I have a 99 SL600 that I think has a faulty body acceleration sensor in the front. First off, the ADS light is intermittent and mostly comes on when it is warm to hot out (I tried reseting the steering angle switch no luck). Second, when I start the car the front end just drops about 3 - 4 inches right off the bat and while driving the front is very bouncy to a point of having to slow down to 25 to keep in the seat. I do not see the accumulators being bad. I did have the codes read on it and of course these came back, body acceleration sensor, steering angle sensor and finally the ride height sensor. Now they all can't be bad, I think one triggered the codes for them all. So before I throw some parts at her what do you think?

I did look at the actuators and they looked fine. I do not think it is the accumulators due to the fact that when the ADS light is on the car is not bouncy and if I put it in sport mode the car is not bouncy. What is odd is when the car is started the front end suddenly drops 3-4 inches and when I mean suddenly I mean in one second flat. The shop also pulled the code for it along with the Level Control Lockout switch, BAS release switch and steering angle sensor. So I am just guessing could be the level control switch but I have no idea what that is.

I actually looked at the actuators and they looked fine, meaning the bolt was in the linkage and that they did not appear to be damaged. I have not pulled a line on the accumulators because I do not feel at this time that they are the problem because the car will go up and down and remain at the height. The problem is the front of the car goes up all the way and down all the way at any given time and no in between which leads me to believe that a sensor it the cause but which one? I don't think the Body acceleration sensors are to blame since this car has 2 in the front and the whole front moves up and down uniformly or level. I will look for that schematic to see if I can make heads or tails of it. Thanks!

Oh no, to many darn sensors on these things, I think I have got my hands on the service DVD's so hopefully they will shed some light on what the function is for all of these things.

Fixed for under a $1.00. I tracked down all of the sensors for the ADS and started to look at them one by one. Come to find out that the Body Acceleration Sensor had come loose and was hanging by the wires. Went to the store, got 2 bolts and bolted it back on and all is well. No more bounce and the front levels its self and it should