I never paid attention to the thing before apparently, but busy with my wheels, this sensor caught my attention, and made me wonder,
what is it for...?

Is connected to the lower front A-arm, and thus senses the movement of the suspension (wheel travel), but why?

Anyone?

 

Dynamic suspension.

 

Me has base (see sig), so no dynamic suspension ;-)

Even if I had, what is the exact purpose of the thing?

 

Front and rear ride height sensors are used for the headlight leveling system.

 

Looks like we have a winner
Makes me wonder how the algorithm used would look like, to avoid the headlight motors going crazy, and running overtime.

 

The sensor provides feedback to several subsystem. From light height to ABS/DSC to AWD control on AWD cars. Should the sensor indicate a very loc car, it will disable AWD. It is used by DSC and ABS to determine the optimal pressure to apply to each axle (this is just one of the sensors used along with gyro, accelerometers, angular wheel speed, steering angle, speed etc).

 

In other words, gone are the days of simple cars (with some exceptions)...

Thanks