Address 34: Level Control
Protocol: KWP2000
Part No: 3W0 907 553
Component: LUFTFDR.-CDC- 3C1V0 7014
Coding: 0015500
Shop #: 00083
[Security Access - 16]
Enter 31564
[Do It!]
Coding
The suspension controller is controller 34. The normal coding for this controller in Europe is 0015500, and the normal coding for this controller in North America is 0017700. Each increment of one digit in the location where the 5’s and 7’s are is equal to a 5 mm increase in body ride height above the axles. If you change the coding of the suspension controller from xxx77xx to xxx55xx (the x representing digits you don’t pay attention to, and should not change), then you will eliminate the 10 mm upward adjustment.
So, using your diagnostic scan tool, change the coding of the controller, save your work, and close the controller. Now, because you have changed the coding, you must re-adapt the controller – otherwise, you will see a message in the Y24 display (the screen between the speedometer and the tachometer) telling you that you have suspension problems. In fact, this message will appear immediately as soon as you change the coding – don’t worry about it, it will go away once you have completed the adaptation.
Change the coding from xxx77xx to xxx55xx – no security code is needed or wanted for this step.
Don’t forget to save the work after you do this.
Adaptation
Put the car on a level surface. Make sure that the tire pressures are correctly set on all 4 tires. Get whatever you need out of the car, because you cannot open any doors or lids during the adaptation process (if you do open a door or lid, it aborts the adaptation). Roll the driver window down all the way. Plug the cable from the diagnostic scan tool into the OBD (on board diagnostic) connector, which is just inboard of the parking brake foot pedal. Run the cable out the open driver door window, and plug it into your diagnostic scan tool (now you know why it helps to have a bar stool to put the scan tool on).
Start the engine, and leave the car idling, in Park. Get out, and close all the doors.
Open the suspension controller (address 34), and enter the security code that is needed to give you access to the adaptation section of the controller. The security code is 31564 – this is the same for a Touareg or a Phaeton. Be aware that once you have entered the security code, you have initiated the adaptation procedure. You then have to fully complete the adaptation cycle – if you back out before the end (channel 5), your car will display a fault message, and the suspension system will be in ‘limp home’ mode.
Enter the Security Code
Once you have entered the security code, go to adaptation, and select channel 1. The Bentley will then move up and down a little bit, and eventually, ask you to enter a measurement. Measure the exact distance between the axle centerline and the bottom edge of the front left fender, and enter that value. Repeat this process for adaptation channels 2, 3, and 4, which correspond to the front right, rear left, and rear right wheels.
Go to channel 1, wait for the car to move up and down, then enter the observed measurement
Normally you have to wait about 1 minute until the car stops moving up and down, rarely longer than 2 minutes.
When the word WAIT disappears, and ENTER appears, enter your measurement.
software will occasionally 'hang' on adaptation channel 1. If the word 'wait' has not been replaced with 'enter' after 5 minutes, just dismiss the yellow guidance balloon (click on the X in the corner of the balloon), then enter your measurement, and click test, then click save.
How to make your measurements
Keep the ruler level, use a credit card to line up with the center of the axle. It helps to mark the desired measurements (401 mm and 407 mm) on the ruler with a felt pen.
Once you have entered the measurements for all 4 wheels in channels 1 to 4, you then have to go to channel 5, and enter a one (1) to save your work. Entering the 1 tells the controller that you want it to write the values to memory. If you don’t do this, you won’t successfully complete the adaptation.
After you have entered and saved the 1 to channel five, close the controller. Then get in the car, back it up about 15 feet, then drive it forward about 15 feet, so you are back in the original position again. Leave the engine running, and without hooking up the scan tool, take the 4 measurements again. You should find that the measurements are within 5 mm of the nominal distances – that is to say, 401 front and 407 rear if you have coded the controller with 5’s, and 411 front and 417 rear if you have coded the controller with 7’s.
If the measurements are outside of that range, or, if they are inside of that range but you want to make them more accurate, repeat the adaptation process again, starting with the entry of the security code. It’s not uncommon to need to complete two adaptation cycles to get things perfect. Once you are within 2 mm of nominal, stop, because that is about as close as you can reasonably expect to get.
Experience has taught us that it is kind of pointless to try to go through more than 3 adaptation cycles in one day. If you don’t get the results you want after 3 cycles, put the car in the garage and try again the next day.
Background Information
You can increase the Bentley ride height up to 20 mm above the nominal European settings – for example, if you had to drive the Dempster highway to the Arctic ocean, this might be worth considering, you would enter 9’s as coding values – but it seems that you cannot code the controller with a number that is lower than 5. You can try, but the controller won’t accept it. My guess is that you need to have a different security code (that we don’t know about) to enter values lower than the European norm.
Some people have managed to get the car to sit quite low on the axles by ‘fibbing’ to the controller during the adaptation process. In other words, they take the measurement, and if the measurement is, for example, 401 mm, they enter 406 mm. This tells the car that it is 5 mm higher than it thinks it is, and the car responds by sitting 5 mm lower when the adaptation cycle is finished. Personally, I don’t think this is a good idea. If you lower the car the ‘proper’ way – by coding – then do a truthful adaptation, the car knows exactly where it is at all times, so far as limits of suspension travel are concerned. If you fib to the car when you do the adaptation, then it will think it still has (for example) 30 mm of downward or upward shock absorber travel before it hits the physical limit of travel, when in actual fact it has only 25mm of downward travel, and 35 mm of upward travel. This will result in less than optimum suspension performance at all times.
