Shock actuator fault after KW coilover conversion

If cutting the wire stops the warning coming on, then it might not be a good idea to put an earth on that yellow/green wire as we were earlier speculating. I wasn't sure if the 550 display needed power or an earth.

As further evidence for cutting the wire and not adding an earth, I see the Bilstein suspension unit on the F355 has the same green/yellow wire on pin 10 of the yellow plug. The suspension unit has a different part number, but the plugs and most of wiring colours seem to be the same. On the 355, there is a lamp rather than an icon on a digital display and an earth is definitely required for lamp illumination as the instrument panel provides a constant voltage to the other side of the lamp.

The only differences between the 355 and the 550 I can see are related to additional functions:

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These differences also provide some clues as to what you might be losing by using non-electronic aftermarket shocks.

I concur with Dave regarding the harmlessness of "cutting" the wire. It's only an indication circuit. By the way, pin removal tool kits are quite cheap .... cutting is not required

 

I just cut the wire and crimped male and female connectors on the wire so I could connect it again.

 

KW comes with a delete plug as part of the kit.
360trev can tune out the error message through the ecu.

There is no limp mode on the 575 with the suspension disconnected and aftermarket coilovers. I doubt the 550 would have anything limp mode with coilovers.

 

I'm not actually sure if my pal is using KW or some other brand. Cant remember what he bought to be honest. Stock suspension is certainly very different between the 575 Sachs system and the 550 Bilstein system, even if they are mechanically interchangable.

360Trev could tune this out, but it wouldn't be through the engine ecu. Partly because he's not got into the Me5 stuff, but also because the Bilstein ecu is raising its fault code with the cluster over a dedicated line rather than over CAN (like the 575 Sachs ecu does).

 

Can anyone with experience using KW coilovers on a 550 comment on the change they made to the driving dynamics of the car. Thank you

 

Long story short, what you'd expect from a modern performance Ferrari.

I am running a 1 way (MSC) coilover on my daily driver/canyon carver 575 and KW is 2 way. My car is flat under acceleration, braking and turning while maintaining the status of most comfortable car I've owned in recent history. It was a massive improvement over stock as the standard 575 felt more like a Bentley to me than a Ferrari (many dissent). The amount of added grip transformed the car and really made it enjoyable.

The 2 way damper adjustment of the KW makes abrupt dips at speed and coming off of speed bumps more comfortable as you can control how quickly the damper compresses and rebounds independently.

My car has a very aggressive stance, so my coilovers are dialed in to accommodate the very small amount of fender gap and not have the tires rub. If you're running a more conservative ride height and tire you can go with more comfortable settings.

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Nick- Yup, your very early 575M came with a poor shock ECU, 183960, so I am sure the ride/handling was compromised by that ECU. Should make a good paperweight now.

 

I’m resurrecting this old thread because I’m at a crossroads with my 550 and the KW V3 coilovers. The kit is a Novitec is licensed product and I’m told all the kits from KW for a 550/575 are. The issue is that it only connects to a 575(skyhook) style top mount, and the warning light deactivation part is also for a 575.
If anyone has experience with this kit and a 550 can share some insight with me it would be greatly appreciated.

 

I did motor double adjustable in my 550. Can’t you just change the kv top mounts to fit the 550? It has been years since I did this. I cannot remember what the top mounts look like. How different is the 575? Ferrari too lazy and cheap to make a significant change on Version 2.0

 

I’ve ordered the 575 top mount hyperblocks to add to the KW’s but now I’m having difficulty finding the top mounting brackets that also have 2 versions(old/new). I’m just surprised that KW sells this part as a 550/575 application but doesn’t address this design difference.

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post picture top of the KW shock unit

 

The shocks are currently at the shop doing the work but I have these images.
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From memory the 550 chassis has a center hole then 2 or 4 holes around the big hole. The shock unit studs go through the perimeter holes and the center of shock protrudes some out the center hole and you just just bolt right up. I doubt the 550 and 575 have a different hole in their chassis while the shock are known different in configuration. I'm not sure what the problem you are having?

 

Those shocks also do not look adjustable. If they do not adjust I'd rather keep stock adjustable shocks, revalve them and change the spring rates.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I’m having a Ferrari specialist do the installation and he identified to me that because the top mount design on the 575 is different vs the solid ball joint on the 550, the kit would only work if the car was retrofitted with the 575 hyper block style top mount. I’ll get more details on Monday.

 

Stan- Likely you need the older style 575M mounts. The later ones were introduced late in production at AN 55769 (SN 138xxx) and not too many 575Ms had them.

 

Taz,

is the steel chassis shock receptacle the same over all 575s?

 

I secured the 4 Hyper-blocks (part 204606) the issue now is finding the original fastening cup plates front (part 204627) and rear (part 204507).

 

FBB- Affirmative, they changed the shock and shock mounts late in production, but the chassis hardware is the same. To upgrade an earlier 575M to HGTC shocks, you also need to buy the new shock mounts.

 

That’s what I suspected. Then any shock package should be complete and just bolt it. Ferrari uses terms like flanbloc hyperbolic. Who knows what that means. My guess is an insulating bushing. For performance that’s not what you want. You want direct connections at penalty of increased NHV. The 550 needed the msw top mount change to stop the junk in the truck. The 575 never had that issue probably because of the 575 Top mount shape and materials. NHV is inversely proportional to performance.

 

That computer on the bottom does not look like the 575M suspension error delete units.

 

Those are KW V3 coilovers, so they have independent compression & rebound adjustment for the damper along with adjustable spring perches.

 

Thank you guys for all the feedback.
I’m still waiting for the correct top brackets to come in, the ones that were sent are to tall so there’s a quarter inch gap above the top mount. I’m not sure which version bracket was sent(1st or 2nd gen)
I talked with the engineer responsible for all the Ferrari applications at KW and all he could tell me is that the engineer responsible of this part retired 4 years ago. Also, all Ferrari KW applications are Novitec licensed.