alewifebp

When driving home yesterday, I get a message in the MFD of:
BRAKE (in big bold letters)
Service Brake
Visit workshop!

This was after about 5-10 minutes of highway driving in about 10 degree weather. Drove it later at night with no message. Then today, on the way to work, the same message, and coincidentally, after about 5-10 minutes of highway driving and 10 degree weather, the same message.

I just had the brake pads (front and rear) replaced about 2,000 miles ago.

I would tend to believe that it is a cold weather related bug. I'm going in for my service D shortly, so I'll certainly mention it, but wanted to see if anyone else has seen this.

SAguirre

I doubt it has anything to do with the cold weather. I drive in sub 0 ( Fahrenheit ) all the time and I have never gotten any brake message. Like you said though, get it checked.

Steve

lig

ehhh... you should probably have it looked at - but I've had that warning pop up three times and nothing was faulty other than the warning.

Most of these incidents took place last summer. We've had a relatively cold snap in Seattle for the past couple of weeks - (low 20s at night) no warning lights.

moa4r

even though it could be a faulty warning, etc. I would not take any chances with my brakes, especially since you just got them worked on recently. I'm sure you've heard the horror stories of the brake failures on the W211, so if I were you I'd take it to service immediately.
GL, let us know what happens

BudC

Why is it always after someone has serviced the brakes? I still haven't got my SBC recall done and I'm not too anxious to do it.

I'd take the car back to the dealer and have them do a full blown brake fluid change with no shortcuts.

Then tell the technician to take it out and drive it at 100 MPH towards a brick wall to see if the brakes work.

plocjim

Same thing happened to me last month - just a couple of days before I was scheduled to bring the car in for service - the "Brake" malfunction came on while driving to work. It was very icy that day and I think I gave the brakes a good workout - when I got to work I stopped and restarted the car and the message was gone. I called and was told not to worry about it as long as the brakes felt OK - which they did. When I brought it in they looked at everything and couldn't find anything wrong. The malfunction hasn't gone off again, so I'm assuming it was just one of those weird elctronic things.

Dlau

I just have this exact message today, 2 miles driven after I pick up the car from the dealer for the SBC recall service done! I seen this message 3 time few months ago but the dealer couldn't find anything wrong.

alewifebp

It has come on three times so far. But nothing in the last 24 hours so far.

Mirage

Sounds like a sensor problem to me. Cold weather does funny thing s to the sensors.... had to have the Hood sensor replaced the other day , techie said it was the cold weather. Same thing happened to the previous Benz I had.

konigstiger

Had the rear pads changed 6/04 and the SBC recall done 11/04 never got any warnings or malfunctions. And yes they did bleed the system.

konigstiger

Not knowing the exact wording of the faults received, this may help:

P-B-54.21/125 DEC04
Model 211.026/065/070/076/082/083/265/282/283 - ALL YEARS
Message in Instrument Cluster “Battery/Alternator Stop Vehicle” and “Brake Defective Stop Vehicle”

If you receive customer reports on the above model vehicles of the Instrument Cluster (IC) displaying the red colored fault message, the Battery Control Module (BCM) may need to be reset. Under certain conditions, usually associated with deep battery discharging or jump starting, a communication fault may occur between the BCM and the CAN bus. In this state, the BCM cannot issue any voltage or current values and the above mentioned fault messages appear in the IC.

wkotze

I have been having this BRAKE Malfunction appear on my ’03 E500 for the last couple of months. And coincidently it started a couple of weeks after I had a B-service done. It has been back to the Dealership twice and both times they couldn’t find anything. As soon as they access the malfunction system, it must be resetting, because it usually takes about a week or so before the malfunction start appearing again.

I live in Washington DC and the weather over here as been anything but cold. The dealership has also done everything they could but replace the brakes (the brakes have 50% left on them).

Any other experiences or advice would be appreciated.

alewifebp

I would have to check my records, but when I took it to the "workshop" to have them fix this as well as several other issues, I believe they replaced the third brake light.

Either way, I have not seen the warning since I last mentioned it 1/21/2005, and since I got my service done.

avb777

I agree with "Mirage" here, usally a sensor would set that alarm.

lig

"visit clueless workshop" :p