check engine?

[Duncan Thomson]

> Also, the brake lights
> won't turn off!  That's right - even when the car is off, the headlight
> switch is turned to off, the 3 brake lights are still lit!  It doesn't
> matter if the handbrake is up or down - the lights remain on.  I'm
> afraid my battery will be dead when I get up in the morning.

Don't know about these new fangled modern cars but all the cars I've ever looked at have a
microswitch on the brake pedal which should be the only thing that affects the brake lights.

> Now here's the even more strange part - I plugged the VAG-COM in again
> to check for codes - and it can't get at anything.  It reports all the
> various system controllers as non-responsive.  The car starts and drives
> fine though.

this confuses things, as the brake lights _may_ be signalled by the computer via a CAN network of
some sort...
I certainly can't help you there, but I'd check the brake pedal for a microswitch first...

if not then the dealer's the place to go...

HTH
Duncan