MagRide & VCDS

[barbalatte]

Interested how you guys finished with this project!?

 

[GSB]

Interested how you guys finished with this project!?

At a guess;
Broken car, bricked modules, headaches measured on the Richter scale. I’m sure you can add much sweariness and frustration, some measure of disappointment and finally the development of a fix so complex it’d be cheaper and easier to buy a car without Mag-ride in the first place.

 

[barbalatte]

Oh dear!

 

[DJAlix]

Interested how you guys finished with this project!?

Completed this on a a couple of vehicles now, both MagRide and DCC. Lots of work = very costly. These were project builds, and had their reasons, else I would have suggested the easiest and most cost effective way to “remove” magride would be to use an iSweep or KW canceller kit. The iSweep is what most people seem to go for. The KW works well when they send you the correct ones for your car.

 

[barbalatte]

Very interesting read. Looks like not everyone agrees here.

 

[A3SBQ]

One question. A friend of mine have a S3 8V. And installed airbag suspension. With the cancelation plug do you need to do some coding via VCDS also? He now have errors on headlights and som other small things because the leveling sensor is out of range!

Sent fra min SM-N975F via Tapatalk

 

[DJAlix]

One question. A friend of mine have a S3 8V. And installed airbag suspension. With the cancelation plug do you need to do some coding via VCDS also? He now have errors on headlights and som other small things because the leveling sensor is out of range!

Sent fra min SM-N975F via Tapatalk

Which cancellation kit is in use? If KW I bet they sent the wrong ones as there are differences between the A3, S3 and RS3 plugs.

Re the level sensors they still need to be mounted but because air ride has a pretty large possible drop it may well be that extra works are needed. In some cases, in order to anticipate potential drops magride needs to be calibrated an “offset” before removing / cancelling.

 

[Goner]

At a guess;
Broken car, bricked modules, headaches measured on the Richter scale. I’m sure you can add much sweariness and frustration, some measure of disappointment and finally the development of a fix so complex it’d be cheaper and easier to buy a car without Mag-ride in the first place.

Sounds a lot of ******* about for very little gain if you ask me.

 

[DJAlix]

Sounds a lot of ******* about for very little gain if you ask me.

Personally I think the Audi magride system is pretty amazing once paired and calibrated with a great set of aftermarket springs like the eibach pro or sport lines, however if you are looking for stance / building a project car then deleting / cancelling magride is something that needs to be done. An example of this would be the DH automotive TTs which Ross used to run. That car used to have suspension related errors with coil overs fitted which caused all kinds of issues, from throttling back on drag and track runs to ride quality. The car thought it was gonna bottom out and also come off it’s springs so safety systems kicked in. To resolve the “issues” we refitted the magride, calibrated to a ride hight which would be archived with the coil overs, removed magride (calibration had to be done with shocks connected and under load) and fitted said coil overs with correct KW cancellers (had a3 ones which did not work) and all issues were resolved. We did not go down the physical route of removing magride 1) due to the time and effort needed 2) costs involved.

 

[GSB]

Sounds a lot of ******* about for very little gain if you ask me.

That depends on what you want.


Mag ride is very very good as designed. So if you’re the type to leave well alone and let the car do its job as designed, expect many years of excellent performance. Mag-ride is a quiet unobtrusive hero working diligently in the background, and like all the best active systems you never know it’s there. (When it fails, believe me, you know all about it. The car is almost undriveable).

The only down side is the lack of tolerance for modification. Its designed to run at a particular height, with a particular spring. If the owner deviates from this he cannot expect the same result as he would get with a ‘dumb’ suspension system. Mag ride will try to correct what it’s sees as an error, but will fail because of the owners changes. The result will be a suspension system operating in a less than optimum mode, effectively undoing all your improvements,

If you want to do things to your suspension though, either buy a car that’s not mag ride equipped, or budget for the likes of Alex to do some work to recalibrate what you have, restoring mag-rides performance, or remove it altogether, and pay out for the parts to fool the rest of the cars integrated systems that it’s still there and still working.

 

[Cmcristian]

Hello,
I’ve just mounted H&R springs on my A3 and i want to recalibrate the resting position of the magride. Can anyone help me with this? I’m from Romania and didn’t find anyone around me that knows to do this and at my Audi dealership they told me that the magride does not need to be recalibrated.
Worth mentioning that I can get access to a vcds or ODIS interface if the recalibration could be done remotley.

Thank you!

 

[DJAlix]

If you have access to a VAS interface then I can perform a remote Calibration for you.

 

[Cmcristian]

If you have access to a VAS interface then I can perform a remote Calibration for you.

Great, thanks, i will talk with my friend who has the interfaces and ask him if he has a VAS interface and let you know. If he has it when will you be available to perform the calibration?

 

[DJAlix]

Great, thanks, i will talk with my friend who has the interfaces and ask him if he has a VAS interface and let you know. If he has it when will you be available to perform the calibration?

Best to contact me via:

VAG Car Coding™ Limited WhatsApp = 07950 737 899

 

[Arandax]

I own an 8Y S3, was thinking about lowering with Racingline sport springs (-20mm), is it possible to recalibrate Magride system on 8Y too?

 

[Kerionite]

Hey @DJAlix,

I own a 2015 S3 Prestige sedan with mag ride lowered on H&R Spring although the car looks amazing the ride over the past 6 months or so after cresting over 50K mile has progressively turned into a bone shattering experience. I would like to keep mag ride but the cost of the mag ride shocks is too high and I feel as if even if I went down that road and purchased the replacements it would not really let me dial the height of the car. After a full afternoon of reading I have come up with the idea of purchasing a set of the Bilstein B16 IRC coil overs and plugging the Bilstein shock's Magneto Rheological Coil input wire on to the Output of the car and ditch the control module that comes with the IRC kit.

I have a VAS interface and I would be more than happy to shoot you some cash for a few extra pints if you are willing to embark on this. I don't require much besides a suspension height adaptation after I splice the shocks in to the connectors.

As for the parts and connections.

If I'm not wrong and please correct me if I am the Audi Mag Ride control module applies current to a coil that acts as a electromagnet and slows the flow of ferrofluid in the shock body. Coils used require 2 pins to operate and they themselves are very simple components and connect the same way between both OEM and B16 IRC shocks.

Stock Audi MAGRIDE rear shocks

Bilstein B16 IRC

Let me know your guys thoughts,

PS yes I'm familiar with the fact that coils have different properties but I'm feeling adventurous.

 

[Forbzeeee]

Hey @DJAlix,

I own a 2015 S3 Prestige sedan with mag ride lowered on H&R Spring although the car looks amazing the ride over the past 6 months or so after cresting over 50K mile has progressively turned into a bone shattering experience. I would like to keep mag ride but the cost of the mag ride shocks is too high and I feel as if even if I went down that road and purchased the replacements it would not really let me dial the height of the car. After a full afternoon of reading I have come up with the idea of purchasing a set of the Bilstein B16 IRC coil overs and plugging the Bilstein shock's Magneto Rheological Coil input wire on to the Output of the car and ditch the control module that comes with the IRC kit.

I have a VAS interface and I would be more than happy to shoot you some cash for a few extra pints if you are willing to embark on this. I don't require much besides a suspension height adaptation after I splice the shocks in to the connectors.

As for the parts and connections.

If I'm not wrong and please correct me if I am the Audi Mag Ride control module applies current to a coil that acts as a electromagnet and slows the flow of ferrofluid in the shock body. Coils used require 2 pins to operate and they themselves are very simple components and connect the same way between both OEM and B16 IRC shocks.

Stock Audi MAGRIDE rear shocks
View attachment 250820
Bilstein B16 IRC
View attachment 250821

Let me know your guys thoughts,

PS yes I'm familiar with the fact that coils have different properties but I'm feeling adventurous.

What did you decide to do in the end?

 

[Hen_RSQ_F3]

Hi,

Sorry to bring up old thread, but I have been trying really hard to search for answers and can't seem to find any..

So my car is RSQ3 F3 and I opted for RS sports suspension plus.

I believe the system installed is one generation after magride based on this post here

DCC with Drive Select

Hi Everyone, I've set my sights on the new RS3 Sportback Carbon Black, and have a question about the DCC Drive Select damper option: Is this achieved with different specification dampers or is it a software option that is enabled when the car is built? The reason I ask is that I'm mainly...

www.audi-sport.net

My obvious question would be: Do I still need damper recalibration like magride? since the car seems equipped with height sensors.

I lowered the car using KW height adjustable springs (keeping OEM damper) -3cm front, -4 cm rear and the headlight adjusted accordingly just like OEM without me fiddling with the headlight screws..

Ride quality comfort to be honest very much OEM like, but I just want to be sure the damper isn't over stressed or overcompensating Thanks so much! @DJAlix or anyone who could chip in

Cheers

 

[DJAlix]

In very simple terms as I have posted about this in detail before, these systems calculate how much power to supply, or not supply, to the dampers based off the resting height of the vehicle. You have offset this so the control module will not be working as intended. If you have done this for “fashion” and are happy with the way your moobs / boobs shake then it’s all good. There is nothing that says you have to calibrate but if you intend to drive “spirited” then you will find the car is not as controlled as it should be or indeed behaves as it should.

 

[Hen_RSQ_F3]

If you have done this for “fashion” and are happy with the way your moobs / boobs shake then it’s all good.

Not for fashion, not sure if it is really exhibiting moobs/boobs shake since it's only less than a week since its been lowered.

There is nothing that says you have to calibrate but if you intend to drive “spirited” then you will find the car is not as controlled as it should be or indeed behaves as it should.

Yes I intend to drive spiritedly and so far I feel OEM like, perhaps I need to drive more spiritedly to tell the difference,, I don't do track, only highway run (not in UK obviously)..

Not trying to argue here, just need better understanding that's all, reason being guys at Audi dealer said they don't have adaptation procedure for sports suspension plus (only can do air suspension). They said my car came with height sensor, so the damper will adjust itself just like the auto levelling headlight.

Well I trust indies like yourself more obviously.

So I asked them to ODIS the car anyway and managed to capture this screen, they have no idea what to do with it and me too lol..

I have read the the whole post from page 1 to 5 and yes I realised you have mentioned vastly different adaptation procedures between magride and valve system.

Anyway here is a SS from ODIS, rear adaptive damper from my car (RSQ3 f3 83A512009) and also another one from Tiguan allspace (5QF512009G) just for comparison sake.

The tiguan owner lowered exactly like mine using KW -3cm front, -4cm rear, and he described the same thing.

Thanks again for your valuable inputs

 

[DJAlix]

Not for fashion, not sure if it is really exhibiting moobs/boobs shake since it's only less than a week since its been lowered.


Yes I intend to drive spiritedly and so far I feel OEM like, perhaps I need to drive more spiritedly to tell the difference,, I don't do track, only highway run (not in UK obviously)..

Not trying to argue here, just need better understanding that's all, reason being guys at Audi dealer said they don't have adaptation procedure for sports suspension plus (only can do air suspension). They said my car came with height sensor, so the damper will adjust itself just like the auto levelling headlight.

Well I trust indies like yourself more obviously.

So I asked them to ODIS the car anyway and managed to capture this screen, they have no idea what to do with it and me too lol..

I have read the the whole post from page 1 to 5 and yes I realised you have mentioned vastly different adaptation procedures between magride and valve system.

Anyway here is a SS from ODIS, rear adaptive damper from my car (RSQ3 f3 83A512009) and also another one from Tiguan allspace (5QF512009G) just for comparison sake.

The tiguan owner lowered exactly like mine using KW -3cm front, -4cm rear, and he described the same thing.

Thanks again for your valuable inputs

Is all good and totally understand where you are coming from.

let’s look at the “Audi said this” thing, and a little off topic…. Audi said the following Q7 needed a new MMI and £2700 but turns out it was a broken wire:



my point? Dealerships don’t really know what they are talking about I am afraid.

as explained in the other post, technically the control module needs to know certain information in order to perform as intended. It gets this information by way of a calibration. The level sensors let the control module know how much lower or higher the vehicle is from the calibrated baseline, which at the moment on your vehicle is incorrect, so all calculations are going to be incorrect. The current ride might be ok for you, nothing wrong with that but technically the system is not going to work as intended. Track the vehicle or show it some fast corners etc and you might start to experience throttling and other unwanted side effects because the control module thinks the vehicle might be about to bottom out or maybe come off it’s dampers. I remember the automotive addiction club sport mk7 had this issue at Spa, dave Henderson’s RS3 had this at pod and crail, same with Aoon’s PFL RS3, Dave7R’s DAZA m7R also. Once calibrated the vehicles behaved themselves and no Christmas lights on the dash. Actually the club sport was solved by bending the level sensors as they did not have the correct interface trackside for me to remote in, and the DAZA DCC was coded out.

not sure what else to say. You asked if you needed a calibration, technically yes but if you are happy with the way the springs are working for you then it’s all good

 

[Hen_RSQ_F3]

Is all good and totally understand where you are coming from.

Thanks!

let’s look at the “Audi said this” thing, and a little off topic…. Audi said the following Q7 needed a new MMI and £2700 but turns out it was a broken wire:

View attachment 268664

my point? Dealerships don’t really know what they are talking about I am afraid.

Yes, perfectly aware of that, especially the famous "haldex just change oil no need to replace (gen4) filter or clean strainer (gen5)" lol.

as explained in the other post, technically the control module needs to know certain information in order to perform as intended. It gets this information by way of a calibration. The level sensors let the control module know how much lower or higher the vehicle is from the calibrated baseline, which at the moment on your vehicle is incorrect, so all calculations are going to be incorrect. The current ride might be ok for you, nothing wrong with that but technically the system is not going to work as intended. Track the vehicle or show it some fast corners etc and you might start to experience throttling and other unwanted side effects because the control module thinks the vehicle might be about to bottom out or maybe come off it’s dampers.

Ok noted, sounds horrific, I have a friend who has VCDS hex+can, is it doable? or still ODIS only?

I remember the automotive addiction club sport mk7 had this issue at Spa, dave Henderson’s RS3 had this at pod and crail, same with Aoon’s PFL RS3, Dave7R’s DAZA m7R also. Once calibrated the vehicles behaved themselves and no Christmas lights on the dash. Actually the club sport was solved by bending the level sensors as they did not have the correct interface trackside for me to remote in, and the DAZA DCC was coded out.

not sure what else to say. You asked if you needed a calibration, technically yes but if you are happy with the way the springs are working for you then it’s all good

Not happy if the system doesn't come to a complete understanding over time, calibration is the way to go no doubt..

OOT: talking about understanding over time, I hate pre-sense. Everytime I disable it, it automatically reactivates itself upon engine restart , truly annoying. So I sticked RS emblem on the square box underneath the front bumper and voila! Everytime I start the car, a warning something like "audi ps functionality restricted due to surroundings, check owners manual" pops up and pre-sense is completely disabled no matter how I drive. I don't use adaptive cruise control, so no biggie..

After the car has done over 10,000 kms, one day, when I started and drove the car, the warning no longer pops up, either someone stole the badge or it fell off somewhere or so I thought. Lo and behold checked the front and its still there, what a load crap, that annoying ps ding ding came back and stays this way until now..

Advanced algorithm?