cetialpha5

This is why 4matic is better, all 4 wheels have the same size and you can rotate the tires. You're always supposed to put the tires with the most tread on the rear and you had it the other way around. Without cruise control on, you can feel the front tires starting to lose traction and you can just let off the gas to regain traction. With the new tires up front, you wouldn't feel it and then once the rears lose traction it's a little too late. Traction and stability control is supposed to help you out but I guess they can only do so much.

Adi-Benz

Glad you are ok. But I've heard it half a million times if not more, even since I was a kid, that you *never* use cruise control in the rain (and other harsh conditions like snow.)

Egonvdv

i realise now that I knew this,but mixed it up when getting the new tires: the front tires were worn out so had them replaced without asking to rotate ...

MaiOM

How so that the front tires got more worn compared to the rear? I remember on my previous C class (S205) I usually changed 2 sets of rear for 1 set of front tires.
Tires and brakes, two most important things on the car. On the current MB I still have not changed the tires but for what I saw consumption is quite consistent front/back, probably tanks to 4matic.

Wassaby

I see that you had the panoroof option. Would you order a car with the full glass roof again? Do you think without the glass would you have been better protected when rollover?

cetialpha5

Well there's no rotating tires when it's RWD right? I think you burn through more rear sets of tires than fronts so you probably should have gotten new tires all around and saved the rears until the fronts were more worn down and probably the rears would have been shot again and you could have put them on the rears. Or that's just too much thinking, rwd isn't great when you have two different sets of tires. Maybe that's why some just go to a square setup even with RWD at least you can rotate them that way.

Egonvdv

don't see how i could have been protected better. i got out without a scratch :-)
plus, I had already ordered the new car and yes; with pano roof
but i guess in principal the pano roof is less secure as objects could puncture through it...

Egonvdv

New tires should always go on the rear (be it front wheel, rear wheel or AW drive)

What happens is that the rear tires wear out faster, so i only change those, while the front tires are still in very good shape
This means the next set to be replaced is the front and that is also the moment to rotate the tires.
And of course from this moment i need to rotate every time i get new ones, as it will always be the front ones that are most worn

For some reason i didn't give it much though when i got the new tires and just had them replace the front without rotating.
But not sure if it would have made any difference because the old (rear)tires were still in good shape...

ryuan1688

Happy to hear that you're okay and also that you ordered another E so you'll continue posting here .

robert c

Glad to hear you made it out of a touchy situation. I'm certain you had the Rolling Stones full on! Seriously though no cruise control should be on in adverse conditions and rain is one of them. Yes the training is to put new tires on the rear of a RWD vehicle but I've not done that many times since obtaining my license(1961).. Lucky on this one the car rolled and didn't hit a culvert structure.
Robert

JakeW213

4 matic is not going to have an influence on aquaplaning... aqauplaning is when the tires lose any connection with the road and basically is riding on water(or mostly on water)

the best thing to have is tires with enough thread to cut through the water(groves) these grooves are actually there for just that.

I think that the rears has worn out in this situation and speed has been to high(for the conditions)

cetialpha5

The difference is that 4matic would still have traction in the front. He lost traction in the rear with worn tires and you don't feel it while driving if you have good tires in the front. As always, multiple factors lead to accidents, going too fast for conditions, using cruise control, worn tires in the rear, rwd. Eliminate a few of those conditions and it probably wouldn't have happened.

Lanzz

Egon, what did you order as a replacement? Can't wait to see it...

JakeW213

if you drive straight on a freeway, you run on a surface with water(aquaplane) it really doesn’t matter what drive you have...

4matic is only for situations where your rear tires lose grip in accelerating forward motion.

anyone who thinks that 4matic is helpful on a freeway with constant speed(no matter what surface conditions) needs to understand what 4 wheel drive is

its useful for going forward in muddy/snowy conditions... thats it

freeway driving in the rain... no difference

cetialpha5

I don't think you understand what AWD does. It gives you more traction in rain or snow, not just snow.

https://www.allstate.com/tr/car-insu...h-or-fact.aspx

https://www.repairsmith.com/i/blog/f...ll-explanation

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...need/index.htm

JakeW213

not going straight at a steady pace on a freeway... and certainly not when aquaplaning

aquaplaning is when the tire no longer has any touch with the tarmac... you could have 4-million-matic, don’t you understand?

and no matter what you link to, 4wd only gives you more traction when accelerating in a forward motion.

cetialpha5

I don't think you understand traction. He had different tires on two axles with more tread on the front. The rears are driven by RWD and traction was lost in the rear. He still would have had traction in the front as it had more tread and they were driven if he had AWD and might not have lost control. Otherwise when you lose traction in the rear on rwd, you typically just spin out. That's why if you read the articles, traction is also important in the rain. You are confusing theory with what actually happened. You typically have the worse tires on the front because if you're driving, you'll notice that you're losing steering response when you start to aquaplane and you can let up on the gas and you can regain traction. AWD is better than RWD in the rain, but it's not a cure all. You're basically wrong when you say AWD is only useful in muddy/snowy conditions.

ItalianJoe1

Glad you're ok, they are safe cars. Curious how worn the rear tires actually are, as with enough slip the system should have seen the wheel speed change and caught it, even with cruise on. If they were very smooth and the fronts kept grip and the rears floated then that could cause a slide the car won't see until it's too late, which i'm assuming happened here, but that doesn't occur with tires that are "still in good condition".

ItalianJoe1

You keep the tires with the best tread on the rear, because to the average untrained driver, it's easier to correct for an understeer than an oversteer condition. You do NOT want the rear to come loose first under normal conditions, as it will swap ends on you and requires much more ability to recover safely, and cars are engineered to hit things facing forward, not backwards, so it's much safer to slide the front and plow into something, than go sideways or backwards and end up like this.

cetialpha5

Oh yeah, meant to say you should have have the best tires on the rear or the worse tires on the front so that you can sense the fronts starting to lose traction before the rears do.

ua549

My life depends on good tires and brakes.
I always purchase tires in sets of 4 when the most worn tire tread reaches 3/32" (approx 2.5mm).
I do the same with brakes. If one shows too much wear I replace all of the pads. Typically I change rotors every other time I change pads. That said, I rarely drive enough to need to change brake pads. My almost 4 year old '18 E300 has less than 12,000 miles (19,000 km). I've replaced tires once at ~9,000 miles of town driving.

MBNUT1

A friend of mine who lived in France commented on how polite the French were. He told me that they would be sure to say excuse me as the stepped over someone laying on the sidewalk.

Egonvdv

Classe E 300 e AMG Line :-)

Egonvdv

i had them checked when getting the front tires and store deemed them good enough (which was also my own opinion)

JDPEClassUK

Most important thing is that you are okay 👍🏼