I have an issue with my 2011 E350 that pops up where if I have wheel slip while under acceleration, the car throws itself into limp mode and gives me a (nearly) dead pedal where it has very limited throttle responsiveness (basically if you floor it you slowly, and with a long delay get throttle) until the car is shut off then turned back on. The triangle ETC warning light on the dash comes on, and a message in the info center says ECT is unavailable when this happens. Today it was while merging from one freeway to another, I crossed over a rough patch of pavement while accelerating and got the dead pedal at 60 in traffic. I had the same issue in my 2003 E320 and it just seems like such a poor implementation of traction control that I think the car would be much safer without it at all. Is there a way to turn it off permanently?

 

I dont know about turning off thus function through Instrument cluster menu options... have a look there.

Instead it'd be safer to get this system repaired.

Have your MB specialist scan the whole car and focus on testing ESP Module.