Clear Errors After Brake Pads Change - Alfa Giulia MY2020 With SGW

After a normal brake pads change, my Giulia (2.2 Diesel 160CV, MY2020) ended up with a lot of errors regarding the braking system:

- Service Electronic Parking Brake

- Service Brake System

- AST Service Required

- ESC Service - ESC System

- ESC Service Hill Hold Control

- FCW Limited Functionality Front Camera Service required

The right procedure to swap the brake pads without trigger those errors is the following:

1. For rear pads, from the infotainment activate the brake service mode
2. Turn off the car and disconnect the battery
3. Wait few minutes, then proceed to swap the pads; when pushing back the pistons of the calipers, do it SLOWLY.
4. After pads swap is completed, push the brake pedal while is rock solid
5. Reconnect the battery (and exit from brake service mode for rear pads)

Unfortunately, if you don't disconnect the battery, when pushing the pistons back the ABS control unit detect an excessive flow of brake fluid entering a 'safe mode', disconnecting one of the caliper on the front, and one on the rear, throwing all the errors said before. If your car have the SGW module, you cannot clear the errors without bypassing it.

If you're in this condition, this is the right instructable.

1. OBD scan tool (ELM327, etc.)
2. Multiecuscan Gray Cable Adapter (30€ for the complete kit of adapters)
3. PC with MultiEcuScan - Registered version (50€)
4. SGW Bypass (25€ buy or DIY)

This is not a complete "step by step" tutorial, is only covering the majors steps to help you through the procedure. Minimum knowledges about OBD connection and MultiEcuScan usage are required (connect to ECU + clear errors).

The target is to clean errors from the ABS module.

In order to do this you need to:

1. Install the SGW bypass module (located under the steering wheel) to bypass the SGW lock and be able to clear errors from the ABS module. Without the SGW bypass you can read the errors, but you cannot clear them.
2. Connect the OBD tool with the gray cable adapter to the OBD port.
3. Connect MultiEcuScan to the ABS module (only registered version can connect) and clear the errors from it.

DONE.

I bought one from Amazon for 25€.

You can also do it yourself with 2.54mm pin headers, is quite easy; are only few jumpers between the pins; you can buy fancy Molex original connectors, or simply breadboard it (see: https://www.jeepcherokeeclub.com/threads/diy-sgw-bypass.247203/)

The SGW module It's on the right side, under the steering wheel. It's easier to access from the bottom:

1. remove the cover on the right (4 clips, gently pull with your hands)
2. unscrew the two T20 torx screws of the bottom panel (right over the pedals)
3. remove the bottom panel (gently pull from the right side disconnecting the front clips, then slide it out toward the driver seat)
4. put your hand under the steering wheel column and disconnect the two connectors from the SGW module (for each connector, push the tab, gently wiggle and pull the connector)
5. connect the SGW bypass module to the cables.

I bought the complete multiecuscan "color" cable kit from Amazon for 30€.

Double check with a multimeter that your cable have the right connections, some chinese copy have same connections for all the different cable colors.