Coding problem VW sharan Jap import

georgeb1971 · October 27, 2022

I purchased a VW Sharan 1.4TSI 2011 via a private sale in July this year. I needed a 7-seater with the imminent arrival of twins (we already have 3 kids!) and after a lot of research decided that the Sharan fitted the bill.
So basically, I have a problem with the car now where there are amber warning lights on the dashboard for ABS and ESP plus stop/start & autohold have stopped working.
I initially took the car to an independent VW garage who told me there was a coding issue and they couldn't recode and recommended I take it to the main VW dealer. The VW dealer was also confused and sent details to their technicians in Germany - they finally came back and told me the issue was with the instrument cluster that had been installed by the importer (to change to mph). They were unable to explain why there were no warning lights for the first couple of months, but they were convinced a new cluster would fix it. They quoted £1400 which was much more than I hoped but I was now in a position where I needed the car on the road so agreed. When the part finally arrived VW contacted me to say that it still hadn't fixed it and they were unsure what to do. Eventually they told me they couldn't fix it and thought it was due to it being a grey import. So I picked up the car - it now has the new cluster but still the warning lights (VW didn't charge me in the end)
On the paperwork VW states "found coding errors between ABS control unit and instrument cluster -renewed instrument cluster but still coding issues - unable to carry out further coding diagnosis"
I'm very disappointed that VW have washed their hands of this and I am at a loss what to do. I have tried a Carista OBD to look for error codes and found 01044 control module incorrectly coded and 01317 control module in instrument cluster j285
Does anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone know of any coders who could fix this in the north Yorkshire region??
Any help appreciated.