Extremely Dangerous Feature?
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Super Member
Joined: Sep 2006
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From: Oklahoma
W211 E320 & W212 E550
Extremely Dangerous Feature?
Not sure what the deal is with my car but on two seperate occasions when I am running down the highway with the cruise control engaged, I go to pass a car or for whatever reason punch the gas and my car freaks out!!! Cruise control and ESC flash inoperative on the dash and says see owners manual. The dangerous part is that now I have absolutely no engine power. Just barely enough to maintain cruising speed. Can't pass can't hardly get out of my own way. You definitely do not want to come to a complete stop and try to take off, a 30cc moped with warn rings would smoke me, not exaggerating one bit. Now when I stop the car and turn engine off and restart, all is well. It resets itself somehow and I won't experience the problem till I punch it again with cruise engaged. Anybody have a clue or experienced this from their car? I guess now that I know I can disengage the cruise but I feel I shouldn't have to. Anyway this is pretty dangerous when it happens, just a forewarning, and hopefully for everyone's sake it's just a gremlin with my car.
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2015 GL450
Huh. Never had this issue. I override cc all the time bc of all the bikes around here. I've also had cc shut itself off, but always at low speed and close quarters (cc loses track of the car in front). Never had anything like you describe. Al's 2010 550.
*also, not Al's
*also, not Al's
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From: Central Pennsylvania
2012 S350 Bluetec 4Matic, Diamond White, P2
Hopefully you will document this with your service department. Obviously, this is not a "feature", but, a defect. Take a tech for a ride and see if it will do it for you. In any event, I do not think I would keep a vehicle with such a defect if it cannot be resolved. Just my 2 cents.
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1953 300 Adenauer, 1971 300 SEL 6.3, 1975 600, 1978 450 6.9
Hopefully you will document this with your service department. Obviously, this is not a "feature", but, a defect. Take a tech for a ride and see if it will do it for you. In any event, I do not think I would keep a vehicle with such a defect if it cannot be resolved. Just my 2 cents.
OP - can you reliably recreate this issue?
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From: Toronto
MY17 E43 Matte Selenite/Macchiato Beige, MY16 GLE350d Tenorite/Crystal Grey, MY17 B250
The cruise control will not work if the ESP is disengaged. Perhaps when you are stomping it to pass, you're triggering the ESP? Definitely something to discuss with your dealer.
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Thread Starter
Super Member
Joined: Sep 2006
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From: Oklahoma
W211 E320 & W212 E550
Yes it is triggering the ESP which is surprising as I do feel a little slip at 1st prior to the warnings. You just wouldn't think this car would slip when punching it at 75mph but it feels like it does. It feels like the car then drops engine power since ESP is disengaged to further avoid wheel spin. If this is a safety feature, it is more of a danger to me.
Last edited by RNBRAD; Apr 2, 2012 at 01:12 PM.
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From: Toronto
MY17 E43 Matte Selenite/Macchiato Beige, MY16 GLE350d Tenorite/Crystal Grey, MY17 B250
Yes it is triggering the ESP which is surprising as I do feel a little slip at 1st prior to the warnings. You just wouldn't think this car would slip when punching it at 75mph but it feels like it does. It feels like the car then drops engine power since ESP is disengaged to further avoid wheel spin. If this is a safety feature, it is more of a danger to me.
I had ESP headaches with my E550 Coupe as it was simply too much power for the rear tires, but I can't recall it happening at highway speeds.
Edit: is your 212 a 4MATIC or RWD?
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W212 FL
. A cool car hopefully poses no more problems after this one is fixed
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Joined: Sep 2006
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From: Oklahoma
W211 E320 & W212 E550
Can you recreate the issue without cruise control engaged? ie: does the ESP kick in and cut fuel upon rapid acceleration from speed?
I had ESP headaches with my E550 Coupe as it was simply too much power for the rear tires, but I can't recall it happening at highway speeds.
Edit: is your 212 a 4MATIC or RWD?
I had ESP headaches with my E550 Coupe as it was simply too much power for the rear tires, but I can't recall it happening at highway speeds.
Edit: is your 212 a 4MATIC or RWD?
Oh thanks for the comments fellas!!
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From: Canada
E350 4Matic 2011
If you can't reproduce it at will then it becomes quite difficult for the techs to solve. Electrical glitches can be due to all sorts of issues with integrated circuits that have some marginality due to manufacturing variations.
The message about seeing the owner's manual as opposed to a malfunction message is curious. Let us know what your dealer says about this.
The message about seeing the owner's manual as opposed to a malfunction message is curious. Let us know what your dealer says about this.
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From: Central Pennsylvania
2012 S350 Bluetec 4Matic, Diamond White, P2
The behavior described in the original post is not normal...period! I am not sure why the OP is now wondering if this is normal behavior with cc on. If what happened as stated in the opening post is actually what happened (and was not embellished for effect) this vehicle is not safe to drive. What does the dealer say? I would have it towed to the dealership until the issue could be resolved.
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2015 GL450
Nope does not happen without cruise engaged. I've engaged the ESP countless times w/o cruise and no problem. It is a RWD. I've done this many times at highway speeds but only twice has it done this. Maybe it's just what happens when ESP is activated while in CC? I'll try it at slower speeds when I get a chance and see if the same thing happens. I just never use CC unless on the highway running 75+.
Oh thanks for the comments fellas!!
Oh thanks for the comments fellas!!
EDIT: Oh, the connection between this and cc would be coincidental.
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Tesla Model S P100D
Not sure what the deal is with my car but on two seperate occasions when I am running down the highway with the cruise control engaged, I go to pass a car or for whatever reason punch the gas and my car freaks out!!! Cruise control and ESC flash inoperative on the dash and says see owners manual. The dangerous part is that now I have absolutely no engine power. Just barely enough to maintain cruising speed. Can't pass can't hardly get out of my own way. You definitely do not want to come to a complete stop and try to take off, a 30cc moped with warn rings would smoke me, not exaggerating one bit. Now when I stop the car and turn engine off and restart, all is well. It resets itself somehow and I won't experience the problem till I punch it again with cruise engaged. Anybody have a clue or experienced this from their car? I guess now that I know I can disengage the cruise but I feel I shouldn't have to. Anyway this is pretty dangerous when it happens, just a forewarning, and hopefully for everyone's sake it's just a gremlin with my car.
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Tesla Model S P100D
This is probably not the problem, but I thought I would mention it just in case. Do you have Distronic+? The reason I ask is that I could see a situation where you are coming up on a car, you floor it to get ready to pass, and the Distronic+ cuts in to avoid what it thinks will be a crash (it does not know you intend to switch lanes). I had something similar happen when passing a left-turning car on the right - but I was not looking at the dash at the time so I don't know what messages might have been displayed. Sudden loss of power and indeed the brakes activated.
EDIT: Oh, the connection between this and cc would be coincidental.
EDIT: Oh, the connection between this and cc would be coincidental.
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Joined: Sep 2006
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From: Oklahoma
W211 E320 & W212 E550
I don't have Distronic. The dash during the "glitch" says see the owners manual so I'll see if there is anything regarding my experience there. All the dash says is cruise control inoperative, then flashed to ESP inoperative, the flash to see owners manual. That's all it says, nothing else. I'll try and call my dealer today, see if they have ever heard of it or know what it is.
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1953 300 Adenauer, 1971 300 SEL 6.3, 1975 600, 1978 450 6.9
At that he has better things to do and asking him to do it safely is even more absurd. Filming under the best of circumstances is distracted driving - in this case it would be suicidal - but it might make a viral Youtube video clip.
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2015 GL450
According to my understanding of Distronic it will NEVER overrule the driver. i.e. even if you accelerate to slam another car after all the warnings and whatever it can do, it will assume the driver knows what he's doing if you disregard Distronic countermeasures and accelerate. I think the car does not in that case initiate emergency breaking until it pretty much knows for certain you will be in an accident in about half a second.
Since RNBRAD doesn't have Distronic, it couldn't have caused his problem. In my one experience of Distronic activating, it did override me. It sees a car turning left as stationary, and did not know I would steer around the car. I get the dings I usually get, and then - while I was accelerating - it cut the power and braked. Pretty good jolt. There was no real chance of an accident, but Distronic thought so because it was looking at a static version of the world in which the car in front was not moving left and I would not steer around it.
Unlike RNBRAD's case though, the car worked normally after the "accident" cleared.
