AkMadness

Our service advisor whom I won't name gets complaints from us all the time about squealing. So he instructors the service department to put large amounts of brake grease of the pads.

(I didn't realize you had said that, thats exactly what I was trying to say)

As far as recalls I mentioned it and I do believe they did a few, the types of which I know not.

ATS

If what you are saying is that DCS is the Yellow Triangle. I have stood down on the brakes and the yellow triangle came one, obvisouly the car started to go sideways and it corrected it.

Of interesting note, today I started to accelerate and quickly took my foot of the gas and stepped down on the brakes, in the time it took to go from gas to brake I heard the brakes (a pump?) charge and I stepped down and it saved the car from hitting someone in front of me. It was very cool..

SAguirre

Just FYI, the DSC or ESP light that you are saying is turning on also turns on if the ABS is activated. I drive in the snow all the time and my warning triangle blinks any time the ABS engages regardless of a sideways skid or not.

The fact that the light came on is telling you that the wheels are skidding or trying to lock. Even if the ABS is on and working correctly, you will still leave skid marks on the pavement and you will hear the tires squeak. HOWEVER! The fact that the ABS turned on and that you say that you were skidding proves that the brakes were working to their full potential. You probably just did not have enough reaction time.

As per the grease on the brakes; I think that you are using the wrong term. You might be referring to an "anti squeak compound" or a paste. There is a MB authorized paste, but I don't know if it is even used on the W211. Either way, this paste is NEVER put between the pad and the rotor. It is applied between the pad and the caliper piston. IF THIS IS APPLIED CORRECTLY it has absolutely no effects on the stopping performance. If they put it on the wrong parts, such as the rotor, it would burn or rub off rather quickly and then the brakes will function normally once again.

I am truly sorry about your second accident. What you are going through is quite normal. After any accident, especially one that gives you a ticket in the end, you look for things that could have probably caused this to happen. But sometimes the laws of physics prevail. I would still investigate what you are talking about, but don't be surprised if you don't find any fault with your brakes. Remember, if the light came on, it was probably the ABS that was working and not the ESP.

Steve

AkMadness

All great points but I don't have snow definately and the yellow triangle would engage certainly due to a car in snow slideing, and the other gentlemen stateing his car was sideways when his DSC kicked in. Niether of those scenarios happened in my case, thats why as no newbie to this fantastic line automobile, the DSC kicking in, puzzles me still.

And actually I did not recieve a citation for the one I had. And yesterday the women driver of the other Mercedes was cited for T Boneing us in the intersection.

ATS

No, I was not sideways. The car could have been sideways had it been anything else, it kicked in and saved the day. There was probably some lateral slipping and it prevented it.

If you do not believe it, go into a parking lot, step down on the brakes and you will see the light come on. As the person stated above, the light came on when you are skidding, slipping or going in a direction you should not be.

Good luck in getting Mercedes to take the blame for the accident, I don't think it is going to happen.

AkMadness

No no no, don't assume i'm going after Mercedes if you read my post thats my intentions at all lol I just wanna see if my theories correct.
On sunday morning im burrowing the brothers E350 and im going to test the breaking at 35 with 40 ft to stop by placeing a cone at the end point.

This entire thing has become somewhat of a science project at this point lol
The cars a tank, it did what it was suppose to in an impact and I'm happy for that, and with a very wide insurance plan I'm not worried at all.

jimbo1mcm

I attended a Skip Barber driving school and one of the drills they had us do was to enter, at a certain speed, a set of cones on each side that ended in a 90 degree turn to the right. The exercise was designed to show you that if you braked AND TURNED at the same time you would slide right out of the pattern, into a theoretical vehicle in front of you. However, if you BRAKED, BRAKED, AND BRAKED, then at the last second turned the wheel violently, you would stay in the cones, and thus avoid the potential collision in front of you. Of course, there are times when physics, speed and reaction times, just put you into someone.

SAguirre

I just brought up the snow because it is easy to lock up the brakes when you are on snow. On many occasions, I will be coming to a normal stop and one wheel hits a slick spot of ice and the ESP/ABS/ETS yellow triangle immediately lights. You can't really feel the ABS in this car anymore, but you can hear it trigger. This all happens in a millisecond and WELL BEFORE the car even has a chance to start skidding sideways.

What I and ATS are trying to tell you is that you can be on totally dry pavement and if you are slamming on the brakes the ABS will engage and turn on the warning triangle. I can think of at least two occasions when this has happened to me on dry pavement due to an emergency reaction. On none of the occasions has the car even felt like it could start to skid sideways.

At the same time, I have driven on packed snow and without acceleration or stopping I have jerked the wheel. That is when the ESP and the warning triangle truly turn on. You literally feel the system jerk your car. It feels as if someone kicked one of your rear wheels and put you back on the correct track. You should also note that the ESP still gives you a bit of skidding (sideways) before it turns on so I really think that it was your ABS that was doing all the work in your case.

Tell us what you find,

Steve

AkMadness

Ah, I see

sosh

This is just another case where the driver is trying to lay off his ineptness and poor driving on the vehicle/dealer manufacturer. If there had been grease on the brakes he would not have gotten as far as he did but hit something comig out of the dealership. He was tailgating and driving too fast for conditions and most likely not paying attention. As far as the airbags are concerned he was most likely not at the triggering speed as the vehicle had slowed down before the impact. Good that there were no injuries.

SAguirre

You might be correct, but when my, W124, 1991 300E was totaled I was first charged with running red light and they gave me that ticket. I thought that could not be correct and I did some research on that intersection in Boulder. As it turns out, there was a design flaw in that intersection that gave me the green light for a few seconds and let me drive into cars that were turning left.

The city of Boulder had to totally redo the traffic lights in that intersection, my ticket was dropped and my insurance is still giving me an accident-free discount. I could actually sue the city now, but I just hate this litigious society and really don't feel like being part of the problem.

I am glad I researched all my questions I had. Deep down inside I knew that the light was green when I entered the intersection and it turned out that I was correct! Keep in mind though, a few of my friends said that I was just trying to spread blame around.

Steve

However, I do agree that there could not possibly be any grease on the brakes

jimbo1mcm

No offense, but if I were your brother, I would not loan you my car right now!!!

AsianML

Glad you're okay. But even if the 40 feet you were driving behind you thought was sufficient, you have to take into account reaction times, road conditions, and etc.

You also can't expect everything to be in perfect working order all the time as well. Expect the unexpected!!

AkMadness

All of which I completely agree with. Lol. well we have lots of Mercedes to go around. I crashed mine and the third eldest with me as his passenger was t boned in an intersection by a woman late to her hair appointment.

*Mental note***
Never get infront of women whos late for any type of appointment when it comes to personal beauty care.

barrafp

I hear you. They complain on how hard it is to get a schedule with their favorite beautician or whatever. Anyways, I almost cried when I saw your car. I would be if it was mine.

akbro93704

sorry to hear about the accident, glad you're okay. We have an '06 E350 in the exact same color. When we first got the car, I decided to try out the brakes, so I went up to 40, and mashed the pedal. There was a lot of tire screeching and clawing, which I blame on the stock all season Pilot HX's. I had these tires on my volvo s40, and they have absolutely no traction. I changed the tires to stickier pilot sport michelins, and the car stops on a dime with zero wheel slip. I think all the systems in your car were working right, but the tires aren't sticky enough to grip the road like the brakes want it to....

AkMadness

very true, tomorrow the cars being sent out to a third party to have the star system uplinked to the cars computer to make sure everything ran correctly, so i'll post the finding of the computer report.

Fastbuck

Hopefully they won't find out that you were doing 50!

02S430

sorry to hear about the accident, glad you're okay. did you ever get around to taking that picture of the yellow stuff on your brakes id like to see it, and looking from the picture how did the star of ur hood emblem get knocked out but the outter part stay intacted weird feel better man

kipkipkip

Did you try steering clear? That's the whole point of having ABS.. being able to have control of the car while heavy brake is applied (other than shortening braking distance by avoiding tire lock up).
If you weren't able to out-brake an SUV, you were following too close.

And I guess it is lucky that the airbag didn't go off... or else you or your passenger's face might look like a big watermelon right now. My friend's face literally grew into a watermelon cuz blood vessels popped. Even his eyes were kinda swollon..

Well, glad no one got hurt.

With that kind of damage, you gonna think about getting a new car?

Stay safe.

cdiken

GOOD that the airbags did not go off. So its thousands less to repair. And your girlfriend does not have a huge swollen face for no reason.

Thousands less to repair means a smaller insurance claim for you.

That is a light collision as bad as it looks. It only crumpled a lot because you went under the truck, and did not get the benefit of your bumper.

The car is fixable.

Its too bad you decided to yank the passenger door open intead of having girlfriend crawl out, needless additional repairs unless she was injured and couldn't hop over the center console.

Best of luck.


BTW your profile says you are 17. I snooped you because I suspect from your writing style either young, or possible English not first language, possible both. SO.... why the hell are you in a new Benz E class at age 17. Why not drive around in something cheaper while getting your thousands of hours of experience? Did you buy the car yourself? Even if someone else bought the car for you and they have unlimited funds, why trash good cars while learning how to drive?

carsinamerica

In case your driver's education courses never taught you this trick (and many don't, for some reason), you should always maintain a following distance translating to no closer than two seconds. This is easier to test on the road than attempting to guesstimate following distances in car lengths, and automatically adjusts for increasing speeds. Here's how:

Pick any non-moving object beside the road; it's easiest if it casts a shadow onto the road surface. Watch the rear bumper of the vehicle in front of you and wait until it draws even with the fixed object you've selected. Begin counting: "one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand." If you can't say that phrase before your front bumper is even with the object, THEN YOU ARE TOO CLOSE.

Do the math: at 35 miles per hour, you are covering 51 feet in a second! A 2003 E500 tested by Edmunds.com pulled up from 30 miles per hour in 32 feet, and that was under precisely controlled conditions (and to double the speed is to quadruple the brake distance). Therefore, pulling up from 35 mph in 40 feet is an extremely tall order.

However, whether the car can physically decelerate to zero in less than 40 feet or not is immaterial; your brain can't keep up. You have to include time for your eyes to perceive, your brain to process the situation, and time for your muscles to react and switch to the brake pedal and begin applying pressure. That's before decelerating even begins. At "an average of 35", you should have absolutely no less than 100 feet of space in front of you. If any vehicle attempts to fill that gap, as can happen in heavy traffic, you should IMMEDIATELY cover the brake. Anything else is begging for an accident, and if one happens and you aren't maintaining appropriate following distances, then you fully deserve to be cited and fined. That's not a "****ty law," as you so elegantly put it. Unless someone whips in front of you with inches to spare and immediately slams the brakes, its your fault if you hit someone in front of you. Would you want to take the blame for being rear-ended?

As for the airbags, as noted by others, there's no bumper deformation, so there's far less likelihood of airbag deployment. You don't have to be carrying much speed to get distortion effects like that on soft panels. It's not a severe impact, all things considered. I got rear ended at only a few miles an hour; it put a crack in the bumper about the size of a quarter and bent up the exhaust (which was when I learned that Toyota Camrys use the same exhaust as Mercedes-Benz models, much to my dismay); the tailgater's whole engine compartment was demolished. And it served him right, too.

In short, slow up, give more space, and don't blame brakes or anything else. You're responsible for maintaining appropriate following distances, and no-one else. Don't expect your car to accomplish miracles in compensating for bad driving.

AkMadness

Yes I am 17. Yes I have the funds / we have the funds to support a life style to where I have a great automobile a SAFE automobile. But your to quick to assume that I lack the knowledge and experience I've been driving for quite sometime and have taken many defensive driving courses mainly sponsored by the CHP since I do some training with local police. The cars not "trashed", its all cosmetics luckily, the cars designed to crumple it looks worse than what it truelly is, it's being repaired with two weeks time.

And to the other gentlemen yes I do understand the workings of ABS brakes and did try to steer clear, but seeing as theres a ditch to my right and oncoming traffic to my left, there was nothing I could do but slam on the brakes and hope for the best lol

AkMadness

Oh and the results on the computer came back. And yes I am aware of the driving knowledge of second counting a still object on the side of the road when the vehicle infront of you passes it. I was mainting a correct following distance as by DMV standards by a two or three car length. And as I've stated NOT blaming brakes, it was a theory a theory I shared with the community of E350 drivers to see there opinions and reactions, so speaking to everyone tone it down, relax.


::Now Looking At The Results of the Star Computer Inspection::
At time of impact the speed of the vehicle was 10 mph, with the tires going 0 mph, the engineer overseeing the inspection agrees the tires locked up. The tread patterns on the ground are inconsistant with normal skid patterns between 3 to 4 feet long for an ABS car suggesting that the 8/10 second brakeing was longer for unknown reasons by insurance opinions. All concluded the brakes on the vehicle could not give off a distance of brakeing to the time of impact and the command on board did not record for the DSC or ABS kicking in, though you could feel them. The airbag sensors in the impact where missed by almost an inch

The brakes did work to Mercedes specifications and the vehicle after 2 weeks of debate and inspection I've decided to have repaired and rebuilt better than before. Ill post up later

carsinamerica

If your DMV says 2-3 car lengths is safe at 35 mph, I'm glad as hell I don't live in your state. That's at least one car length too few. Regardless of what your DMV or WEDMC might say, use the 2-second rule or the car-length-per-10-mph rule (which is a little too short, so use 1 per 8 instead). Even 3 car lengths is just 50 feet, which is one second of travel time, and THAT IS TOO CLOSE. When people do that to me, it makes me want to start looking for thumb-tacks. Please leave more space, or you'll be re-doing your front end again soon.

Interesting about the ABS & DSC not activating, if that's what your saying. Sounds odd that the light would activate, though.

As to the airbag sensor, close call. I'm not sure they'd fire at 10 mph anyway, but still, you wouldn't want to damage the sensors, either.