Oslo

According to a letter from DC to dealers in Europe:
From 3 decade of May, the Cruise Control (Tempomat) will also engage the SBC-brakes in case of overspeeding downhill.

IluvS500

interesting

mbtech208

Distronic already does apply some braking force if needed, to slow the car.

interpol

With Distronic, do the rear brake lights come on if the system is applying the brakes?

Oslo

Yes, it does!

Hal H

I found out with my W208

that going down hills on the highway, the (automatic) transmission will downshift to a lower gear to maintain the same vehicle speed that I set the cruise control for...

when the road levels out the tranny will shift back to 5th gear and the speed will remain the same.

It was a pretty cool "hidden" feature I didn't know about.

Found this out driving on Hwy 5 through Mt. Shasta area and on Hwy 17 through the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Only where traffic conditions and weather would permit using cruise in those situations, I might add.

mbtech208

Most cars will downshift to slow the car while on cruise control, including my Intrepid. Not many apply the brakes though.

glojo

Okay, I'll buy it. How do you know???

I'm having little giggles thinking of the various ways to see the brake lights coming on.

Take care,
John

Oslo

If you are in a tunnel, you will see the light reflecting in your mirror since you got a wagon.... If you are in front of another car, you will see it reflecting in the other car. I got Distronic, and it will brake up tp 30% (which is a lot of breaking) of maximum brakepower, so it would be really dangerous if the braking light didn't turn on.

glojo

Hi Oslo,
None of those examples match up to my wicked imagination.

Have you tried letting your wife drive along a highspeed dual carriageway\autobahn, whilst you lay on your stomach, on the roof, facing the rear of your S211, with your head over the tailgate, looking at the brakelights, having made sure your wife has engaged both cruise control at say 160kph and distronic.

Then make sure she stays in the nearside lane, I feel sure that you will notice something!!!!!!

Oh I forgot to mention, make sure you have a firm grip of the handrails before trying this.

Take care,
John

bmw2mb

wouldn't it be better to upshift so save the brake pads?

mbtech208

I assume you mean downshift. In some circumstances, a downshift will not slow the car enough, applying the brakes will.