FlintCDI

Has anyone experienced an abnormally intense vibration from his or her cars SBC? I'm not talking about the normal priming sequence that it goes thought although it is similar but approx 2-3 times as loud and the vibration is quite a bit more violent. It has only occurred twice one when it was "awaken" by unlocking the car and the other was just after start up.

hotwiredbenz

thats probably the airmatic suspension. Its usually pretty loud when it adjusts. Mine does that sometimes when I unlock or start the car.

DWP

I've never felt any vibration at all from the operation of the Airmatic, and the only sound I've every heard is a barely-audible creaking sound when I push the "raise" button. Flint, what you describe sounds, as you suggest, abnormal. I would ask the dealer about it.

CE750

Budc had a mod done to his for a loudness or vibration due to the pump running.. maybe do a post search for that...

Take it in eitherway for a look at.

FlintCDI

I love the the SBC on the car, but as of late with all the horror stories it kinda makes me nervus. Ii goes in Monday for a speaker replacement and I'll have them take a look at this as well.

BTW: CDI=no-airmatic

glojo

Are you saying you cannot have airmatic with the CDI??

Just remember SBC is fitted to the SLR, if there was ANY doubts about this excellent system, then it would be gone before you could say McLaren

Unfortunately journalists will never let the truth spoil a good story, and if it is told often enough it will be believed.

I have read posts on this forum of tales of woe, but I am far from convinced that the system presents any extra threat over other normally retarded vehicles.

I remember a very old Morris with cable brakes, and the cable broke!! They certainly did not ban this type of braking system.

There has been countless instances of hydraulic brake failures, that system is not banned?? Drum brakes on large lorries frequently overheat and glaze over rendering them useless!! They are not banned. It is so easy to be fooled by media hysteria.

John

HELL ONA HARLEY

Don't you mean forum hysteria. I have yet to read or see any reports of complete SBC failures in any newspaper or TV news report here in the states....

CE750

That is a VERY good point.. I would expect that if even a single E lost it's "Brake by wire" leading to even a fender bender... we'd make the 6 o'clock news.. but with as many as we're being lead to believe failing.. it would be a 60 Minutes segment by now!

BF3PDZ

It has happened to my car as well when i "awaken" it. It has only happened twice, the last time it happened was about 3 months ago. The vibration is much louder than usual, and it lasts longer, but this happened only when i "woke" the car up.

mleskovar

So you don't consider the reports by people in this and other forums that they have had frightening experiences when in SBC failure backup mode that could have been worse believable? Considering the small sampling of posters just on this forum vs. owners worldwide you don't think that's significant?

CE750

That's just it.. where is the media hype and the 60 minutes segments on this epidemic of failures?

Spartan

When that happens, the cars won't be worth two rolls of toilet paper. Do you know what Pinto's were worth after the "exploding gas tanks" media hype? Almost NOTHING. My cousin bought a 3 year old Pinto for $150.

I don't think that there is an epidemic of failures but it is obviously a serious enough problem that Mercedes has a few recalls already and is dropping the system. Now one may argue that they are doing this for economic reasons, however, dropping a braking system in the middle of a model run is unheard off.

This subject is growing old.....but I find myself drawn to it like a deer in the headlights!

HELL ONA HARLEY

When I read anything on the web its with a grain of salt.... Including your posts. Are the failures real???? Probably some, But when I see that the forum members that have had complete failures still drive their cars or others with SBC.... Well, I just have to wonder how serious it really was.. Don't you???

My point being, if there was so many failures out there and our cars are so dangerous, Then wheres all the news reports warning the public???? I have not seen one....

HELL ONA HARLEY

Perhaps MB paid off heraldo, peter jennings and operha?????? L.O.L...

Barry45RPM

Spartan: ...Mercedes has a few recalls already and is dropping the system. Now one may argue that they are doing this for economic reasons, however, dropping a braking system in the middle of a model run is unheard off.

Are you saying that MB will be dropping SBC on the W-211, before its next redesign & release with a different model number? If the answer is "NO", then they are not dropping SBC in the middle of a model run.

...On the other hand, while I believe SBC is a good system, if MB IS dropping SBC in the middle of a Model Run, my guess is that it would be to stop any negative talk dead in its tracks as part of their current plan to eliminate ANY bad chatter on any aspect of their cars, which would certainly go a long way towards polishing the "tarnished Star".

Spartan

As far as I know from what I read on this forum, they are dropping the SBC for next year. Needless to say, dropping a breaking system in the middle of a model run is going to cost them hundreds of millions in redesign and tooling costs. It will far outweigh any minor savings over a hydraulic system.

Here is a link saying the same thing.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...30/151265.html

And for the 99th time, I wished they would have added a more usuable back-up system then dropping the SBC system

Barry45RPM

I read the article. It says they will be dropping SBC in the E class first, but is doesn't say next year. If they do drop it on the E first, as the article says, its probably because the E class is the next model scheduled for a complete redesign in '09. The S is already out... and anything else has already been engineered. The next E is still early in design, and not "locked in".

Spartan

You are right. I also found another article and it was not clear as to when they are dropping it. I got it from somewhere and it could have been from thsi forum.

As for media not reporting on SBC, here is an excerpt from another article.

"which are much easier to modulate than the much-maligned and trouble-prone SBC brake-by-wire system in the E-class. That system was originally planned for the S-class as well, but Mercedes is now phasing it out."

http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews..._benz_s-class/

kbond555

Hello, again

As i promised earlier I would like to inform you about the braking distance of MB where SBC is in the backup mode.

When SBC is working brake distance (without human reaction) is approx 37 Meters (100-0 km/h)

We made simulation based on software which is used for crash reconstruction analysis.

When SBC is in the backup mode you brake only with front whells without braking assistant.

So when you only brake with front wheel but with brake asistant the brake distance raises by approx 70 %

When you brake without assistant the brake distance raises about 80 % based on continental data.

So 37m *1.7 * 1.8 = 113 Meters - so it is a bit longer than it should be.....
If you will add human reaction and the stress it will be longer longer....

So I must say that if the system goes in the backup mode and you drive more than 100 km/h you will have a huge problems to stop.

Best regards

glojo

Whoops.... Who asked for you to butt in??

Is it my fault my thick keyboard cannot spell??

is it my fault I have a dyslexic keyboard?

Why isn't there a back-up system that corrects ALL my mistakes

Hi-ya you cheeky little vertically challenged person, I hope things are well in your part of the world and all the defeatist are not wearing you down?


Could you now please post the stopping distances of a car that completely looses its hydraulic fluid??

The US has the reputation of being very quick to sue when things go wrong?? I cannot believe that the owner of an E-class that suffered the terrible stress, trauma, and of course post traumatic stress of having the SBC system fail would not sue DaimlerChrysler??

We all accept that SBC will be withdrawn, sad, but that's life. The UK E-class no longer have Thermotronic Climate Control. Gosh.... It must be dangerous... It has been withdrawn mid way through production.... It will cost Mercedes-Benz millions of pounds to alter the vehicle so there must be something wrong.

Oh yes the US vehicle has a different ugly arm rest so the old one must be faulty??

Sorry, but I simply do not agree. I have read on the Internet that we have captured aliens from outter space so that must be true??

I might appear flippant about this issue but trust me, I take it very seriously when I got an SBC warning appear I called out a technician straight away. It turned out to be a battery problem, but I could easily come onto this forum and shout out about my SBC problem!

Take care.
John

From Torquay.....covered in a spooky sea mist

JimPurdy

John,

You are in fine form today! I should sue Microsoft for not having a robust enough spell checker and Dell for not having oversized keys on the keyboard for my fat fingers.

Jim

ClayJ

glojo-
Like the color on your E Estate....

glojo

Thanks very much



Hi Jim
Great idea

Happy New Year,
Kind regards,
John A cool misty afternoon in Torquay

CE750

glojo makes a good point.. what is the stopping distance of a typical vacuum assisted car when there is a severe vacuum leak, or a leak in the brake system? Which I am positive has happened in the past..

SAguirre

Well, lets look at this problem that Toyota/Lexus has had. This has actually happened to a fwo friends of mine, they got their cars fixed and nothing else was said about it. However, it seems that the SBC is what everyone loves to hate.

Like I had said a bunch of times, I like it and it works wonderfully for me!

enjoy!

From Consumer Reports Car recalls. BTW, no Mercedes W211 E class recall is shown on the site.


'97 Lexus ES300, Toyota Avalon, and Toyota Camry

In extreme cold, icing could disable brakes' power assist. Brakes would then require more distance and much greater pedal pressure to stop car.

Models: 18,746 cars made 7/96-2/97 and originally sold or currently registered in Alaska, Colo., Idaho, Ill., Iowa, Kan., Me., Mich., Minn., Mont., Neb., Nev., N.H., N.Y., N.D., S.D., Vt., Wisc., and Wyo.

What to do: Have dealer install redesigned brake vacuum hose. Owners of cars in other states who drive in extremely cold weather should also ask dealer for redesigned hose.