I put in the regular shocks today for the rear today and added the 2 ohm resistors but the ADS light is still on. What do you guys recommend. Thanks.

 

I replaced my rear air shocks today with regular shocks and put 2 ohm resistors at the sensors but the ADS light is still on. The ride is very smooth but the ADS light is on. What do you guys recommend? Thanks.

 

Check page 7 of this thread. MacgyversMullet's post. Those are the ones I used and I rarely have the ADS light come on in Sport mode.

 

Thanks for replying. In his message he mentioned that he used 1 ohm resistors. I used 2 ohm, you think this is why the light is still on? Did you solder the resistor to the sensor? I only used electric tape.

 

I only used electrical tape. Not sure about the resistance.

 

Did you use 1 ohm or 2 ohm resistors?

 

I used the ones in mullet's post. He stated they were 1 ohm.

 

I wonder if you can just remove the 'electronic' from damper and hide it somewhere in the wheel well or in the engine compartment. This should silent all warnings when pressing either comfort or sport mode.

 

The warning light turned off by itself last night. I guess I had to drive on it for a few days in order for it to turn off.

 

4 Corner ADS replacement with Non-ADS

Thanks for all of the valuable insight and feedback on this process. Exactly 1 year ago I replaces my ADS rear shocks with new ADS rear shocks and one is going bad already. I have one front shock making the famous "clunking noise" everybody has written about. After reading much of this thread from beginning to end, I will be tackling all 4 corner ADS replacement with the Non-ADS shocks. I ordered the OEM front assembly for the simple plug & play and I also ordered the KYB rear shocks. I will replace these myself in Mid-August and also attempt the resistor hack for the ADS light.

 

Thanks for all of the valuable insight and feedback on this process. Exactly 1 year ago I replaces my ADS rear shocks with new ADS rear shocks and one is going bad already. I have one front shock making the famous "clunking noise" everybody has written about. After reading much of this thread from beginning to end, I will be tackling all 4 corner ADS replacement with the Non-ADS shocks. I ordered the OEM front assembly for the simple plug & play and I also ordered the KYB rear shocks. I will replace these myself in Mid-August and also attempt the resistor hack for the ADS light.

Post some DYI photos, when you do your work.

 

Essentially it is not a modification. It is a restoration to Base or Tech suspension. The buyer will be delighted that there is now a reliable, stable and affordable suspension on the vehicle. If you sell it privately you can note that it is a Base/Tech suspension.

 

hello mdxers, here is my homework.

English is my 2nd language, so I don't know how to write an appropriate disclaimer here, the photos are just for demostration purpose, you are at your own risk when modifying your ads system. I disconnected my battery before I started, and you must have an anti-thieft code for your audio and nav system before you disconnect your battery.

My understanding is that there's no way to turn off the ADS system seperately once you have one installed, because ADS is fully integrated with VSA system to work together.

 

What are the magnets for?

 

just try to stick the resistors to the the controller box

5 Ohm 10W resistors are not good, I got the ADS light back again, I've switched to 1 Ohm 10W X 4 today and will see if they work or not.

 

hi

is your front left ads assy still available?

 

I replaced the brake pads for the rear yesterday. The moment I removed the tired, I was like $%#@. The magnetic shock absorber leaks fluid. This after I replaced the front struts/shocks about month ago. Any, does anyone know what is the torque specs for the upper and lower bolts?

 

I completed the ADS swap 1 month ago on my 2010 MDX Advance. I started getting knocking noises over low speed bumps around 100k miles from the front. New OEM front strut assemblies from acuraoemparts.com and KYB rear shocks from rockauto.com My results:

- Handling feels spongy compared to the ADS system in sport mode, and braking distance has been reduced significantly, I'd guess 10-20 feet from 60 to 0. The corner near my house that I felt glued to the road at 60 mph when I bought the MDX now feels like the body is going to roll off completely at anything over 50 mph. The noises are all gone, and it's better than a malfunctioning ADS, but it's a major downgrade from the ADS system and it drastically changes the driving dynamics of the MDX. If I had it to do over again I'd cough up the money for the ADS parts.

- Front pinch bolts were rusty and I stripped a nut out and had to tap it. Wish I had paid the extra $30 for new pinch bolts and hardware. I'd highly recommend this if you are planning the swap.

- Rear lower bolts were also extremely rusty and one was seized, Again wish I had purchased new hardware (at minimum new lower bolts)

- I used 1 ohm 10 watt resistors from eBay. I kind of doubt that 10 watt rated resistors are really needed but I used them since that's what everybody else had used. The ADS light has remained off for 1 month except for a single time when I had to brake extremely hard to avoid hitting someone (was still getting used to the reduced braking distance). As soon as I restarted the vehicle the light went out and has stayed out for the last 3 weeks and 2000 miles.

Thanks to everyone who posted previously, I read this entire thread and I felt well informed going in.

 

Your post made me feel I've made the right choice by replacing ADS for ADS. Yeah $3500 later. Just completed the last rear-right this past weekend.

 

Me too, this is the post I was looking for. I drive my cars hard and have to take other postings with grain of salt, as most people never approach the handling limits of their cars, and won't even notice things that I would find unacceptable. I guess I'll start saving for ADS shocks. Fortunately they went on new cars up to 2013 so should be easy to get them for several more years...

 

I have blown front ADS struts, so I purchased KYBs, strut bearings, and caps for the non-ADS. I got it torn down and the ADS spring does not seem to seat properly in the non-ADS strut. Also, the non-ADS strut is marginally shorter than the ADS and even if the spring did seat properly the spring could not be compressed enough to fit bearing cap on the shorter strut. For those of you who have done the front conversion, have you replaced the spring as well?

 

So what happens if we run some wiring to connect the rear sensor shock wiring to the removed front shock sensor plugs.

Shouldn't that provide a faux-input that should be valid as input..? The rears still get their own correct sensor input and the fronts get the rear sensor input that is unused..

Then, it should work in comfort and/or sport modes.. It will be nice to have a set of pre-made wiring it it works. There may be a lot of demand on those wiring harnesses.

AC

 

Haven't been to this thread for a while, so I am checking to see if anyone has come up with a definite front and rear resistor set up to fool the ADS system. I have been driving with the light on for about a year now and I am going crazy!

 

I am checking to see if anyone has come up with a definite front and rear resistor set up to fool the ADS system.

I might have.

I installed a 5ohm 22w 5% in the FRONT, and the 1ohm 10w 10% in the REAR.
It has to be in COMFORT mode....when my wife wipes the car down, she touches the comfort button, switching it to SPORT, which will trigger the light again...shutting key off and switching back to COMFORT mode will guarantee NO LIGHT.

At first I had the 1ohm 10w 10% in the FRONTS...because I did the Front shocks only, then recently did Rear shocks.
Anyways, the light would come on randomly, regardless of comfort or sport modes.
I personally think the 1ohm is too weak for the Fronts or Rears, but I kept it anyways.

 

Does having it in comfort mode change any thing else? I have a 2010 Advance with 55k. I had one fornt ADS replaced under warranty at 48k now the other front is clunking and one rear is leaking. The ride has become terrible. Thinking of trading it in! Or spending $800-900 on oem base suspension all around

 

If you buy used non-ads springs off eBay and new KYB shocks/struts, it should be around $400-500 instead plus labor. Most likely you'll also want to buy new end-links while you're at it.

 

One more success story :29: . I have an MDX 2007 elite w/158K and my rear shocks were really bad. The local dealer quoted me $700 plus Tax plus installation for each ADS shock. After reading this thread, I decided to go with regular shocks. I bought one set of Monroe and 2 resistors (1 Ohm, 25 watt). Replaced the rear ADS chocks with the regular ones and installed the resistors to the plug. The ride now is much better comparing to the bad ADS shocks. No ADS warning so far even when switching from Comfort to Sport (finger crossed).

 

Thank you for all the great advice and part numbers in this thread!

I have ordered the parts and plan on doing the swap the weekend. I'm not too worried about the rear shocks, but does anybody have any advice or tips on swapping out the front strut assemblies? I did order new bolts and nuts as was suggested, any other tips? A step by step DIY guide would be great if anybody has anything. Thanks again.

 

Hello All, thanks for the great thread!! I have a question for you converts, how is the ride quality after the conversion, compared to a working ADS setup? I'm looking to buy an 07 with all 4 shocks needing replacing, priced out the parts and labour, it's about 1/3 the cost to switch over to the non ADS struts, so I'm trying to figure out how much of a difference there is

 

Just picture the comfort level, owners of the base model is happy with....still luxury ride comfort. Absolutely nothing to complain about.

Buy the 2 front strut whole assembly from Acura, and aftermarkets for the rears.

 

What do you guys know about the Active Damper Controller? Here's my situation:

1) I complained to Honda Canada about the air shocks on my 07 MDX Elite need to be changed.

2) They offered to pay to for the part and I would pay for the labor. They also offered to pay for the Stroke Sensors because it was on the assessment from dealer that showed the shocks need to be replaced.

3) The stealer did change both the rear air shocks and the 4 stroke sensors and charged me 6 hours for labour.

4) Now the ADS light is on and it was not on before. The stealer claims that it is the Active Damper Controller that needs to be replaced and the light is on because it is not working.

5) The active damper controller is around $1000 plus labour.

6) I am screwed now because Honda Canada refuse to pay for it and I am stuck with the ADS light on my dashboard.

What do you guys suggest?

The explanation that the stealer gave me is that the Active Damper Controller was not working in the first place and the ADS light didn't show on the dashboard because the stroke sensors were not working as well. AS soon as the stroke sensors were replaced, it triggered the error with the ADS light on my dashboard to show that the Active Damper Controller is not working.

 

Update: I did the conversion today, with a twist, my mechanic said he can re-flash the cluster to remove the ADS warning all together, and disable the ADS system, so he did, he took out the cluster, did some of his magic, now the ADS system is totally gone, the button no longer does anything either(no changes on the cluster when pressed)

Got the front strut assemblies from Acura for about $300 each
Got the rear shocks from RockAuto.com (KYB GR2) for about $60 each


Also, the drive is obviously better! Thanks for all of the great info

 

I just recently bought a used MDX from a dealership. The rear shocks were like pogo sticks so I looked into it further. The front ADS struts were replaced with the base model struts but the rears were still ADS. I replaced the rears with some KYBs and the MDX drives great. I tried to use the resistor trick to get the light to turn off but after a few attempts at the wheel wells I figured I'd fix it at the control module. Turns out, the previous owner removed the module.

So, short of buying a new module just to turn a light off (which seems silly), what is being flashed to remove the warning light in this post? Can it be done without the module in place?

 

If anyone is interested, the shop that disbled ADS for me is in the GTA,(Mississauga) and is called Autoscan, 905-896-2210.

 

Thanks for the info BananaX. Did you get the parts yourself or did they order them for you?