensors to see if the code changed and it did not. Does the DSC control the ABS and Cruise control, because neither of them work right now. Also the dealer said something about a cam speed sensor but that didn't sound right to me either, thank you for confirming that. Is it very hard to change the DSC control unit?

Once you replace them the dealership has to code it to the vehicle, which if you replace it yourself they will most likely charge you an hour labor to do so.
And depending on the location of your DSC moduel its fairly easy. I think on your car, open the hood, its in the hole big hole in the back left with 6 metal brake lines going into a aluminum box. The black box bolted on the front of that is your DSC moduel. Held on by 4 E8 bolts.

Here's the deal. MOST of the time, you'll get the right rear wheel speed signal fault, and it's usually the DSC module to blame. That's the same wheel speed signal that the speedometer uses to know the speed of the car, and the cruise control is tied into that too.
If you can, clear the faults, and swap the sensors, and make sure the fault stays on the same wheel. If it does, it's a DSC control unit, or maybe a dirty sensor wheel in the hub. You can spray brake cleaner into the bore while you spin the wheel to clean it up a bit.
Like mentioned above, the DSC unit will need to be coded, but it's relatively easy to change. You can try unplugging it and then plugging it back in, maybe there's a dirty pin-sometimes it works.

Its weird because the speedometer works great Is there another way to translate the code so I could be more specific on the exact problem? It says "vehicle speed sensor A " Does the "A" stand for anything? Maybe a wheel? Tomorrow I will swap wheel sensors, clean the hub inside the sensor holes, check the connections on the DSC unit, and check the error code for a change. Also another note - my wheel sensors are magnetic looking, there is no wheel on the sensor.

A lot of times, these faults are very intermittent, so the speedo would work most times. I don't know what the "A" is. The sensor is magnetic, and the "teeth" that it reads are built into the wheel bearing, or the halfshaft, depending on which design it is. Cleaning the bore while turning the wheel can get rid of dirt that may be blocking the sensor.