ABS Problem

[iball]

A couple of days ago I started the car up and for some reason the little ABS warning light didn't go out on the dash. So I stopped the engine and started it again thinking it would reset itself, but it didn't. I jammed the brakes on and sure enough the ABS still worked despite the light being on. A day or so later I was sitting in traffic and as I was edging forward slowly I touched the brakes very gently and the ABS appeared to kick in, similar sort of noise as you get when it comes in under hard braking but there was no need for it to do so. It then stopped as soon as it started, but came back later that day and again went away.

I took the wheels all off yesterday and cleaned up all of the ABS sensors and checked all contacts were clean and making good connections. The light still didn't go out when I started the car in the garage, however as soon as I started to drive the light went out and it now does exactly as it should. Anyone else had similar probems? I heard that ABS warning lights not going out can be an expensive fix, am I about to have a huge bill soon if this problem returns?

Also, I noticed that the inner brake pads on the front (ie closest to the car) are smaller than the outer ones on my car, is this normal or has a previous owner made a bodge at some point?

Cheers, sorry for the length of this post!

[golfvr6]

Check each wheel sensor for resistance, should be 1.0-1.3k ohms.
Also i assume you have check rotors/sensors for damage.
Test the sensors when the light comes back on. If no faults and you can't see any physical damage then could be a problem with the control unit. So if you can't find a fault then get the ecu read for fault codes.
As for the brake pads, its normal for the inner pad to wear a bit quicker.

[iball]

Yeah checked for damage, didn't think to test resistance, will try that if it comes back. I'm hoping it was just either dirt or possibly damp as the car had been stood still for almost a week prior to it coming on.

I meant that the actual physical size of the pad on the inside is smaller than the out side. The outer one covers the entire disc, the inner one only covers two thirds of the disc. The caliper doesn't look big enough to hold anything bigger though.

[vwsystems]

sometimes the pads are a different shape because of the caliper carrier and the caliper itself........

it should sit ok on the disc.... i cant see him putting the wrong pads in as this wouldnt work right..... they wouldnt fit right and you wouldnt stop!

with all the wet weather about get abit of speed up and jam on the brakes..... your pedal should feel funny and there also should be some weird grinding type of noises...
this is the sign that the abs is working......

when your jamming the brakes on and the abs is kicking in the abs light should not come on........thats another way for it do tell you that its got a fault........

when you first start it it lights up and goes out this is the self check, if it doesnt got out somethings wrong, in this case this is what you were experiencing!
if it comes on again or doesnt go out at start up....
like golfvr6 said get the fault codes read!

[golfvr6]

The pads should be the same size, inner and outer.
As far as i know the 16v should have the same brakes as the vr6, i don't remember the pads being different when i done my brakes.
I will have to go and have a look..