Dad3Sons

C4 Forum Gods -

My 96 C4 front shocks are sacked and leaking. Need to replace the F45 shocks. Anyone have any experience or advice with bypassing the shock sensors? I've read most of the forums about just pull the fire for the system, or take the light out of the engine information center. I don't want to do that. Want to maintain the system as much as possible but install regular shocks.

And anyone have any experience with the following product from EBay??

http://www.ebay.com/itm/F45-Shock-Ab...dWRNJU&vxp=mtr

Thanks in advance!!

Joe C. from NorCal.

odxr

Those are probably just resistors to fool the shock ecm into thinking the shocks are connected .You could get an ohmeter and check the resistance of the front shocks then get a resistor that matches the reading .Cut the pigtail off of the old shock and solder the resistor to it.If you look up a wiring diagram of your car on Alldata you can find out how many other functions of the car are handled by the ride control ecm.If the ecm only controls the shocks I would just pull the connector at the ride control module and put a nice set of Bilstiens on all 4 wheels and forget about it.

WVZR-1

I've seen 200Ω mentioned as required at the connector to turn off the DIC warning. I would think you could buy terminals, the connector shell and resistors for much less than eBay offering.

I don't know why you'd NOT want to remove the bulb in the DIC and just remove the fuse as most do. You REMOVE the shocks and "THERE"S NO PORTION OF THE SYSTEM TO MAINTAIN". Bag the harness ends if you like and done.

Dad3Sons

Well, a year has gone by and just today I decommissioned the F45 system in my 96 Base Coupe. Pulled the motion sensors out of each wheel well, dropped the shocks, and pulled the fuse out of the ride control module located in the well behind the driver's seat. Replaced the shocks with some KYB Gas-a-Just units. The whole project took about 3 hours.

My car has about 125k miles, and I didn't know how bad the original factory shocks were. Didn't realize how harsh the ride had become. What a difference those new KYB's make!! The whole car sits almost 1" higher than before, which is good. Most of the local roads I travel are pretty crappy. Much more comfortable now. I like my car again...

Also, no DIC warning light. No codes.

Next month, new tires...