ronin amg

I am wondering why the AMG GTS has height sensors on each wheel and what is their effect and what does this do when the car is lowered ?

thebishman

ronin amg

I can't seem to find an answer but I would like to know if my lowered GTS has an effect on the dampening. I can feel the setting changes from comfort, sport and sport+..

ItalianJoe1

I've been looking through WIS hoping for a nice function description of this system, but they are all very basic. The gist of it is, that the suspension control unit does use the level sensors as one input to decide how to actuate the damping valves, but I can't find the actual correlation. It does say that during acceleration/braking/cornering it will stiffen up the shocks to reduce body motions, so it makes sense that as they compress they get stiffer.

I attached some relevant files. Hard to find more specifics than this.

ronac

Does anyone know if you can read each sensor with an OBDII reader?

ronin amg

Thanks but if our cars are lowered what effect will it have on the sensor position ?
Will it be out of it's preset range to do the job as designed ?

DialDforDan

I can see the different pressure/height being shown on one of the screens in the Dynamic Vehicle menu (the one that shows steering angle etc). Maybe it has something to do with that too.

descartesfool

This article from Daimler provides a description of the adaptive damping on the SLS, which is likely similar to the GT

https://media.daimler.com/marsMediaS...ml?oid=9919964

and this video on the AMG GT gives a good description of the adaptive suspension and the interaction of the ride height sensors and other sensors


The ride height sensors are continuously monitoring the position and movement of each wheel, not just the static ride height when the car is sitting still. Their function is to allow the various computers to continuously adjust the damping force of the suspension dampers based on the comfort, sport and sport+ setting and engine response and brake response via the stability control computer.

ronin amg

I have seen that but my question is, if the car is lowered will those sensors still function or will they be out of their operational range.
I know when I lowered my 2018 AMG e63s wagon the sensors on it showed there was a limit to their operational range. This was corrected with adjustable links on the sensor arm.

ItalianJoe1

They will still function, they are designed to read the full range and the controller decides what to do with that info. I agree with your assumption that it will be somewhat stiffer since it's already lower than normal, but how much, I can't find. I was hoping for a more technical description page but couldn't find one.

ronin amg

I would have thought the stiffness to be determined by it's movement in relation to the body not it's static position being lowered.
If lowered is it out of it's operating range is my question ?

ItalianJoe1

The operating range is the full range of travel, so no? But you aren't really gonna be able to change the suspension and assume it will be exactly the same.

Jim Brady

This seems to have opened a whole can of worms if you replace with aftermarket springs to lower the car. Is the car going to be any faster on a circuit? It would seem that a stiffer and lower spring would change the compression and rebound reading that the sensors pick up. Now if someone on the board has tracked their car before a spring change and after and has lap times it might shed some light whether a lower car is any faster than stock ride height and spring rates. . Since I just lowered the car with KW's it does ride stiffer but is that necessarily good for the Magnetorheologic dampers who use data from the ride height. Responses appreciated.

ItalianJoe1

I think you guys are overthinking this.

Will the valving of the shocks be slightly stiffer because of the lower ride height, sure. Same thing if you had the car heavily loaded and it was riding a tad lower. Will it drastically change the handling characteristics? No, it's just stiffening up the shocks the same amount it would when the suspension is normally deflected to that height. The sensors are only one of many inputs the suspension controller looks at to change the settings. It won't bother the shocks, they are just working how they are supposed to.

sno

Great information.

I know that I had the same questions when I wanted to lower my Grand Sport. So just to be on the safe side I changed the spindles which kept the same geometry. On the GTS I'm just doing the H&R springs and seeing what happens.

dlefty