Repairing the broken G45 Front Wheel Speed Connector on my Audi A3

Article Date: 05/02/2022

DISCLAIMER

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Tools for repairing the wheel speed connector

In order to repair a broken wheel speed connector on an Audi A3 I recommend the following tools and items

• Breaker Bar
• Locking Wheel Nut
• Vehicle Jack
• 17mm Socket for Wheel Nuts
• Wire Cutters or Scissors
• Wire Strippers
• Heat Shrink (if you're twisting the wires together) - not needed if using crimps
• Flat Heat Screwdriver
• VCDS/Laptop (not pictured) or compatible tool to clear fault codes
• Repair Kit (not pictured) - I purchased my repair kit on eBay from H2F Conectors for £7.99 - OEM part number is 6E0973702
  

How to repair the wheel speed connector

• Jack up the car, and put the wheel under the sill. Not pictured, but should be fairly obvious what you need to do for this bit. I didn't have an Axle Stand at hand, but I prefer to put the wheels under the sill regardless, that way if the jack fails, you have a physical object to prevent it collapsing any further and causing serious injury to you.

• This is my dashboard, you can see the ABS light lit up, and the ESP/Traction Control light is lit up. This is because there's a fault with the ABS system and the Stability Control system. Both of these systems take readings from the wheel speed sensor, and because it can't communicate with the sensor. It highlights this to show there's a fault. When I scanned the car with VCDS it came up with "Intermittent" communication errors with the G45 Front Wheel Speed Sensor. When I first saw this message, I suspected either a broken wire, or bad sensor. I removed the wheel to have a look

• This is what I was greeted with. If your wheel speed sensor is broken, this is probably what you're left with, if part of the old connector is left on you can detach it by pushing down on the connector while pulling back on the tab at the top. Then pulling back to remove it. You can see the remnants of the old spade connector in the first picture
• I first had to straighten out the pins for the G45 Front Wheel speed sensor because they were damaged on mine (I used a pair of tweezers)

• This is the repair kit I purchased. It's from a seller on eBay I've used before (H2F Connectors). You receive a prewired kit which is a connector and approx 30cm of wire. It's covered in convuluted tube, and if you don't like twisting wires, you receive a couple of crimp connectors to simplify the process. I love these kits, because they make the job simple, reliable and look professional.
• This is what the connector looks like that goes onto the wheel speed sensor if you're wondering or need to clarify it

• With your car jacked up and any left over sensor unplugged. Measure up a sufficient length of wire from the repair kit, against your old harness, once you're happy, using scissors or wire cutters cut out the old bad wire, ready for adding the new. You can see the crappy connectors I had prior to the repair which I removed

• Once you have removed the old wire, you will need to trim back the cable for the new wire. The OEM harness wire is surrounded by a flexible rubber. The best way to peel this back I feel is by slowly cutting into the tube whilst bending the cable (then cutting deeper and deeper over time as it flexes). Eventually it will expose the cores inside without damaging them and you can pull it off.

• Once you have done this, use your wire strippers to trim back the cable and twist them (or crimp them) together.
• After you have joined the wires, and test they work. Use a heat source to shrink the heatshrink
• The last picture is nothing more than a reference picture if needed. On the repair kit Pin 1 is the Blue Wire, and Pin 2 is the Red Wire. On the OEM harness, Black Wire is Pin 1, Green Wire is Pin 2. Make sure you put some heatshrink tubing over the wires prior to repairs (if not using crimps)
• Join them together as such (blue - black, green - red). I have the technical data purchased from Erwin for my model of car (8P1), so this information is straight from the OEM Wiring Diagrams to make sure the info is correct
  • Page 331/2117 if you're wondering [Basic Equipment 2006 file] - I recommend getting the technical data when repairing your own car, great for time saving

• Once your connector has been repaired, put all the wires back into the convuluted tubing and push it back into it's slot on the suspension housing. I recommend turning the ignition on (without starting car), to see if any lights go out or if you receive alarms as a final test
• After this, when you turn the ignition on the warning lights should go out. The ABS light is still lit up on my car because I hadn't cleared the fault codes (I've since done it with VCDS)

 

Your vehicle should now be repaired, I would suggest giving yourself around 1 hour to do this job from start to finish

 

After thoughts / Learn from my mistakes

This repair took me approximately 2 hours to do, it would have been quicker, but I was taking photos and had my own problems I had to sort out cos I was being thick and impatient and because I was rushing around as it was cold

• I managed to pull out the connector on the plug because I was trying to force the wires into the tube after I repaired it (they weren't equal length). So after I carried out my "1st" repair I turned on the ignition on the car and heard the dredded beep again. After I had a quick oh shit / swear moment, I looked into it and quickly found my problem (above). Take note from my own stupidity, here are some pointers I recommend

1. Make sure your connector is UNPLUGGED while doing this repair, only plug it in after the repair is finished and to "test", repairing whilst plugged in will stress the wires in the connector.
2. Make sure the wires are cut with equal lengths to prevent any undue stress on the connector
3. Twist the wires together first, and test with ignition on afterwards. Don't bother soldering or making a permanent connection until you know it's good. Even if you're going to crimp them, it would be quick to test with twisting the wires first to make sure the repair will work (you may have a duff sensor for example)