Matt W

HAHAHAHA, you know that feeling you get when you have figured something out after 8 years of the 2nd Generation Acura RL being out that NOBODY else has figured out how to permanently fix and for 2 pennies when Honda leads you onto replacing your AFS Unit for $600 dollars which really isn't the problem and then has you replace your rear leveling sensor (which really is the problem) for probably $300-400 at their shop. WELL I DO AND FUCK YOU HONDA. I have been holding this back for 2 weeks to test and make sure it works and fuck yes it works.

This is just a testament to the fact that ALL auto dealers screw you over on parts that are cheap to make.

Now lets have a little history lesson and explain how I figured this out and then let me show you how I am making sure they never sell another one of these sensors again.

So I have had my AFS error all summer long and it finally just kept coming on right away when I turned the car on so I figured this sensor was finally bad. I jacked my car up and took this POS off. Took it to my lab desk popped her open and this is what I see.



FUCK, okay this should be simple to clean up right? One of the gold springs is good, okay so pull that one out, okay I think I can clean the next one right? Okay I get the next one out, okay almost done lets get the last spring out, dammit it broke well shit what do I now....I am a college student who has a pretty good part time job but I am not ready to dish out $170 dollars on a leveling sensor so I got a better idea.....



SHEBANG! I AM A GENIUS RIGHT? A spring from a pen, a little cleaning, and some anti-oxidation cream is all you need right!!!? NOPE I put this baby back together and hook her up to my car and guess what, VSA error come up right away.

BUT READ THIS:
If your sensor is not to badly damaged THIS could very well work for you, so I encourage you to try this first because you could fix the sensor and keep what ever small functionality this thing was providing....sadly the contacts were to badly damaged on the other part of this thing and mine really was screwed.

SO LET ME SHOW YOU HOW I FIGURED OUT THE 100% SURE WAY TO GET YOUR AFS ERROR TO GO AWAY AND NEVER COME BACK AND HAVE WORKING SWIVEL HEADLIGHTS AGAIN

So lets take a look at the Systems Wiring Diagram of the Service Manual, here is what we see for the lighting system circuit....



MUAHAHAHAHA Do you know what this is (I Do) and if you have had any electronics experience you probably should too.

POTENTIOMETER

HA well that is great because I don't know the range of resistance, the diagram doesn't show it, and none of the other thousands of pages of the manual tell me the resistance range either.

How can I know the resistance...search the forums...shot in the dark but could work...THIS GUYS ONLY 2 POSTS ON THE FORUM are the most helpful posts ever to me https://acurazine.com/forums/showpos...0&postcount=46 he says the range was 4.5k Ohms for checking this resistor so I'll take his word, and guess what...when I had my car jacked up the sensor was in the middle position so that means 2.25k Ohms to each branch, well I give 0 fucks about what this vertical leveling sensor is doing, what I do give 2 fucks about is my headlights turning left and right and not having a error message every time I TURN ON MY CAR!

SO 4.5k / 2 equals about a 2.2K Ohm resistors and those are a penny a piece so this is what you need......



THIS IS HOW YOU FIX YOUR AFS ERROR FOR 2 PENNIES! use the plug that plugs into the sensor and plug this into it! Put some silicon on it some wire tape, whatever you have to do to waterproof it and YOUR AFS WILL WORK AGAIN

I shit you not, it is this simple, all the AFS unit will see is that that rear leveling sensor is not moving....like you are driving on perfectly level ground...so I'm not sure what this sensor does but who cares unless you really want to spend $170 on a sensor...

I will be using the old housing from the sensor and putting this inside it for a more OEM fitment but yes this works, tested it for two weeks!

Alright now somebody go make my freaking exhaust flanges.

vletnguyen

iTrader: (1)

Might look into it when my car does it again.. did it a few times last winter and hasnt did it since, no idea why..

Matt W

This is good that you can catch it earlier since I have posted this, Mine was really bad to the point that it was no longer working but as you can see one of my gold springs was in perfect condition, the second one I was able to recover but was rusted badly, and the third spring was completely bad, not recoverable.

If yours starts doing it intermittently again you should take the time to take it off, open it open, and you can clean off the gold springs by taking them off and using some PB buster or some other rust remover

If it goes completely bad and you do not want to pay $170 for another sensor you can use my second method (which I am currently using) which is the 2 resistors (I think this is technically called a current divider circuit), but the way the AFS Unit works is by measuring the voltage off of the 1 and 3 pins with respect to ground to figure out how far the sensor has moved in either direction. My bypass method just tricks the AFS into thinking there is a working sensor there and that the sensor is turned halfway (in the middle).

253RL

Where is this located exactly so I know where to look and clean?

Matt W

Jack the driver side of the car up on the rear jack point and you should see this in your driver's side rear wheel well.



Also as an update, drove to work this morning with my headlights, still are working after 2 weeks just using my "resistor bypass" method

DiabloSVRacer

can you explain into further detail how exactly how i would use the two current dividers

Matt W

There are 3 pins on the connector that connects to the leveling sensor. In my picture you would connect a 2.2k Ohm resistor across pins 1 and 2, and you would also connect another 2.2k Ohm resistor across pins 2 and 3. Therefore since they both share pin 2 you can solder them together like I did in the picture.

I am going to fit this circuit into the original sensor housing this weekend and will post more pictures and a video then. Right now though I extended 3 wires from the connector and have the resistors soldered on the end of the wires and it is wrapped in wire tape. I then just tapped this up in my wheel well for the time being.

oo7spy

Here's some reimbursement.

Good job.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

for the final pic

Matt W

It is coming soon! I might be making my own exhaust flanges so this might have to wait lol.

DiabloSVRacer

thank yhou

db22

I edited your post so that I could determine which college you were attending!

Matt W

[QUOTE=db22;14093041]I had more fucks in there before I edited the final post, I removed some so It didn't sound like my vocabulary was too limited.

I still don't know how you were able to determine what college I was attending from that though.

oo7spy

Matt W

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

this thread is finally worth the read

Matt W

Okay I have put the "resistor hack" into the original housing, no AFS errors..this should be a permanent fix for the life of the vehicle.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

interesting... the bewbs are still

Matt W

Yeah my thread might need to have the title edited to have NSFW at the end (which is where I first discovered your post lol)

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

haha

oo7spy

Well, that's were I found it, and I have Yahoo images set to strict filter.

I went looking for Little Red, but my memory told me Big Red. Stick Nebraska on there with it, and :BOOM:, . I just couldn't post Little Red after that.





When is bob going to get us that smiley?

nynruas

Wow, it's been a while since I've been on here and this is exactly why I came back. My AFS light comes on automatically everytime I start my car. It's been like this all summer, so I'm guessing the springs will be pretty rusty when I take them out. Also, I noticed that when I'm driving in total darkness, my beam only extends about 30 feet in front of my car and nothing but darkness all around. I've had a few near misses with deer and pedestrians because of this. I'm going to give this a whirl this weekend. As for your reference picture, I'm guessing that the plug at the 2 o'clock mark in the red circle is where I have to looK? Thanks for sharing..

Matt W

Yep I have no doubt this is your problem, you can either try cleaning the springs and see if there is a constant resistance sweep between pins 1 and 2 from 200Ohms to 2.2k Ohms. If the springs are really bad you can do the resistor hack like I did. If you can't figure it out you can send your sensor to me and I can fix it for you with the resistors.

As far as the lights go, are your headlights foggy...are your bulbs bad?

nynruas

Didn't get a chance to get to the AFS this past weekend.

My headlights aren't foggy nor do I think the bulbs are bad. It just looks like someone adjusted the aim of the beam downwards, like really downwards. I know I didn't do it...LOL. I'll see if I can take a pic of it and post it. Thanks.

pakman429

Mat W,
I recently bought a 2005 RL that had the AFS issue. The annoying light.

Read your post, my sensor was so corroded the legs of the plug were gone too. I removed the whole assembly, cut the wires and directly soldered 2 2.2K ohm resistors and voila, LIGHT GONE

If you were nearby I would definitely get you a beer/coffee but accept my thanks for now

THANK YOU!!!!

Ian Honda Lim

Hi fellow owners,

I have gotten my '06 manufactured Legend (RL) last year and soon after, I found that after every trip of more than 20mins and once I slowed to below 30km/h, the AFS light and "Check Transmission" Light would come on together. Those of you who have encountered the AFS light, does it come on together with the "Check Transmission" Light?

I was thinking if its linked. It always happens this way. The Honda service centre thinks it could be wiring problems.


Rgds,

Ian

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

Battery?

oo7spy

Fixored.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

what you did, I see it.

Jefftech

I did the bypass today & with 2.2K Ohm resistors placed inside the housing. When done, I only got 1.9 Ohms. I will try a nite drive to see of the headlights are lower or higher. Will post.

Jefftech

Thx Matt again, the levelling potentiometer (?) was badly rusted out. I installed two 2.2K Ohm resistors and sealed them inside the housing. After, I measured only 1.9 Ohms at each side and thought that the headlamp height might have been affected. I took the RL out tonite and there seems to be little to no difference in illumination distance. This is a great fix for a recurring problem.

oo7spy

What the multimeter set to the correct range, 2 vs 20k?

Matt W

Yahh! Fixed the problem for two people and saved them alot of money! Anyways just another tip for anyone that does this..if you find that the light aims too low or too high, then you may need to adjust the resistor values to aim it up/down.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

way to go Mdubb...

npolce

Thanks so much for this fix. Just completed it on Saturday. Worked like a charm. Both the leads and the inside resistor assembly had been corroded. I drilled out the connector and added the two 2.2Kohm resistors and epoxy'd the thing back together. Worked out great. Thanks again..

Jefftech

My AFS lite came on again after 1st repair using the resistor refit. Upon dismantling I found that one of the resistors had been rubbed by the movement of the actuator arm attached to the suspension. I replaced both resistors with 3K ohm (all I had one hand) & removed the actuator arm from the suspension. There is no further need for this actuator anyway, RL is happy
once again.

jonp2005RL

Hi Matt

So it's my turn in the barrel with AFS intermittently freaking out. Could you be a chap and refresh the images from the beginning of the thread. The links are broken.

Tanks a million.

oo7spy

Haven't seen him for at least a year. Try a PM, as I doubt he will see your post(unless he subscribed).

FoxRL

I always wondered about this fix - Does it:

1) just solves the Information message
2) Fixes the headlight to a "fixed position"
3) actually fix the swivel headlight and allows for proper use of said swivel headlight

oo7spy

The potentiometer changes the resistance based on the incline of the car. This mod sets the resistance to a constant that mimics the potentiometer when the car is level. You lose the vertical motion of the AFS but gain back all other functionality. The vertical motion is so minute, you won't ever miss it.