Hi,

Does anyone know if the kickdown button on the W164 / X164 gas pedal is an actual electric switch that sends a signal or just a physical point of resistance that is 'clicked'?

Reason for asking is the following problem:
All US W164 ML models other than the ML63 lack a kickdown button (for reasons that are beyond me), and instead, simply flooring the throttle will act like you hit the kickdown button and consequently the RPM go through the roof.
As a result, it is very easy to accidently trigger the 'non-existing' kickdown behavior by depressing the gas pedal just a bit too far, which is very unpleasant driving.

My plan is to replace the current gas pedal (A164-300-05-04) with the non-US version (164-300-00-04 / 164-300-00-04-64).
Does anyone know if this is just plug-and-play or will this require any programming/calibration to make it work?

For now I just put a piece of plastic mimicking the kickdown button (about same height) and I still get full throttle (using a OBD reading) but now without without the crazy high RPM.
Based on this my guess is that the kickdown button is just a point of resistance, not an actual electric switch.
This way my car (a 2010 ML550) feels much more powerful because now I can accelerate at full throttle without the gearbox shifting to >5k RPM.

Thanks for any insights.


A164-300-05-04 (no kickdown)

A164-300-00-04-64 (with kickdown) (see button on the left)

2010 ML550 owners manual snippet
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I would agree with you about using the US pedal, but the final decision is up to you.

As per the R&I of the gas pedal, it says nothing about programming/calibration.

 

Excellent. Thanks.

 

I removed and opened up the the kickdown button and I can confirm it is simply a resistance point and not an actual electrical switch.

 

It's a shame that you cannot purchase this switch separately.