hey guys,

First off, a big thank you to everyone who make this forum possible! It's pulled my a$$ outta the fire more than once.

Now I've got a problem with my car's ADS system. what happens is that when the car is run for around 30 mins or otherwise well up to operating temp, if you turn off the engine and turn it on again the ADS warning pops up on the instrument cluster. The LED on the ADS switch in the center console also illuminates, and the suspension stiffens up, as if the ADS was turned on. The ADS switch has no effect when this happens, with the LED glowing no matter what direction you flip the switch.

Turning the ignition off then on again doesnt help, the warning and the LED comes on right away.

Sometimes, the warning and LED go off while driving and everything is back to normal, but more often it stays on for the remainder of the trip.

what seems to be constant with this problem is that it always occurs immediately after start-up. If you start the car and the warning doesnt occcur within a few seconds, it definitly wont for the remainder of the trip.

Another constant is that it never occurs on cold starting; it always comes out on the third or so trip in the day, when the car has reached operating temps before it was shut off.

Any ideas on possible causes and/or solutions would be appreciated.

oh, the car is a 1997 W210 E50 AMG. I believe it's identical to the W210 E55 except for the smaller 5.0 engine.

Hi there,

Just checking to see if you ever solved this problem.

I have a car exhibiting the same symptom. Let us know if you ever tracked it down.

Thanks,

CR
97 SL600

no luck yet!

a few days ago i noticed what seemed to be rear suspension movement fore and aft when going down from a speed bump.

inspecting the rear suspension, there didnt seem to be anything wrong. all the bushings were fine, the axle was ok. all fasteners were re-torqued, problem still there.

it seems to be coming from the dampers- a part of the ADS system. the damper itself had no play, and the tech theorized it could be a problem with the flow of oil in the system. stuck or gummed up valves in the system? the oil pick-up in the ADS reservoir seemed awfully dirty.

still searching...

Just in case you havent found your problem yet,

Mine turned out to be a bad drivers side acceleration sensor. Took a while to nail down because it tested to spec according to my WIS initially but after exposing it to prolonged heat it failed the test.

The thing that got me on the right track was I have an electronic throttle control module cover on the drivers side of my car (129). It also covers the acceleration sensor, the wiring that goes to the fusebox, along with the ESP brake pressure sensor. I found that when I removed this cover to test the wiring and sensor and left it off, this dissipated enough heat so that the ADS wouldn't trigger a fault. as soon as I put the cover back on and drove it for a while (at least 30 min or so as you describe). ADS light would come on. I figured it had to be heat related resistance issue....

One thing that is different about our symptoms is that my console light would stay off even though the ADS light in the insturment cluster would come on.

Ultimately your issue sounds also like an electrical heat resistance issue. Perhaps you may also want to look at the damper valves (subject to exhaust heat) or see if the ADS stores a hard code (mine didn't). unfortunatley the only way to read those codes is with a HHT or SDS (dealer or really equipped independent shop)

Hope this helps you or someone else who may be experiencing a similar issue in the future.

Good luck let and us know what it turns out to be.....

--
CR

97 SL600