klenbore

Last night I had a young driver blow through a stop sign in front of me at and intersection. I was traveling about 35 mph, the other driver was going a hell of a lot faster than that. A collision was avoided by inches. There is no doubt in my mind the SBC brake system prevented a serious accident.

I’ve never had a complaint about the “feel” of the SBC brake system. It’s just a matter of getting use to it. After this ordeal, I sold on them. I am still in amazement how fast the system reacted and there wasn’t a collision........Bill

CE750

SBC rocks! I can't understand why anyone would complain about it.

klenbore

This is my 6th Benz since 1987. Trouble free in the 9 months I've owned it, and so far it's been my favorite. Looking back now, the two ML's I had previous to it were quite a disapointment.

MB Fanatic

It is people who refuse to change to technology who are *****ing about SBC, the new Comand Controller in the S, and many other safety features that MBZ has implemented into its cars. I personally ove the feel and power of my brakes on the E55 and E350. I seriously have no clue in my mind what people are complaining about.

DWP

The new S-Class doesn't debut in the US for six months or more, and people are already kvetching about its COMAND Controller sight unseen, let alone untried? Who knows? Maybe M-B will get it somewhat right, like Audi, not wrong, like BMW.

I've never had to do a panic stop in our E (knock wood, or whatever that stuff on the dash is) but I like the feel of the SBC in ordinary braking, and when I've had to do a heavy-braking stop from time to time, I've been very impressed by the braking force.

JimPurdy

I too have been impressed with the SBC performance. I had a driver blow a stop sign in front of me while driving at 35-40 mph. I hit the brakes very quickly and the car stopped so quickly that my wife and I thought we might have gotten bruises on our chest and hips. Yes, the brakes do require a little getting used to. I have to remember to hit the brakes in my 210 wagon a little harder or the other way in the 211.

konigstiger

Nope, can’t complain about SBC performance however, audible brake squeal well that’s a story for another day. Driving my usual 75 (yes 75 not 65 - cruise but of course) in the left lane of the 101 freeway and a fossil enters well below the speed limit without looking, causes the drivers in the right and middle lane to move one over simultaneously a short distance before me. SBC performed magnificently! I was a little worried about the Lincoln behind me but he wasn’t following that close and reacted accordingly.

CE750

I was following my friend in his SC430 yesterday on the 101 (at 56th street exit) and he got nabbed by a motorcycle cop for 79... they're cracking down too hard IMHO.. I can see if someone is weaving in and out of cars, or tailgating, but if you're keeping good distance and driving a car capable of safely operating at speed (not a gardner truck with lawn mowers hanging off) they really need to use more common sense.


I have to admit that I'm a critic of the new S class, BUT NOT for the "i-drive" or what ever they call it.. but for the over all execution of the interior.. to Ford Crown Vic for me... I like the E ****pit a lot better... A LOT.

Dvinn

I had a incident on the freeway where a driver rubber-banded back into my lane and slam the brakes, where if it wasn't for the SBC brakes I am sure my preminum would be a lot higher today.

DWP

You mean "cocкpit"? :p

CE750

how did you get it to do that? not sure what the forum has against the word..

ajm0824

One week into owning my first mb I was driving over the George Washington bridge in the left lane at about 50 with some congestion when a driver rubber-banded in front of me and nearly hit the divider on the left so much so that she came to an abrupt hault...

With no where to go I knew a collision was imminent so I slamed on the breaks.. the car however stopped well within time. My passengers though me funny for stopping so short.

Funny SBC brake feel or not I was much impressed with the stopping power the system provided and wouldn't trade it for anything.

mleskovar

The panic stop feature is found on all Benz models and is not a function of SBC. The SBC system is the reason I won't buy an E class....its noisy, the pads seem to wear quicker, it adds complexity to something that wasn't broken in the first place, it adds nothing to reliability and in fact decreases it by adding more points of potential failure. Other than the dubious value of pulsing the breaks in wet conditions what real value add do they bring that isn't already there?

DWP

I used the Windows Character Map utility to pick a character from the Cyrillic alphabet that looks like a "k", although I could also have picked Cyrillic "с", which looks exactly like a "c". In either case, the forum's naughty-filter doesn't interpret a word with a Cyrillic character as a no-no. The forum doesn't have a problem with the whole word "coсkpit", just the first four letters of it.

CE750

That's not the point. The point is that SBC isn't faulty like some are saying.. on the contrary I like the feel of the brakes, very sure feeling. I have a Volvo with Brake by wire and it works well too. I think when fly-by-wire first came out, many complained (some still do), but now the aircraft industry as adopted it fully. It's just a matter of time before brakes and steering are all "by wire"

BTW... I find nothing loud about my SBC.. Maybe I got lucky.

CE750

oh... like this "???Ä??????????" on my Mac.

CE750

ha.. most of the odd characters I put inside the quotes didn't register on the site.. oh well..

mleskovar

>That's not the point. The point is that SBC isn't faulty like some are saying

Big deal, so they work as well as traditional brakes and you're impressed? Once again, what's the value add other than an exercise in engineering excess? Cheaper? No. Less weight? No. More reliable. No. Quieter? No. Stop quicker/better/easier? No. Last longer? No. Easier to service? No. Give me one value add SBC offers.

>It's just a matter of time before brakes and steering are all "by wire"

Not if the new systems don't offer any advantaqes over the old systems. I can see where electronic inputs are desireable if they reduce complexity, weight, cost, increase reliability, and can be used for multiple purposes but SBC does none of that.

>BTW... I find nothing loud about my SBC.. Maybe I got lucky.

You don't hear the pump pressurizing the system? Is that nuisance totally eliminated now?

MB Fanatic

The noise that you talk about has been reduced to almost silent with a newer software upgrade and draining of the brake fluid. My E55 is now almost quiet with the SBC system, honestly its a small price to pay for safety.

ajm0824

Think about why they provided fora fly by wire system in the first place.
Allowing for increasingly complex machines that required an ever increasing number of "analog" controls to be controled with percision by more then just the top pilots.... maybe not the only/main reason, but certainly in the mix.

You want one benefit well here's one...

Because the driver's brake commands are processed by a computer, which also continuously receives sensor signals from each individual wheel and the steering system. From these data the optimal brake pressure is calculated for each wheel individually... Thats what computers are good for processing inputs from sensors to a percision that the human mind is not capable of... or at least not in the majority of people that are out on the road.

CE750

That I do hear whenever I open a front door, but only then.. not while I drive.. and that's all that annoying to me (actually it's kinda cool).. My Brother-in-Law has an Aston Martin Vanquish that makes a similar "hydraulic pump" sound when his doors are opened, except in that car, they're pressuring up the hydraulic clutch for the column shift.

As for brake-by-wire with SBC, I could be wrong, but an major safety advantage is the way the brakes can read your braking needs using predictive braking algorithms, etc.. that's a step in the right direction, is it not?

vraa

I hear the pump in every car I drive.

The SMG in the M3 is really loud and sounds the worst.

CE750

Yeah, that may be an issue in the gas cars, but in the Diesel we carry an extra 50lbs in sound insulation thru out the car (MB tech's words).. and this could be why I can't hear it while I drive... for that matter, I can hardly hear the engine!

vraa

Oops! I meant to be a lil' smarter in my wording. I meant when I open the door, or unlock or whatever. Right when I get in the car basically.

When I'm in the car, I can't hear over the samn exhaust.

mleskovar

These systems were already being used by MB (and others). Yaw/pitch/G force and individual wheel speed sensors have been giving input to MB's (and other's) braking systems/processors for years before SBC was introduced. No feature was introduced with SBC other than pulsing wet pads and that could have been done more effectively/safer/reliably/cheaper than SBC. Sorry to sound like such a humbug but SBC looks/smells/taste like crap and needs to be recognized as such. Maybe functionality will be added in the future to justify its use but the time is not now. Have they incorporated it to any other models in the two years its been out (I don't know) ?