1991 500SL ASR light, disable traction control

[allanb888]

Over the last year I have experienced increasing frequency of the SRS light coming on in my 1991 500SL, and then the car going into limp home mode. Eventually it started happening every day, sometimes a few times a day.

I know this dreaded problem has been discussed many times before in this forum.

The cost of replacement of the Electronic Throttle Actuators, which are the most likely cause of the problem from forum posts, is very high, and I intend to eventually remove them to check if they need rewiring as detailed at
http://v12uberalles.com/throttle_actuator_rewire.htm . This would take quite a bit of time, and would disable the car for a while. Actually I thought that because complete rewiring would require that the plug be cut open, which is fiddly, I would use heat shrink over the existing wires, only requiring unsoldering one end. Apparently the problem is because the insulation around the wires breaks down.

In the meantime, as a quick solution, I disabled the ASR by cutting 3 wires in the wiring loom just before it plugs into the ASR (and ABS) computer, after pulling back the insulation. I got the idea from another member's post about installing the RENNTech ASR defeat switch. The switch is installed by cutting the same wires, and flicking the switch, connects and disconnects the wires as required. In my car they were blue/white, brown/blue, and brown/yellow wires.

My car now drives very nicely, and I removed the ASR dash light globe, since it was on permanently. The snow traction control switch red LED light is on , but I can live with that.

Previously the traction control rarely came on when I was driving, and I do not miss it at all. Where I live in Australia there is no ice or snow, and I suppose I previously got used to driving high performance cars before the introduction of traction control. By the way, I previously installed a first gear start device, which would make it easier to spin the back wheels.

I firstly wanted to share my experiences in case it can help someone else.
Secondly, does any one know if you get more power in a 500SL by switching off the ASR? Any other advantages in installing an ASR defeat switch?