I have a c300 hybrid and the handbrake got stuck on and the car would not move so it got towed to a local dealership. They fixed the problem after 1 week but Mercedes will not let the car leave the dealership until a new wiring loom has been fitted as they have had a case of water getting into the loom and causing the brake to stay on.

My dealer has said they need to get a part made which will take 6 weeks and then they have to fit it but they have never fitted one.

It's not to bad for me as its a lease car and they have lend me a nice E class.

Just thought I would let you guys no.

 

I worried about stuff like this with the handbrake. Sounds like an unnecessary mess to me; keep it mechanical at the expense of the wow factor.

 

It's for space, not wow factor. e-brake give us bigger area for cup holders.

That's why BMW's cup holders still sucks.

 

Mercedes has had a mechanical foot brake, not handbrake, for decades. This is a gizmo, plain and simple.

 

To be convincing, you would have to compare failure rates of electronic e-brakes versus failure rates of mechanical e-brakes, either can fail. People made the same argument against electronic fuel injection, electronic ignition, power windows, and on and on and on...

 

Exactly the same happened to my car too. The handbrake lived it's own life and the braking light was on all the time.

My car was at the workshop for 7 weeks waiting for the new wiring, the ABS-unit and for the work to be done. Same issue as you, water. Verdigris caused by moister/water.

They worked at my car for over a week. Everything's working ok now, but it was a long wait.

 

And those things are more prone to failure than their mechanical equivalents, aren't they? I have better things to do than compare failure rates for the sake of proving someone wrong on the Internet. Thanks, though.

 

Well, just to play the devil's advocate...
points vs electronic ignition
vacuum controlled automatic trans vs electronically controlled
carb vs fuel injection
throttle cable vs electronic throttle

Complex mechanical systems are typically inferior to electronic systems with respect to reliability. Ask anyone who works in high speed manufacturing. Mechanical parts wear out and require rebuilding. Physics makes all of us her *****es, there ain't no way around that fact.

 

My point was that no, they are absolutely not more prone to failure than their mechanical counterparts, quite the contrary.