baubaulu

How many people here love the SBC?
Has anyone here got the adaptec light system on your MB?

BudC

There are two things I don't like about it.

• High maintenance costs. If I could continue to do my own brake work it wouldn't be so bad, but when I have to pay a dealer $100/hour to replace rear pads and rotors far more often than with my past cars, I'm not a happy camper.
  
• Poor ergonomics in stop and go traffic. I find they are hard to modulate.

I'd much rather have the big Brembos on the current S-Class. Nevertheless, I wouldn't trade cars to get rid of SBC for something that simulates it's features. BMW have done that on the new 3'er and it's got some problems.

CE750

you should set up a poll in you post.. but I vote YES.

I love it, and would expect MB to have something like it in all future cars.

steph280

I don't have any problems with it other than that annoying pump coming on every once a while. It's rather loud.

mbbodytech

I love it! Great system.

OK, I don't own a car with it, but do drive ones regularly that have it, so I am speaking from experience.

CE750

Interesting thing about that pump.. it seems like on my car it used to come on when ever I opened my door after a few hours delay in using the car, but now I don't hear it anymore.. is it supposed to be less frequent as the car gets older? or should I have it looked at?

MB-JIM

I believe that the SBC system provides the safest braking you can buy BUT, I have never liked the it's strange sounds and brake feel. I do believe the SBC on my 06 E350 was much improved over my 04 E500.

I'm very impressed with the new 350 engine combined with the 7G transmission. If it wasn't for the SBC with all its possible negative ramafictions I would feel I had an ideal car in the E350.

Few would agree with me, but I'm getting the 06 C350 to replace my E350 in order to take advantage of the great 350 engine combined with the 7G and have a mature car with standard brakes.

Bode

My 06 E350 was built in april 05. The electro hydraulic SBC brakes work just fine, also in stop and go. I wonder when you have a problem whether it is matter of going to the dealer and get it fixed.

I also own a 02 C240 with hydraulic only brakes, I do not feel the 06 E350 is a step back in braking. The contrary, the 06 E350 (is obviously) many steps foward in allmost all directions (new V6, the 7 speed gearbox and the DC airmatic (appearance package) are great).

CE750

Both the '05 CDI (build 4/05) and '06 E350 (build 4/05) that I bought this June have perfect braking, and brake feel. I couldn't ask for more. Very sure footed.

I think SBC will go down as a + in the W211 column for safety, and it's offshoot technology will be in every future MB and other brand car to come. My Volvo actually has a Brake-by-wire system similar to the MB, and with similar good feel, so clearly Volvo found a good use for this technology.

sacguy

I like the brakes on my 06 E350.

MB Fanatic

Both my 2004 E55 and 2006 E350 have superb braking. I would not give up this power for any other braking system that tries to simulate what SBC can do.

jparch

I would have to admit that the SBC took sometime to get used to, but I love it and would not trade it for a conventional system. I can't believe Mercedes is not going to continue it on the E

lig

Hated the artificial feel. Granted I had a very early W211 - but it is the thing I miss the least about the E.

JimPurdy

I much prefer my W211 to the W210 brakes. I feel like I have to hit the brakes extra hard to stop quickly with the 210.

ajm0824

You might wann check out the great post about changing your own breakes.. Might be simpler than you imagine.

https://mbworld.org/forums/showpost....4&postcount=35

BudC

Thank you, I saw that. I was glad to see I could continue doing my own maintenance so even if pads and rotors wore out far more quickly, the cost wouldn't be so bad. Unfortunately, a couple of new knees has pretty much stopped me from doing it.

Even if I could still change my own pads and rotors, I haven't figured out where to put a jack stand if I used the car jack to lift the car. Mercedes have removed those rubber bumpers that they had for years (more cost cutting).

jangy

I love my brakes, too. It sucks that MB has had so many issues with it. Actually, it looks like a dsingle developmental defect that has finally been fixed. The problem is that MB is losing too much face in the reliability department to continue to push the electronic gadget envelope, so we may lose. Personally, i love the toys. The MBs are just a different level from the others.

p.s. MBJIM (or whatever). You are one whacked out cat, if you think a C350 is ANYWHERE near the car that an E350 is.

BudC

What issues has Mercedes had with SBC? What defect has been fixed? There have been no issues other than pumps wearing out on taxis. I don't know of any defects that have been fixed or need fixing.

jangy

There have been 2 recall campaigns. Both for the same fix. The first came out last year, but was not a good enough fix. The new one is now being implemented. MB is prioritizing the second round of recalls with all of the cars that are effected. My point in all of this was that if you look into why MB is doing what it is doing, you will note that the SBC is not the problem. The system simply had a few minor design flaws (i.e. bad ground connectors, etc.) that ended scaring people. Failure of the system simply means no power brakes. Others have claimed complete brake failure. I have not experienced anything odd about them. They are different. No doubt on that. They take time to get used to, especially if you like to throw the boat around. They also happen to use more back brake than would a standard system, but that is a performance enhancement. Most cars rely far too heavily on the front end for braking. MB is actually making the front end act lighter by attempting to get some of that momentum / mass on the rear side of the car.

Either way.. I love the electronic ride on my car. The airmatic, the SBC, the awesome steering rack, etc. Screw the rest. My MB is the perfect ride for me.

BudC

As I've explained until I'm blue in the face, the first SBC recall did not fix anything!

All it did was add a counter of brake applications so that a warning could be provided to take the car in for service when the number of applications passed a certain number. As I've state before, we will never drive our cars long enough to see that message. The second recall is to ensure that a cable connector does not come loose. These are not the same recall!

CE750

Bottom line, SBC is fail safe.. you still have brakes (just not power) if the electronics fail.. and what MB should stress thru their dealers to those of us buying SBC cars is that if you have no brake peddle resistance, press them all the way to the ground hard and the car will stop (just with a longer distance).

baubaulu

Is the SBC sucessful? How about the life time? Can i change other break pads instead of the original one?

Jakpro1

THIS IS AN ACTUAL STORY FROM A FORUM MEMBER

IN JUST ABOUT ANY OTHER SITUATION, HE WOULD HAVE DIED A HORRIBLE DEATH OR AT MINIMUM SEVERE LIFE THREATENING INJURY....

makes ya think twice.

One of these stories WITH DEATH makes the news...Benz is toast.

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Join Date: Mar 2005
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Posts: 109


E55 with NO BRAKES!!
Took my E55 out to work today. Had a nice drive, I was out seeing a couple of different customers. I'm driving along at about 80mph thinking, God I love this car. Then, all of the sudden my computer starts screaming at me "Brake Failure Stop the Car". I don't really panic to much (still thought I had some brake left), I'm on I95 and it's fairly open. I start to pull off on the shoulder and I really have NO BRAKES. NONE! The pedal goes to the floor and the car does nothing. I coasted to a stop and call roadside for help. After waiting a couple of hours for a tow, the truck shows up and now I can't get the car in neutral to let him pull it onto the flat bed. He had to call in another truck and it took over an hour for him to get there. My car just clicked 1100 miles. I wouldn't have ever thought the brakes would fail me so soon. Oh well what's 3.5 hours on the side of the road. At least I didn't wreck this thing. For what it's worth, I still love my car. Have any of you guys had anything like this happen to you? Sorry for the long post.

DJ


https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...&highlight=sbc


Here was DJ's folllow up post for those that might be thinking it wasn't SBC

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Location: Laytonsville, Md
Posts: 109


Thanks for all the advice guys. I am planning on writing a letter to MBUSA and letting them know what happend with the car and my concerns. I thought about this a lot today (riding the metro to the ACC tourney) and have kind of changed my attitude towards the problem. I still feel fortunate how and where this happend but, I am concerned more about what has this done to the car. Jakpro had a good point about what could happen later if this happens again and I'm not so lucky. Also, what has this done to the value of my car. It's on the record for anyone that knows how to do any research that the car had a brake failure. I would imagine my value is down a little. The dealer has mentioned nothing about taking the car back so far. I haven't mentioned either. They called me today to let me know that it was a complete failure of the SBC and that's what has to be replaced. I don't know anything about it. Maybe you guys can help out with that as well. nasdaqsam, please stop questioning me or my story. I ignored you the first time you did it but now you've done it for a second time. You don't know me. Come take a ride with me in any of my cars. I'm sure you will be able to see how calm I am behind the wheel. Like I said earlier, my E55 isn't my play car. It's my every day car that I have fun in. I have no need to bs you or anyone else. I don't know anyone on this forum and have no reason to try and bs anyone . It's just not that big of a deal. Now that's off my chest. Thanks for all you're help guys. If anyone wants to help me write a letter to MBUSA or if you know where or who I should start with, let me know. Thanks again guys. BTW the car was owned by a dealer in NYC, it's not a Challenge car.

baubaulu

I think we should go back to the conventional break system and not the SBC.

BudC

That's what's happening with the facelifted E-Class due next year.