Just wondering if anyone has had any luck lust putting in normal rear shocks in where the multi stage/ adaptive ones have been installed?

In Australia the Arnott ones are problematic as difficult to get a core exchange ( so I am stuck with original at around $1000 to $1500 each - while good after market Monroe standard shocks are only about $80 each)

I tried just unplugging the shock but got an error on dash

I was wondering if there is a "delete" for them (like a resistor between two pins etc - as in the OM642 intake motor delete)

The two real shocks are leaking badly and will need to be changed soon

 

If you’re gonna do that then you gotta do it on all four corners. And then figure out how to code or resistor out the error message.

 

I have a shock out so I will measure resistance between the 3 prongs and see what I get

Would have thought that it is just a valve that can open and close to allow more or less restriction for the oil flow, so the piston can move easily (valve open - softer ride) valve closed - harder rider?

Does anyone have a pinout of the 3 pin plug, or even a description of the operation of the system?

Have prowled the web but not found anything of use - sofar - except some mob selling modules at a ridiculous price

 

I will play this game. Arnott has two shocks for ADS. One is remanufactured and uses old OE cores. This version retains the OE ADS functionality. The second SKU is new shocks which are custom valved/tuned, according to Arnott. These use a resistor to defeat the error message. Each shock has one resistor. I have the latter SKU (long story short, I ordered the wrong type when I replaced my rears) and had issues with one of the resistors. Arnott sent me a replacement of the whole resistor assembly and harness to replace.

How fast do you need the information?

I can probably disassemble and remove the faulty resistor from the housing. I wanted to do that anyway, but just left it on the back burner. Pinout? I might be able to trace that for the rear shocks. Not sure how that would translate to the fronts. Chances are I won't be able to get this going before Sunday afternoon. That would be Monday in your corner of the Earth. Yes, there are no corners in a sphere! I'm on the East Coast in Canada. If you want the pinout quicker, WIS would have it for sure. BTW, I haven't used WIS. I'm a little too masochistic and reject following directions for some things. I do look things up sometimes, though. Can't afford to be too confident with Mercedes disassembly/reassembly. My pockets aren't so deep. Lol If you want to trace the pinout on your end, I can do it on mine end as well and we could compare notes. I also have the OE shocks.

You could try to remove the solenoid housing from the shocks and keep them plugged in and attached somewhere on the chassis or the new shocks. I'm not certain how the OE shocks and solenoid are assembled together, but the new rear Arnott shocks have two bolts holding the solenoid/resistor housing to the shock body. Two rubber grommets cap the holes where the bolts pennetrate the solenoid housing. I can post pics tomorrow of that tomorrow.

Edit: I just noted you need the rear only. Pardon and scratch my rambling for the front.

 

Many thanks explorer - I like your sense of humour - must be a colonial thing

I am not in a hurry at all - 2 weeks ish

I have measured resistance across the pins of the shock plug (there are 3 conductors) and I am calling the pins as follows - (couldnt see if there are numbers on pins but I am getting on and eyes can't make anything out - so hopefully below makes sense)

calling pins as follows
1 is 9 oclock
2 is 12 oclock (not 6 oclock if you get my drift )
3 is 3 oclock

between pins 1 and 2 get 22.2 ohm
between pins 2 and 3 get 11.3 ohm
and
between pins 1 and 3 get 11.3 ohm

interesting that the lower values are half of the upper value - don't know if this is relevant

I suppose if you have one you can get into with the Arnott resistor you can see which pins it goes to - probably one side of resistor should read close to dead short to that pin - and then go to other end of resistor and see what pin it is dead short to. Hopefully it is simple and only 1 resistor. I know it is with the intake valve motor on the OM642

I wonder if you just put a multi meter across the pins of the resistor plug and hopefully it will be open circuit between 2 pins (and other 2 should have above resistance - wither 22.2 or 11.3 ohm).

I do have a WIS but I find I get lost in it - it is a dodgey ebay copy and operates really cluncky

hoping you have a multimeter

I wait to hear from you at your leisure

Many thanks

 

My schedule got packed up a little more for tomorrow, so I got an early start. Multimeters are a must when dealing with electrical components courtesy of Bosch, Siemens or Grundig. HA!

Drift registered loud and clear!
Following your harness/pin nomenclature, the Arnott resistor values are as follows:
#1 @ 9 o'clock
#2 @ 12 o'clock
#3 @ 3 o'clock

pins values
1-2 22.7 ohms
1-3 11.1 ohms
2-3 11.6 ohms

I would consider my measurements "close enough" to yours. I think the resistor values should be similar.

here are some pics of the Arnott resistor housing. Please pardon the dirt on and off the housing, the sale flyer, the ginormous size of the photos and my hand (high res) in there.

Housing 1

Housing 2 (with label)

Harness attached to housing with bolt. A plastic cap (removed here) covers the screw cap.

Harness removed. Both sides of the housing look the same.

I also measured resistance at the pins after removing the harness. values were 11.3 and 11.1 when measuring each side. Crossing/mixing pins on both sides did not render any values. There was no reaction whatsoever from the multimeter.

I also measured one of my MB solenoids. There I noticed the harness has the pins labeled as follows (this is only FYI, I will continue to use the already established nomenclature):
pin #1 @ 3 o'clock
pin #2 @ 12 o'clock
pin #3 @ 9 o'clock

Again, using our nomenclature, the MB solenoid values are
1-2 21.9 ohms
1-3 11 ohms
2-3 11 ohms

I need to figure a way to disassemble the housing further. It is not as easy as twisting and uncapping by hand. At least not at 11:30 pm tonight. Looking at the housing itself, I think there are two resistors - one on each side. More on this tomorrow.

FYI, the OE MB harness and Arnott's seem to be the same. Both fit equally well on the Arnott solenoid. I don't think one can easily remove the OE solenoid from the OE shock. It seems welded or attached very securely. I could not see any obvious attachment points, unlike Arnott's where two screws go through the solenoid housing and thread into the shock's body.

 

Wow - that is a great response - many thanks -

Sorry about taking a long time to reply - have been thinking it over

I will stick with my nomenclature at present - If I succeed I will clarify at end of thread

Am I right in saying the 3 pin harness is only 2 pins by the time it gets to the solenoid? Or is that the other end of the solenoid? - following is only relevant if I am right in this assumption.

If it is, could you take a resistance reading across the plug on the valve body - I am wondering if it is very low resistance? - less than 1 ohm

Could you check resistance in the short harness - from the 2 pins in the valve end to the 3 pin plug - I am thinking there will be an open circuit (possibly pin 1 or 2) and other will be 22 ohm - to possibly pin 1 or 3? if so which pins.

I could be totally wrong. But hoping the there could be 2 resistors - both 11 ohm one between pins 1-3, and other 2-3 the solenoid is actuated by pins 1 and 2? (or 3 and 2?) and the 2 resistors in series are making the 22 ohm?? - through pin 3 (or 1)

Boy - hard to describe - I read it back and still get confused - I might have it totally ballsed up

 

No problem at all. I should have taken the harness and solenoid with me. Sitting in a car waiting (and responding), I would have had something productive to do. I won't be able to measure again till later this evening.

How is the valve body connected to the shock? I am not following your train of thought here. Or are we talking about the same part? Valve body to me is the part which distributes air to the air struts/airbags.

Excellent observation about possibly two resistors being wired in line, thus giving the sum of both resistors when measured between pins 1-2. I did not think about that as a possibility. I'll measure continuity of the harness wires and report back to confirm, but your theory is very plausible.

 

sorry with reference to valve body - I am assuming that it is a valve mounted to the side of the shocky - and in the Arnott case it unbolts - sorry about that

If there are two resistors in line it would mean the "centre" pin is just there to annoy us

 

Not to worry. Now we are on the same page!

More high res pics, minus my hands this time.

You were right! There are two resistors which are wired in series. In the second photo, I captured the wiring to the contact points of the resistors which allowed me to replicate the 23 ohms measurement.


Arnott harness continuity test. Note that the wires from pins 1 and 2 are closer to the shielded wire running between the two contact point "plates". Also, the harness loops around the solenoid body but the diagram does not capture this. I drew it as if the wiring was stretched out.

Arnott Resistor resistance test. Black croc clips are connected to contact points for #3 pin wire. Red croc clip connected to contact point to #1 pin. Red multimeter lead connected to contact point for #2 pin.

On a separate note, I've got a brochure from Bilstein which explains how their ADS shocks are designed to work. I would say that's the OE shocks are designed in a similar way as well. I can't seem to upload it, but here is a link to it living on my google drive. I have a feeling it's too big to upload.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s7M...ew?usp=sharing

 

Many thanks

That is logical - the harness has one common ( pin 3) which goes to one side of each coil - and the other 2 pins to the other side of each coil

I have so much oil and dust on mine I can't see - will degrease and see if that makes sense.

The bilstein catalogue is helpful it shows 2 valves/coils - I assume each has a resistance of 11 ohm? I was previously working on the assumption there was only 1 valve/coil.

I will try an 11ohm resistor between 1 to 3 then 2 to 3 - Hopefully I can do this this afternoon - I have some very small resistors which should blow if they pass too much current - the pins are small so it can't draw much current anyway

Will get back to you when I have done this - many thanks again for all this - it would be great to not have to keep putting in $1500 of shockies every 100,000 - 200,000 km

 

Looking fwd to your results from testing the resistors. Happy to be of use in this project so far. Let me know if anything else might be helpful, if I could do it.

I think that the easiest test would be to remove the harness from the solenoid body and plug the resistors into the harness. The OE harness is attached to the body the same way Arnott's is. Remove the rubber plug in the middle of the cap. This will expose the head of a hex bolt. Remove the bolt and wiggle gently the plastic cap, which is part of the harness, up. There is a silicone gasket which seals the contact points from outside world dirt, dust and other crap. Repeat with the other side. Break cleaner should help remove some of the grease. Good luck!

 

Many thanks for your help I really appreciated it and valuable input

WOO HOO
I think we have success - your thought re pulling off caps was great - I didn't realise they came off the little rubber cap is such a tight fit it looked like it was a sealed unit.

I only have 12 ohm resistors (was considering putting two 22ohm in parallel to make 11 but didn't have enough 22's so didnt) I had 10ohm but thought the computer might think it had too little resistance and thinking a valve was failing so stayed with 12ohm

I just doubled the end of the tails on the resistors (so they were fatter- probably not needed if you use bigger resistors with fatter tails) and put them into the female of each of twin plug ends. I then put both the caps together and wrapped up in heap of insulation take

I then unplugged one shock and plugged it in - have just jambed this new "resistor pack" on top of the rear subframe and took car for a drive - (will tie it in better when I change the shocks over)

I had warning on dash and the sport light (on shock switch) was on and would not come off

Scanned it and got code for both the valves on the corner I did. I was a little worried had wasted time BUT

I kept deleting the codes (weirdly it took 2 goes) and then it came up all clear,

Took for short drive again and all still clear, pressed the shock switch and could hear air come from the suspension valve body when I put it on sport (as it should as it is lowering slightly) lights on this switch seems as normal.

So HOPEFULLY the error just came up because I had unplugged it (even though the key was out) - I think I had this before when I unplugged it

I will retest in the morning and let you now of any problems

 

Excellent!!! Great to hear your success! Happy to help here. Hoping that the error does not come back. If it does, you may have to play with different resistors. When I had my troubles with Arnott's resistor/harmess, the error would come up as soon as I started the car. ADS would be stuck in Sport. I could clear the code which would also release the suspension from S, and could move between the different modes. Once I stopped and restarted the motor, the error would come back. I didn't even need to take the car out of the driveway.

I'm thinking that the resistor may be just off from the necessary rating to keep the error away. Also make sure your connections are good. I don't hear a click when I connect the ADS harness, but make sure it can't be pulled apart. Sometimes it's a pain to get it all the way in.

 

GRRRRR

no good

went to car today and error came up - same thing I could delete message and it would go out for a few starts then come back on

I then tried 2 of 22 ohm resistors in parallel for each plug - which gave 11ohm precisely - still no good (maybe even harder to clear)

I have gone back to the old setup and no codes

Had the thought that probably the resistors behave differently to the valves (with current draw etc)

I might think on cutting the valve housing off a broken shock and see how I go but for the moment I will just think on it

Am I right in thinking that the Arnott ones might do this? Is there two valves in the bolt on housing? even though they are not connected to the shock hydraulics etc?

 

Unsure if the Arnott has any valves. The way the housing looks with the two screw holes, I doubt it. I've not tried to open the solenoid housing yet. Probably won't be able to get to that till late this week. Maybe Friday.

What is the error you see? Is it the same as when the harness is not connected? Anything to do with "open circuit"? Just curious here.

I'm wondering if the wiring's resistance is just pushing the value outside of the expected range for the ADS module and it complains. The resistance from those tiny wires should not be much. Maybe .01 ohm? I haven't measured, but it should be negligible. I'll measure and post resistance for my harnesses either later tonight or tomorrow.

I would measure resistance of the resistors alone and in the wiring harness for giggles. Check continuity as well, for giggles too, or shnitzels (my German term for the other word in "****s and giggles").

 

Sorry about late reply - one of those days

I get codes 5250 , and 5240
check component Y53y2 (and Y53yf) left rear solenoid valve (1 and 2) in assembly Y53 left rear damper unit - can't remember if that is same code as unplugged - SO

I went and put the car on the hoist (which is old) to unplug the shock and see if same code - when the hydraulic line on the hoist blew (car a metre off ground) - covered me and the car in oil but luckily was able to lower the hoist slowly enough to not damage the car - spent next hour cleaning car, me and the shed of the hydraulic oil - then the afternoon pulling out hydraulic lines to get them remade - oh yay. - so will get to shock in a few days (or when I get hoist back togethor)

I was thinking that Arnott may just use an old valve assembly (with valves) if they couldnt get resistors to work - thinking they would just have made a sealed plug (with cast in resistors) otherwise.

Is the ADS tied in with rear (or front) SAM?

 

As an update -
I got motivated and decided to bite the bullet and cut the valve housing off a dead shock
really not nice job - NOT - oil everywhere - did it with a 1mm disk on grinder and smoke as well (from oil) but oil didnt catch alight - which was definately a possibility - cut it off through the metal between the shock tube and valve housing

I wrapped the vacant holes (I think they align where the "bolt" holes in explorers photo above) in heaps of tape - keeping a little of the oil in housing to lubricate the valve. - I could clearly see one valve/piston when looking in one hole

So I took out my resistors etc and put the plugs back on the valve body, plugged it into the car and have tucked it all above the sub assembly frame temporarily - have taken the car for quick trip - stopped and started - scanned and rescanned - changed sport/luxury heaps of times and DO NOT have any codes - yay. So possibly it can be done (but messy) but I will check in a week

I would like to see if explorer finds anything in the resistor pack he has - I think he doesnt have the "pistons" in the housing but maybe the coils are there and that cannot be emulated by a resistor

I have to leave the car for a week so I will check it again when I get back

(hopefully I will have a hoist back running then so don't need to lie in the dirt - will also see what codes I get if I leave it unplugged)

 

My turn to apologise about the slow response from my end. I think you encountered reason #37 why I don't like working on old cars.... supporting equipment malfunctions. Murphy's Laws strike again!

I found old pics I had taken and can confirm that 5240 and 5250 are the errors ADS throws when the harness is unplugged.

It's interesting that you have space for holes/bolts on your valve housing unit. I thought that you'd have a continuous cylinder where a magnetic disk would move vertically. It looked like the unit was welded to the shock, but I did not look that close on mine. Tomorrow I'll find a way to disassemble the resistor housing from Arnott, hopefully, and report back. I still think that you should be able to plug in a proper resistor in the harness and silence the error. But we shall see...

 

Sorry about late reply
I have had login problems - away from office for a week and can't login off mobile phone - and laptop too - ended up redoing password so can get in through laptop - if I could login with phone I would take some photos

Thanks for confirming codes I have are same as disconnected -

My "valve" cylinder is very like yours (but mine shows mangle marks from the angle grinder)

I think I have a flat on one side around the 2 holes - this is where there is the connector plate which I cut through to remove (flat like on one side of yours with above photos) and the other side (outer) in my case has no holes (like yours has been drilled through (from other side) to allow fixing?

When I look in my holes I can see what I assume to be piston (valve) covering one of the holes

I wonder if the ends come off (maybe the 2 holes have a special spanner?)?

In your photos it look like you can see straight thru the cylinder - so the piston (valve) must be removed? but perhaps the coils are still left in the ends

Did you get a chance to look into yours? -

Once again sorry about delay

I am away and won't be near the car til friday (or thursday night) but will scan car then and see if it has accepting the cylinder on its own still

 

Well, my turn to apologise for the slow reply. I hadn't had time to do anything with the housing till today. I looked it over and think that the "caps" which have the contact points for the harness are threaded into the cylinder. There must be a special socket/spanner/key to fit over them. Of course, it's seized up with dirt so it was not as simple as applying some brute force to get things unwound. I applied some Deep Creep and will let it soak for a bit tonight. If that does not do anything, I'll cut the cylinder open (and hope that I don't damage the important parts inside). Will report later tonight with the inside details.

I am pretty sure that mine does not have pistons in it. I did not look at the OE shock to see how the ends might be attached, but it does seem logical to have them threaded and sealed with a grommet. I don't think there is any need for fluid in there, just to keep dirt out of the small cylinder. Just to confirm, when you cut yours open, you did not have any fluid in there, correct?

I also measured resistance of the harness. I get 0 ohms for all three wires. That was to be expected, considering the harness length.

 

I am still having login issues - can't login from mobile (or I would send some pics) - sorry about delay

Went to car yesterday (been more than a week) and no error messages so it seems to work having the whole cylinder there

I definately had fluid (shockie oil) in the cylinder - it seems to go to the shock through the 2 holes - they had a tube and rubber seal inside the block that I cut through - I wasn't sure whether there is a switch in there that tells the computer what end the valve (piston?) is at, that what my thinking with leaving some fluid in the housing when I wrapped it up - but it would be great to know what is inside you Arnott one. I agree I dont think there will be a piston -

If there is no switch I wonder if the resistance changes when the valve moves to one end and stops - and the computer is then happy - it would be hard to replicate

 

This is what my valve housing looks like. Can see what seems to be a piston and perhaps an actuation rod in the other hole.

Also it dawned on me that I may have been using too small a resistor. I just upped them to two 22ohm 5watt resistors in parallel each end. This gives me 11 ohm at 10 watt each cap. I used wire wound resistors so they should behave as similar as practical to a coil

Sofar no codes. I think the previous resistors may have blown I did put a dc clamp meter on one of the wires before the plug to check current but failed to get any readings when someone toggled through the shocks switch. Can only assume the current is for too short a time for the clamp meter to measure

I did some calcs with the voltage equals current times resistance and hopefully got about 10 watt

I will see how it goes and report back. Will also see if I can find the previous resistors i use to see if they are blown

 

I'm back from the dark side. After enough of this and that getting in the way of the important things in life, like disassembling (I use this term lightly here) the Arnott resistor housing, I had a chance to cut through most of the Arnott assembly.

The ends are threaded in. I could not twist them off so I cut through the exterior in several places which allowed me to peel off one side. I made the assumption that both sides are the same, I see no evidence to the contrary.




The thread ring was next to go.


Then I was left with what looked like the housing for the resistor. It looks to be a one-piece mold. except at the bottom there is a seam. Notice the bottom has what looks like a bolt head, but that it is not.



resistor housing with the thread ring. At the bottom there is a rubber gasket.

bottom of resistor housing. This is not a screw, at least there does not seem to be a way to remove this with any type of key.

thread ring around the resistor housing, cut off

This housing is thicker than the rest of the bits and of course, as Murphy's laws would have it, I was on my last heavy cutting wheel for my dremmel. The light ones of which I have plenty, of course, are next to useless. I will need to stop by the hardware store tomorrow afternoon to resupply with the heavier ones and finish the cutting. I wanted to see what was inside, hence the "window" cut. It seems like the dark piece is plastic. At least it's much softer than the metal which surrounds it. I will have to cut along the circumference, perhaps use the channel at the top of the channel at the bottom where the rubber gasket was. Less chance of damage to internals that way, too.
h

resistor assembly

Edit: P.S. ignore the oil. That's penetrating oil I used to soak the ends in my feeble attempt to unscrew the ends.

 

I bought by mistake one used ADS shock for my non-ADS MB X164.
Is there any difference between ADS and ordinary shock, when the solenoid is not engaged/energized? Is the valve port closed so the dampening characteristics are same on both? They are identical except the ADS cylinder.
Thank`s