w204-888

Dear Sirs,
My Car:
W204, c230, dynamic handling package, 2008 model. mileage 140,091 km, malaysia

problem

The suspension is soft on the front left and rear left side. Also the suspension on left side feels like it is not active.
The right side front and rear is firm as original.
at 110,291km the suspension front and rear felt soft. diagnosis was plugged in and the messages were :
Code 5001 control unit N30/4 Electronic Stability Program Control Unit Internal Fault
Event 7208 Check codings in control module Engine control module - Event stopped

Can anyone confirm whether control unit N30/4 controls the suspension other than the Abs, ESP ?

OR

Should i be looking at
a) level sensors
b) damping control unit

I am trying to solve the softness on the left side front and rear suspension and its dynamics. The car rocks left to right in a peculier manner over speed bumps and road inperfections, it handles strange not how its suppose to be.

Local authorised service center were unable to solve the problem.

Looking forward to a reply on how to trouble shoot from knowledgeable members.

Many Thanks
Lee

Moto_Guzzi

My car has this package with Monroe shocks. In comfort mode it is soft ride all over, and firm in sprt mode all over. I am just trying to figure if your soft is wrong one side or the firm the other side at same time C or S-Mode-?

white46

I don't think any of North American w204 models are equipped with "dynamic handling package". At least for year 2008 models.

w204-888

Hi,
Yes the shocks are by Monroe each absorber/shock has 2 connectors 1 on top and 1 below / side of the absorbers. It has the ADS ( Adaptive damper system ) similar to the S class difference is that my model has electro-hydraulic absorbers The absorbers are active whether it is in Comfort or Sport, This dynamic system is made by Monroe subsidiary Tennaco. May I explain on Comfort mode, it is normally firm all round and on Sports mode the absorbers becomes quite hard, Steering becomes heavier, Brakes becomes firm and acceleration becomes quicker. It has paddle shifters behind the steering wheels.
My problem now is that on Comfort mode the Right side Front and Rear absorbers are firm and performing as original, however on the left side Front and Rear absorbers are soft whether on Sports or Comfort.
My mechanic ( good one ) has hooked the car to Xentry diagnosis, there is a function which displays reading of figures for each absorber, the front left shows a reading which is way over compared to the right front absorber. We decided to change the level sensors both front right and left units, calibrated the absorbers using Xentry. Yet the reading from the front left suspension is still much higher than the readings from the front right sensor. The absorbers on the left both front and rear on are still soft on the left side.
The Xentry does not show or indicate any errors.
The car sways left to right laterally in strange manner over speed bumps and does not handle as well as it should be at speed.
Kindly assist by suggesting ways to trouble shoot this problem.
Many thanks in advance.

Moto_Guzzi

What I noticed for speedbumps, is if I go very slow over them, the shocks relax completely about, it feels sloppy, and the car may scrape. If I however tackle the same bump a bit faster the shocks firm up and then is not relaxed as much, you can clearly observe this, and to my surprise it handles the bump better, off course if its a funny bump which is not smooth you cannot do that.
I was wondering if this is coupled to wheel speed sensors in any way, feeding the control unit wrong info about wheel speed-?, or one of the shocks(front) just failed without leaking-?

w204-888

Yes, there is a total of 7 sensors connected to the ADS Control Unit located behind the Glove box. 4 sensors are from the ABS ( speed sensors ) and Absorbers ( sensors for road condition ), 3 Sensors consisting of 1 accelerator sensor, 2 Yaw sensors ( 1 under front pessenger seat and 1 under rear seat ). The readings we saw from Xentry were done when the car was parked stationary. The left front absorber was showing a much higher reading than the right front absorber. My mechanic confrms that what I am complaining about the awkward handling over speed bumps and at speed could be related to this absorber. But there are no indications from Xentry that the absorber is faulty. We are trying to find a reason why the front left absorber is showing such a high reading. This could solve the problem as to why the front and rear left side is not functioning properly.

The front absorbers have sensors which sends signals to the control unit which in return variably activates the damping on each absorber. Since my front left absorber indicated an abnormal reading, we figure that it is sending wrong signals to the ADS control unit causing wrong signals to be sent back to the front and rear absorbers.

My mechanic has found the complete data from Xentry ( i think its a workshop manual ) which contain all information and steps to check and trouble shoot, about this specific car model using its Chassis Number.
We need to do some serious reading on this function "ADS" hopefully we can sort this problem out soonest possible.

Moto_Guzzi

Hi, while on this topic, I found & complained about it, that my car suspention feels like a total failure if I drive slowly(10-25Km/h) in C or S-Modes on a poor gravel road with surface ripples. They replace control unit, but made no difference. The car is good on tar roads. Have you experienced simething similar perhaps-?

w204-888

My car, before problem started with the left side was normal on gravel/pebbled roads. if i drove slowly over pebbled/gravel roads the car still felt good. However, now if I drove over uneven roads or pebbled/ gravel roads it just doesnt feel right at all, car rocks left to right in a wierd manner. When I have passengers in the car, it feels very bad.

We have used Xentry to diagnose but since there are no errors we are unable to pin point exactly what is causing this problem. Xentry just shows that the front left Absorber is giving a reading which is quite high but still within range. Rather close to the maximum.

Do hope someone knowledgeable in ADS is able to suggest some ways to do a quick check.