raja777m

Hello All,
I'll celebrate an anniversary with my 2014 W212 in a month and I enjoy pretty much every minute I drive the vehicle.
I use Distronic Plus a lot and couldn't figure out few things.

1. Will our vehicle mimic the vehicle in front of it?
a. I have a 3 lane left turn at Concord, NC coming from Charlotte, and I was in the middle lane the other day with distronic set at 20mph, and when the vehicle in front of me turned left, my vehicle turned left too I was surrounded with vehicles around me turning left.
b. When I was following someone on the road with 100ft distance under 35mph, the guy in front of me swerved into left lane and my vehicle wanted to go too, and then it realized that is not the lane and it corrected itself..!

2. Looks like using Distronic features causes to put wear on brake pads faster than normal. Is that true or just my feeling?
I have few more questions, I'll add more later in the thread..!
BTW BAS+ on our car is amazing, the other day, a car in front of me at the yield abruptly stopped at the last moment, even though I have my foot on the brake and I was not applying hard enough, the car automatically halted for me to avoid forward collision. If it is a normal car, I would've ran into the car in front of me..!

thefisch

Glad to hear you are enjoying it. Funny how quickly a year goes by. Not sure, but I think the 'Plus' is the lane follow aspect of distronic. Sounds like with the left turn that the car did not detect the lane markings. In theory, I could see the greater brake wear but it depends on how you drive normally. If anything it should be a marginal difference.

raja777m

True, it's almost an year and approximately 1000+ miles per month, its fun to ride 350

I thought Plus in certain situations, not only warn you but also apply the brakes to avoid an accident whereas Distronic just warns you?

thefisch

I don't have much experience with the feature (not on my 2011) and haven't kept up with the changes over the years. I checked the manual for the 2009 W211 E class and it was just 'Distronic' back then. The feature could brake the car but with only up to 20% brake force. Otherwise it would warn you if more force appeared to be needed. Perhaps earlier versions of 'Distronic' only had the warning - not sure. Maybe the accident avoidance didn't come into play until they added Pre-Safe Brake to the Distronic driver assistance feature.

Skipping to the 2011 W212 manual and the feature is now called 'Distronic Plus' but now with up to 40% brake force (beeps if more needed) but there is no mention of steering so that isn't what the Plus means. Pre-Safe Braking is mentioned for detected emergencies but with the same 40% braking power - you have to do the rest if that's not enough.

Looking at the 2014 manual, they have Distronic Plus and Distronic Plus with Steering Assist. Both use up to 50% of brake power (warn after that) but only the latter has the steering assist. That follows the car in front up to 37mph and then above 37mph it follows lane markings. On the 2014, the Pre-Safe Braking does not mention 'only 50%' braking power. It even uses the phrase full application in terms of stopping. So maybe by 2014 they improved the feature to provide 'full' braking at the last moment without driver intervention. Don't take my word for it though - be careful out there.

KEY08

raja777m

under 20mph, you don't even have to touch the steering wheel forever..!
Over 20mph, every 15seconds or so, the system chimes in the driver to be alert..!

tresean1

Hey Raja...yes I remember when we were shopping for your car---seems like yesterday. I will also celebrate my year anniversary, in about a week or so; I have only put about 1,000 miles on it. LOL.

To answer your questions:
Yes the car will either try to follow the car in front of, sort of like a "tracking" feature; or if there is no car, it will just read the road markings and try to stay between the lines.
As far as Distronic, yes I think it wears the brakes----haven't put enough miles on the Mercedes, but when I use it on my BMW I can feel it constantly applying the brakes, and I have to change them more frequently.

raja777m

good to know. maybe firestone's lifetime warranty brake pads and rotors might come handy here (had them on my nissan). Don't need them now though, just bringing the topic of non-mercedes brake pads and user reviews from firestone or similar major chain with warranty.

raja777m

BTW, our Distronic PLUS is considered Level 2 or Level 3?
https://driverless.wonderhowto.com/n...-cars-0176009/

Exup99

Level 2.

The only Level 3 vehicle (on sale) is the New Audi A8...and only in traffic Jams ;-)