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I'm new to these forums but felt compelled to share what happened to me when I was driving a relatives 2012 GLK350 last Wednesday in Apollo Beach, FL. It could have been a life-threatening situation. I was pulling into a parking space and had just put the car in park when all of a sudden the engine began revving to the max. (I have an eye witness who described it as the tires were spinning like I was going to do the ultimate burn-out). I had not turned the car off yet. I'm thinking in my mind 'What the hell is going on with this car? Why is this engine revving?". Then the car starts moving forward. In shock, I realize I'm in park and the thought 'this is impossible' flashed across my mind. The car felt like it was being pulled forward. It pulled me over a parking block and over a curb onto a grass area. I'm pumping the brake with no result (and since the car was in park the brake would hardly depress). I had no control over turning the steering wheel. The car pulled itself through a metal privacy fence which had a large tree on the other side. It was the large tree that stopped the car. The distance that I was pulled was maybe 20 ft. The air bags did not deploy and I'd say the speed of the vehicle was probably 5-10 mph through it's journey. Needless to say I was traumatized to the max by the ordeal. I do have a picture that I will attach. After calming down and researching the internet to see if I could find a similar situation I learned that Mercedes has a lot of problems with the cruise control. I now believe that when I turned right into my parking spot I accidentally hit the cruise control lever versus the turn signal lever. (These levers are very close to one another in this vehicle and has been a problem to Mercedes in the past and I do believe they relocated the cc lever on future year cars.) I did not realize I had hit the wrong lever. I assume that is what I did because the sensation of the car pulling itself forward does seem like the sensation you get with cruise control. The car is driving itself forward. But my hitting the brake repeatedly should have done something to cancel the cruise control and especially moving it from Park! I can only assume that the vehicle moved because the revving of the engine was so high and intense which should never have occurred in the first place. The car was deemed totaled by the insurance company. You can see in my picture the parking block and curb the car was pulled over. Everyone I've shared this with says it's impossible to move a car in park but I'm here to say it's not impossible! Also the air bag did not deploy. It was a pretty good hit.
That is awful to hear. Glad you are ok. I am going to ask the same question... How does a car engine just start revving when it is in park and how does it just accelerate hit a object and just stop? If you on accident hit the cc level and it just went driving that is on you then.
Car couldn't have been in park, it mechanically locks the transmission. There's also no reason for it to rev the engine, at all. You sure you didn't get the floor mat pushed up under the gas pedal or something? Or when you though you were hitting the brake, you were hitting the gas?
If the car was scanned, there should be some sort of freeze frame of the data at the time if there was a fault, that will show brake pressures and pedal positions.
It's physically impossible for most modern cars to overpower the brakes unless they are very powerful sports cars. Even if you were already going full speed and floored the gas and brake, it will stop the car. The brake system is hydraulic and even with a complete electronic breakdown, if you step on the pedal it will apply the brakes. The brake booster vacuum is from a pump driven by the engine, and will have assist at all times, regardless of gear or engine speed, that's the reason it's done that way. The pedal won't get hard if you rev or have it in park.
Sucks to see it happen, but something doesn't add up.
This forum tells me the GLK is easily the worse of all Mercedes . Nothing but problems with them it seems.
On another note years ago I had a rental Chrysler 300C and was going around a roundabout to get onto the highway when the car completely died and I lost all power including the steering and breaks, almost drove into the barrier. I can't believe I got it to stop.
The cruise control normally will not work under 25 mph. The brakes, being hydraulic with dual master cylinders, will stop the car even if the engine is off and the battery disconnected. It is harder but unless both brake line systems are broken, the driver can stop the car. It is easy to get the right foot to push on both the brake and the accelerator at the same time, but in the GLK being a fly by wire accelerator, the computer should not rev the motor when the brake is applied. This being said, I always dreaded the day when my car was operated by Microsoft with its multiple glitches. Have we gone too far? Is this the 'Blue Screen of Death' come to get us?
This forum tells me the GLK is easily the worse of all Mercedes . Nothing but problems with them it seems.
On another note years ago I had a rental Chrysler 300C and was going around a roundabout to get onto the highway when the car completely died and I lost all power including the steering and breaks, almost drove into the barrier. I can't believe I got it to stop.
What other than this (if true) leads you to believe that?
GLK's seem to have a ton of issues..
Just what I see. Daily.
Short answer is No. And I am a fairly new owner , so I was genuinely as a question out of curiosity because as far as my research went before purchase is that the GLK is a very reliable vehicle. If you could give a brief summary on what some of the highlighted "issues" are that would be much appreciated. If not, then I guess i'll keep driving until i encounter some.
Either the OP hasn't owned a Mercedes Benz with the steering column shifter or made a mistake and became hysterical thinking it was P vs D. In most instances it could have been N-neutral and overreving the vehicle while its rolling downhill. Feedback from owners is it's the most reliable MB of the line-up except the glk250 due to its diesel problems. I have been getting oil samples and so far the German Mobil 1 is the right oil and providing excellent protection all year round. My 2014 glk350 4matic has been trouble free in its ownership.
The whole story does not add up I'm sorry. Im a reasonable person and do not believe it at all. Maybe a cover up to try to get insurance to cover it. No way did it just accelerate and the brakes didn't work. My guess is he stepped on the gas thinking it was the brake, then got excited and in a panic pressed on it harder and put it into drive. Nice story for the owner though to shift responsibility on the car. If the car was on then he would have had power steering and power brakes, which he claims not to have. Also hitting the brake does cancel CC. Too many holes in the story to list.
I still do not understand how in the hell the car just floors itself when it is in park and starts driving away? There just seems to be no possible way of this happening in my mind. I drove in 2 of my cars today and CC does not even work under 20mph. CLK and ML
Maybe the Russian neighbor hacked his computer because he hated Hip-Hop. Didn't two college kids hack a Jeep Grand Cherokee a couple of years ago, or was that fake news? Anything is possible. My grand son college project is operating a wheelchair by moving your eyes and reading the produced brain waves.
I had a 'bud' back in the late 50's who had a 59 Chrysler 300E, 413, dual quad, with push button transmission and cruise control. We would take it up to 100 on the Jersey Turnpike (speed limit back then was 72) set the cruise and then come to a stop. Pushing resume on that thing would light up the tires.
This forum tells me the GLK is easily the worse of all Mercedes . Nothing but problems with them it seems.
On another note years ago I had a rental Chrysler 300C and was going around a roundabout to get onto the highway when the car completely died and I lost all power including the steering and breaks, almost drove into the barrier. I can't believe I got it to stop.
You cannot judge a car from just some posters on a Mercedes forum.I did tons of research and 2011-2014 GLK's have high ratings on reliability from auto experts.
^^ and to add... usually people who are pretty satisfactory about their vehicles don't go to forums to create threads on how happy they are. Glad the OP is OK.
The whole story does not add up I'm sorry. Im a reasonable person and do not believe it at all. Maybe a cover up to try to get insurance to cover it. No way did it just accelerate and the brakes didn't work. My guess is he stepped on the gas thinking it was the brake, then got excited and in a panic pressed on it harder and put it into drive. Nice story for the owner though to shift responsibility on the car. If the car was on then he would have had power steering and power brakes, which he claims not to have. Also hitting the brake does cancel CC. Too many holes in the story to list.
I totally agree with you, it logically does not add up. But this is what happened. I'm not making it up. I didn't accidentally hit the gas. I have a witness in the parking lot who heard the car rev to a high rate of speed. There was no mat over the accelerator as someone else suggested. I am assuming I turned on the cruise control after reading the cruise control problems that Mercedes has had in the past. Also, the car was pulled forward like if a chain had been attached to the front of the car and was pulling it forward. (Just like you can get the feeling that the cruise control is driving the car). And the car was at a dead stop when all of this occurred. I did not accidentally hit the gas because it would have taken a very long, concentrated amount of effort to hold an accelerator down to climb over a parking block and then up a curb. Have you ever hit the brake multiple times when your car is in park? That is exactly what the brakes felt like. No response what so ever. I had no control over the steering. The car is covered by insurance so I'm not trying to get something over on the insurance company. I'm just reporting a bizarre incident that had it occurred in another situation could have been deadly. I would never buy a Mercedes. And unfortunately there is no black box in this vehicle so I may never know what happened. I also find it bizarre that they totalled the car. The car did not zoom into the fence and then get stopped by the tree. It rolled along at maybe 4 mph. Air bags did not go off. I'm sure it suffered some front end damage but is there a reason why they were so quickly to total it? It wasn't my car so I did not see it after the incident.
The information from the computer would indicate what happen if investigators from the insurance company wants to dig deeper.I'm sure Mercedes own technicians can pull up information seconds before the accident.Either way glad you're not hurt and only property damages.
This forum tells me the GLK is easily the worse of all Mercedes . Nothing but problems with them it seems.
That's strange...
Every GLK owner I meet in my travels talks about how awesome their car is, and how trouble-free it's been.
Therefore, I am using my one post on this forum to declare the GLK to be the greatest car, ever.
Aren't confirmation biases fun?
As for the OP, I'm glad everyone's ok.
I'm not gonna victim blame, but this is a really odd situation that numerous safety systems all actively avoid. Cruise doesn't engage at very low speeds. Brakes disengage cruise, etc.
For this to happen as described, both cruise AND brakes would have to behave abnormally.
OP, could you post a picture from where the car was attempting to park, pointing at the impact site? I'd like to see both curbs that the car hopped.
I thought the 2012 and earlier GLKs have a floor mounted shifter between the seats, not a column shifter (addressing a previous post). If this happened as described, it was pilot error. Just like every other claim of unitended acceleration, from the mid 80’s Audi to the more recent Prius.
“…Then the car starts moving forward. In shock, I realize I'm in park…” then you weren’t in park.
“…tires were spinning like I was going to do the ultimate burn-out,,,” you should add traction control failure to your list of complaints
“…and since the car was in park the brake would hardly depress…” Brakes work the same, regardless of gear selection.
“...I had no control over turning the steering wheel...” Steering wheel will turn, even if there is a failure of the power assist.
“...I learned that Mercedes has a lot of problems with the cruise control...” Even if it fails, it can’t endow the engine with stratospheric levels of performance.
“...But my hitting the brake repeatedly should have done something to cancel the cruise control and especially moving it from Park!...” You weren’t in Park. Brake cancels cruise control. Brakes will NOT cause transmission to shift OUT of Park. Engine can’t overpower brakes.
I agree with the previous poster who noticed a lack of torn up grass. If you were doing ‘the ultimate burnout’ but yet only doing 5-10 mph, there would be trenches dug through the grass and mud.
You weren’t in Park, You weren’t on the brakes, you were on the gas.
Last edited by Lazarus Long; 04-28-2018 at 09:22 AM.
I’m actually hoping that the insurance company does an actual investigation. It’s one thing to cause this accident, and another to blame the car AND go online and post such a ridiculous story.
I thought the 2012 and earlier GLKs have a floor mounted shifter between the seats, not a column shifter (addressing a previous post). If this happened as described, it was pilot error. Just like every other claim of unitended acceleration, from the mid 80’s Audi to the more recent Prius.
“…Then the car starts moving forward. In shock, I realize I'm in park…” then you weren’t in park.
“…tires were spinning like I was going to do the ultimate burn-out,,,” you should add traction control failure to your list of complaints
“…and since the car was in park the brake would hardly depress…” Brakes work the same, regardless of gear selection.
“...I had no control over turning the steering wheel...” Steering wheel will turn, even if there is a failure of the power assist.
“...I learned that Mercedes has a lot of problems with the cruise control...” Even if it fails, it can’t endow the engine with stratospheric levels of performance.
“...But my hitting the brake repeatedly should have done something to cancel the cruise control and especially moving it from Park!...” You weren’t in Park. Brake cancels cruise control. Brakes will NOT cause transmission to shift OUT of Park. Engine can’t overpower brakes.
I agree with the previous poster who noticed a lack of torn up grass. If you were doing ‘the ultimate burnout’ but yet only doing 5-10 mph, there would be trenches dug through the grass and mud.
You weren’t in Park, You weren’t on the brakes, you were on the gas.
I'm new to these forums but felt compelled to share what happened to me when I was driving a relatives 2012 GLK350 last Wednesday in Apollo Beach, FL. It could have been a life-threatening situation. I was pulling into a parking space and had just put the car in park when all of a sudden the engine began revving to the max. (I have an eye witness who described it as the tires were spinning like I was going to do the ultimate burn-out). I had not turned the car off yet. I'm thinking in my mind 'What the hell is going on with this car? Why is this engine revving?". Then the car starts moving forward. In shock, I realize I'm in park and the thought 'this is impossible' flashed across my mind. The car felt like it was being pulled forward. It pulled me over a parking block and over a curb onto a grass area. I'm pumping the brake with no result (and since the car was in park the brake would hardly depress). I had no control over turning the steering wheel. The car pulled itself through a metal privacy fence which had a large tree on the other side. It was the large tree that stopped the car. The distance that I was pulled was maybe 20 ft. The air bags did not deploy and I'd say the speed of the vehicle was probably 5-10 mph through it's journey. Needless to say I was traumatized to the max by the ordeal. I do have a picture that I will attach. After calming down and researching the internet to see if I could find a similar situation I learned that Mercedes has a lot of problems with the cruise control. I now believe that when I turned right into my parking spot I accidentally hit the cruise control lever versus the turn signal lever. (These levers are very close to one another in this vehicle and has been a problem to Mercedes in the past and I do believe they relocated the cc lever on future year cars.) I did not realize I had hit the wrong lever. I assume that is what I did because the sensation of the car pulling itself forward does seem like the sensation you get with cruise control. The car is driving itself forward. But my hitting the brake repeatedly should have done something to cancel the cruise control and especially moving it from Park! I can only assume that the vehicle moved because the revving of the engine was so high and intense which should never have occurred in the first place. The car was deemed totaled by the insurance company. You can see in my picture the parking block and curb the car was pulled over. Everyone I've shared this with says it's impossible to move a car in park but I'm here to say it's not impossible! Also the air bag did not deploy. It was a pretty good hit.
Interesting thought. I have noticed, in both my 2014 GLK and my 2014 C300, that when the engine stops in ECO mode, I don't think I can turn the wheel. I noticed this at an entry to a parking garage in NYC where I stopped to get a ticket. The engine stopped in ECO mode, and before I took my foot off the brake, I tried to turn the wheel so the car would move away from the ticket machine when it started. I don't think I could turn the steering wheel. Once I took my foot off the brake, and the engine started everything was fine. I think the 2014's and later have electric steering? I don't know that, if I tried really hard to move the wheel if it would have turned, but I do know it was much more difficult to move it, if I could have at all, than when you lose power steering in earlier cars.
I will try later to turn the steering wheel on one of them before starting the car. That should tell me if there is a mechanical link so that if the electrics die, the car still can be controlled.
04-11-2018, 01:27 PM
Warning to all GLK350 owners
